Moorestown Friends endows program aiding students from Camden
Moorestown Friends School has launched an ambitious campaign to raise funds for a program that has been covering tuition and other costs for low-income students from Camden.
Moorestown Friends School has launched an ambitious campaign to raise funds for a program that has been covering tuition and other costs for low-income students from Camden.
The elite Burlington County school has already received contributions totaling nearly $3 million toward endowing its Camden Scholars Program, Head of School Larry Van Meter said.
"I am extremely grateful to these lead donors for making such significant commitments to our school and to the Camden Scholars Program," Van Meter, an alumnus, said in a statement Monday.
"Many inspiring success stories have come out of the program, and these gifts help ensure that the school will always be able to offer these opportunities to talented students from Camden," he said.
The school hopes to raise between $8 million and $10 million to fully fund the program, which has 16 students, said spokesman Mike Schlotterbeck. The program was started more than 40 years ago and provides nearly full tuition scholarships to Camden students.
"This is a wonderful start to that," Schlotterbeck said of the lead gifts.
Tuition at the coeducational Quaker day school begins at $18,000 annually for full-day kindergarten, $24,950 for middle school, and $28,650 for high school.
Nearly one-third of the 730 students at the school receive financial aid, according to the school's website. The school serves students age 3 through grade 12.
The initial endowment gifts were made by two alumni and two trustees. Leonard Shapiro, of Mercer Island, Wash., cofounder and co-owner of Saltchuk Resources, a holding company, and wife Pat donated $1 million.
Judy Greenfield Faulkner, of Madison, Wis., founder & CEO of Epic Systems Corp., a health-care software firm, and husband Gordon donated $900,000.
Fourth-generation cranberry grower Bill Haines Jr., of Medford, a school trustee and owner and CEO of Pine Island Cranberry Company, and wife Nadine donated $500,000. Mindy Holman, chairman of Holman Automotive Group, and husband Frank Beideman, of Moorestown, also donated $500,000.
"Camden is about 10 miles from Moorestown, but by the luck of the draw, growing up in one place or the other has staggering differences," Holman, a school trustee, said in a statement.
Schlotterbeck said the school plans a major fund-raising campaign to solicit the additional money needed for the program.
The Camden Scholars Program began in the 1970s and enrolls students from Camden City public schools entering grades seven and nine. During a typical year, there are four Camden students in middle school and 12 in high school.
Camden students are recommended by their guidance counselor and screened by a selection committee at Friends. In addition to tuition, lunch, books, fees, technology resources, and transportation are covered.
More than 110 Camden Scholars have graduated from Friends, the school said.
The school boasts some of the highest SAT scores in South Jersey.
Camden schools are among the lowest ranking in the state.
"As a Camden Scholar, my identity as a student was situated between two realms: the world as I knew it and the world as it perhaps could be," said Lorenzo Gibson, who graduated from Friends in 2012. He is now a senior at Columbia University.
"Try as I might, I cannot imagine having been as thoroughly educated at any other institution," Gibson said.
Moorestown Friends was founded in 1785 and sits on 48 acres in downtown Moorestown. Its students come from more than 60 school districts within a 50-mile radius of Moorestown. Overall, minorities represent 37 percent of the student body.
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