President
Gary E. Carter
Vice President
Sandra K. Carter
Treasurer
Jeffrey P. Snider
Secretary
Susan L. Petersen
Directors
Christina A. Kearce
Kimberly N. Bloemers
Office
560 Village Blvd
Suite 260
West Palm Beach, FL 33409
561-686-3088
The Gary Carter Foundation
Our Mission
Through our own donations and funds raised externally we hope to better the physical, mental and spiritual well being of children. Toward that end, we will minimize expenses by targeting an average annual budget for charitable giving in excess of eighty percent of funds received from all sources. The foundation has no payroll and executive support from board members involves donated time.
The funding for the foundation comes from public sources. While the initial funding came from Gary and his family, he continues to work hard soliciting donations and holding fund-raising events. This despite the increased constraints on his time since being inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Besides selling memorabilia, Gary hosts two golf tournaments during the year, as well as making various appearances.
To date, the Gary Carter Foundation has put over $146,000 into these local schools to encourage reading. You can help too, find out how...
The UPGRADES Program -
The Foundation supports and has been
implementing strategies to help local kids learn to and learn to
love reading. It is one of the most fundamental skills not only for
education but also for life. Gary and his foundation have been
helping elementary schools in Palm Beach County that have been
identified as having children with poor reading skills (as shown in
FCAT tests) in economically challenged areas (Title I schools).
The program, Reading Counts,
encourages children to read books specifically rated for their
reading level. Once the book is read, the child takes a quiz and is
awarded points if they pass. Reading Counts then allows teachers and
administrators to track the development of the child’s reading and
comprehension, and identify weaknesses. It has become a very
powerful tool in elementary schools.
An initial survey performed by the foundation found that several schools in Palm Beach County were willing to use the program, but lacked the funding to implement it. Initially three such elementary schools; Barton, Lantana, and Belvedere, were eager to get involved in the program. We have expanded the program to eight local elementary schools. The foundation agreed to support them by purchasing books, software, and quizzes. The students are challenged to read more by incentives, from monthly pizza and ice cream parties, to end-of-year awards such as brand new bikes and $20 gift cards to Toys-R-Us.