Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio. Hi, I'm
Speaker 1: Jason Kelly and I'm Carol Masser. Welcome to the Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week Extra. It's a weekly podcast bringing you an
Speaker 1: interview you probably won't hear anywhere else. And this is
Speaker 1: really the case with this guest, because man, he's one
Speaker 1: of KKR's first employees, but he definitely stays out of
Speaker 1: the public eye. We're talking about Paul Raither. I have
Speaker 1: gotten to know him over the past few years, and
Speaker 1: I've actually been with him in Hartford, Connecticut, and that's
Speaker 1: really where this story happens. Dream Camp. He created it
Speaker 1: a couple of decades ago. Now as he thinks about
Speaker 1: his role as a philanthropist, he's got even bigger plans
Speaker 1: for what giving can look like going forward. Jason, you
Speaker 1: certainly said some nice things about me. We haven't seen
Speaker 1: each other for a while, but um, it's good too.
Speaker 1: It's good to get reconnected. And yes, I have been
Speaker 1: trying to do some things for Trinity College and in Hartford, Connecticut,
Speaker 1: which is near and dear to my are well tell
Speaker 1: me about that. I was lucky enough to go to
Speaker 1: Hartford with you a few years ago. And you and
Speaker 1: I spent the day together, and you know it's clear
Speaker 1: when you're there that it is. It had a huge
Speaker 1: impression on you, not just the school, but the community.
Speaker 1: Tell us about dream Camp, because that feels like the
Speaker 1: manifestation of a lot of what you think about, UH
Speaker 1: and what you're trying to do. Okay, well, listen in
Speaker 1: in in the late nineteen nineties, around nine, I had
Speaker 1: the idea that we needed to do something UM in
Speaker 1: the Hartford community. And when I say we, I'm talking
Speaker 1: about Trinity College and UM. You know, Trinity UM had
Speaker 1: always been sort of viewed by the community as you
Speaker 1: know the kids up on the hill. Uh and Hertford
Speaker 1: in the late nineties was a city in distress and
Speaker 1: a city that was not clearly not doing well. The
Speaker 1: education system UH in Hartford was broken. UH. In fact,
Speaker 1: it was taken over several times by by the state
Speaker 1: because they ran out of money and be lost their accreditation.
Speaker 1: And and I said to myself, you know what we
Speaker 1: need if we're going to really change the cycle, UM,
Speaker 1: we need some education for these younger kids in particular.
Speaker 1: And so I had this idea of trying to start
Speaker 1: a camp for kids sort of ages six to ten,
Speaker 1: because you know that that's when you really can get
Speaker 1: to get to these kids, because they're obviously very impressionable
Speaker 1: at that age, and you can teach them things that
Speaker 1: that they don't know and things that they're not necessarily
Speaker 1: going to learn in schools, particularly when the schools are
Speaker 1: not operating going very well. And um, Michael Rouse who
Speaker 1: runs a a company down in Philadelphia called SF Sports Camp.
Speaker 1: I went to Michael and said, look, I've got this idea,
Speaker 1: you know, and here's my idea. Can you do something
Speaker 1: like this? And he said absolutely, I can definitely do this.
Speaker 1: And not only can I do this, this is really exciting.
Speaker 1: And he'd already you know, he's had he started this camp, um,
Speaker 1: you know, thirty plus years ago, this camp business. Uh.
Speaker 1: And he's been very successful. And he actually was running
Speaker 1: a camp at Greenwich Academy, uh in the summer here. Uh.
Speaker 1: So I've seen his work and known him well, and
Speaker 1: I said, here's here's what I want to do. I
Speaker 1: want to create a program that will be tuition free
Speaker 1: for kids in Hertford. And I want to create a
Speaker 1: program that will be racially balanced, so it'll be one
Speaker 1: third African American one third Hispanic uh and one third
Speaker 1: white UH. And get these kids at age six to ten,
Speaker 1: bring them in UH and teach them a lot of
Speaker 1: things that they really don't know. In addition to which,
Speaker 1: think about this, they're going to be on the Trinity
Speaker 1: College campus because I'd gone to the then president at
Speaker 1: at Trinity and said, look, here's here's the idea of
Speaker 1: here's what i'd like to do, um and and but
Speaker 1: I need your cooperation, I need your help, and I
Speaker 1: need your facilities, all of which they agreed to. So
Speaker 1: that's that's Jason, how it really you know, how it
Speaker 1: really got started? Um and you know, I mean here
Speaker 1: we are twenty three years later, and frankly it's been
Speaker 1: a huge success. Well that's what I want to ask you.
