[ community connection ] “If you’re a local person, you can have a direct impact by getting involved in the community, and the Milagro Center is proof of that. Our program is improving the overall future of many children and families whose lives we touch, empowering them to reach their highest potential and rise beyond their current circumstances.”
Kurt Knaus
Chairman of the Board, Milagro Center
THEN:
EDUARDO SCHNEIDER
Kurt Knaus knew little about the Milagro Center, a Delray Beach nonprofit celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, when he joined his wife and others from her former company in 2004 for a “day of caring” at the center. That’s all it took. Both Knaus and his wife, Mary Ann, volunteered to serve as mentors to students in the program. The Milagro Center uses cultural arts and academic support as a way to enrich the lives of children and struggling families. “We both saw an opportunity there to have a direct impact on the community, especially children,” says Knaus, vice president of asset resolution at PNC Bank.
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A Delray Beach resident for more than 16 years, Knaus joined the Milagro Center board in 2006 with Mary Ann. Eventually, he became vice chair while Mary Ann served as secretary. For the past six years, he has been board chair, steering the center’s expansion of its STARS Program for children in first through fifth grade and starting a teen center focused on keeping students engaged. Last year, 13 high school seniors who regularly participated in teen activities all received their high school diplomas, many the first in their families to graduate high school.
january/february 2017
12/5/16 11:36 AM