psu and charity are so closely tied, one’s fate affects the other

8/19/2019 PSU and charity are so closely tied, one’s fate affects the other

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P U L I T Z E R P R I Z E E N T R Y : L O C A L R E P O R T I N G

JERRY SANDUSKY AND PENN STATE | PAGE 31

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The Patriot-News

Then-Gov. Tom Ridge, right, and Joe Paterno attend a Penn State fundraisercalled The Second Mile with Kerry Collins in 1997. Over the years, Penn Statestrengthened its brand through Second Mile programs and events.

ONE BIG FAMILYA SPECIAL REPORT: THE SECOND MILE AND PENN STATE

PSU and charity are so closely tied, one’s fate affects the other

The Penn State Nittany Lionmascot wore a Second MileT-shirt.

There’s no more strikingimage of the bond that ex-

isted between the university and thekid’s charity founded by Jerry San-dusky.

The charity was one of PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush’s “ThousandPoints of Light.” Now its founder facesmassive charges of child sexual abusein a scandal that decimated the lead-ership and reputation of Penn State.

Gov. Tom Corbett has said the at-

torney general’s investigation is nowlooking at what The Second Mile did— or didn’t do.

The Second Mile and Penn Statewere locked in an embrace so tightthat the fate of one inevitably impactsthe other.

The charity basked in the impri-matur of Penn State. Sandusky ran itat the same time he was the NittanyLions’ greatest defensive coach. JoePaterno served as master of ceremo-nies at its biggest fundraiser. PennState players helped with fundraising.

When Sandusky announced his

BY DONALD GILLILAND, JEFF FRANTZ AND SARA GANIM The Patriot-News


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retirement in 1999, saying he wantedto spend more time with The SecondMile, Paterno called him “a person ofgreat character and integrity.” That’sall the validation many people needed.

At that time, The Second Mile hadan annual budget of $894,000 and

just more than $1 million in the bank.It now has an annual budget of $2.4million and almost $9 million in thebank.

At a university that makes a produc-tion of inducting graduates into thealumni “family,” those who wanted tobe philanthropic turned easily to TheSecond Mile. It was seen as a PennState “family” business.

Nearly all the top employees at thecharity had Penn State degrees.

The son of Penn State’s board chair-man served on The Second Mile’sboard. More than three-quarters ofthe current Second Mile board arePenn State alumni.

Penn State students served as in-terns at The Second Mile, solicitingdonations from local businesses forcharity events, and received univer-sity course credit for doing so.

Penn State football players volun-teered for The Second Mile. AndThe Second Mile featured Penn State

players on inspirational sports cards itdistributed to children in 421 of Penn-sylvania’s 500 school districts.

It was great public relations for PennState’s athletic program. More than 1million sets of cards were distributed.

Teachers and school counselors used

them as rewards for good behavior.One school counselor told The Sec-ond Mile in 2007: “The students knowwhen new cards should be arrivingand ask for them. Some of the kidswill do special things to gain cards fortheir collection.”

Penn State’s Prevention ResearchCenter partnered with The SecondMile to study the effectiveness of itsprograms. The center’s director, MarkGreenberg, recently joined the char-ity’s board of directors.

Big donors

The Second Mile board has close —and very lucrative — ties to the uni-versity.

Dorothy “Dottie” Huck and herhusband, Lloyd, are big Penn Statedonors. In total, the Hucks have giventhe university more than $20 million.

Lloyd Huck, a former chairman ofthe board at Merck, sits on the PennState board of trustees. Dottie Huck

The Second Mile distributedPenn State football cards in hundreds

of Pennsylvania school districts.


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sits on the board of The Second Mile.In the last ve years, the Hucks gavemore than $21,000 to The SecondMile, and Merck gave at least another$8,000.

“I think the function of The SecondMile has been good for many, manychildren,” Lloyd Huck told The Patri-ot-News on Tuesday. “We think theorganization, which doesn’t include

Jerry Sandusky, is still doing verymuch good.”

Huck noted that his wife works withthe kids as well as serving on theboard.

“We think the money we contrib-uted has gone to a good cause, and wedon’t regret giving it,” he said.

Huck pushed back against the idea

that the two organizations were tied.“As a trustee at Penn State, I am notaware of any close working relation-ship,” he said.

Obviously, he said, the universitycommunity provided many volunteersto the charity. And he admitted thatthe two did benet by sharing a mutu-ally good reputation.

Going forward, Huck said, “We just

have to wait and see as things de-velop. ... There’s an awful lot of thingswe don’t know.”

The late William A. Schreyer, for-mer CEO of Merrill Lynch and formerchairman of Penn State’s board oftrustees, gave more than $58 millionto the university. Schreyer’s daughter,DrueAnne, has served on The SecondMile board of directors since at least1997.

In the last ve years, The SchreyerFoundation and DrueAnne havedonated more than $224,000 to TheSecond Mile.

Attempts to contact DrueAnne wereunsuccessful.

