One year after its public launch, the Ever Elon Campaign has reached $70.3 million in gifts and pledges toward the $100 million comprehensive campaign goal.
This milestone was achieved thanks to the generosity of alumni, parents and friends who continue to support the campaign goals to build the endowment, increase annual and planned gifts, and preserve and build the campus. To learn more about Ever Elon or to make a gift, click on the link to the right.
Recent major gifts to Ever Elon support additional need-based scholarships and athletics facilities.
Anderson makes a difference with scholarships
Elon trustee Kerrii Brown Anderson ’79 says she is proof that need-based scholarships change lives. The former chief executive officer of Wendy’s International says scholarships made her Elon education possible.
“Graduating from Elon changed my life and my future forever,” Anderson says. “My liberal arts education gave me a great foundation to go into the business world and be successful, and it prepared me for lifelong learning.”
Recently, Anderson made a $225,000 gift to Elon, which will be added to the Kerrii Brown Anderson Endowed Scholarship, established earlier this year with a gift from Wendy’s International Foundation in Anderson’s honor. The scholarship assists female students with financial need, with preference given to students from North Carolina, where Anderson grew up, or Ohio, where she has lived for the past 22 years.
Anderson strongly supports the Ever Elon Campaign goal of increasing the number of need-based scholarships through endowment gifts.
“I believe building an endowment for scholarships is critical for the long-term success of the university and the education of our future students,” she says. “These scholarships will allow students to obtain a great liberal arts education with an international experience, and to go into the world and make a difference.”
Anderson says that all gifts to Elon have an impact on students.
“I think it’s important to give back and to recognize the difference we can make in the lives of others,” she says. “To have the opportunity to change someone’s life is phenomenal.”
Anderson is a member of the boards of directors of Burlington, N.C.-based LabCorp and Chiquita Brands International in Cincinnati.
‘Elon is in our DNA’
The Ward family of Burlington continued its strong tradition of philanthropy at Elon by making a $100,000 gift to support the new Alumni Field House, currently under construction at the north end of Rhodes Stadium. The gift honors the late C. Max Ward ’49, a former Elon trustee and one of the university’s most passionate supporters.
Max Ward served in the Navy during World War II and later attended Elon with assistance from the GI Bill. He completed his business administration degree in less than three years and opened Max Ward Delmar Studios (now Lifetouch Inc.), known for its school portraits in North Carolina, Virginia and Alabama.
Using his school connections, Ward helped recruit student-athletes to Elon, and he mentored them once they arrived. He took many of the portraits of Elon’s top athletes that are displayed in the Koury Center concourse and the new W. Cecil Worsley III Golf Training Center on South Campus.
“Elon gave him the opportunity for an education that he wouldn’t have had otherwise, and he was grateful for that,” says Cynthia Ward, Max’s wife. “His love for Elon and its people never wavered. Elon is in our DNA, and this gift is about extending his legacy.”
In making the gift, Cynthia Ward was joined by her son, Hunt Ward ’82, and his wife, Julia, of Burlington. Hunt and Julia are the parents of Elon junior Cynthia Nicole Ward.
The Ward family has supported academic and athletics scholarships at Elon, as well as the Center for the Arts, Rhodes Stadium and the Ernest A. Koury Sr. Business Center. Hunt Ward, territory manager at Lifetouch, says his family understands the importance of private gifts to Elon.
“I know that tuition doesn’t cover the full cost of an Elon education, and my family feels that it’s our duty to make that opportunity available to others,” says Hunt, who was a member of the golf team and serves on the university’s Board of Visitors with his wife. “We can’t continue to attract quality students and keep Elon affordable without endowment support.”
Hendersons invest in students
Dr. Richard Henderson and his wife, Marjorie, of Mebane, N.C., have made a gift of property to the university, which has established a need-based scholarship in their names. The property on Saddle Club Road in Burlington is named Henderson House in their honor and currently houses the chaplaincy intern.
The Hendersons say their daughters, Karen Rhea ’88 and Cynthia Andrew ’90, received an excellent education at Elon, and they wanted to make that opportunity available to additional students with financial need.
“We’ve watched Elon grow and have been very impressed with its progress,” Richard Henderson says. “It’s an excellent institution.”
Henderson grew up in a single-parent household in Medford, N.J., and earned his undergraduate degree at Maryville College in Tennessee. When he was 16, he received a $2,500 scholarship for his education after winning a national essay contest. The scholarship check, he says, was signed by Santa Claus and enabled him to attend college.
“That was just one of the many types of assistance that I received along the way,” he says. “I see a lot of people who are hurting, especially single moms who worry about how their kids are going to get an education. We want this scholarship to help students improve their lives. Our greatest investment is in our children, and every little bit helps.”