Speaker 1: And I do want to get to the success of it,
Speaker 1: the impact of it. But I want to ask you too, though, Paul,
Speaker 1: this is about and I feel like because of the virus,
Speaker 1: because of what happened about um George Floyd, what happened
Speaker 1: to him in Minneapolis, we're talking about so much of
Speaker 1: the inequalities and what we're discovering or really kind of
Speaker 1: putting out there is that we've got to end these
Speaker 1: bad cycles that don't provide everyone equally opportunities to ultimately succeed,
Speaker 1: whether it's an education, whether it's professionally, and also ultimately
Speaker 1: to provide some wealth and you know, generational wealth that
Speaker 1: pulls everybody out of a bad situation. And I feel
Speaker 1: like this is kind of what you guys are going
Speaker 1: out breaking, that you know, rough cycle that unfortunately so
Speaker 1: many have to endure. Yeah, well that's what we're trying
Speaker 1: to do, Carol. Um. You know, look what I went
Speaker 1: when I was at Trinity, which was a long time ago,
Speaker 1: in the in the sixties, the neighborhood around Trinity was
Speaker 1: middle class to lower middle class. UM, basically people from
Speaker 1: Italian and Polish heritage who worked in manufacturing jobs in Hertford. Uh.
Speaker 1: And those jobs all went away. Um, they all moved
Speaker 1: basically to you know, to the south where the work
Speaker 1: rules were easier for the companies and and and people.
Speaker 1: The people who moved into the neighborhood were basically Hispanic uh.
Speaker 1: And so the neighborhood around Trinity changed dramatically. And you know,
Speaker 1: Trinity started this program under President Dobell uh in the
Speaker 1: mid nineties where they created the Learning Cord or which
Speaker 1: is you know, a street across the street from the
Speaker 1: main part of the Trinity campus UH, and with state
Speaker 1: funds and federal funds, built three new schools, a monesstory
Speaker 1: lower school, a Magnet middle school, and an upper high
Speaker 1: school that was for for science, mathematics, and dance in theater.
Speaker 1: And so that was sort of the first step. And
Speaker 1: then on top of that, I said, well, okay, so
Speaker 1: that's great, but now what else can we do with
Speaker 1: with these kids? And so that's that's why I came
Speaker 1: up with the idea of you know, kids six to
Speaker 1: ten because in my mind, in my mind, education is
Speaker 1: the great love you were you know, really, you know,
Speaker 1: lovely in terms of telling us, Paul, what this camp
Speaker 1: sets out to do and how it works, I am
Speaker 1: curious about the impact of the camp and the success
Speaker 1: that it's having on these six to ten year olds. Well,
Speaker 1: hopefully Carol is having a lot of success on these
Speaker 1: six We started with six to ten UH and then
Speaker 1: I think, you know, a seven years after we started
Speaker 1: the camp UM there was a sports camp UH at
Speaker 1: Trinity that had been there for thirty seven years, funded
Speaker 1: by the n C double A and the federal government,
Speaker 1: and that program was cut back and the Trinity program
Speaker 1: was eliminated, and so we went to the college and said, look,
Speaker 1: we can't let these kids go uh. And so we
Speaker 1: merged the Sports camp into the Dream Camp and became
Speaker 1: a camp of two d and fifty kids from ages
Speaker 1: six to sixteen. And so the program is start with
Speaker 1: a child at the age of six, um, start with
Speaker 1: the five week summer program, uh, and then take these
Speaker 1: kids all the way through until their fifteen sixteen years old.
Speaker 1: And ninety plus percent of our kids actually go to
Speaker 1: the full the full route through and then a significant
Speaker 1: number of those kids at sixteen to seventeen become counselors
Speaker 1: in training at the camp, so they're they're they're there
Speaker 1: with us for ten plus years us and then hopefully
Speaker 1: they go to college. And ninety plus percent of our
Speaker 1: kids that have gone through the program have actually gone
Speaker 1: on to college. So in that sense, in that sense,
Speaker 1: it's really been a big success. But probably three years
Speaker 1: after we started the program, Michael Rouse, who I said
Speaker 1: earlier was the god that I went to to, you know,
Speaker 1: to try to implement this on a day to day basis,
Speaker 1: came to me and sit, Paul, we have to do
Speaker 1: something besides just the fifth five week program in the summer,
Speaker 1: we have to go full time. But in other words,
Speaker 1: we have to create a program after school. So in
Speaker 1: the summer, at the five week program, you know, we
Speaker 1: picked the kids up in the morning, we bring them
Speaker 1: to the campus at Trinity, we feed them breakfast, uh,
Speaker 1: and then they've got a full day and then we
Speaker 1: put them on the bus and we take them home.
