Tag Archives: giving

Thankful students

Beyond Expectations—Giving Tuesday

For Parents, Uncategorized
Thankful students, and the Annual Giving Team leaders, Lindsay Taflas (center) and Lori Zaniboni (right)
Thankful students, and the Annual Giving team leaders, Lindsay Taflas (center) and Lori Zaniboni (right)

Giving Tuesday, nationally recognized as the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, fell this year on December 3. The day offers a selfless response to the more indulgent shopping sprees on Black Friday and Cyber Monday by encouraging charitable giving and highlighting worthy causes.

For this Giving Tuesday, KSC’s Annual Giving team set itself the goal of collecting 100 donations of any amount, to any designation. President Anne Huot offered to donate an additional $1000 to support KSC students if the 100-donor goal was met. To put things in perspective, the team usually logs about 13 gifts per day. But, by 3 p.m. that afternoon, 100 generous members of the Keene State community had made donations. When she heard that, President Huot offered an additional $500 if the team could bring in an additional 50 donors. By 11:59 that evening, with help from the intrepid Phonathon callers, the team had logged 164 donations!

Giving Tuesday saw $19,127.12 in gifts come to Keene State in 24 hours. Those donations make a real difference in our students’ education.

Nelson Megna

Nelson Megna ’59 Receives AARP’s Most Prestigious Award

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Nelson Megna
Nelson Megna ’59, winner of AARP’s 2013 Andrus Award

Nelson Megna ’59 recently won AARP’s 2013 Andrus Award, named in honor of the organization’s founder Dr. Ethel Percy Andrus. The Andrus Award celebrates and honors people who make a difference in the lives of others, and is the most prestigious and visible award AARP can present to an individual. The organization claimed that Mr. Megna’s “extraordinary public service actively embodies Dr. Andrus’ motto ‘To Serve, Not To be Served.’”

Read all about it in AARP’s announcement.

Mr. Megna and his wife, Dorothy Reed Megna ’58, recently established the Megna Family Endowed Scholarship here at KSC.

Recent Gifts

For Parents, Uncategorized,

• Charlie ’67 and Christine Zoulias, regular 1909 Society members, have given $5000 to support the Nursing program and the new teaching lab project.

• Engelberth Construction has paid the first installment ($20K) on their very generous $100,000 pledge towards the new TDS Center. Pierre LeBlanc ’78 is president of Engelberth Construction, and this company has done many major projects on the KSC campus, including the TDS Center.

• Former USNH trustee Andy Lietz and his wife Donna have made a $2500 unrestricted gift to the College, thus continuing their 1909 Society membership.

• KSC’s Grant and Contract Administrator, Susan Ericson-West, on behalf of the West family, has made a gift of $10,000 in memory of her husband, Vaughn West. This unrestricted gift will be used in the Theatre and Dance department.

• We’re also finalizing a number of very significant gifts-in-kind that support of the Nursing Lab project. Look for these details in the near future.

Recent and Important Gifts to KSC

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• Dorothy Reed Megna ’58 and her husband, Nelson J. Megna ’59, have created the Megna Family Endowed Scholarship with a gift of $25,000. This scholarship fund will provide financial support and encouragement to promising students interested in becoming teachers. Through this gift the Megnas also wanted express their sincere appreciation to the College for the benefits they received while they were students here—for their education, the foundation for their careers, and each other! They have been long-time supports of the College and active with their class reunions.

• Jan and Rick Cohen have again shared their generosity with the College through a $40,000 gift to the Cohen Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. This gift will help the Center grow its programs and increase its outreach. The gift was made in honor of Jan and Rick’s 40th wedding anniversary and also in honor of Cohen Center Director Hank Knight and his wife Pamela’s 40th wedding anniversary! A big congratulations to both couples! Jan is a member of the President’s Council and Cohen Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies Advisory Council.
Continue reading Recent and Important Gifts to KSC →

Jules Olitski's cor-ten steel sculpture, “Oranto”

Several Significant Gifts

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Jules Olitski's cor-ten steel sculpture, “Oranto”
Jules Olitski’s cor-ten steel sculpture, Oranto, now a permanent part of the Thorne collection.

The KSC Development Office is proud to announce the receipt of several important gifts that will be of significant benefit to students and the campus community:

• The William  T.  Morris Foundation has given new gifts totaling $243,000 to support scholarship and program funding for the coming academic year. This represents the largest current use gift to the institution this year and brings the total from the W T Morris Foundation to over $1 million over the last five years. $5000 of this total is directed to the Cohen Center for programmatic support, and $238,000 is directed to financial aid, which KSC chooses to apply towards students in its Honors Program.
Continue reading Several Significant Gifts →

The 12/12/12 Challenge—a Success!

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PhonathonWe won’t have another date like December 12, 2012 (12/12/12) for another 89 years. To commemorate this one-of-a-kind event, the KSC Phonathon team decided to host a one-of-a-kind event of its own: the 12/12/12 Challenge, with a goal of engaging as many new donors as possible by 12/12/12. The callers dialed away fast and furiously throughout the fall semester. Many of the alumni that the callers spoke with were happy to hear from a current student and to find out what’s happening on campus today. On the 12th, the Phonathon team worked for 12 straight hours and made over 1,200 calls.

The results?—the 12/12/12 Challenge was a success! Thank you to all the alumni who supported Keene State College. With your help, over 260 alumni became first-time donors, and we raised over $5,000 for current students! That surely will make a difference.

The Challenges of Spring

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In a very few days, the fall semester will come to a close. Grades will be posted, residence halls will close, and students will be headed off for semester break. However, though KSC seems to go into hibernation, a flurry of activity will occur here that speaks to the many challenges to come during the spring semester.

Repairs, painting, cleaning, and snow removal are just the beginning. The real preparation for the spring semester happens behind the scenes with the faculty and with the pocket book. Professors create class notes, syllabi, and test questions. Students look for every available dollar as they work out their finances, because paying for the spring semester is often more difficult than the fall semester.

One way that you can help with the challenges of spring is to make a gift to KSC by December 31st. Support a student with a gift to a scholarship, support your favorite academic or campus program, or make a gift to the KSC Fund!  Every gift does make a difference, and your thoughtfulness is truly appreciated. The results of your help will show in the future actions of KSC graduates.

Thank you,
Kenneth R. Goebel
Director of Development