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Hometown Hero fm '*f~Lmt » UR ■yiy L |R \ r % ‘"Tf 111 ikß|| ‘- IW. RIB. WtMM«RW|BB^riR 15 if Jl ® CJP HI B nj - | afl WEBB& - ■ t JM\£ 1 inW< i*gf * vTj||. ■ B 5 RmHmH- •; ' '•'■ iS'Jf" ;. A* - ssfc<V '*BiMW!BB ,^5 T|; Robert Young once was a successful Seattle business owner who thought poverty was “someone else's respon- sibility.” But a visit in 1994 to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota changed his thinking—and the course of his life—dramatically. “Pine Ridge looked like a Third World country,” recalls Young, 45, who was shocked at the widespread poverty he saw: homes with no heat, no electricity, no running water. He returned to Seattle vowing to do some thing about the problem. A year later, he came back to Building Reservation **Homes t ! i by DENISE GLASER MALLOY V r\ H>~y- * !■ r «sp*~?2 \J f J / , i?fn| Pine Ridge, along with a crew of volunteers, to build a new home for one of the residents, Lakota elder Katherine Red Feather, 75. “It was the hard est work I've ever done," Young admits. But it also was the most meaningful, planting the seeds “We must ask ourselves what kind of world we wish to live in, and know that we are all a vital part of the solution.” Robert Young for the nonprofit organization that Young l would start to assist American Indians in improving housing conditions on their ' reservations. Since 1995, Young's Red Feather Devel opment Group, named after the recipient of the first home he helped build, has helped Red Feather volunteers work side by side with residents to build homes on American Indian reservations. construct and coordinate financing for dozens ol homes on reservations in Arizona, Montana, South Dakota and Washington. Young sold his clothing manufacturing business and relocated the operation, originally begun as a part-time venture, to Bozeman, Mont., in 2003, pouring all his time and resources into the project and taking it full-time. Young and his staff work closely with American Indian communities to navigate the complexities of building on reservation land and ultimately construct a home that addresses the needs of Page 4 •www.americanprofi le.com