Did You Know?

• Belgians Thank Friedman. The Belgian government recently conferred its highest civilian honor, Officer of the Order of Leopold, on Donald Flanell Friedman, professor of modern languages. Friedman traveled to Washington, D.C., for a luncheon with the Belgian ambassador to the United States to receive his decoration. The country, by decree of King Albert II, recognized Friedman for his considerable contributions to disseminate Belgian literature abroad and for his work as founder and editor of the Belgian Francophone Library, a series published by Peter Lang Publishing in New York.

• Presidential Appointment. President George W. Bush nominated Mark Herring, dean of library services, for a five-year term on the National Museum and Library Services Board. The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s 122,000 libraries and 17,500 museums.

• Thoughts on Teaching. Kay McSpadden `76 writes a column on teaching for the Charlotte Observer. A collection of those columns was compiled into a book released this fall called “Notes from a Classroom: Reflections on Teaching” (Stampley, $22.95). She writes about gratitude, diversity, the redemptive power of love, and the challenges of being a teen.

• Online Giving Made Easy. The Winthrop Foundation now has a new, secure mechanism for online giving known as Click and Pledge. Click and Pledge is a donation system that works with Winthrop to accept online donations. This new system has many great features, including the ability to give a monthly credit card gift. It accepts VISA, MasterCard and Discover, and processes the card immediately. Click and Pledge also features an optional secure sign-in that will save your information, so your forms will be automatically populated with your contact information each time you sign into the system.  Make your online gift today.

• Honor Roll of Contributors. View the latest edition of Winthrop's Honor Roll of Contributors online.

• Goodbye Peabody. Peabody Gymnasium is no longer. Click below to see crews tearing down the front of the building in mid-December.