April 1994
Philanthropy Journal of North Carolina
7
Crosby
Continued from page 6
says the beauty of the system is that
“you don’t have to be a zilhonaire to
experience the joys of giving on an
endowed basis.”
In fact, you simply can buy a tick
et to the golf tournament at Bermuda
Run on Memorial Day weekend.
Or a corporation can sponsor a
two-person amateur-celebrity team
in the tournament. Corporations pay
$25,000 to pair an employee with a
celebrity such as Maclean Stevenson
Betty Jones' employer, Sara Lee, is among the
leading corporate sponsors of the Crosby Scholars
golf tournament in Winston-Salem.
Photo courtesy of The Crosby Foundofion
of “M*A*S*II” fame or New York Jets
quarterback Boomer Esiason during
the tournament’s final three days.
Pat Boone is one of the oldest of the
celebrities still playing from the
Pebble Beach days, C^er says.
Smaller companies can sponsor a
team for $6,000 during the opening
days of the tournament.
Last year, the tournament
brou^t in $1.5 million. The top team
prize was $180,000. Prizes in the
opening days may be $20,000.
Teams turn their prizes over to
charity through the foundation.
Other money from the tournament,
such as proceeds
from souvenirs
and concessions,
goes directly to
the Crosby Scho
lars, now in its
second year.
The scholars
started as a
drug-education
and abuse-pre
vention program.
It now helps stu
dents find the
funds and skills
to attend college
or other post
secondary edu
cation if they
meet certain cri
teria.
Students
must remain
drug-free, main
tain a 2.0 grade
point average,
perform commu
nity service and
stay out of trou
ble.
They also
must attend at
least one session
of the program’s
Saturday Aca
demy, which
deals with such
topics as time
management.
test-taking, note-taking and study
skills. Seniors must attend a session
on college survival skills.
'This year, Crosby Scholars could
reach 600 high school students and
up to 3,000 youngsters from eighth
grade up, says RaVonda Dalton-
Rann, director of the Crosby Scho
lars Community Partnership.
The program pairs students with
volunteer mentors who help them set
and meet goals. For seniors, that
means getting advice on college
admissions procedures. Although the
advisers don’t fill out financial aid
applications for the students, they
can offer advice and even run inter
ference with admissions offices.
Some volunteers, like Fannie
Williams, have the kind of experience
that really pays off.
Williams, who was adviser to
about a dozen seniors at Carver last
year, is director of institutional pro
jects at Winston-Salem State
University. She was director of
admissions for 16 years, when such
programs as Pell grants were begin
ning.
“It gave me an opportunity to go
back and do my first love, which was
admissions,” she says.
Wilhams says one of the tew frus
trations of the program is the
demands the youngsters face from
family and work responsibilities.
Mentors can help the youngsters
work throng such problems.
Many of the mentors work at
Sara Lee, which sponsors the tourna
ment and provides about 60 percent
of the 3,000 volunteers needed to run
it, says Nancy Young, director of cor
porate affairs tor the company and
tournament coordinator.
“We liked the idea of creating
some kind of program that would
give young people some kind of hope
of staying in school,” she says.
“Education is one of the most impor
tant things we can be involved in... It
makes good business sense. The kids
that are in school today are our
employees tomorrow.”
Betty Jones, manager of organi
zational develop
ment at Sara Lee
Direct, coordi
nates some 100
volunteers who
staff the corpo
rate sponsor
tents at the tour
nament. Last
year she was a
mentor to seven
Crosby Scholars
seniors at Glenn
Hi^ School.
As the mother
of five, she had
realized some
parents are not
as involved or as
knowledgeable
about resources
as they could be.
Mentors help
their young part
ners articulate
their goals, she
says.
“The volun
teers are work
ing with the kids
to make sure
they are doing
the right things
on schedule.”
And she says
that “the great
est joy is just the
feeling on the
part of the kids
that somebody they didn’t know
would take the time to spend with
them.”
