ORLANDO (Dec. 23, 2009) – Orlando hotelier Harris Rosen, President and COO of Rosen Hotels & Resorts, was presented with the Citizen of the Year Award by the Florida School Boards Association (FSBA) at its annual winter conference held in Tampa on Dec. 1-4. Rosen was selected for the award in recognition of the groundbreaking Tangelo Park Program he started in 1993 — a three-fold educational community service initiative to benefit children and families living in the once crime- and drug-ridden community in southwest Orlando. Rosen was nominated for the award by Orange County School Board Member, District 5, Kat Gordon.
The Tangelo Park Program provides free preschool for every two-, three- and four-year-old child living in the Tangelo Park neighborhood; full college or vocational school scholarships, including tuition, room and board, books and travel expenses, for every graduating high school senior from the Tangelo Park area and a Family Resource Center where parents can take parenting courses, obtain counseling and other resources to help them become positive role models. More information about the program can be found at www.tangeloparkprogram.com.
The results of the initiative have been astounding. To date, Rosen has invested more than $8 million in the program, providing college scholarships for more than 370 Tangelo Park teens and sending more than 350 children to preschool. Since the program began, crime in Tangelo Park is down nearly 70 percent. High school dropout rates shrunk from 25 percent in 1993 to 6 percent in 2007. Today, 100 percent of Tangelo Park students graduate from high school with a regular diploma and between 80-90% go on to graduate from college.
“We are honored to give this award to someone who has made such an impact on the lives of young people through education,” said District 5 Orange County School Board Member Kathleen "Kat" Gordon.
“Harris Rosen has shown that business can indeed play a major role in education and we hope that other businesses will take note of this extraordinary example of corporate social responsibility,” said Wayne Blanton, Executive Director of FSBA.
Rosen not only provides the financial backing for the project, but also attends monthly meetings with the Tangelo Park Program Advisory Board. The board includes representatives from Tangelo Park Elementary School, Tangelo Park YMCA, Tangelo Baptist Church and the Tangelo Park Civic Association. Rosen has also recruited students from his alma mater, Cornell University, to spend an “alternative spring break” volunteering at Tangelo Park Elementary, Southwest Middle School and Dr. Phillips High School. In exchange for their time spent mentoring students at the schools, Rosen gives the Ivy League students free lodging and dining at his now AAA Four-Diamond Shingle Creek Resort.
“My goal in creating the Tangelo Park Program was not only to transform a downtrodden, depressed community and provide its youth with a chance for a brighter future, but also to create a template for success that other communities could easily adopt,” said Rosen. “Our program advisory board is in place to provide guidance and support to any community or business that should choose to create their own program.”
This is not the first time that Rosen and the Tangelo Park Program have been recognized. In 2005, Oprah Winfrey presented Harris Rosen with the U.S. Dream Academy’s highest honor, one of only three President’s Awards, at an awards banquet in Washington, D.C. Since 1998, the U.S. Dream Academy has offered a national afterschool and mentoring program for at-risk youth.
Rosen was also recently recognized by the Orlando Business Journal (OBJ) as one of only two “2009 Employer Health Care Heroes” for his commitment to providing associate wellness programs and affordable healthcare for associates and their dependent families — approximately 4,500 people in all.
Rosen Hotels & Resorts was also named a “Gold Level Start! Fit Friendly Company!” by the American Heart Association and was listed in the Sept. 28th issue of Fortune magazine. Last year, the hotelier and businessman also started the Perfect Foods company and launched his own brand called Perfect Pizza — a healthy, low-fat, low-sodium pizza with a honey whole-wheat crust and zero grams of trans fat — that he plans to market to school districts as a healthier lunch alternative.
Over the past 35 years, Rosen Hotels & Resorts has grown from 256 to approximately 6,300 rooms, approximately six percent of the total guest rooms in Central Florida. Today, the Rosen family of hotels, which includes the AAA Four Diamond Rosen Shingle Creek, the award-winning Rosen Centre and Rosen Plaza, and four leisure properties ideally located in the Orlando tourist corridor, including the Quality Inn International, Quality Inn Plaza and Rodeway Inn International and Comfort Inn Lake Buena Vista, remain committed to providing outstanding value for all guests.
For more information, visit www.rosenhotels.com or call 866-33-ROSEN.