Publisher's Synopsis
Adoption, Fosterage & Homestead and The Hershey Family Trust Series are the first of their kind. For seven decades following the death of Milton S. Hershey there has been growing concern regarding whether the fiduciaries of the "Milton Hershey School and School Trust" are exploiting the Hershey Family Trust for personal gain. There have been investigations, but such investigations are by the same individuals or organizations that stand to benefit from allowing the fiduciaries to continue the status quo. There is also concern that the beneficiaries are not receiving the originally intended benefits and that their numbers and admissions criteria are being managed so as to facilitate continued exploitation of the Hershey Family Trust. Here, the question is not whether the cost per child is sufficiently high. It is easy to spend the wealth of the family and estate of Milton and Catherine Hershey. It easy to do it in ways that benefit Pennsylvania politicians and cronies. The value of the philanthropy of the Hersheys' Family & Estate should be based solely on the amount of good it does for each beneficiary in the context of such child's unique abilities, interests, and commitment (with the object of each child fully achieving his or her own, unique potential). This is to be measured one person at a time. Various scholars have made similar observations, but without substantive research explaining the full extent of this ongoing tragedy. At least one scholar has described the Pennsylvania Attorney General's investigation ending in 2013 as a "whitewash" and a bipartisan political scandal. The same scholar observes that the recent suicide of an expelled student raises a broad spectrum of competence issues. But there are other extraordinary scandals that should be investigated. For example, witness the scandals involving Jerry Sandusky, the football program at Pennsylvania State University, and The Second Mile (a non-profit charity) which served Pennsylvania underprivileged and at-risk youth, which included events in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Add to this the fact that $50,000,000 was improperly removed from the Hersheys' Family & Estate in 1963 and used to build for a medical center for Pennsylvania State University, a medical center that the Commonwealth could not have otherwise afforded at that time. Add to this the fact that the Milton Hershey School has had its own run of pedophile and other sex scandals. The issue here is not whether these are related. It is the shared fact that Pennsylvania officials are not protecting all of the Commonwealth's children. There is one simple truth at the heart of all of this relative to the Hershey Family Trust. The public does not fully understand that which the Hersheys had originally created. If the public did understand this, there would be far greater clarity regarding why complete reform of the fiduciaries of the "Milton Hershey School and School Trust" is long overdue. The object of The Hershey Family Trust Series is to help the public understand. Once the public understands, it should become easier and more expedient to demand the removal of the so called "fiduciaries", who should then be replaced with competent fiduciaries. Such public understanding must begin at the beginning. The public must first understand that which the Hersheys originally created. Adoption, Fosterage & Homestead explains that which the Hersheys created in the context of the Hersheys' Family & Estate.
