Volume 7 August 2020
Dear Titan Friends,
W
e hope you are well and safely weathering this
bizarre time. As you know, our friend and Foundation
Director, Jennie Kriete, decided to retire. In this time of
unprecedented uncertainty, Dr. Richey has directed us
to examine every aspect of college operations for areas
where we might conserve resources and, for now, to
not replace staff who leave unless their role is deemed
absolutely essential to our core educational mission. This
includes the EFSC Foundation. In this spirit, we’ve asked our
two senior Foundation members, Tonya Cherry and Cindy Kane, to be Foundation
co-leaders reporting to me. As you know, both are extremely capable.
In the best of times, it’s difficult to project the future for charitable organizations.
That said, and given this moment, we have reviewed every aspect of the Foundation
operations to prepare our “best estimate” budget for the new fiscal year that
began July 1. Since fundraising is a big part of our revenue base, and now the most
uncertain, we’ve come up with an operating plan very similar to last year.
While deciding not to host the fall golf outing for all the obvious reasons, plans
are underway for our usual number of other exciting community events, notably
the now iconic Backyard BBQ in February. Word around town is that the Viera
Company is already working on a “three-peat” for the Golden Pig (don’t let on that
we alerted you!).
Most importantly, the plan calls once again for achieving Dr. Richey’s goal of annually
awarding more scholarships than the year before - a string now of several record
years in a row. Should these bizarre times cause our fundraising to fall short, the
plan is to dip a bit more into our investment portfolio to ensure this goal continues
to be met.
As you no doubt know, the College campuses have been essentially closed for faceto-face
instruction and operations since March. Nearly overnight, our teams safely
moved nearly 15,000 students from classroom instruction to “online” virtual - a
herculean task which somehow our faculty and staff were able to achieve. We have
now entered phase 3 of a very detailed four-phased plan to “re-open,” and have
cautiously welcomed back to campus a limited number of students for instruction
that cannot be done online. We have registered thousands of others for a fall
semester of largely virtual classes.
We thank you for your continued heartfelt support and advice during these
incredibly disruptive times. Know that Dr. Richey is in the wheelhouse steering, the
crew is at attention here working for our students, and we’re all very optimistic.
Throughout the newsletter, you will see some fun facts or trivia that will brighten
your pandemic fatigue.
Stay safe. Stay well. Stay in touch.
Rich
Richard K. Laird, Vice President, Operations
Donor Wall
Constructed in
Student Union
The Foundation is proud to announce the
completion of the Donor Recognition Wall.
The wall is located on the second floor of the
Student Union, Building 16, on the Melbourne
Campus.
The wall honors donors who have given
$25,000 or more to scholarships and other
college initiatives. We love our donors and
feel strongly that it is important to recognize
and honor them. The Student Union and
conference room facilities are used by many
internal and external organizations and is the
perfect place to celebrate our donors and their
commitment to the college.
The construction of the wall marks the
culmination of many ideas and the outstanding
work of Jennie Kriete, Paul Ishman, Synergy, SBS
Precision Sheet Metal and installation by Dane
Contracting.
The EFSC Foundation places great importance
on thanking donors in meaningful ways for their
support. This wall provides acknowledgment
that recognizes the remarkable generosity
of our donors and conveys our warmest
appreciation.
If you are interested in being included on the
donor wall, please contact the Foundation
Office for more information!
FN82013