ANNUAL REPORT 2010/2011 - Northampton Community College

32
10/11
(top) Steve ’72 and
Margaret Grimes enjoy
a night at the college.
(center) Andrea ’01 and
Dustin Weismiller and
Kelly Raab ’04. (bottom)
Lora and Paige
Bittenbender.
they seek in potential members. As noted earlier, they need to feel their commitment,
big time. That means being a generous person; not necessarily by writing personal
checks, but generous with time and talent. One of the board’s key priorities has always
been supporting NCC through philanthropic efforts. Given that the Association raises
money primarily through events, not individual pledges, that means work.
The Association’s board members not only come up with event ideas but have
always been hands-on volunteers as well. Jim Williams remembers ”spending way
too much time in a funnel cake trailer at the College’s Family Day Expo [later known
as SpringFest].” You can still find members shoulder to shoulder with other alumni,
staff and students helping to serve food at a local soup kitchen or taking tickets twice
a year at Craft Fair or doing the necessaries at the annual Children’s Holiday Party.
Events vary: from an academic stint as a classroom speaker or visiting representative
in Harrisburg and D.C. to a Kentucky Derby dinner party, affinity programs, Liztech
pin sales or creating, and attending, the annual White House Dinner. Whatever board
members do though they do with heart, knowing that all money raised goes back into
scholarships, college initiatives and student/alumni programming.
The Alumni Association Scholarship Endowment provides scholarships covering
tuition and expenses for up to two years. A few more significant items the Association
has gifted to the College include support for the National Endowment for the
Humanities matching grant, for which over $13,000 has been contributed so far, and
the naming of Alumni Hall and Alumni Walkway, established in 1992, with a paid
pledge of $250,000.
While the Hall and its walkway etched with alumni names from early to recent
years help to beautify the main campus north of Green Pond Road, it is difficult to
top the quiet elegance and natural beauty of the Tribute Garden. The Garden was
established by the Foundation on two acres between Penn and Commonwealth Halls
as a tribute or memorial for the College family. The plaza the Alumni Association has
pledged will add much beauty to the Garden; and it will raise another $200,000.
Williams, who also earned a degree from Lehigh University and is now a regional
vice president for AXA Equitable, remembers one other thing about those early board
members. ”We knew that we wanted to create an organization,” he says, ”that could
rival what private colleges and universities had for many years.” That sort of pride of
alma mater is what it takes to push a fledgling association forward.
After 35 years, that same pride and dedication still resonate within the board.
Meet Scott Raab, a licensed funeral director with Connell Funeral Home and an
NCC 1992 funeral service grad. Raab joined Northampton’s Alumni Association board
of directors in 2007 and was most recently its vice president. His feelings about the
College, as well as the board, could wear the quotation marks of his predecessor.
”I find the camaraderie of our board an enticing aspect that makes it worthwhile to be
involved,” Raab says. ”I get a wonderful sense that these people are truly bright and caring
and receptive to working together to find new ways to meet Northampton’s challenges.”
Raab believes what NCC’s board members have always believed: ”that to be
involved is to be unselfish with your time; to take pride and take charge and to value
the ideals of Northampton.”
Those beliefs are particularly important for someone like Raab to embrace; in July,
he took on the mantle of president of the Alumni Association. One goal already on the
board’s plate as it enters its 36th year is to create a five-year vision statement and
strategic plan. ”It’s amazing to think what we have accomplished thus far,” the new
president says, ”I can only imagine what we’ll accomplish in the future. That is yet to
be discovered and only time will tell.”