Kevin Oklobzija • Staff writer • May 18, 2009 PITTSFORD &mdash The Wegmans LPGA will continue to benefit children in the area, only this
year the money raised from the annual golf tournament will be used to boost graduation rates in the Rochester City School District. Net proceeds from the tournament, which runs June 25-28 at Locust Hill Country Club, will go to Graduation is the Goal Fund, a United Way program that works in conjunction with local agencies to keep kids in school. “This has been identified as one of the greatest needs in the community,” said Colleen Wegman, president of Wegmans Food Markets. “We all need that number to improve.” The graduation rate for Rochester’s public schools was 48 percent for the 2006-07 school year. Figures for last year haven’t been released by the New York State Education Department. One of the major benefactors of the Graduation is the Goal Fund is the Hillside Work Scholarship Connection, a program that Wegmans has supported for several years. Wegman said the Hillside program targets kids in an at-risk group, where the graduation rate is only about 30 percent.
“We’re very passionate about it,” she said. “The program has been able to double that rate to about 60 percent.”