Empowering
Youth
ScottsMiracle-Gro’s history of helping youths succeed The origins of ScottsMiracle-Gro’s work with youths in the community goes back to the origins of Miracle-Gro itself. Jim Hagedorn, Chairman and CEO of ScottsMiracle-Gro, started his philanthropic work in the Brooklyn and Long Island areas, where Miracle-Gro was founded in 1951 by his father, Horace Hagedorn. The focus of this work was on the education and mentorship of kids; in the 1990s, the younger Hagedorn, along with his siblings, started the Brooklyn Scholars Program, offering coaching and academic assistance to children in need. After Scotts and Miracle-Gro merged in 1995, the company continued its work with children. A new program benefiting kids in need was brought to Central Ohio in 2003—the Miracle-Gro Capital Scholars Program, which provided mentors to a group of third-graders from Columbus Public Schools to assist with homework and academic studies. Students who stayed with the program through the end of high school were promised full college tuition for any school in the state of Ohio. “There is nothing we can do as a society that is more important than helping our children grow and succeed,” Hagedorn says. “As a company, it’s also our responsibility to find ways to give back to the communities that have helped drive our success. Many of our efforts have combined these two ideas, helping the kids reach their full potential and knowing that, if they do, they’ll be the future leaders of our communities, our churches, our businesses. I hope that we’re instilling in them a desire to help others as well.”
“There is nothing we can do as a society that is more important than helping our children grow and succeed.” —Jim Hagedorn, Chairman and CEO of ScottsMiracle-Gro
Acquisition of EarthGro, an organics company, strengthens service to retailers in key regions.
Now The Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation, in partnership with the Hagedorn Legacy Foundation, is launching a program in which individualized coaches will work with high school students to identify and achieve their aspirations. The program will take a personalized approach to help the students realize which career path they want to pursue and build a roadmap to reach their goals. The Legacy Scholars Program, as it’s called, is being piloted in 2018, thanks to partnerships with The Ohio State University, Metro Institute of Technology and The Mayerson Academy. The 10-year program will begin at the Metro Institute of Technology in Downtown Columbus and will follow 20 ninth-graders in the 2018-19 school year until they graduate; coaches and mentors (some of whom will be ScottsMiracle-Gro associates) will nurture individual character skills to find out the students’ goals and plans to achieve them. Another group of ninth-graders will be added annually for the next nine years. The program aims to engage 200 students over the next decade. m
According to Su Lok, Director of Corporate and Community Partnerships, the bulk
1998
of Miracle-Gro Capital Scholars have since graduated from college. A celebration was held at the Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens for the graduates in the spring of 2015.
1999
Scotts enters the pesticide industry with acquisition of Ortho and exclusive regional rights to Monsanto’s Roundup products.
150 years and growing Columbus Monthly MARCH 2014
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