[Our petition seeks federal court review of a $350,000,000 diversion of assets from our nation's 400,000 foster care children. The diversion was accomplished in a Pennsylvania Orphans' Court without due process for these children. Please sign to add your support! More information follows. Thank you!]
On October 23, 2020, the Orphans' Court in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania granted a "cy pres" request diverting $350,000,000 from foster and other youth requiring residential schooling and services.
The money is held in trust by the Milton Hershey School Trust, a charity created by candy magnate Milton S. Hershey to care for orphan children. MHS today has $17 billion but has resisted using all funds on kids who need it most, such as America's 400,000 foster care children.
The "cy pres" was granted without any due process for the foster care kids whose assets were taken and with no guardian or trustee ad litem representing them. The Pennsylvania Attorney General even allowed it to happen and blocked any ad litem appointment: no one was allowed to speak for these kids.
Never before has so much been taken from so needy a group with so little said on their behalf: the $350,000,000 diversion is the largest "cy pres" in American charitable trust history. It is also actually a half-billion dollar diversion when examined closely.
This taking from foster and other at-risk youth should not be allowed to stand.
Our petition seeks to have the diversion reviewed by a federal court and prevent anything similar from happening again. For more information, please click here.
Our signatories are joining us in respectfully requesting that:
1. A federal court review the $350,000,000 cy pres grant in a proceeding where foster and other such youth have their interests represented and are heard; and,
2. The Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General: (a) not block the appointment of an ad litem to represent foster and other at-risk youth in any future MHS cy pres proceeding; and (b) fulfill promises to have MHS Board members named who are committed to foster youth and are proven child welfare professionals.
