CONCORD — More than 300 students, teachers and friends of Cannon School attended the groundbreaking celebration for the school’s new auditorium and performing arts center on June 4. The center is the first new construction to break ground as part of the school’s $7 million Building Bright Futures Campaign to enhance Cannon’s arts, athletic and middle school facilities for its 925 junior kindergarten through 12th grade students.
Head of School Matt Gossage and Mayor of Concord Scott Padgett led a program to break ground on the new 450-seat auditorium and performing arts center that will provide a gathering space for the entire Cannon community, an art gallery, a full stage and backstage, and state-of-the-art acoustics, audio and video capabilities.
The Building Bright Futures Campaign is chaired by NASCAR Driver Jeff Burton and his wife Kim, who are Cannon School parents. The campaign, expected to last through June 2014, has raised more than $5 million since its quiet phase began in 2012, including several leadership gifts.
Cannon School’s Board of Trustees collectively pledged the first $1 million to the campaign. This fall, a Cannon School family who wished to remain anonymous pledged a lead gift of $1 million towards the school’s new performing arts center. Betty and Randy Marion Sr. and family further fueled the campaign with a gift of $500,000 in honor of their grandchildren to name the new Randy Marion Family Field House.
Patrick Moyer has been named the new athletic director at Cannon School. He took the helm of Cannon’s program on June 7 as another step in his long-standing relationship with the school.
Moyer is the parent of a Cannon School graduate and was the founding coach of the school’s varsity softball program. The softball team made the final four in 2010 and won the state championship in 2011. Moyer joins Cannon’s administration after serving more than a decade as a professor of physics at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Along with being an award-winning professor, he has, during his tenure at UNCC, chaired the physics department, the undergraduate curriculum committee, the review, promotion and tenure committee, and served as a member of the chancellor’s committee on NCAA athletics.
Moyer will guide all aspects of Cannon’s athletic program, including philosophy and goals, hiring and evaluation, scheduling, transportation and facilities management.
Moyer received a bachelor’s degree in physics from Moravian College in 1986, a master’s degree in physics from Saint Bonaventure University in 1988, and a doctorate in physics from North Carolina State University in 1993.