From the Director of Development: Jul 2021
Dear Alumni and Friends of the College of Nursing,
First, thank you for your financial support to the College of Nursing!
With 50% of our nursing students qualifying for financial aid (40% coming from NC’s most impoverished counties) your gifts helps us improve health care in the East and beyond. YOU are making a difference with each gift.
Our 60th anniversary was a great celebration despite pandemic mandates. Many of you participated in one of the 13 virtual reunion calls last fall. All alumni received by mail or email an invitation to participate. Please make sure we have your correct email by updating your contact. The dean’s video of the 60th Coast-to-Coast Toast was emailed out to all. Our endowment donors met with each other and the dean through our first virtual event for them last November. Additionally, to celebrate the 60th, Legacy Launch was initiated successfully. This new tradition identifies our Pirate Nurses in the field by their branded facemasks while providing additional scholarship funds for current students. Please give generously anytime of the year.
Two 6-figure willed gifts were received from non-alumni last year with one from the Triangle and one from Winston-Salem. Both women recognized the huge need for more nurses for Eastern NC. If we are in your will already, or you have questions about various ways to include the College of Nursing, please let me know. We need to document your gift to ensure it goes exactly where you want it to go in Nursing.
Last March, Hall of Fame Inductees from 2020 and 2021 were added during a virtual event. Hall of Fame Scholarships are supported by members’ annual gifts and through nomination of new members. We look forward to resuming this event in person in Greenville in March 2022.
We are excited this Sept. 24 to welcome our scholarship donors and their recipients back to our atrium to meet and celebrate together again. It is wonderful to see the impact of this philanthropy. Endowment gifts start at $25,000, and payment can be spread over 5 years.
Homecoming in College of Nursing returns this Oct 1!! Please join us for a reunion in the atrium. More details to come.
Donor Spotlight: A special thank you to Linda and J. Russell Fleming of Greenville who not only established two scholarship endowments in our college, but continue their philanthropic support by annually increasing the corpus of each endowment AND making gifts to double the current scholarship awards annually. Neither of the Flemings are nursing alumni, but they rightly understand the huge impact their generosity has on health care in our region and beyond. One scholarship is in memory of Russell’s parents, Marguerite and Van Calvin Fleming, in recognition of their decades of devoted local community engagement. Their other scholarship honors their daughter, Lauren. Inspired by the supportive care Lauren received during her childhood cancer experience, the Flemings gratefully established their second scholarship for the profession their daughter chose, nursing.
Please send me your comments, suggestions, and questions! Looking forward to talking with you soon-
Lead On, Pirate Nurses, Lead On,
G. Elizabeth Maxwell, Director of Development
919-330-6603, cell
252-744-6324, office
Maxwellg17@ecu.edu