Faye and Frank Clarke have done well in their lves. Both started life in single-parent households and both went on to attend good colleges and succeed in business, gaining the status and income that come with such success. And since the Clarkes retired, they’re doing even better.

Appalled that so many poor kids today are not being educated as well as they were decades ago, the Clarkes put their retirement money and all their time and ingenuity to work on making changes in that appalling picture. Their Educate the Children Foundation helps kids in poor and rural schools get up to speed on technology by providing computers, software, books, furniture and supplies.

Educate The Children has distributed more than $20 million worth of educational materials and supplies in the past decade to schools in low-income neighborhoods and on Indian reservations. “It started with a very modest effort,” Faye reports. “It grew as we became more and more aware of the needs.”

To accomplish their mission, they’ve enlisted the support of large corporate donors, worked with Gifts-in-Kind International and trucking companies to deliver donations to the schools without charge.

The Clarkes are using all their business savvy and contacts and all their considerable charisma to make all this happen. Before retiring, Faye was an executive with a major food service company, and Frank came up through the competitive world of advertising, radio and TV.

The couple’s innovative thinking shows in their creation of an after-school computer program and a summer computer camp, and in their distribution of 20,000 copies of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream—in comic book form.

The Clarkes spend long hours drumming up support, organizing shipments and seeking out schools in need—not the “normal” day of successful retirees. But Faye and Frank Clarke will tell you that helping new generations have the opportunities they had themselves is far more interesting than a so-called normal retirement.

See www.educatethechildren.com for more information