Betty Cremmins Spins Her Wheels For a Good Cause
By Lisa Kail
Since she was a young girl, volunteering has been an integral part in
the life of Betty Cremmins, who graduates today from the College of
Arts and Science.
“My mom always had us doing something,” says Cremmins. “As far back as
I can remember, we were working in soup kitchens, or helping out with a
food drive, or rehabbing a neglected park. I don’t think I even
realized it was called ‘volunteering’ until I was in middle school. In
my family volunteering was recreation.”
As a result of her commitment to volunteering and her efforts for
Habitat for Humanity, Cremmins recently received a President’s Service
Award for Leadership. The award came amidst preparations for
graduation, after a three-year accelerated schedule. It’s a fitting
conclusion to an undergraduate career that has been characterized by
tireless community service from the very beginning.
As a freshman in 2003, Cremmins participated in Project OutReach, a
competitive early arrival community service program for first-year
students dedicated to serving their new community. She immediately
joined the President’s C-Team and sought another volunteer commitment
at the GO Project, tutoring at-risk elementary school students for two
and a half hours every Saturday morning. But her true passions
continually brought her back to two special interests: cycling and
affordable housing. And she has consistently found ways to incorporate
those elements into her volunteer life.
Bike and Build, a cross-country cycling trip organized to raise
awareness for affordable housing, was Cremmins’ summer “vacation” as a
rising sophomore. During this nine-week bicycling and home-building
marathon, teams of 20-30 cyclists peddled across America, raising
awareness and funds, and engaging in a Habitat building project every
eighth day. While for some it may have felt like the training schedule
for Tour de France competitors, for Cremmins it was just a natural
progression from her high school commitment to Pedals for Progress, a
non-profit for which she spent three years organizing donations of used
bikes to developing countries. These bikes are used as primary
transportation in many regions.
By the beginning of the 2005-2006 academic year, Cremmins’ academic and
volunteer schedules were already bursting at the seams when Hurricane
Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. As president of the NYU chapter of Habitat
for Humanity, she focused locally on Humanity Plaza, where over a
thousand volunteers worked round the clock on NBC’s “Make a Difference
TODAY” build at Rockefeller Plaza. Together with Esther Cha, CAS ’08,
she organized over 250 NYU volunteers who participated in the event,
which was the largest single-week build ever created by Habitat for
Humanity, resulting in the shipment of 40 house frames to Louisiana and
Alabama. Even before the trucks were loaded, Cremmins started planning
multiple hurricane relief fundraisers yielding over $10,000 in support
for Katrina relief and local building projects.
After Commencement, Cremmins intends to keep volunteering, on foot or
on her bike, for those in need and has no intention of slowing down.
