Eating Hershey Chocolates is good for others!

​Milton Hershey… more than a Chocolatier…an Inspiration

Born in Pennsylvania in 1857, Milton Hershey had experienced hunger and poverty throughout his youth. With limited choices and a routinely absent father, he left school at 14 and began a series of apprenticeships; he found success in the candy making industry 12 years later, as owner of Lancaster Caramel Company. After selling his caramel business for $1 million in 1900, he built Hershey Chocolate Company near where he grew up in Derry Church, Pennsylvania. There he mass-produced affordable, delicious, milk chocolate candies, created employment opportunities for others and utilized the rich, creamy products from the dairy farming community. 

Eating Hershey Chocolates is good for others!

Milton Hershey… more than a Chocolatier…an Inspiration

Born in Pennsylvania in 1857, Milton Hershey had experienced hunger and poverty throughout his youth. With limited choices and a routinely absent father, he left school at 14 and began a series of apprenticeships; he found success in the candy making industry 12 years later, as owner of Lancaster Caramel Company. After selling his caramel business for $1 million in 1900, he built Hershey Chocolate Company near where he grew up in Derry Church, Pennsylvania. There he mass-produced affordable, delicious, milk chocolate candies, created employment opportunities for others and utilized the rich, creamy products from the dairy farming community. 

Without heirs, Hershey and his wife Catherine dedicated their lives to philanthropic opportunities through the creation of Hershey Theatre, the Hershey Amusement Park, and the Hershey Industrial School, that began as an orphanage on the old homestead in the early 1900s. 

Today, Hershey’s legacy lives on as thousands of students have benefited from attending the well-endowed Milton Hershey School; a cost-free, private school for boys and girls from low-income families. As a home and school, MHS covers 100% of the cost of medical, dental, and psychological care, housing, clothing, food, extracurricular activities, and more for its students, allowing them to focus on their personal growth. This year’s enrollment consists of 2,000 students. 
Students who experience neglect, poverty, or negative environments apply for free admission and find themselves on a new path of opportunity. A student at MHS, Kelly credits his school experience as well as his houseparents for their tremendous influence on his emotional growth and well-being. “They always push you to do better because they want you to succeed. I didn’t have parent figures, so to speak, so they really set me up for a better future.” 

A better future, asserts School Historian Susan Alger, is why Hershey’s visionary ideals led him and Catherine to contribute to and support an institution like no other private establishment that not only educates but offers support and balance in family life. 

Originally, the school allowed boys ages 4 through 8 to attend if the father was deceased; however, about the time of the Great Depression, the age restriction expanded to ages 4 to 14 with either mother or father deceased. In 1977, the founders’ original dreams expanded, admitting girls from disadvantaged homes of tragic backgrounds. 

Hershey’s idea of success was making your personal mark in society in a positive way. A successful person is one who helps others. Hershey was big on helping the other guy, making the world a better place. 

As school Historian Alger put it, “There’s one quote of Milton Hershey that sums up what he wanted, and it’s what we still do today: ‘One is only happy in proportion as he makes others feel happy and only useful as he contributes his influences for the finer callings in life.’”

For the past 11 years at Pluma, we have a bowl of Hershey’s Nuggets for the clients to enjoy. We have strangers passing through our salon to other studios who reach in and grab a nugget or two and some of our clients grab a few for "later." We keep buying them and supplying them. This we know for sure; at Pluma we are helping underprivileged children at MHS to "set them up for a better future".  
       
With love,
Hilda