RE LOG - Spring 2017

SPRING 2017 Ransom Everglades LOG 5 By Amy Shipley John Flickinger ’74 arrived to the Ransom School on financial aid, one of six children of a Catholic widow who struggled to make ends meet after the death of her Air Force pilot husband. Doug Weiser ’74 hailed from a well- to-do Jewish family from an exclusive bayfront neighborhood, his father Woody Weiser a noted attorney, hotel developer and philanthropist. “Different worlds,” Flickinger said. Yet not long after they met in eighth grade, Flickinger and Weiser became the best of friends, learning first-hand how common educational goals can break down barriers. As students, they followed nearly identical paths. They ran track, and shared the football team co-captaincy with Wendell Graham ’74 , the first African-American student at Ransom Everglades and now a Miami- Dade County judge (see story, page 16). Flickinger served as Student Council president; Weiser directed the Key Club. They jointly protested the Vietnam War, championed numerous local civic causes and spent hours on the bay in the “I’m forever grateful for this special program” – Angeliki P. La Bianca, V.P./ manager, TD Bank – John Flickinger ‘74 Weiser family sailboat. A few years later, their love for the water inspired them to join two others on a three-week Atlantic crossing on a 50-foot sloop. They even attended the same college, Colgate University. The lessons learned at Ransom Everglades School guided them for years after graduation. The two pals reunited in the summer of 1992 to found a program that harked back to their schoolboy days, and which has since transformed the lives of thousands of students in South Florida. The program, then known as Summerbridge Miami, brought underserved middle-school kids (now grades 5-12) from around Miami- Dade County onto the Ransom Everglades campus during the summers and on Saturdays, aiming to use a rigorous academic program and inspiring college- age role models to help them graduate high school and get into college. Twenty-five years later, Breakthrough Miami – it was renamed in the mid- 2000s – remains a significant piece of campus life at Ransom Everglades, a lifeline for many local students and a Breakthrough Miami Inspiring Students for 25 Years