Hiller left world of finance for service in Guatemala

by Len Lear

When Brendan Dwyer was four years old, his mom, Marianne, became the director of Teenagers, Inc., a nonprofit that aims to connect teens to the world through community service. Working from an office on Bethlehem Pike near Chestnut Hill Avenue,  Marianne Dwyer served in that role for nearly 20 years while also raising seven children at the family’s home in Chestnut Hill. 

So Dwyer spent many of his younger years serving the Philadelphia community,  participating in park clean-ups and Operation Santa Claus, handing out hot meals to the homeless at the St. Francis Inn in Kensington, delivering flowers and gifts to shut-ins during the holidays and volunteering with the St. Vincent DePaul Society and much more. 

“My parents always put others ahead of themselves,” Dwyer said in a recent interview. “If not for their tremendous influence, there is no way I could have ever boarded that plane to move to Guatemala.”

Dwyer is referring to a daunting decision he made at age 16 to start spending summers in Guatemala, doing community service with the nonprofit God’s Child Project. His sister, Caitlin, had earlier volunteered with the initiative as part of a Villanova University group.

A 2010 graduate of the now-defunct Bishop McDevitt High School in Wyncote, Dwyer graduated from Villanova University in 2014 and started working full-time at the Janney Montgomery Scott brokerage firm in Center City on their…