Look Who’s Making the Trip
Two major corporate gifts will help underwrite the trip by NCCU’s Marching Sound Machine to the Rose Parade in Pasadena, Calif., on New Year’s Day. Walmart, the retailing giant, has agreed to transport the band’s instruments, uniforms and luggage from Durham to California and back, an in-kind gift valued at nearly $100,000. The company’s transportation services division will use two 18-wheelers to make the crosscountry trip. Meanwhile, SBC Contracting Inc. and Welty Building Co. LLC have collaborated on a $50,000 sponsorship. Part of the gift will support the band’s Pasadena trip, and the remainder will support the Department of Athletics.
home health service for $3.5 million. During final negotiations, county officials raised the possibility of a donation from Brookdale to increase minority access to management positions in the industry, County Health Director Gayle B. Harris said. “We asked for $50,000, and they said, ‘We’ll give you $100,000,’ ” she said. Durham County created its home health arm in 1963, when no one else offered the service. That was also before Congress authorized the Medicare and Medicaid programs, both of which now finance such services to the elderly and disabled. That led to an explosion in the number of private home health firms. When it stopped taking new referrals last year, the health department received no complaints, said Harris. Indeed, by 2010, fewer than 10 people used the county’s program. The county commissioners then authorized the sale of the service. Brookdale gained an already established service in a region with a substantial elderly population.
Investment firm plans $100,000 scholarship fund
T
he money management firm led by the great-grandson of North Carolina Central University founder James E. Shepard has announced its intention to establish an endowed scholarship fund of $100,000 with the NCCU Foundation.
The commitment was made by Piedmont Investment Advisors of Durham, whose president and CEO is Isaac H. Green, great-grandson of Dr. Shepard. “It is with great pleasure that I announce the first-ever Piedmont Investment Advisors Endowed Scholarship Fund to North Carolina Central University,” Green said. “As NCCU celebrates its centennial this year, we at Piedmont have chosen to celebrate our 10th anniversary by establishing this scholarship.” Green noted that most NCCU students receive financial aid, and that historically black colleges and universities in particular struggle to provide the financial support that gives deserving students the chance to attend college. “This endowed scholarship of $100,000, in honor of my parents, Dr. James and Carolyn Green, and my great-grandfather, Dr. James Shepard, will give undergraduate students in good academic standing that opportunity,” he said. When fully funded, the income from the fund will be used to provide scholarship support for undergraduates, with a preference for students in the School of Business. To be eligible, recipients must be residents of one of these North Carolina counties: Alamance, Burke, Caswell, Chatham, Durham, Franklin, Granville, Person, Vance or Warren. Piedmont, which is based in Durham, manages about $3.1 billion in assets. Green, along with partners Sumali Sanyal and Dawn Alston Paige, founded the firm in August 2000. “As a Durham based, minority and women-owned firm,” Green said, “we understand the importance of a strong community and business environment. We understand that through hard work, commitment and a strong sense of entrepreneurialism, we can all achieve our dream. My great-grandfather would have been proud to see the lives that have been changed by this university, and I am proud to honor his legacy and that of my parents.”
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