[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 140 (Monday, October 30, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11368-S11369]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    IN RECOGNITION OF PROJECT ACORN

 Mr. TORRICELLI. Mr. President, I rise today to salute the 
charitable efforts of Project Acorn, a non-profit organization that 
works to place and fund children in two-year preschool scholarship 
programs. What started out as Stuart and Jill Lasser's individual act 
of kindness has become an expanded effort throughout Morris County and 
now across New Jersey to help families who cannot afford quality 
preschool education. The couple's lofty objectives and hard work 
enabled the organization to flourish over the past five years through 
partnerships with benefactors, volunteers, and area preschools.

[[Page S11369]]

  Education has been, and continues to be, the cornerstone of 
opportunity and advancement in American society. Preschool education 
provides the foundation and many of the basic tools that children need 
to succeed. Study after study has shown a direct correlation between 
high-quality early childhood education and success in life. All of 
these studies on the effects of preschool education have shown higher 
short-term and long-term gains such as higher I.Q. scores and a greater 
likelihood of graduating from high school and college.
  Project Acorn has provided hundreds of families with the critical 
resources necessary to place their children in a variety of preschool 
programs. These scholarships defray the costs of preschool education 
and thereby ``plant the seeds for a better community, one child at a 
time.''
  Project Acorn has helped many young individuals in Morris County. It 
serves as an excellent example of what can be accomplished by concerned 
citizens who have identified an urgent need within their community, and 
it is an honor to recognize their vision and compassion.

                          ____________________