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| Dr. Don Tomas (left), president of SCC, and Brett Woods (right), director of the SCC Foundation, accept a donation of $10,000 from Roger Plemens (center) on July 7 in Franklin. The gift effectively doubled $10,000 in other gifts to the college’s Student Success Campaign. |
Considering Southwestern Community College launched its Student Success Campaign with a challenge grant a few years ago, it seemed appropriate that another matching offer recently allowed SCC to close in on the campaign’s $1 million goal.
Entegra Bank recently offered to match up to $10,000 in gifts to the campaign, and the SCC Foundation quickly found a group of donors who fully leveraged the match and pushed the most-ambitious fundraising effort in school history to within $58,000 of the seven-figure milestone.
Including the $10,000 matching gift, Entegra Bank has now contributed more than $68,000 to the Student Success Campaign.
“We have a number of employees who graduated from Southwestern Community College, and we recognize the value SCC brings to our community,” said Roger Plemens, Entegra Bank’s president and chief executive officer. “We are always eager to support the SCC Foundation and its efforts to make a college education available to as many deserving students as possible.”
Stepping up almost immediately to help maximize the match was Pepsi Cola of Whittier, which gave $6,000 toward the effort. Allison Outdoor Advertising, Inc., gave $2,000, and Leo James donated $1,000 to the effort. Debora and Michael Lindsay of Epic West in Bryson City added $3,000 to help SCC get closer to its goal of providing scholarship assistance to more students than ever before.
The campaign launched in 2013 with a U.S. Department of Education challenge grant that matched the first $300,000 raised.
The campaign now has crossed the $940,000 threshhold, and five students will each receive $4,000 Student Success scholarships to help them attend Southwestern in the upcoming academic year that starts Aug. 14.
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| Above: Representing Pepsi Cola of Whittier, Travis Ashe (center) presents a donation of $6,000 to Brett Woods (right), director of the SCC Foundation, and Kathy Posey (left), SCC’s institutional development associate, on May 4 in Sylva. Below: Representing Allison Outdoor Advertising, Inc., Gary Ayers (center) gives a check to Dr. Don Tomas (left), president of SCC, and Brett Woods, director of the SCC Foundation |
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“Every year, hundreds of high-potential students reach out to our SCC Foundation for scholarship funding,” said Dr. Don Tomas, president of SCC. “We typically are only able to assist roughly 25 percent of those who qualify for scholarships. Thanks to the generosity of Entegra, Pepsi, Epic West, Leo James, Allison Outdoor and all of our other donors, we are working hard to change that.”
For more information about SCC and the Student Success Campaign, contact Kathy Posey at 339.4227 or k_posey@southwesterncc.edu.
