Centre College: Centre meets $100K Challenge

DANVILLE, KY—Centre's alumni came up big in helping the College secure a $100,000 gift toward The College Centre.

An anonymous alumnus pledged $100,000 to the project if Centre received 2,000 alumni donations between Feb. 1 and June 30, 2004. During that span the College received 2,021 alumni donations, which puts Centre in a strong position to reclaim the No. 1 national ranking in annual alumni participation. The final results should be known in the next couple of weeks.

The College Centre project (http://www.centre.edu/cc/) is a $22-million construction and renovation of Crounse Academic Center and Sutcliffe Athletic Center that will create a state-of-the-art academic and recreation/athletic complex. The grand opening will be in the fall of 2005.

"Whether their individual gifts were $100 or $1,000, all of the alumni who responded to the challenge can take some measure of credit for making possible a $100,000 gift to their alma mater," says Richard Trollinger, vice president for college relations. "This six-figure gift to the Capital Improvements Fund supports the exciting construction project that's currently under way on the Centre campus. When the project is complete, Centre will have both state-of-the-art library and academic facilities and student athletic, recreation and fitness facilities."

The College received more than 5,600 alumni gifts during this year's annual giving campaign (July 1, 2003 to June 30, 2004) and cracked the 60-percent participation mark in annual giving for the 23rd year in a row, making Centre the only school in the country that can make that claim. The College has led the country in alumni-giving percentage 15 of the past 20 years.

"We're grateful to all of our alumni donors who helped make this another extraordinary year for Centre," says Jamey Elliott '96, director of annual giving. "The '$100K Challenge' really galvanized the Centre community—whether it was alumni checking in periodically to see where we stood and what they could do to help, professors and students coming in the evening to call their former students and friends, or Dr. [John] Roush and other members of the staff making calls and sending e-mails. The generosity of our anonymous donor coupled with the loyalty of our alumni and Centre community as a whole made for a great team effort."

Stay tuned to the Centre homepage to see how the College fared in its quest to reclaim the No. 1 spot in alumni-giving percentage.