Donations

Aside from the education work that the foundation accomplishes, the charitable aspects of the Beacon Tree in regards to providing financial assistance to families with teens at risk, is also educationally motivated, because without the proper care and facilities, these teens might never finish high school let alone go on to college.

These programs and facilities include:

• Short-term boot camps for disciplinary problems
• Extended wilderness programs for teens with drug and alcohol addiction
• Long-term rehabilitative treatment facilities, which are lock-down, 24/7 supervised programs where therapy is first supplemented with academic curriculums, allowing young people to continue their academics while learning to deal with their issues
• Therapeutic boarding schools that are open campus focusing on academics with 24/7 counseling staff and associated psychiatric support

These privately run programs are very expensive. Insurance coverage, if available, is limited at best. For families, the alternative is to turn control of their child over to the system, which usually won’t happen until there is cause. Because they cannot financially provide the treatment their child demands, they are doomed to watch helplessly their child becomes institutionalized, imprisoned, or worse, lose their life to suicide or drugs. Children that could otherwise lead productive successful lives are lost each year.

On the pure educational front, the foundation’s mission is to provide a single source of credible educational information, effective resources and pro-active assistance to families to help them provide their children the necessary tools to be successful academically and socially. The result then, when reaching the college application years, they can compete effectively for admissions and financial assistance.

Today’s aggressive college environment, with colleges and universities competing to meet their bottom line or attain brighter, larger or more diverse student population, has caused the financial aid and the admissions processes to become more and more entwined in order to facilitate this shift toward “enrollment management.” Increasing amounts of financial assistance are finding their way to middle and upper-income families. Yet at the same time, the rationale for this “strategic packaging” becomes more and more evasive. We need to help families figure it all out, and figure it all out quickly.

Children are faced with academic and social challenges at a progressively younger age in order to be successful. The major challenge in preparing a child to lead a successful and productive life is not finding information. As a culture, we're drowning in it. The challenge is rather how to process it. The family must be able to manage that information, bring a focus to it and make it meaningful to their student. They must be able to use that information to make good educational and financial decisions.

The family must be able to control the process and not let the system take its own course. There are too many variables and not enough effective communication between families and our educational institutions and governmental agencies.

This early pressure on our children to cope academically, socially and sexually at levels they are not emotionally mature enough to handle, as a triggering process, has contributed to the increase in teen depression and it’s associated manifestations of suicide or self-harm, self-medication through drug or alcohol abuse, and eating disorders.

So as we help our children prepare to face this daunting world, we must also be ready to catch them when they fall, providing the resources, both private and public, to reclaim them.

We thank you in advance for your generous contribution.

You may contribute or pledge by phone: Please call Thomas Leahy (804) 437-1369.

You may contribute by mail: Send your check to Beacon Tree Foundation, P.O. Box 35369, Richmond, VA 23235

You may contribute through the United Way individually or through your work by writing in Beacon Tree Foundation as your preferred charity on the contribution form. Our United Way number is 7616.

You may donate stock of publicly traded companies: Please contact Thomas Leahy for details. 804 437-1369 or email .

You may also call to make a donation using a credit card: Please Click Here.

You may purchase a Beacon Tree Savings Card. Save money at a variety of local merchants and help Beacon Tree Foundation at the same time. Click Here to Purchase.