Courtesy of High Point University
Just two months ago, Bennett College looked like it might have to close its doors. One of the last two remaining historically black colleges for women, Bennett lacked the funds needed to meet its accreditation requirements.
But over 55 days, the 146-year-old North Carolina school used social media and found an array of allies in its mad dash to raise $5 million by the February 1 deadline. Bennett ended up raising $8.2 million from 11,000 donors, the Chronicle of Higher Education reports.
Of that total, $1 million came from nearby High Point University, another Methodist-affiliated institution. The university’s graduates and staff made significant individual donations.
“In your toughest times, you know who your friends are,” said Bennett President Phyllis Worthy Dawkins.
High Point’s president, Nido Qubein, put it this way: “We as a neighbor school cannot just stand by.” Later, at a news conference announcing that Bennett had reached its fundraising goal, he added, “This isn’t about money. This is about the future of tens of thousands of young women who will exit Bennett to serve the world and plant seeds of greatness.”
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- An end run to help kids—and their mothers. New moms in jail often miss out on the opportunity to breastfeed their babies. But thanks to a new program in Philadelphia, they can now pump their milk and have a relative or friend feed it to their children. This can help keep infants healthy—studies show that breast-fed babies suffer fewer infections and hospitalizations than formula-fed babies—while giving moms a greater sense of purpose as well. “I can still have some type of connection with my daughter, a connection through the milk,” said Cierra Jackson, one of the mothers participating in the program. (Next City)
- “Hi crochet friends.” Jonah Larson started crocheting at five years old. Now 11, he has a business selling his creations online. “After a very hard, busy, chaotic day in this busy world with school, it’s just nice to know that I can come home and crochet in my little corner of the house while sitting by the one I love most: my mom,” Larson told NPR from his family’s Wisconsin home. The crochet prodigy donates a portion of his profits to the Ethiopian orphanage from which he was adopted. Larson says he wants to refine his work at a crocheting summer camp, then attend West Point and eventually become a surgeon. (La Crosse Tribune)
- Rushing to help. A video of three rappers helping an elderly woman and her husband get into their car in Florida went viral last week. “I kept thinking, ‘She could have been my grandmother,’” said one of the men, who goes by Marty. “It was a beautiful thing to see,” said Kenesha Carnegie, a sheriff’s deputy who posted the video. “I know these men from the neighborhood, and I wanted them to have that moment to show who they really are.” Thanks to Joanne Dixon for the link. (Atlanta Black Star)
- How one city made Election Day a holiday. City leaders in Sandusky, Ohio, wanted to remove Columbus Day as a holiday, but the city’s unions didn’t want to lose a paid day off. The compromise? Swapping in Election Day and making it a paid holiday for the city’s 250 workers. “We don’t have to wait necessarily for states or the federal government to make this change,’’ said City Manager Eric Wobser. (NPR)
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