Attorney donates $40,000 to keep Tubman Museum after-school program running

A Bibb County program designed to provide mentoring and one-on-one tutoring to elementary school students is back in action, thanks to a significant donation from a local attorney.

A $40,000 donation from Amy Witherite of the Witherite Law Group is sustaining the Tubman Museum’s after-school program through the end of the semester.

The program provides mentoring and one-on-one tutoring in basic reading, writing and math to elementary school students ages 5-12. It’s open to students in Bibb County schools, where 71% of students are economically disadvantaged, according to a press release.

“It’s such a gift back to us and I just love seeing these kids laugh and improve,’‘ said Amy Witherite, The founder of Witherite Law Group, “and not improve because of negative motivation there, but because of that positive reinforcement and people who believe.”

The program also exposes the children to art history that may have been cut from the local schools because of funding shortages, cultural activities and the historic pieces in the museum.

“What really fills me and my family up is when we reach out to the communities that are oftentimes overlooked or underappreciated and invest the resources there,” Witherite said.

Witherite hopes to spread the program to a high school level in the next few years and expand the program to other communities in Middle Georgia.

“We typically start at the elementary school level, and then we try to follow those kids,” she said. “We try to expand our net wherever they’re going to school for middle school and high school. It’s always a growth plan. I would love to be able to jump in and do all of it at once, but we need a little community help to go hand-in-hand to do that.”

A lifetime of giving

She found out about the program when doing a radio advertisement in Macon and was introduced to Harold Young, the director at the Harriet Tubman Museum. During the conversation, Young said the museum had to cancel the program because of a lack of funding. After their meeting in July, Witherite said she and her partners will try to find partners to match their contributions for the second semester of the program.

Attorney Witherite’s law firm based in Atlanta has visited the program and participated in after school activities with the children.

Witherite began her law firm 20 years ago and is no stranger to philanthropy. She’s originally from Fort Worth, Texas and graduated from Texas Tech

“It started with a high school in Fort Worth called Dunbar High School,” she said.” And we started to do $1,000 scholarships. We saw the kids that were interviewed or five that had applied for the scholarship, all five got the $1,000 and that was the very first one we did and then we just expanded over time last year between South Atlanta High School and Dunbar High School.”

The special thing about the scholarships the firm gives out to students is it can be renewed each year of their college experience.

“I don’t think there’s any limitation other than available resources and funds,” Witherite said. “So I don’t have any predisposed limitations on any program. I’m just committed to doing as much good as we can in each location with each project that gets presented to us if we think it’s something we can take on. We want to do it well and right.”

She specifically invests in initiatives that help the further development of the youth. Past donations include a donation of $160,000 in college scholarships to graduates and alumni of Dunbar High School, and $35,000 to Girls, Inc. Atlanta to create an after-school program for homeless girls living in extended stay facilities with their families.

As an adoptive parent, Witherite advocates to help other families, and gave a $10,000 check to the Willie Moore Foundation to help fund a documentary project that is focused on helping the more than 123,000 kids who are currently in the system and waiting to find their forever family through adoption.

To help the Harriet Tubman program, Witherite said she will match every dollar donated to the program.

“Anyone in the community who can step up, I don’t care if it’s $5,” she said. “Or if you have a business that has $1,000 or $2,500 to contribute to this cause I’ll match the donation dollar for dollar. So we’ll keep it going and I hope we raise a bunch of money, because I’d love to see it go through the summer so it could be a year round program.”

For additional information on donating to the museum, visit tubmanmuseum.com.