Everton Blair, a Shiloh High School alum and member of the Gwinnett County Board of Education, announced Wednesday that he would pay off the debt remaining for Shiloh's graduating class.
The announcement, made during his commencement address to the graduating class, was reminiscent of the recent gift made by billionaire Robert F. Smith to the graduates at Morehouse College. Blair said he was inspired by attention to student debt forgiveness in the past year.
Blair told 11Alive that a final amount for the gift had not been tallied, but was likely to total $12,000.
Students at the Gwinnett County public school accrue debts for day-to-day costs, such as lunch, books, calculators and other fees assessed by the school.
The debt payments will come from the money Blair helped raised for the GCPS Foundation, in addition to a personal contribution from Blair.
Blair was class president of the Shiloh Class of 2009. He was the youngest person ever elected to the Gwinnett County Board of Education in November of 2018.
Blair said the alumni from the Class of 2009 had discussed a gift for the graduating class at the recent reunion, and, instead of offering a memento to each graduate, they decided on the debt cancellation.
"We felt like that would alleviate a financial burden in a meaningful way," Blair said.
In addition to the debt relief payment, Blair had established scholarships in honor of his sister, Courtney Blair, who was a member of the 2015 class at Shiloh and would have graduated from Harvard this year.
She passed away last July.
"I think she is shining down on all the graduates that are going to get to benefit from the life that she lived, and she's proud that we are doing something positive in the community that we all grew up in.
Blair started a GoFundMe for the scholarships, and the money raised allowed him to give even more than expected.
"We had decided we were going to give out scholarships a long time ago," Blair said. "We were only going to give out three this year, but I chose instead to give out five because we raised so much money."
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