Legacy of The Milton Hershey School

It’s hard to believe that children in America live without a family to love, warm food in their bellies and a roof to product them. It hurts my heart knowing that those children – no matter how wonderful a teacher might be – cannot focus on the education that propels them to a fruitful adulthood because their basic needs have not even been met.

When I visited Hershey, Pennsylvania earlier this year, I had no idea the impact Milton Hershey had on orphaned children. Have you heard of the Milton Hershey School? In 1909, after The Hershey Company had become the American staple that it is now, Milton Hershey and his wife, Catherine, opened the Hershey Industrial School, originally for orphaned boys. During my trip I learned that they were unable to have children of their own, so educating young boys became their philanthropic mission. Milton Hershey believed that he had a moral responsibility to use wealth to benefit others, and that belief resonates within the building that today is known as the Milton Hershey School.

The Milton Hershey School

If I ever have the privilege of going back to Hershey, PA, I would hope to tour the school. Perched high up on a hill, overlooking the town below, the school looks out to the horizon. As if to say to those kids “look at all you can earn with hard work!”, the school is established on re-creating the life structure kids need to thrive: a home with parents and siblings working together on day-to-day chores, proper medical care to be and stay healthy and a foundational education. The values of Milton Hershey are paramount and instill into the children that work ethic and self esteem can take you far in life.

The Milton Hershey School is a free, private organization available to children from low-income backgrounds. In 1918, Milton Hershey quietly bestowed his entire wealth to a trust in order to fund the school, ensuring that the school would continue on to become his most profound legacy.

This video depicts the impact the Milton Hershey School has for many kids for the last several decades from their own words – several decades later. It explains how the school and homes are run. It explains that “house parents” are real married couples hired to watch and raise the children and create the home life that they lack elsewhere. I urge you to watch it!

The legacy of education is something we often take for granted. We, as mothers, give the best to our kids in hopes that they’ll grow to be flourishing adults. Although all kids deserve an education, too many are focused on just surviving to worry about school. Thank goodness for legacy builders like Milton Hershey. For their foresight and dedication to humanity, we’re all better off.

*Disclosure: This blog post and my trip to Hershey, PA were sponsored by The Hershey Company as part of my participation in their Food Ambassador program. All thoughts and opinions are my own.