Catawba College receives fundraising award

SALISBURY – The Catawba College Development Office has earned a 2020 Educational Fundraising Award from the Council of Advancement and Support of Education. CASE is the global non-profit association dedicated to educational advancement.

Catawba will complete its second year of a five-year fund-raising effort called the MIND BODY SOUL Campaign for Growth in October. The CASE award recognizes the capital campaign, as well as fund-raising for Catawba’s annual fund.

The MIND BODY SOUL campaign has raised 62 percent, or $21,551.390.90 of the $34,628,742 goal,plus an additional $15,157,363.90 for identified specific projects and additional scholarship money. The campaign is an effort to grow existing college programs and launch new, cutting-edge degrees, ensuring the growth of program offerings and student enrollment.

“As alumni, it is our privilege to serve Catawba in this fund-raising effort, and we are grateful for the recognition, as well as the great work of Meg and her team,” co-chairs Darlene Ball and Dan Bros said. “Our hard-working committees are reaching out to everyone to give what they can to make sure that Catawba continues to help others, as it helped us as undergraduates.”

The $28 million MIND campaign has already renovated the Shuford Science Building, funded a College Success Coaches program, created the Greg and Missie Alcorn Makerspace and The Icebox (Innovate, Collaborate, Engage), an Honors Program endowment; expanded the Environment and Sustainability program, and created a mental health counseling program.

The $2.8 million BODY campaign has already funded artificial turf for Kirkland Field, the football and lacrosse field that will become a community multi-use field; a new video scoreboard for Shuford Stadium, an outdoor beach volleyball court, and lights for the Whitley Softball Field.

The $3.3 million SOUL campaign has already funded the renovation of the Omwake- Dearborn Chapel organ, the creation of an endowment for the chapel, and the endowment for the Discovery Program.

The CASE awards annually recognize exemplary development programs based on a blind review of data submitted. Winners are not selected based solely on total funds raised.

NEA awards Livingstone $15,000 Big Read grant

SALISBURY – Livingstone College was awarded a $15,000 grant to host the National Endowment for the Arts Big Read in Rowan County.

Livingstone was one of 84 nonprofit organizations selected to receive an NEA Big Read grant to support a community reading program between September 2020 and June 2021. The NEA Big Read is an Arts Endowment initiative in partnership with Arts Midwest.

The NEA Big Read in Rowan County will focus on Adrian Matejka’s, “The Big Smoke.” Activities will take
place April 2-May 7, 2021.

“Our text is an exquisite collection of poetry that depicts the heavyweight champion Jack Johnson as a social phenomenon through a literary lens,” Da’Tarvia Parrish, program director and history and African-American studies professor at Livingstone College said. “As literature allows the imagination to exist where often perceptions can be reconstructed and redefined, I’m eager to unfold how this communal lesson can increase the complexities of self-awareness and acquire new perspectives.”

Livingstone College will host shared activities with several community partners to include the Rowan Public Library, Families and Communities Together (F.A.C.T.) and Hornets’ Nest Girl Scouts Troop 454.

“For over 140 years, Livingstone College has provided leadership to the global society whereas our effort in the Big Read is simply another way the college does its best to serve,” Livingstone President Jimmy Jenkins said. “We are thankful for the friends we have in Rowan County who have partnered with us, and we are grateful to NEA for this opportunity to recognize the importance of literacy and community.”

Since 2006, the National Endowment for the Arts has funded more than 1,600 NEA Big Read programs, providing more than $22 million to organizations nationwide. Over the past 13 years, grantees have leveraged more than $50 million in local funding to support their NEA Big Read programs.

More than 5.7 million Americans have attended an NEA Big Read event, approximately 91,000 volunteers have participated at the local level, and 39,000 community organizations have partnered to make NEA Big

Read activities possible. For more information about the NEA Big Read, including book and author information, podcasts and videos, visit arts.gov/neabigread.