2019 Annual Giving Report

2018 – 2019 ANNUAL GIVING REPORT University of NORTH ALABAMA ANNUAL GIVING REPORT 2018 – 2019 MESSAGES 1 Harry Smith ’64 2 A Note From the President 2 Vice President’s Report SPOTLIGHTS 4 Jim and Sharon Harris 8 Drs. Butler Cain and Andrea Hunt HONOR ROLL OF DONORS 12 Lifetime Cumulative Giving 13 2018-19 Giving Levels 19 Courtview Society ENDOWMENTS 20 Endowed Funds FOUNDATION BOARD’S MESSAGE Dear Alumni and Friends, It is an honor and message that you believe privilege for me to be in them and all that they asked to serve a second can become. With a very term as chair of the UNA grateful heart, I thank you. Foundation Board of As we move forward, Directors. With a heart our goal remains to serve others, a passion steadfastly the same – to for UNA, and a deep raise money to assist commitment to UNA’s the University of North success, I look forward to Alabama in reaching its full working with our Board of potential and in leading Directors in empowering it to be the best choice a UNA to become all that it high school student can is capable of becoming. make to begin his or her On behalf of the college career. Together, UNA Foundation Board we will accomplish this of Directors, I want to goal! thank you for making Again, thank you for a difference in the lives your support, and Roar of our students, faculty, Lions! and staff through your Sincerely, generosity to UNA. Not Harry Smith ‘64 only does your gift enable Chair, UNA Foundation others to pursue the Board of Directors greatness that is within them, it also sends a 2018 - 2019 • Annual Giving Report 1 a note from the VICE PRESIDENT’S REPORT PRESIDENT Dear UNA Family and Friends, The Haslam family was blessed to join the UNA Family in June. From the moment we first set foot on this incredibly beautiful campus, we have been amazed by the remarkable, selfless people we have encountered and who have so warmly welcomed us. We are grateful to be a part of the UNA Family. From afar, I was awed by the extraordinary generosity of the Alumni and Friends of UNA. Having been up close with many of you for a little more than six months now, I remain awed by your visionary leadership, humble hearts, unbreakable resolve, and giving spirit. There are not words to adequately express the level of gratitude I have for everyone who has given a gift of any Kevin R. Haslam “Dena and I want to thank you amount to UNA. Please know that you personally for your continued are greatly valued and appreciated, and As we move forward, please know never doubt that every gift you give truly the UNA Advancement Family wants support of the University of does make a difference. to know you; we are committed to North Alabama. Exciting things I would be remiss if I didn’t briefly connecting you to UNA in whatever tell you about the incredible staff I are happening at the University, manner is most meaningful to you, and found when I arrived at Rogers Hall. we will always serve you any way we can. and our future is bright because You will not find a greater collection of If you happen to be near campus, please individuals, a team more fully committed of the generosity of our alumni stop by Rogers Hall. You are always to ensuring that your philanthropy does wanted and welcome. and friends. We look forward exactly what you want it to do, or a Roar Lions! to building on this momentum group who will work harder to empower the success of our students, faculty, and Kevin R. Haslam as we reach for the next level of staff. To the UNA Advancement Family, Vice President for University Advancement Executive Director, UNA Foundation excellence at UNA.” my thanks for who you are and for all you do for this great University every day. It is truly an honor for me to serve with — Kenneth D. Kitts you. Finally, I want to thank our amazing UNA Foundation Board of Directors. The Board of Directors is a collection of remarkable women and men, true giants in their chosen fields of endeavor, who selflessly give of their time, talent, and treasure to serve UNA. It is a privilege for me to have the opportunity to work with each and every one of you. 2 University of North Alabama VICE PRESIDENT’S REPORT 2018 - 2019 • Annual Giving Report 3 4 University of North Alabama MUSIC is the LANGUAGE of the SOUL HOW UNA’S HARRIS SCHOLARS CELEBRATE THE LIFE OF DONOR THROUGH MUSIC. Daniel Harris By Michelle Rupe Eubanks ’96 For the Annual Report There’s a warmth about Jim and Sharon Harris that pervades their interactions with others. Fearing visitors to their remote home have lost their way, for instance, the couple head out in their truck in search of wayward guests. Upon arrival on a chilly fall day, the couple has prepared warm cider and delicious cookies for their new arrivals. They are welcoming, generous, and genuine. It’s how they have lived their lives, and it’s how they raised their three children. “I guess you could say they really didn’t have a choice,” Sharon Harris said. “We were raised to think of others first, and it had to have had an effect on our children.” And when their youngest son, Daniel, passed away almost seven years ago, the spirit of giving wasn’t diminished. In fact, it was magnified in such a way that, today, five University of North Alabama students have benefitted from the endowed scholarship named after Daniel and specifically designated to those pursuing vocal performance degrees. 2018 - 2019 • Annual Giving Report 5 “I’ve never met them, but “That means the world to they’ve helped provide me me that this is in memory of with a way to continue someone who is so passionate my schooling and doing about music. It makes me care what I love,” about the scholarship and the music even more than I do, – Mikayla Thrasher simply because I know that history.” – Meghan Raney “Dan’s death was sudden,” Sharon said. Once he fell ill around Meghan recalled the day she learned she received the the holidays in 2011, “he never regained consciousness. The day endowed scholarship via email. Just reading the words that they had planned to remove him from the ventilator, he coded she had been gifted so generously provided that boost to her the night before. Dan was moved to [the University of Alabama confidence that she said she needed to take the next steps for at Birmingham], and, when we got there, it was to remove his her career. life support. We never had a chance to speak to him about what “It was totally validating for me,” she said. “I didn’t get picked he might have wanted, but we also knew there would be some for a whole lot of things, and it’s because I don’t think my voice life insurance and other monies. It became clear that we knew he had flourished yet. Getting chosen to receive this scholarship would have wanted us to endow this for him.” was validating and confidence-boosting, and, during my junior Meghan Raney of Florence is a senior who will graduate from year, I made a lot of breakthroughs. This scholarship is a once- UNA in May, and she is among those who have been named in-a-lifetime opportunity.” a Harris Scholar. It’s a gift she said she is humbled to receive, The Harris’ have been in touch with some of the scholarship especially knowing the genesis of the scholarship. recipients in the past; they meet the students occasionally as “I knew Mr. and Mrs. Harris funded the scholarship after part of on-campus dinners and ceremonies. Hearing their stories Daniel’s passing and that he was a singer,” Meghan said. “That and knowing their goals to pursue music as a career, as Daniel means the world to me that this is in memory of someone who worked toward, “makes it all worthwhile,” Jim said. was so passionate about music. It makes me care about the “One of the things that gives us the greatest amount of scholarship and the music even more than I do, simply because satisfaction is knowing that, 50 years from now, students will I know that history. For his parents to have set those guidelines, still benefit from this,” he said. “One life can, and has, touched and for me to have met them, is an incredible thing.” so many other lives.” Meghan is clear that the scholarship, which she has received Mikayla Thrasher, of Phil Campbell, is also set to graduate in during her junior and senior years, has allowed her to focus on May with a vocal performance degree, and hers is another life her vocal performance degree and prepare her application for that has been positively affected by the Harris scholarship. admissions into a Master’s degree program in the fall of 2020. “I’ve never met them, but they’ve helped provide me with a “I came from a non-musical background, and I got this way to continue my schooling and doing what I love,” Mikayla [scholarship] in memory of someone,” she said. “I can’t put into said. “They’ve done all of this, and they don’t even know me. words what that feels like and what it means to me.

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