NC State’s first-ever Day of Giving, held on Wednesday, March 27, 2019, was a day of excitement as the Wolfpack came together to support the university and its individual departments and programs. The Park Scholarships community also joined forces to give back to the program they know and love. With $328,660.52 raised from 700 gifts, the Park Scholarships topped the University Priorities Leaderboard.

All across the country, alumni reached out in support of the Park Scholarships. Included in these gifts were $15,000 in challenge match funds from Wade Colburn ‘14, president of the Park Alumni Society. The challenges ranged from making 25 donations within the hour to hitting a set number of gifts throughout the day, as well as reaching $50,000 in contributions to unlock a challenge match of $4,000. This encouraged alumni, students, family, and friends to keep the momentum going and show that, while small, the Park community is mighty in its impact. This, in turn, led to a win in the Caldwell vs. Park Challenge. Having won the highest number of donations against the Caldwell Fellows, the Park program received $5,000 from the North Carolina State University Foundation, Inc.

Current Park Scholars also joined the fray, giving a whopping 349 gifts for a total of $4,881 in contributions. With 29 gifts given between 5:00 and 6:00 p.m., our students pushed to the front of the pack and won the university-wide challenge of Most Student Gifts, unlocking another $3,000.

To add even more excitement to the day, the program offered a friendly competition amongst the classes. The Class of 2018 came out on top with the highest percentage of participation and will now enjoy a year’s worth of naming rights to the Park Commons glassboard. In second place was the Class of 2019, who will have naming rights to the juice fridge and, in third, the Class of 2020 will receive recognition through the coffee machine.

In another moving display of support, a Class of 2009 Park Scholar and their family committed to co-naming the sixth Park Scholar, stating, “We hope this gift motivates others to give back to the Park Scholarships to help support a strong and enduring program. Now is the time to invest in creating a world our children deserve to inherit.”

The generosity of the Park Scholarships community on NC State’s Day of Giving will make a lasting difference in advancing the program’s commitment to developing young scholars into lifelong contributors to the state, nation, and world. Such an overwhelming response illustrates how dedicated the Park Scholarships community is to thinking beyond boundaries and doing the extraordinary.

posted 2019.05.13