Daniel Piggott, principal at
Carver High School, believes the pro
gram is paying off.
“We feel like the kids have a Uttle
more incentive,” he says. The pro
gram tells students, “If you made the
grade, you would not be denied the
opportunity to further your educa
tion.”
Althou^ the foundation and the
mentors try to help students take
advantage of every grant, scholar
ship and loan available, sometimes
Fannie Williams uses her experience as director
of institutional projects at Winston-Salem State
University in her volunteer work
with the Crosby Scholars program.
Photo courtesy of The Crosby Foundation
all the money just isn’t there. The
program wUl provide up to $1,000 per
year if there is a gap. Last year, the
program found $375,000 in aid, but
41 students still needed help. The
Crosby Scholars kicked in about
$34,000, says Carter of the Winston-
Salem Foundation.
He figures that’s a pretty good
ratio. And it put a lot of students into
school who otherwise mi^t not have
attended.
Through the program. Carter
says, the community can tell young
sters, “There’s a future for you and
we want to help you achieve it.”
Cannon
Continued from page 6
Most of the $81.4 million in grants
the foundation has made since 1943
has gone to health care and educa
tion in North Carolina.
Charies Cannon wanted first to
provide for employees of Cannon
Mills located in Cabarrus County,
and for other citizens of the county
and state, say those who knew him.
The foundation’s trustees have
honored Cannon’s funding desires.
“Our primary focus is ri^t here
in Cabarrus, Rowan and Stanly coun
ties” says Haywood. “It’s still a spe
cial-interest foimdation.”
One of those special interests is
Cabarrus Memorial Hospital.
“There’s been a long, historical
relationship there,” says Gray. “Mr.
Cannon was [the hospital’s] first
chairman when it was formed in 1935
and was chairman of its board imtil
1967.
“I think it would be fair to say
that next to the mill, that was one of
his greatest interests.”
Mariam Hayes, Cannon’s daugh
ter and president of the foundation’s
board, says her father “wanted that
hospital to take care of his employ
ees.”
In 1955, the foundation paid the
costs of vaccinating all the children
in Cabarrus County against polio.
Today, Cabarrus Memorial
Hospital is a 457-bed, private, non
profit hospital. Hospital officials esti
mate that it has received nearly $25
million from the foundation.
Most recently, the foundation
helped establish the Charles A.
Cannon Heart Center and the
Mariam Cannon Hayes Center for
families.
The foundation’s other special
interest is education.
O'HERRON & COMPANY
Investment Counsel
3301 Woman's Club Drive, Suite 148
Raleigh, NC 27612
Phone (919) 571-7722 FAX (919) 571-7889
“We’ve always been supportive of
the private colleges,” says Gray,
partly because private schools don’t
get the tax dollars that go to public
schools, and partly because Cannon
Mills employees have attended
schools such as Wingate and Pfeiffer
colleges, two of the area colleges
strongly supported by the founda
tion.
Recently, the foundation has
expanded its community service
grantmaking with grants to the
Cannon Memorial Family YMCA in
Kannapolis and the Stanly Family
YMCA in Albemarle. But in the long
run. Gray says, the foundation will
continue to make the bulk of its gifts
to education and health care.
But whether it gives money to a
university, hospital or other nonprof
it, the foundation doesn’t make
grants to support operations or
endowments.
“Our philosophy is that we’d like
to hope that an organization can be
stable enou^ that it can continue on
Tvithout onr support year after year,”
says Gray. “We have made excep
tions to that, but we prefer not to.”
The foundation also has made
exceptions to its grantmaking philos
ophy of sticking close to home, mak
ing some grants outside the state.
Two recent grants went to the Na
tional Head Injury Foundation in
Washington D.C. and Berea College
in Kentucky.
“We’ve realized that changes
have to be made from time to time,”
says Gray. “But basically, we stiU try
to follow the philosophy of Mr.
Cannon. The basic focus is still the
people of Cabarrus, Stanly and
Rowan counties, where most of the
employees of Cannon Mills were
working.”
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