Sarasota County-based beer distributor donates $4.8 million to help Florida schoolchildren

Gold Coast Eagle Distributing of Sarasota recently contributed more than $4.8 million to Step Up For Students, a nonprofit that helps administer the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program.

Since 2001, Step Up For Students has awarded more than 1.5 million Florida Tax Credit Scholarships. The funding from Gold Coast Eagle Distributing is expected to provide more than 600 schoolchildren with access to education options that help them succeed.

Gold Coast Eagle Distributing sells and markets all brands produced by Anheuser-Busch, Modelo/Corona, and many import and craft beers in Manatee and Sarasota counties.

“We are proud to serve the Suncoast and are committed to being a responsible and active member of the community,” said John Saputo, owner and CEO of Gold Coast Eagle Distributing. “We believe our partnership with Step Up For Students is helping us to do just that and we are proud to be able to continue to support their mission.”

Since 2012, Gold Coast Eagle Distributing has funded more than 8,160 scholarships through contributions totaling more than $49 million to Step Up For Students.

More than 250,000 K-12 students throughout Florida benefited from a scholarship administered by Step Up For Students in the past school year. Roughly 51% of scholarship children are from single-parent households, and nearly 63% are Black or Hispanic. The average household income of families who received scholarships in 2022-23 was $42,795.

“We are extremely grateful for the continued support of Gold Coast Eagle Distributing,” said Doug Tuthill, president of Step Up For Students. “Because of companies like Gold Coast Eagle Distributing, students in Sarasota and Manatee counties and throughout Florida will be able to access the right education for them to succeed.”

Step Up also helps administer the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Students with Unique Abilities; the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Educational Options; the Hope Scholarship for public school students who are bullied; and the New Worlds Scholarship Accounts for kindergarten through fifth-grade students who struggle with reading or math. For more information, visit StepUpForStudents.org.

Submitted by Ashley Zarle

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota beer distributor donates $4.8 million to help schoolchildren