New Panthers owner David Tepper used to walk back and forth to grade school in western Pennsylvania; when he was old enough for high school, he hitchhiked – the billionaire called it “using his thumb” – to and from Peabody High School in the East Liberty neighborhood of Pittsburgh. His mother taught at Rogers Elementary school; his daughter was a teacher in the Bed-Stuy neighborhood of Brooklyn – Tepper’s connection to lower-income schools stems from his childhood and continues to the present day as the hedge fund billionaire attended an “encouragement rally” at Thomasboro Academy Tuesday to kick off a joint charity partnership between The David Tepper Charitable Foundation and others that will donate over 12,000 backpacks filled with school supplies to resource-challenged children.
“You’ve got to see where I grew up, I was in the inner city,” Tepper said after the event in which 750 backpacks were distributed, the first stop of 17 different schools throughout the CMS system and one in Kannapolis. “Giving back is really important – Every kid needs a lot of supplies. There’s a shortage of supplies; teachers don’t have enough money for supplies. You guys know the situation in North Carolina and in the Carolinas in general with the schools, so whatever we can do to help that out, it’s great.”
Education Week’s annual “Quality Counts” survey said in January that North Carolina ranked 45th in terms of school funding among states.
Classroom Central, one of the partners and the organization tapped to distribute the supplies, helps to equip more than 127,000 students across six school districts who are living in poverty by collecting and distributing free school supplies in 199 high-poverty schools. More than half of the students attending school in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Iredell-Statesville, City of Kannapolis, Union, Gaston, and Lancaster, SC school districts come from families that can’t afford lunch, let alone school supplies.
The Charlotte Chamber and the Carolina Panthers founded Classroom Central in 2002.
“I can’t tell you how grateful the teachers and the staff are,” said Thomasboro Academy Principal Janette McIver. “[Classroom Central] is a godsend to us; this on top of that is going to help so much more so that everyone starts out on a positive, equal [footing] – it provides equity across the school building for what everybody can bring to the table.”
McIver added that many of these kids come from homes with large families, so having their own backpack and school supplies is something truly special. Tepper’s Better Education For Kids has donated over 100,000 backpacks with school supplies to New Jersey children – to Tepper, doing something like this was one of his first priorities once the team purchase was settled.
One of his other priorities was hiring a Team President, which he did last week when the team tapped Tom Glick, former CCO of Manchester City Football Club – Glick is expected to join the team on September 16th.
“It’s great to have someone with international sports experience,” said Tepper about the man who will be running the day-to-day operations for the Panthers. “You know his resume through various sports – [he’s] been in the industry for thirty years, growing up with it; I think he’ll bring a different perspective than the league’s had – I think there’s enough folks around the Carolina Panthers that actually know football. Not that Tom Glick doesn’t know football, but I think it’s an interesting and a good choice.”
But for today, the focus was not on football, but on the first of many charitable events headed by Tepper and the Panthers; the program was funded through a joint partnership between the David Tepper Charitable Foundation, John M. Belk Endowment with additional contributions from the Thomas Davis Defending Dreams Foundation, Cam Newton Foundation, the Torrey Smith Family Fund and Panthers players Graham Gano and JJ Jansen.
“I think anytime you have an opportunity to pool resources, it’s a great opportunity for us as players to invest back in the community,” said Jansen. “As far as my wife and I’s involvement, it was something that we care deeply about because we care deeply about education. The ability for young kids to have the tools necessary to increase their education is something that we wanted to be a part of; for the kids in the communities, the biggest way to improve their lot in life is through education.”
“In all societies, we have a lot of people that are in need; we have a lot of people that don’t have the same advantages – they don’t start in the same spots, so anything we can do on an individual level to help promote that – education is probably the biggest predictor of future success, being able to draw those lines and really invest in young people and in their communities, I think we should all take the opportunities to help where we can.”
