A scholarship foundation set up by a Charlotte County doctor allows full-ride scholarships for low-income Hispanic students living in DeSoto County to attend St. Charles Borromeo Catholic School in Port Charlotte.

Because of the foundation, more than 70 students from Arcadia get free transportation to the Charlotte County school that’s about an hour away.

The late Dr. Sergio Cruz bequeathed his life insurance policy and other funds to the Catholic Community Foundation for a scholarship to benefit low-income Hispanic students who wish to attend a Catholic school.

“Sergio Cruz established the Consuelo Cruz Scholarship Fund in honor of his mother, and it will go on in perpetuity,” said Michael Morse, executive director of the Catholic Community Foundation.

Father John Fitch

Father John Fitch, who presides over the school and St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church, explained how it all began.

“A couple of years prior to the outbreak of COVID, St. Charles School became the beneficiary of a $4 million endowment.”

The endowment was for scholarships restricted to low-income Hispanic students, but Fitch said the challenge the school had was finding enough qualified Hispanic students in the area.

During the first week of December 2021, Fitch gathered with other priests of the Diocese of Venice at their annual convocation.

Across the room he saw Father Luis Pacheco who had just become the administrator of St. Paul’s Catholic Church in Arcadia.

Father Luis Pacheco

It occurred to Fitch that Pacheco’s congregation probably had a lot of Hispanic students in the parish, and he told him that if any of his families wanted to send their children to St. Charles Borromeo Catholic School—and if he could guarantee at least 10 students—St. Charles would provide them with a full-ride scholarship along with round-trip transportation, he said.

A video entitled “The Arcadia Initiative” on the school’s website, scbs.org, tells the entire story, including Pacheco’s heartfelt messages.

Fitch said DeSoto County “has the worst school system out of 67 counties in the state of Florida.” Statistics from the U.S Center for Education Statistics and schooldigger.com show that DeSoto County public schools are ranked last or second to last in the state.

Not only was Pacheco able to come up with the minimum number of 10 students, 30 students attended that first year in 2022, requiring a bus. Last year, 52 students from Arcadia attended St. Charles Borromeo Catholic School.

This year, 71 students are on the bus, and a couple more students attend who are driven by their families. Fitch said the school will probably have to get another bus.

Although St. Charles Borromeo School is costly, the school does provide scholarships.

But even with school scholarships, tuition would be out of reach for the low-income Arcadia families whose children are able to attend with a Consuelo Cruz Scholarship.

St. Charles student

Pacheco says many children in his parish and throughout Arcadia are the daughters and sons of migrant workers.

Tuition at St. Charles Borromeo, a school for pre-K to eighth grade, is costly. Without any scholarships, tuition is $10,750 per school year, plus a $650 fee for a total of $11,400 this year, the school’s website shows.

On the video, students emerge from a bus that pulls up to St. Paul’s Catholic Church in Arcadia to take them to the St. Charles Borromeo School. Students are seen bounding off the bus, laughing and smiling.

All students wear uniforms at St. Charles, and one cannot distinguish the Arcadia students from those who live in Charlotte County. All are on an even playing field, so to speak.

Fitch pointed out statistics that show success rates of students attending Catholic schools, with a high percentage graduating and going on to college. Although the Arcadia students come from poverty, Fitch said their education will allow them to find economic success in the future.

St. Paul’s parking lot

“Coming to a school like St. Charles Borromeo opened the doors for them to be able to fulfill a very American dream which is to be able to go to college,” Pacheco said of the DeSoto County scholarship recipients.

Parents who sending their kids to St. Charles are happy and proud, visualizing “a future where the children will be able to go to college” and that they are grateful their children are being educated in a safe environment, Pacheco said.

As men of the cloth, both Fitch and Pacheco said the scholarship foundation has allowed them to fulfill their ministries.

Fitch said nothing he’s done as a priest has made him prouder than having been a part of The Arcadia initiative, “because we’ve reached into the worst school district in the entire state of Florida, and we pulled students out and given them a first-class Catholic education.”

“All anybody really wants in life is an opportunity to realize their dreams and the opportunity to claim their small piece of the American dream,” he said.

Pacheco said, “It is the dream of every pastor to see his parishioners’ children succeed to become constructive man and women of the future.”