Feature Stories
Virgil Gulker, '69
Virgil Gulker has been described by friends and colleagues as a
“serial social entrepreneur” who has created national and
international volunteer programs and/or organizations to help
disadvantaged populations. These organizations include LOVE INC, Love
For Children, and, most recently, KIDS HOPE USA, the largest
faith-based mentoring program for elementary-aged children in the
United States and Australia.
Dr. Virgil Gulker is a social
entrepreneur whose work engages church volunteers in the lives of
at-risk children and families. Today he is a Servant
Leader-in-Residence at the Hope College Center for Faithful
Leadership, the first person named to that position.
In 1995
Dr. Gulker founded KIDS HOPE USA, an innovative mentoring program that
has trained over 700 churches in the United States and Australia to
engage their members in one-to-one, I believe in you relationships
with 10,000 at-risk elementary children.
Prior to his
involvement with KIDS HOPE USA, he founded numerous other
award-winning programs. LOVE INC (1978) mobilized over 300,000
volunteers from 9,000 churches to respond to over 1,000,000 people in
need in 2008 and is active in two other countries.
Love Our
Kids (1990) provided mentors for inner-city children in three cities;
Love For Children (1991), funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and
World Vision, linked church volunteers with children and families in
the federal Women, Infants and Children and Head Start programs.
He also administered the first two-year college education
program in the United States to award academic degrees to inmate
students in a maximum-security prison. This took place at Attica (NY)
Correctional Facility with assistance from Batavia Community
College. A scholarship was established in his name by Genesee
Community College for Attica Correctional Facility Inmate
Students.
As a volunteer, Dr. Gulker has served on many
boards, most recently as a member of the Mentor Michigan Provider’s
Council, the Educational Summit (Holland, MI), World Vision, Inc.’s
U.S. Ministry Advisory Board, the Michigan Department of Public
Health’s Task Force on Homeless Women, and the United Way of America’s
Panel of Experts on America’s Children.
In addition to being
the recipient of the 2001 Grand Valley State University Distinguished
Alumnus Award, Dr. Gulker has received the Mustard Seed Award for
Creativity, and has written numerous articles and books on
volunteerism, including "Help Is Just Around the Corner" and
"Helping You, is Helping Me".
Virgil and his wife
Kathleen, a Grand Valley alumna, are the proud parents of two daughters.
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