RELEASED: March 10, 2005

DANVILLE, KY—Centre College students are manning the phones to raise money for the Triple Crown Challenge, an alumni giving campaign inspired by the challenge gift of an anonymous donor. For the past three weeks, students have been working the lines for "Phonathon" from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. every Monday through Thursday.

"Phonathon is a wonderful Centre tradition," says Hillary Monroe, a senior government major from Madison, Ind., who has participated each of her four years at Centre. "It gives students the opportunity to call alumni around the country, the majority of whom the student has never met or heard of. For the most part, the alumni are always glad to hear the voice of a current Centre student, and many of them are often quick to recount a favorite memory or story from their days at Centre."

An anonymous donor is the driving force behind the $250,000 Triple Crown Challenge and follows on the success of last year's $100K Challenge, also from an anonymous benefactor. Like horse racing's Triple Crown, Centre's Triple Crown Challenge has three "legs":

• Leg One—As was the case in the $100K Challenge last year, this year's benefactor will give $100,000 to the annual fund if an additional 2,500 alumni make a gift of any size between February 1 and June 30.
• Leg Two—The donor has pledged an additional $150,000 to match new and increased gifts to Centre.
• Leg Three—By increasing both the number of donors and the size of individual gifts, Centre maximizes the resources available for student financial aid, which remains the College's highest financial priority. Last year, Centre ranked 13th in the country for the average alumni gift—just ahead of Stanford. This year the College has set a goal of breaking into the top 10.

"With three weeks of Phonathon under our belts, folks really seem to be responding to the goals of the challenge," says Adam Johnson, assistant director of annual giving. "As of March 10, we've had more than 1,000 alumni make gifts or pledges, with an astonishing 50 percent increasing their gift.

"June 30 is the deadline for the Triple Crown Challenge to end, so there's still plenty of time to participate," Johnson says. "We still have 1,500 donors to go to earn that $100,000 bonus, and roughly $117,000 remains of matching money for new and increased gifts."

To help Centre's quest for the Triple Crown, call the alumni office toll-free at 877-678-9822 or make a gift online at http://gifts.centre.edu.

For questions about the Triple Crown Challenge, call 859-238-5500.

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Founded in 1819, Centre College is ranked among the U.S. News top 50 national liberal arts colleges. Centre alumni, known for their nation-leading loyalty in annual financial support, include two U.S. vice presidents and two Supreme Court justices. For more, visit http://www.centre.edu/web/elevatorspeech/

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