The San Diego Zoo on Thursday announced the largest educational gift in its history, a $6 million endowment from Price Philanthropies Foundation to fund zoo visits and related educational activities for 45,000 underprivileged elementary school students.
The donation will expand San Diego Zoo Global’s existing free educational programs to include 4th grade students, adding as many as 45,000 more students each year. The programs use “hands-on” education and emphasize the science associated with wildlife.
As students from Dingeman Elementary looked on, San Diego Zoo Global’s President Doug Myers said the gift marks a “new beginning” for education at the zoo as it enters its second century.
Robert Price, president of his family’s foundation, told the students, “When you come to the zoo, you’re going to learn how to take care of planet earth.”
The zoo’s Treetop Leaning Center was renamed the Price Education Center. It will become a permanent headquarters for all programs focused on disadvantaged students, including the successful School in the Park program.
The grant is specifically for Title I schools, a designation that identifies those schools that include a significant population of children from underprivileged families. There are more than 500 Title I schools in San Diego County.
Dr. Randy Ward, San Diego County Superintendent of Schools, said the gift would help address the opportunity gap for disadvantaged students, especially by exposing them to hands-on science.
“An opportunity gap refers to certain children who cannot have the experience for whatever reason,” Ward said. “They don’t have piano lessons, they don’t go to camp, they don’t have books at home.”
He said that more than 500 of the county’s 741 elementary schools were Title I, so the gift addresses a very significant need.
The Price Philanthropies Foundation, formerly known as the Price Family Charitable Fund, is a private family foundation created by Sol and Helen Price in 1983. Price Philanthropies grants money to support non-profit agencies and institutions, primarily in San Diego County. Sol Price was the founder of FedMart and Price Club.
