wfn.org | Jack Eckerd: Example of Dedication

[umethnews-request@ecunet.org]

"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (2941 notes).

Note 2940 by UMNS on April 30, 1996 at 16:34 Eastern (4934 characters).

Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
York, and Washington.

  UMNS stories may be accessed on the Internet World Wide Web at:
                   http://www.umc.org/umns.html

SEARCH: dedication, children, youth, troubled, kids, Eckerd, 

CONTACT:  Ralph E. Baker                       226(10-23-71){2940}
          Nashville, Tenn.  (615) 742-5470          April 30, 1996

United Methodist layman
focuses on saving youth

                  A United Methodist News Service
                           News Feature

     Everybody talks about the problems of America's young people.
Politicians and editorial writers spend a lot of energy debating
what to do. While others discussed the issue, United Methodist
layman Jack Eckerd decided to do something about it. The result
bears notice.
     Eckerd, active in First United Methodist Church, Clearwater,
Fla., became concerned about young people in his part of Florida
who had gotten into trouble and could not find their way out.
Typical government programs like detention and training school
were not solving the problem.
     In 1968, Eckerd and his wife Ruth began experimenting with a
new approach -- a challenging wilderness experience lasting an
entire year.
     Carefully chosen counselors -- "20 something" idealists who
might otherwise be studying for the ministry or volunteering for
Peace Corps-type assignments -- spend every day in the woods with
the young campers, teaching them to build their own rustic lodging
and learn self-respect, self-discipline, teamwork and goal-
setting.
     In the process, troubled kids rediscover themselves.
     At a nightly gathering, campers and leaders alike evaluate
what they accomplished that day, and what goals they have set for
tomorrow.
     For some, camp is a desperate last chance to get off a path
that leads to prison, courtrooms and welfare checks. For others
it's a way to recover their lost self-esteem. For all, it's an
opportunity to reshape their attitudes and priorities.
     From the very beginning, Eckerd Family Youth Alternatives
(EFYA) was a big success. More than 80 percent of the boys and
girls who complete the program do not get into serious trouble
again.
     In the intervening years, EFYA has become America's leading
non-profit system of therapeutic wilderness camps and other
innovative treatment programs for troubled youth. Time magazine
last summer called it "the model" for such efforts nationwide.
     The Eckerds -- with seven children and 15 grandchildren of
their own -- have helped redirect the lives of nearly 30,000 boys
and girls. Beginning with a single camp 28 years ago, EFYA's work
has grown to include 16 camps in Florida, Georgia, Tennessee,
North Carolina, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont.
     In 1994, Eckerds started the National Foundation for Youth
(NFY), based in Clearwater, Fla., to help develop resources for
work with at-risk children and troubled youth. They have watched
with delight as the other donors have stepped forward to give
financial support to the foundation.
     Eckerd, a pilot who "flew the hump" in World War II, is an
avid tennis player and former ocean-racing sailor. He is equally
at home in the rough-and-tumble wilderness and the corporate board
room.
     His business career soared in the 1950s when the two Eckerd
drugstores in Clearwater grew rapidly to become a respected chain
of more than 1,700 stores across the eastern United States.
     Eckerd coupled his business interests with a commitment to
public service, twice running as a Republican candidate for
governor of Florida and once for the U.S. Senate.
     He also served as director of the General Services
Administration under President Gerald Ford, who praised Eckerd's
ethical management of the giant federal agency as "clean as a
hound's tooth."
     Since selling his interest in the drugstore chain a few years
ago, Eckerd has given full attention to building his wilderness
system into an even stronger force for rehabilitating young
people. Now in his early 80s, he still can be found in his office
long hours five days a week.
     During the summer, Jack and Ruth Eckerd participate actively
in Highlands (N.C.) United Methodist Church.
     Eckerd serves on the boards of Prison Fellowship, Hillsdale
College and the Heritage Foundation, and supports an array of
church-related mission causes -- local and global.
     He keeps his primary focus on the precious potential deep
inside the 1,000 young people who enter his camps each year. They
arrive as candidates for lifetime failure. The majority of them
leave with a new sense of hope, prepared for the challenges ahead.
                              #  #  #

     EDITORS NOTE: A photo is available from the National
Foundation for Youth by calling (813) 446-4116. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

 To make suggestions or give your comments, send a note to 
 umns@ecunet.org or Susan_Peek@ecunet.org

 To unsubscribe, send the single word "unsubscribe" (no quotes)
 in a mail message to umethnews-request@ecunet.org

-----------------------------------------------------------------------