Advancing Education
Program: AP Achievement Gaylord Community School
The Readers' Fund was established by local business owners Jill Miner, from Saturn Booksellers, and Betsy Sanders, from Hogan’s Jewelers. Both women are active community members with a passion for education and literacy. Established in 2014, they decided to take their local philanthropy a step further, by partnering with the Otsego Community Foundation to establish this endowment to support education and other causes close to their heart. As an endowment, the Readers’ Fund will forever generate grants that will benefit the county.
“Partnering with the Otsego County Foundation seemed like the best way to connect with and to benefit our biggest resource: our children. Making higher education more affordable is a goal we both support, especially when it is achieved through opportunities in the high school curriculum," said Betsy Sanders.
“Betsy and I both wanted to maximize the impact of the awards we could grant through our fund. We decided that we would ask each of the GHS AP teachers to nominate one student from each of their classes - a student they thought had a chance to score well on the AP exam. The Readers' Fund will then pay for the exam fee for all of those students. The important part is that, when students score well on an AP exam, their college or university will often grant credit for classes the students may then skip. This year, three credit hours (a typical class) could cost as much as $5200 at some of our most competitive American universities. So there is potential for our 16 exam fees to turn into many tens of thousands of dollars for high-achieving GHS students. We hope it does!" said Jill Miner.
Supported by the Readers’ Fund of the Otsego Community Foundation
