Monroe Take Stock is Florida Gold Standard

By C.S. GILBERT

 

“There’s no doubt about it,” said John Padget in Tuesday’s presidential report at the Tennessee Williams Theater to donors, mentors and members of the Monroe County Education Foundation, administrators of the local Take Stock in Children program. “Your foundation is extraordinarily successful.”

The local, award-winning Take Stock program, he added, has recently been described as the “gold standard” for the state and Padget’s staff, including program coordinator Leslie Holmes with success coaches Chuck Licis, Lois Van Lent, Katrina Wiatt and Jill Williams, has been awarded the Excellence in Program Management award from Take Stock Florida. “We are very proud of them,” he said.

Maintaining and raising that standard, however, is not without challenges. Padget told the crowd that “our financial situation is solid, stable and frugal.” The staff, he explained, last year cost about $300,000 while 75 percent of its salaries and benefits were financed by federal and state funds, with 25 percent picked up by the school district. The district also donates all office space and fundraising is accomplished by board members and staff without compensation. Should any element of that funding formula change – “and I don’t expect it to,” he said — there could be problems.

Among the few weaknesses Padget cited were “the need to expand the donor base,” as only nine donors provide most of the funding, and encourage more supporters to remember Take Stock/the foundation in their wills; increase recognition of the “brand name;” and increase opportunities in the “student enrichment program,” including college entrance test preparation and college visits.

Weaknesses, however, were far from the mind of Kara Berces, whose spirited, poised address representied the 80 students in the mentoring program at Key West High School alone. Berces had been a bit reluctant to apply, the KWHS junior confided, and questioned how helpful a mentor would be. She was delighted to report she’d been totally wrong. “I didn’t realize how much support I’d get,” she said, describing her mentor as “phenomenal.”

That mentor, Ruth Reiter, who has successfully guided several students over the past decade, told the audience that being a mentor is “wonderful, exasperating, but always worthwhile” and she, too, benefited from the experience. “It has stretched me in unexpected ways,” she said.

Last year, Take Stock purchased 43 scholarship packages from the Florida Prepaid Foundation, costing more than $700,000. The state matched that amount. The program’s endowment consists of scholarship packages “valued at more than three million dollars at cost,” Padget told Konk Life.

Culinary delights, including peppered crab cakes, offered Tuesday evening in the lobby under the watchful eye of Tennessee Williams’ portraits were created and served by students in the KWHS culinary arts program.

Meanwhile, milling among the crowd were Edward Pitts, who personally has mentored at least 17 Monroe County students over the years, plus Take Stock board chair Steve Pribramsky and long-time member Sandy Higgs, who personally thanked John Padget for everything he’s done to introduce, establish and develop the local Take Stock into the winner it has become.

In his remarks early in the program, schools Superintendent Mark Porter noted that Monroe County Take Stock was in the entire state state “the only program that turns no one away,” for which he thanked “a generous community.” As if to bring the evening full circle, at its finale local philanthropist Ed Knight announced his plans to fund 50 more prepaid scholarships over the next year.

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