The Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind (FSDB) recently received an endowment gift of $250,000 from the Lastinger Family Foundation in honor of Dr. Thomas M. Zavelson, a member of the FSDB Board of Trustees.
“The Dr. Thomas M. Zavelson Endowment for Student Achievement will support professional development opportunities for FSDB educators, with the ultimate goal of increasing student success in all aspects of their academic experience,” FSDB President Dr. Jeanne Glidden Prickett said in a press release from the school.
A retired pediatrician, Zavelson was a clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of Florida College of Medicine. Previously, he was a founding and senior partner with the Pediatric Associates of Gainesville, a pediatric consultant for Children’s Medical Services, chair of the North Florida Regional Medical Center Department of Pediatrics, and member of the North Florida Regional Hospital Board of Trustees. In 2010, he was appointed by the Florida governor to the FSDB Board of Directors (reappointed in 2012 and 2016).
The Lastinger Family Foundation encourages the FSDB community and supporters to donate as well, as they will match donations dollar for dollar, to up to a maximum amount of $250,000. Donations can be made online or via check to the Dr. Thomas M. Zavelson Endowment for Student Achievement. If you donate online (www.fsdbk12.org/donate), type the fund name in the Additional Information field. If you give via check/mail, write the fund name in the memo line (lower left corner of check); mail the check to the attention of the Advancement Department, Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind, 207 N. San Marco Ave., St. Augustine, FL 32084. Donations can also be made via phone; contact Tanya Rhodes, FSDB executive director of advancement, at (904) 827-2235.
