2010 CALS Donor Recognition is a special celebration

The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ annual donor recognition event at McKimmon Center was especially festive this year for two reasons. First, it wrapped up a week of activities commemorating the Oct. 26 installation of Dr. Randy Woodson as N.C. State University’s 14th chancellor. Second, the 2010 CALS Donor Recognition event took place on Halloween, adding a holiday ambiance to the occasion, which included a dessert reception, displays from College programs and opportunities for donors to get together with student scholarship and fellowship recipients, as well as faculty members who have benefitted from awards, professorships and other endowments made possible by donor support.

“We feel it important to provide our donors and recipients the opportunity to meet and socialize at a College event,” said Dr. Johnny Wynne, CALS dean, who hosted the event.  “Our College is very fortunate to have more than 700 endowments supporting our wonderful programs and departments. Many of our endowment holders and annual award donors are with us today, and I thank you for all you do for our College.”

Wynne then introduced Woodson and his wife, Susan, who were attending their first CALS Donor Recognition.
Taking the podium, Woodson noted the popularity of the nearby reception area serving the new “Wolf Tracks” ice cream. That’s the Chancellor’s Choice flavor of the Howling Cow brand of ice cream produced in the CALS Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences. Woodson quipped that the new flavor is so good that it’s really what made the difference in the Wolfpack’s recent comeback victory over Florida State: “Tom O’Brien gave the players a little Wolf Tracks ice cream at halftime!”

He then thanked the donors for their support of the College and N.C. State and said, “Your remarkable investment in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and its diverse, important programs is again leading the University in private contributions. Through the end of September, your gifts and commitments total almost $10 million or 44 percent of all private contributions to N.C. State thus far this year.  And we appreciate it so much.”

Woodson also acknowledged the accomplishments of CALS faculty members, such as National Academy of Sciences members Dr. Trudy McKay, Dr. Todd Klaenhammer and Dr. Major Goodman;  Dr. Anita Flick, CALS HealthPAC director, and Dr. Shweta Trivedi, VetPAC director; Dr. Jack Odle, Department of Animal Science; Dr. Ron Heiniger, Extension crop science research specialist; and CALS personnel at the N.C. Research Campus in Kannapolis in the Plants for Human Health Institute and Cooperative Extension’s N.C. MarketReady program.

“One of the many things that make N.C. State special is the university’s land-grant mission, and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, particularly through the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service, recognizes and embraces this engagement mission by reaching nearly 2 million citizens each year,” Woodson said.

“CALS outreach efforts are a significant reason that N.C. State University is an engine for economic development throughout North Carolina, and that is particularly important in these difficult economic times,” he said, adding that CALS programs “will help get North Carolina back on a sound economic footing.”

Said the chancellor, “All of you here today play a role in making this university outstanding and making this College the best college of agriculture and life sciences in the country. Particularly now, when government at every level faces such difficult fiscal pressures, gifts from donors like you are more important than ever.”

—Terri Leith