Nearly $3 Million in Donations for Moorestown Friends School Camden Scholars Program

Moorestown, NJ -- Moorestown Friends School recently received nearly $3 million in lead gifts to help begin to endow the school’s Camden Scholars Program.

The program has been providing nearly full tuition scholarships for academically talented students from Camden who need financial help to attend Moorestown Friends for more than 40 years, the school said on Monday.

Two scholars from the program enter the school each year in seventh grade, according to the school. Another one enters in ninth grade.

During a typical school year, there are 16 Camden Scholars at Moorestown Friends School, including four in Middle School and 12 in Upper School.

Lunch, books, fees, technology resources, and transportation via a school-supported bus are all covered by Moorestown Friends.

Moorestown Friends School graduate Len Shapiro and his wife, Pat, have donated $1 million in the form of a charitable lead annuity trust.

Shapiro graduated from the school in 1960, and is the co-founder and co-owner of Saltchuk Resources, a holding company in the Pacific Northwest involved with maritime business, fuel distribution, and real estate. He is a graduate of Florida Southern College and has an M.B.A. from the Wharton School. The Shapiros live in Mercer Island, WA.

“I never dreamed where my business career would take me,” Shapiro said. “My wife Pat and I now are enjoying the privilege of giving back, with meaningful financial support to organizations like MFS. I’ve returned to campus in recent years and met some of the impressive students who are part of the Camden Scholars Program. With this commitment, Pat and I hope to inspire others to provide support for this wonderful program. Every gift, irrespective of its size, makes a difference in the lives of these students.”

Graduate Judy Faulkner and her husband, Gordon, have donated $900,000.

Faulkner graduated in 1961 and is the founder and CEO of Epic Systems Corp., a privately held company that sells healthcare software. They are parents of a Moorestown Friends School alumnus and have a grandchild currently enrolled at the school.

“Moorestown Friends is where I learned to love math which took me to computer science and to creating Epic,” Faulkner said. “MFS also taught its students the joy of learning, strong values, curiosity, speaking up, the honor system – which helped shape my life and influenced the culture of Epic. I am pleased to support my alma mater and the Camden Scholars program.”

She has served on the Obama administration’s Health Information Technology Committee. In 2011, she received the MFS Alumni Association’s Alice Stokes Paul Merit Award. In 2015, she signed the Buffett Pledge, committing 99% of her assets to philanthropy.

She is a graduate of Dickinson College and earned a M.S. in computer science from the University of Wisconsin. Judy resides with her husband Gordon in Madison, WI.

Moorestown Friends School Trustee Bill Haines, Owner and CEO of Pine Island Cranberry Company, and his wife Nadine, have donated $500,000.

Pine Island Cranberry Company is the largest cranberry grower in New Jersey and fifth largest in the nation.

He is also on the Board of Directors at Ocean Spray. He is a former mayor of Washington Township, and served on the Burlington County Board of Chosen Freeholders, where he was instrumental in the expansion of the county’s farmland and open space preservation programs. Bill has served on the MFS School Committee since 2014.

Nadine is an attorney.

“Nadine and I have been blessed to have many opportunities that others do not,” Bill Haines said. “The Camden Scholars program is a wonderful program and this gift allows us to share our good fortune with talented, hard-working students who might not get the chance to receive a great MFS education otherwise. The quality and depth of the education at MFS and the caring, giving atmosphere created by its people makes it a special place. Our direct experience at MFS through our son and granddaughter makes the school one of our priorities for giving.”

Between them, Bill and Nadine have six children. Bill is the father of MFS alumnus William S. “Tug” Haines III ’97. They live in Medford.

Moorestown Friends School Trustee Mindy Holman, Chairman of Holman Automotive Group, and her husband Frank Beideman, have also donated $500,000. They are parents of two alumni from the school.

“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 said. “Frank and I have long had a level of involvement with nonprofits in the city, mostly through our relationships with the United Way and Urban Promise. We have gotten to know many great kids who have flourished despite an environment that I, honestly, could not have imagined. When given support and opportunities, the resilience of these young people is amazing. The Camden Scholars Program is a way to link our desire to even the playing field for some Camden students with our love for Moorestown Friends.”

The Holmans live in Moorestown and are parents of two MFS alumni: Brad Beideman ‘12, a student at Emerson College and Joe Beideman ‘15, a student at Elon University.

“I am extremely grateful to these lead donors for making such significant commitments to our school and to the Camden Scholars Program,” Moorestown Friends School Head Larry Van Meter said. “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. These gifts put us well on the road toward our goal of fully endowing the Camden Scholars Program.”

“I am fortunate enough to interact with our Camden Scholars on a daily basis,” Director of the Camden Scholars Program and Moorestown Friends School Math Teacher Dorothy Lopez said. “These students add so much to our community. They are bright and talented and work very hard inside and outside the classroom. On behalf of our Camden Scholar students and alumni, I would like to thank these donors for ensuring that these scholarship opportunities will always be available at Moorestown Friends School.”

More than 110 Camden Scholars have earned MFS diplomas and moved on to attend some of America’s most selective colleges and universities, according to the school.

“Moorestown Friends School played, and continues to play, an integral role in my development as a person and as a thinker,” said Lorenzo Gibson, who graduated from the school as part of the program in 2012. “In many ways, the school not only equipped me to be a strong, contributing member of society, but it also informed my perspective as an agent of change.”

Gibson attends Columbia University.

“Nowhere else would I have been more comfortable and happy in my own skin,” said Sonia Mixter Guzman, a scholar who graduated in 2002 and is the Operations and Corrections Manager at the Ronald McDonald House in Camden. “Finding my passions, my dreams, and the strength to pursue them is something I credit not only my parents with, but the teachers who spent countless hours listening to my worries, wiping away my doubts, and pushing me further than I thought was possible.”

“The Camden Scholars Program allowed me the opportunity to attend MFS, which opened my eyes to what the ‘world’ outside of Camden looked like and the possibilities for success that it held for me,” said Mark Mitchell, a scholard who graduated in 1986 and is the Vice President of School and Student Services for the National Association of Independent Schools. “One of the key, primary motivators in my work with K-12 private schools is that I have the opportunity to help other schools do for students what MFS did for me, through the Camden Scholars Program.”

The program began when the school entered into a partnership with A Better Chance, Inc. (ABC), a national non-profit student search, referral, and scholarship organization in the 1970s.

ABC’s goal was to increase the number of promising minority students in independent schools.

When scholarship funding from ABC ended in 1983, the MFS School Committee made the commitment to fund the school’s Camden Scholars Program moving forward.

The attached image of the school's Camden scholars was provided by Moorestown Friends School