Thank you, Mr. Rosen
April 10, 2014|By Lauren Roth, Orlando Sentinel
Hotelier Harris Rosen is pledging to pay for the college educations of children in Orlando's Parramore neighborhood, modeling the effort after the nationally recognized Tangelo Park program that he started 20 years ago.
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Orlando Commissioner Daisy Lynum said the guarantee of college scholarships has the potential to transform Parramore, a downtown community with about 2,000 children that has struggled for decades with poverty and crime.
"This is a great big deal," Lynum said. "The ultimate result could be being able to bring African-American middle-class families back into Parramore, which has been our goal."
Rosen hasn't specified yet exactly how much he would contribute. He would not comment for this story, saying his efforts are still in the early stages.
To make it happen, Rosen envisions an early-childhood program that aligns preschools with a full-day pre-kindergarten, as well as completion of a public kindergarten-to-eighth-grade school slated to open in 2017 in Parramore, de la Portilla said.
Rosen made national news after he promised to pay for the educations of every Tangelo Park student who got into college.
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Several years ago, frustrated that other philanthropists haven't started similar programs, he began looking into duplicating it himself, his advisers said.
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http://www.today.com/news/millionaire-uses-fortune-help-kids-struggling-town-1C9373666
Scott Stump
April 17, 2013
Harris Rosen went from a childhood in a rough New York City neighborhood to becoming a millionaire whose company owns seven hotels in Orlando, but his self-made success is not his proudest achievement.
Twenty years ago, the Orlando, Fla. neighborhood of Tangelo Park was a crime-infested place where people were afraid to walk down the street. The graduation rate at the local high school was 25 percent. Having amassed a fortune from his success in the hotel business, Rosen decided Tangelo Park needed some hospitality of its own.
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Rosen, 73, began his philanthropic efforts by paying for day care for parents in Tangelo Park, a community of about 3,000 people. When those children reached high school, he created a scholarship program in which he offered to pay free tuition to Florida state colleges for any students in the neighborhood.
In the two decades since starting the programs, Rosen has donated nearly $10 million, and the results have been remarkable. The high school graduation rate is now nearly 100 percent, and some property values have quadrupled. The crime rate has been cut in half, according to a study by the University of Central Florida.
"We've given them hope,’’ Rosen said. “We've given these kids hope, and given the families hope. And hope is an amazing thing."
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