Education foundation touts success stories

By LENNIE BENNETT

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 27, 2001

It is fashionable -- and often appropriate -- to slam public education in Florida. And so an evening celebrating the successes of the Pinellas County Education Foundation is a heartening antidote to the despair much of the system engenders in education-watchers.

The foundation was started in 1986 by school superintendent Howard Hinesley and a group of businessmen as a way to generate funds for enhancement programs. It began garnering real attention when its Enterprise Village, a minimall where fifth-graders learn business principles in real-life stores, opened about three years later.

Since then, the foundation has added a number of successful initiatives including Doorways, an early intervention and dropout prevention program that provides scholarships to low-income students. I could write an entire column about each of the foundation's programs. Instead, I will urge you to take some time to learn more about them and perhaps get involved as a volunteer. You will find it a most rewarding experience.

The patrons in the Bayfront Center Arena at Wednesday night's annual dinner already have stepped up to the plate, and this was a chance to honor some of them and to hear a few of the many success stories coming out of the foundation.

Gus and Frances Stavros, probably the two people most responsible for the early success of the foundation, were front and center. Son Paul Stavros is carrying on the family's philanthropic spirit, managing Palladium Theater full-time as a volunteer. "It's important to do what you love," he said, adding that the theater is doing very well, which is very good news.

Local financial institutions were well represented by Wachovia Bank head Ken Coppedge and wife Becky, who brought their friend and neighbor Mary Lou Johnson, since Bill Johnson, another longtime foundation supporter and chairman of Doorways, was ill; Paul and Susan Mellini (First Union); Cary Putrino (Northern Trust); Stephanie Goforth (Bank of America) and Marcus Greene (Wachovia).

Also nice to see were Florida Power chief Bill Habermeyer and wife Sally; Raymond James executive Van and Jane Sayler; Colleen Russo; PTEC director Clide Cassity and wife Sandra, director of work-force development at St. Petersburg Junior College; Harry and Jackie Piper, and Gerry and Cathy Hogan and their daughter, Savanna, and her friend Haley Tyler. Many other guests brought their children, including incoming board chairman Mitch Lee, Raytheon vice president, with Katie and Scott Lee.

Outgoing chairman and Templeton Fund executive Richard Austin praised the efforts of retiring president Frances Neu and announced that the conference room at Enterprise Village will be named in her honor. Taking the reins will be Terry Boehm, who headed up the Hillsborough County Education Foundation. We wish him lots of success on this side of Tampa Bay.

Breakfast meetings are not high on most people's must-do list. A room full of public-spirited folks made an exception May 17 to attend the annual meeting of the Pinellas Association for Retarded Children, which also marked the agency's 48th anniversary.

During its nearly five decades, PARC has accomplished, in the words of board member Rodney Gaddy, "daily miracles, maybe not of Biblical proportions, but accomplishments by people who work hard every day."

PARC CEO Curt Thomas welcomed the group to the St. Petersburg Yacht Club ballroom -- among them treasurer David Pilkington, board members Marty Medley and Dick Crippen, Lee Romig, Bill Griffith, Max and Marti Gessner, Miriam Brinker and Kathy Oathout. Among the honored guests were Rick Tremmel and his daughters, Amanda, Kayla and Kristen. The triplets were born prematurely with developmental disabilities in 1983, received home care from PARC, and later attended its preschool. And guess what? Soon they graduate from Seminole High School and all three are bound for higher education. Amanda plans to attend Florida Institute of Technology to study marine biology; Kayla, PTEC to study child care; and Kristen, St. Petersburg Junior College to study psychology.

Not a big fan of testimonials, I was impressed with those of Cindy Jameson and Janice Allwood.

Mrs. Allwood's son Alec was born 2 1/2 years ago with Down's Syndrome, and she talked about the devastation it brought to her family before they found PARC and the programs that have helped their son to progress and them to become a family again.

Ms. Jameson, an executive with Time Warner, began a program to hire adult clients from PARC. She highlighted the career of Mary Ruth Gassner, a PARC client who has worked at Time Warner for six years, accumulating an almost perfect attendance record, even though she has to ride two buses to get to her job in Clearwater. Ms. Gassner has become an expert in cleaning up used cable boxes for recycling. Remember the special hands that readied it when you get one.

Another recent annual event was the Salvation Army dinner May 15, and its theme was construction, the reason being that work on the new Children's Village is well under way. Pat Mason, handed a 1,000-foot roll of yellow construction tape by Salvation Army area commander Carolee Israel, proceeded to make it the major decorative element of the evening. (Mrs. Mason puts on First Night and has always been an arts type, so she can do wonders even with tape.)

Current mayor Rick Baker was on hand as was former mayor Dave Fischer, who received the Friend of the Army Award. Also attending were Lloyd Horton, Margo Fischer, Goliath Davis, Frank Farkas, David Meehan, Bob Meinke, and Click and Anne Slocumb.

The Children's Village will be a permanent home for children who, for whatever reason, have not been adopted. This is a good idea and so is the emphasis on keeping siblings together.

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