This Saturday, the University Relations department here at Southern Nazarene University is hosting the annual Celebration of Generosity Dinner. This event has traditionally been an opportunity for SNU to showcase the students here on donor-supported scholarships, and provides donors with the ability to see the direct effects of their generosity firsthand. Likewise, this event allows for students to express their generosity for the gifts that have allowed them to further their education and utilize their skills and talents to their full potential.
“This is a great opportunity for you to see the faces and shake the hands of people who care enough about you to sacrifice their own personal finances to help someone they may not ever have known otherwise,” says Heather Fairbanks, SNU’s Associate Vice President for Advancement.
“It’s a time to celebrate all these people mean to SNU and our students,” says Vanette Bell, the Endowment Development and Donor Stewardship Manager. “It’s also a time for students to meet the people who have provided their scholarships and thank them.”
The event, which is limited in attendance to students and donors who have RSVP’d in advance, will take place in Bethany First Church of the Nazarene’s atrium, though a dessert buffet will follow in the Fine Arts Building on SNU’s campus. While the focus is on donors, this night honors any significant contributions made to Southern Nazarene University.
“[This includes] all the people who so generously contribute to student scholarships through endowments, the SNU Fund and through estate gifts,” says Bell. This also includes members of the A.M. Hills Legacy Society and those who are members of the President’s Circle.
While the event does focus on the success of students here at SNU utilizing donor gifts and generosity, much of the focus is on celebrating that very generosity.
“[Donors’] choice to give has a direct and powerful impact on students, day in and day out, and I am so personally grateful,” says Fairbanks.
“Our hope is that our donors will feel appreciated and our students will see their example of serving through giving,” says Bell.
The Celebration of Generosity Dinner is an important reminder for students and donors alike of the powerful impact that donor contributions have on the next generation of doctors, physicists, authors, teachers, and other professionals who graduate from Southern Nazarene University. We here at the ECHO are grateful for the donors that not only provide our institution and our peers with the ability to achieve their own aspirations, but for the way that donations serve to better equip our graduates to enter into the wider world and to make it a better place.
Photo by Baim Hanif on Unsplash