NCWC News: "New Day for Wesleyan" Total Sets Record

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September 14, 2005

"New Day for Wesleyan" Total Sets Record

The 24th annual Day for Wesleyan fundraising drive raised a new record amount of $503,652.

Rocky Mount, N.C.— Wesleyan’s 24th annual Day for Wesleyan fundraising drive held Tuesday, September 13, raised a new record amount of $503,652. Wesleyan announced the total at a Tuesday evening celebration for fundraising volunteers and members of the Rocky Mount Area Chamber of Commerce in the Garner Lobby of Wesleyan’s Dunn Center.

This year’s event was called a "New Day for Wesleyan" because every gift will be matched, dollar for dollar, up to a total of $1.2 million, with funds from a bequest to the College by the late Frank E. Brown, a native of Edgecombe County.

Rocky Mount Mayor Fred Turnage recognized Wesleyan’s fundraising event by issuing a proclamation that designated September 13 as the official Day for Wesleyan.

On the Day for Wesleyan, more than 125 volunteers visited or contacted almost 1,000 area businesses and individuals to ask for donations and pledges. Many students accompanied volunteers on their calls throughout the Rocky Mount area. Funds will be used to support teaching, learning, library resources, teaching materials and equipment, technological materials, and support services for students, including scholarships for deserving students who could not otherwise attend Wesleyan.

Tuition and fees at Wesleyan—a private, church-related college—cover only 70 percent of the total costs of educating students.

Co-chairs for this year’s fundraiser were Don Williams, president of Lewis Advertising; Dewey Clark, operations manager at MBM Corporation; and Rod Grindle, president of Carolina Power Systems in Raleigh, who represented Wesleyan’s Adult Degree Program. Both Clark and Grindle are 1982 Wesleyan graduates.

Last year’s Day for Wesleyan raised a record amount for the event of $463,759, which exceeded the previous year’s tally of $449,684.

"We are grateful for the tremendous outpouring of support from community volunteers and from individual and corporate donors that made possible this new fundraising record for Day for Wesleyan," said William C. Nelsen, vice president of development. "We believe that the incentive of matching funds from the Frank E. Brown Trust helped to build such a positive response as well."

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