Similar donor connections betweenthe charity and the university arenumerous, and that’s no coincidence.Sandusky cultivated the connection.

And since 2006, Bonnie Marshallhas helped The Second Mile with itsfundraising. Before working with TheSecond Mile, Marshall spent 10 years

directing fundraising and alumni de-velopment for Penn State’s College ofLiberal Arts.

People such as the Hucks and theSchreyers were donating to TheSecond Mile “long before I got there,”Marshall said Tuesday. “I in no waybrought donors with me.”

She has been employed full-time asvice president of development for TheSecond Mile since 2008.

“The process of cultivating andstewarding donors is certainly one Ibrought and probably upgraded,” Mar-shall said.

While at Penn State, her fundraisingwas focused entirely on big donors.She knew how to keep the connec-tions open and the conversation ow-ing.

But when Marshall moved to TheSecond Mile, she said, it was morethan that.

“It was back to small shop fund-


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raising,” she said, like she’d done inthe years before Penn State: hostingevents, an annual appeal, applying to

foundations and corporations.The Second Mile “certainly has amuch wider donor base than just PennState,” Marshall said.

But Penn State alumni were criti-cally important to the charity, partic-ularly the football alumni. Sanduskycoached 10 All-America linebackers,giving Penn State the nickname “Line-backer U.”

The theme of The Second Mile’s an-nual “Celebration of Excellence” fund-raiser four years ago was “A Salute toLinebacker U.”

But sometimes it was difcult totell who was saluting whom. “Sev-eral generations of former Penn Statelinebacking greats” were there to raisemoney for Sandusky’s charity. John Skorupan, who played from

1970 to 1972, told The Patriot-News: “Ithink all of us would do anything for

Jerry. He’s been an important part ofour lives, in growing up and maturingand through our NFL careers.”

“If Jerry or The Second Mile call,we’re going to come,” he said.

People paid to eat dinner and lis-

ten to football legends. When thoselegends took the podium, they paidhomage to Sandusky and The SecondMile.

Former NFL player and ESPN com-mentator Jon Ritchie, who did notattend Penn State but knew Sanduskywell, said he would go to Second Milebenets and speak. “Every time I wasup there, I was just pouring out theway that I felt about Jerry,” Ritchiesaid recently on ESPN. “My realitywas that Jerry Sandusky was MotherTeresa.”

Ritchie was not alone.In 2004, Sandusky took the pulpit

during Sunday morning service atGrace United Methodist Church inHummelstown and told the congrega-tion: “My parents reached out to peo-ple who were handicapped or rejectedby society and made them feel special.... I wanted to do the same.” Congre-gation members said they found himinspirational.

The Patriot-News

At-risk kids swim at a Second Mile Summer Challenge Camp in Berks County in 1998.The Second Mile raised about $17 million between 2002 and late 2008, when newcharges surfaced and Jerry Sandusky stepped away from the charity’s programs.


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A celebrity aura

For members of the Penn State “fam-ily,” the roles of coach, father gureand icon were not always distinguish-able.

“When I rst retired from profes-

sional football,” Ritchie said, “my rstthought was, ‘I should call Jerry andsee if he’ll let me join The SecondMile.’”

In 2004, NFL greats Lydell Mitchelland Franco Harris, former Penn Stateteammates under Sandusky, helpedto raise money for The Second Milethrough charity golf tournaments.

Harris, who helped the PittsburghSteelers win four Super Bowls in the1970s, posed for photos on the golfcourse with Louis Sheetz and hisnephew. Sheetz was representing thecharity’s newest corporate sponsor, hisconvenience-store chain Sheetz Inc.

The football stars not only helpedThe Second Mile attract donors bylending their celebrity aura to itsfunctions, but they donated moneythemselves.

Mitchell and Harris run Super-bakery Inc., which sells nutritionaldoughnuts to school districts in all50 states. Superbakery has donated

to The Second Mile every year since2005.

Former NFL head coach Dick Ver-meil was master of ceremonies for thecharity’s Celebration of Excellencefundraiser in 2000. Vermeil Enter-

prises Inc. has been a contributor toThe Second Mile multiple times sincethen.

Internal investigation

The university, meanwhile, baskedin a certain afterglow of goodwillfrom being so closely related to thecharity.

It opened its campuses for SecondMile summer camps.

In 2002, the same year the univer-sity barred Sandusky from bringingboys to the locker rooms, it sold 40acres of land to The Second Mile tobuild a “Center for Excellence.”

According to the Centre DailyTimes, the charity was allowed topurchase the land for “$151,500 lessthan a Pittsburgh man paid for it in1990” and $15,470 less than the deedsays Penn State paid for it in 1999.

University ofcials contend the deedis inaccurate and that they sold theproperty to The Second Mile for the

DAN GLEITER, The Patriot-News

Second Mile ofces are on Rosemont Avenue in Lower Allen Twp. Penn State

University donated money to the charity last year, as did the Penn StateAltoona Campus and the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.


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psu and charity are so closely tied, one’s fate affects the other

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