Speaker 1: And then in the fall when we started the after
Speaker 1: school program, we picked these kids up then after school
Speaker 1: you know, four days, four days a week, and we
Speaker 1: bring them to Trinity uh and we tutor them in
Speaker 1: effect after school, and that tutoring is done almost exclusively
Speaker 1: by Trinity College students. So these kids are getting an
Speaker 1: opportunity to interact with you know, Trinity undergraduates, and the
Speaker 1: Trinity undergraduates are getting an opportunity to interface with with
Speaker 1: these kids. And so it's it's a win win for
Speaker 1: everybody because they really get to see things that they
Speaker 1: otherwise wouldn't see it. So, um, so this is now
Speaker 1: a forty five week program um after school and then
Speaker 1: five weeks in the summer. So basically, you know, we've
Speaker 1: become a year round program. Um. You know with with
Speaker 1: these kids, and so you know, the statistics are great.
Speaker 1: I mean, ninety plus percent of these kids stay with us,
Speaker 1: ninety plus percent of these kids end up going to college.
Speaker 1: Six of them at graduated from Trinity. That's so cool.
Speaker 1: That's great. Yeah, that's that's the Grand Slam right there.
Speaker 1: So it is it is the Grand Slam. Go ahead, So, Paul,
Speaker 1: I do have to ask you before we run out
Speaker 1: of time. You know, one of the things you've identified
Speaker 1: in this is something that we've really learned a lot about,
Speaker 1: unfortunately during the pandemic, which is the food and security
Speaker 1: that we're facing as a nation. So talk to us
Speaker 1: briefly about what you've done around that issue, because it's
Speaker 1: really important, I think for people to understand. Okay, well
Speaker 1: there's actually two parts of it, but let's do with
Speaker 1: what happened in in you know, in March. Uh, you know, schools,
Speaker 1: schools went virtual in Connecticut, and under Connecticut state law,
Speaker 1: schools have to provide at least one meal a day
Speaker 1: to the kids. Okay, so the kids are not in school,
Speaker 1: so those meals are not being provided, and so all
Speaker 1: of a sudden there's a hole in uh, you know,
Speaker 1: in their daily routine in terms of in terms of
Speaker 1: getting fed. And so Michael Rouse again came to me
Speaker 1: and said, we need to shift gears. We need to
Speaker 1: continue to do the after school program, but it's going
Speaker 1: to be virtual, just like uh, you know their school
Speaker 1: is during the day. What we need to create we
Speaker 1: need to create a program um that will provide food
Speaker 1: for for people. And so I said, well, give me
Speaker 1: a budget, give me an idea, tell me how you're
Speaker 1: going to do this. And he came up with a
Speaker 1: program where he teamed up with chef Frankie Slenza, who
Speaker 1: was in an Emmy Award winning cooking show. Uh chef,
Speaker 1: uh you know somebody that he knows down in the
Speaker 1: Philadelphia area. And he created a series of menus uh
Speaker 1: and put together food packages and the recipes are in
Speaker 1: English and in Spanish, and he's got videos and so
Speaker 1: we're start. We started delivering meals in late March, uh
Speaker 1: you know too, to these families in Hartford. So they
Speaker 1: didn't have to come and stand in line at a
Speaker 1: food bank. The food was actually delivered to them by
Speaker 1: people who worked for E. S. S. Sports camps or
Speaker 1: Trinity undergraduate students. So the food was coming up from Philadelphia,
Speaker 1: coming into Hartford and then dispatched to these families. And
Speaker 1: so we did that from you know, the end of March,
Speaker 1: you know, right up through the beginning of camp, and
Speaker 1: we delivered over ten thousand meals. And that was Paul Ray,
Speaker 1: their senior advisory partner at the private equity firm kk R.
Speaker 1: You've heard of that, but you might not have heard
Speaker 1: about the work that he has done in Hartford, Connecticut.
Speaker 1: Trinity College is so devoted to that school. Really enjoyed
Speaker 1: catching up with him. Yeah, and I just love that,
Speaker 1: you know, identifying a community that just needs some help,
Speaker 1: especially for its younger population. What struck me he said
Speaker 1: that about the kids at attend Dream Camp ultimately go
Speaker 1: off to college. That was really impressive. You've been listening
Speaker 1: to Bloomberg Business Week Extra and be sure to catch
Speaker 1: us every day Monday through Friday at two pm Wall
Speaker 1: Street Time. I'm Bloomberg Radio. I'm Carol Masser, and I'm
Speaker 1: Jason Kelly. This is Bloomberg