Summer 2013 - Public Documents - NC AWWA-WEA

NC SAFEWATERENDOWMENTPROGRAMGROWING UPSubmitted by Ray Cox, Chair, Endowment CommitteeWhat do you want to be when you grow up? Consider how youranswer to that question may have changed as you grew from a childinto an adult. If we are honest, I suspect that the percentage of uswho first answered that we wanted to work in the water industry isextremely low. Those employed in this industry know very well thatthe work we do with water and wastewater systems is not only challengingand rewarding, it is also critical to the protection of humanhealth and the environment. We work to protect water—our mostcritical resource. What an honorable and exciting profession! Thetrouble is that we do this work every day without most people everrealizing the nature or importance of the work. We have not historicallydone the best job of getting that message out to our potentialfuture workforce. We need to change that. We can change that.The NC Safewater Endowment was created to help producea sustained, educated and trained workforce by supporting thefollowing activities:• providing annual scholarships to university and communitycollege students;• providing educational awards for programs that increase safewater awareness;• promoting greater involvement in schools to encourage morestudents to consider a career in a water profession;• promoting public safe water education;• enhancing safe water research; and• encouraging leadership development among industryprofessionals.We are one of the very first state associations to consolidatethese efforts under one endowment. In the three years since itsinception, the NC Safewater Endowment has grown into a programwith more than $350,000 pledged and nearly $250,000 ofinvestment value. Currently, scholarships and educational awardsare given under 11 named funds. These named funds representeither companies or individuals who have pledged or donated atleast $25,000:• NC Safewater Fund• Carol Bond Fund• Raftelis Financial Consultants Environmental Finance andManagement Scholarship• Raftelis Foundation Elementary Education Scholarship• Les and Elaine Hall Water Environment Stewardship Fund• GHD Clean Water Fund• Frank and Susan StephensonScholarship Fund• Crowder ConstructionCompany Scholarship• Lynn and Lars BalckWater EnvironmentStewardship Fund• Rivers and Associates, Inc.Clean Water Education Fund• Environmental Manufacturer’sRepresentative Scholarship FundMany of our members have donated generously to these funds. A listof all donors can be found on our website: http://www.ncsafewater.org/committees/external-affairs-council/endowment_committee/.Because the nature of an endowment requires the corpusfunds to stay invested and disbursements to be made only fromthe earnings, the number of awards and the award amounts arelimited. Obviously, the larger the corpus fund, the more moneyavailable for disbursement. This year, four awards will be disbursedfrom the NC Safewater Endowment named funds. Twoare scholarships for university students, one is a scholarship for acommunity college student and the fourth is support for safe watereducational programming in an elementary school. The recipientsare identified on the website listed above. Together, we are makinga difference. This is a great start, but so much more is needed.We need to be in a position to reach more people with safe waterawareness, education and training.These are exciting times for the NC Safewater Endowment,itself an adolescent of sorts. The Endowment Committee is workingin concert with the board of trustees to shape and nurture theprogram through this period of incredible growth and developmenton its way to achieving its full potential. In this case, the old adage“it takes a village…” truly does apply. We need the participationof NC AWWA-WEA members in order to truly achieve our goal ofdeveloping a sustained, educated and trained workforce for safewater in North Carolina. Please take a moment to learn how youcan assist with this vital program. Visit our website or contact theEndowment Committee Chairman, Ray Cox at rcox@hiepc.com or(910)313-1516.64 NC Currents Summer 2013Click Hereto return to Table of Contents