Teaching kids business tips; Sixth-grader's bright future
By ERNEST HOOPER
Published May 13, 2004
Alex Sink said she had never asked someone for $1-million. In the end, she barely had to ask.
The kids at Junior Achievement's Enterprise Village in Largo handled the sales pitch just fine.
Last year, Sink became Junior Achievement chair for Hillsborough County's new $7-million Enterprise Village, where fifth-grade students will play adults for a day and run their own businesses. The center will be patterned after the Enterprise Village at the Gus A. Stavros Institute in Largo.
But who would be the Gus Stavros of Hillsborough County? Sink set out to find someone on this side of the bay willing to donate $1-million and lend their name to the new facility. She wanted a well-respected business leader with experience in public service and a reputation for philanthropy.
In stepped former Tampa mayor Bill Poe. Or should I say, Sink and JA West Central Florida president Richard George stepped into Poe's office. Poe joked Wednesday about how Sink and George charmed the whole deal.
"I spoke to JA when I was mayor, but I didn't participate in any meaningful way," said Poe, who served as Tampa mayor from 1974-79. "I'm glad I didn't because they would have taken even more of my money then."
Although Sink and George planted seeds, actually visiting the Enterprise Village made the idea bloom for Poe, who is chairman and CEO of Poe Financial Group.
"I was amazed," Poe said. "I had never seen so many happy kids in one place, particularly at school. They were having the best time and you didn't have to ask. They told you."
So Poe walked away from the village and decided he wouldn't give the $1-million. No, he would give $1.5-million, the largest gift ever contributed to a Junior Achievement chapter in the southeast.
The donation was celebrated Wednesday at a groundbreaking for the Poe Family Institute, which will be adjacent to Muller Elementary on 22nd Street north of Fletcher Avenue when it opens in May 2005.
Poe felt moved to give in part because he, his wife, Betty, his children and grandchildren are products of the Hillsborough school system.
"For 250 (total) years, teachers have taken care of us every day," said Poe, who joked about his wife flirting with him in the halls of Hillsborough High oh-so-many years ago. "How could I fail to want to help the School Board? We want to pay them back because they've done a great job for us."
The village is expected to influence more than 14,000 students per year. Local fifth-graders will learn business and economic concepts in a six- to eight-week course before going through the daylong exercise of running a business.
The building will contain public and private enterprises such as a county seat, retail shops and other businesses bearing the name of actual sponsors such as Publix, Verizon, Bank of America and McDonald's/Casper Company. Each student will borrow money at the beginning of the day and hopefully have enough at day's end to pay back the loan.
The institute also will be a player in the revitalization of the University area.
And as Sink noted, while Poe could boast of having his name on a downtown parking garage, this will be a far better legacy.
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SHE'S AN UP-AND-COMER: I always make it a point to highlight up-and-comers because there may come a day when I need a job. One such student is Alyse Faour, a sixth-grader at Davidsen Middle School. Okay, she's only 12, but she handled introductions at the groundbreaking with such aplomb, I'm sure her dreams of a journalism or broadcast career will come true.
And in 2024, I just might be a 60-year-old man looking for work.
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FINANCIAL TRAINING NEEDED: My only regret about the new Enterprise Village? It won't be finished in time for my sons to go through. With me as a father, they need all the financial training they can get.
