Development News

Faculty, students and scholarship donors gathered Sept. 11 for the Richard W. Riley College of Education's Scholarship luncheon. This special event allows students and faculty to interact and share a meal with those who have contributed to scholarships benefitting students in the college. Pictured here are, from left: Rick Dent of the Tom Haggai and Associates Foundation, Tonia Ashford, Crystal Lake, Vincent Marino, Catherine Lewis, Angela McGraw, Murphy Osborne from the foundation and Debi Mink, director of the college's student academic services.

• Go Gold for Life. Winthrop’s student giving organization is holding a penny war this semester. The competition is divided into teams by residence halls and commuters. Each team has their own container to collect pennies. Each penny counts as a point and students can choose to add more to their container by adding dollars, 100 points. But nickels, dimes and quarters count against the total so each team can add the silver change into their competitor’s containers to subtract from the total. So far, the Lee Wicker team is leading the way with 2,484 points. The penny war will go on throughout the semester. All the change will be donated to the Winthrop Fund to continue to support student scholarships, faculty awards and the alumni association.

• Phonathon callers at work. This semester, the Phonathon callers are contacting alumni and friends to ask their support for the Winthrop Fund. These gifts continue the tradition of giving and improve the value of the Winthrop degree.

The Phonathon has been active for more than two decades, but this year callers are offering an opportunity to purchase an engraved brick on Scholars Walk. All proceeds will be used to support the Winthrop Fund.

• Organ festival attracted music lovers. The Organ Festival, held Aug. 13-16, brought together 13 Winthrop alumni organ majors, accomplished organists Richard Elliott and Robert Ridgell, Professor Emeritus of Music David Lowry and the Winthrop community for one purpose: to celebrate the restoration of the historic D.B. Johnson Memorial Organ, installed in Byrnes Auditorium in 1955. The organ campaign, led by Shirley Fishburne '72, '73 and David White, raised more than 80 percent of the cost of restoring the organ. See video interview with David Lowry.

Here are the alumni and others who played during the festival; seated, left to right, Jennifer Zoellner, Hazel Bailes Somerville and David Lowry. Standing, left to right: Lenora Morrow, Steven Branyon, Kevin Neel, Louis Shirer, Steven Blackmon, Greg Reynolds, Nelle Altman-Boyce, Deborah Bagwell Bauer, Elizabeth Miller, Barbara Couch Dickson, Cynthia Atkinson Fruth. Neel is a graduate of the Winthrop Academy, where he studied in high school with Lowry.