COLUMN: Thumbs up to Eastern SC Chapter of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans for donation

Thumbs up to the Eastern SC Chapter of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, which donated $3,800 to the Pee Dee branch of Harvest Hope Food Bank this week. Each year, each chapter of the Thrivent group selects a nonprofit to benefit from its fundraiser, said Denise Pinkerman, records director for the Eastern SC Chapter of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans. The group had a fundraiser last year for Harvest Hope and was moved to do so again this year after touring the Florence food pantry in August, she said. A portion of the funds donated were raised during a barbecue fundraiser Oct. 2 at St. Luke Lutheran Church in Florence. The Eastern SC Chapter of Thrivent, supported by more than 20 local volunteers contributed more than 250 volunteer hours, made up of planning, organizing, selling and distributing nearly 700 plates of barbecue. Additional contributions came from “love offerings,” donations all matched with money from Thrivent Financial, which also collected canned goods for Harvest Hope’s pantry. Thrivent Financial is a faith-based, not-for-profit membership organization with 2.6 million members offering bank products, trust services and insurance. The food donated to Harvest Hope Food Bank is distributed to more than 400 member agencies throughout 20 South Carolina counties, including Chesterfield, Darlington, Dillon, Marion, Marlboro and Florence. Its Pee Dee branch is located at 2513 W. Lucas St., at the Pee Dee State Farmer’s Market, in Florence, and can be reached at (843) 661-0826 or via the organization’s Web site, www.harvetshope.org.

Thumbs up to Dr. John T. Wynn, president emeritus of Williamsburg Technical College. Wynn, a resident of Egypt, Texas recently endowed a $10,000 Anne Cauthen Ellis Memorial Scholarship at the college. Ellis worked at the college from its inception in 1969, retiring in 1989 as vice president of business affairs during Wynn’s tenure there. She also served on the Williamsburg Technical College Foundation board for several years prior to her death. “Anne Ellis was a rare mixture of strict accounting rules and a dedicated teacher philosophically. While she maintained financial records for a budget of several million dollars, she never lost sight of the primary goals of education and was supportive of the college as it weathered ‘tough times,’” Wynn said. “In her role as vice president for business we sustained many audits without ever having any significant exceptions or adverse findings. Students and faculty alike benefited from her professionalism.” Gifts of $10,000 or more will endow a scholarship to be given in perpetuity in the name, honor or memory of the donor. The scholarship is derived from the interest accrued on the donated amount, which must be earned before the scholarship is awarded. Once interest is sufficient to be awarded, the award is presented to the student at the college’s fall scholarship awards ceremony. Gifts made payable to the college’s foundation, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, are tax-deductible.

Thumbs up to the University of South Carolina’s Darla Moore School of Business for signing an agreement with Cisco to utilize the company’s TelePresence technology to deliver a range of global Executive Education and Graduate-level business and management courses. It becomes one of the first business schools in the country to use the high-definition conferencing as a way to offer students and executives around the world a variety of “blended learning” options for participating in business education programs. The Moore School plans to first integrate the Cisco TelePresence in its Professional MBA Program beginning in February. In addition, the school will use the new integrated learning platform in a variety of its Executive and Graduate Degree programs — including its Master in International Business, a new Executive Master in Higher Education Management and in various programs with the school’s 20 partner institutions around the world. The school, named for Lake City native and New York financier Darla Moore, is among the highest-ranked business schools in the world for international business education and research. For more information, visit www.moore.sc.edu online.