Earlier this week we announced publicly a gift from Mrs. Louise Oriole Burevitch. This is the largest single gift in our history and one that will have a lasting and meaningful impact on eastern North Carolina.
It is interesting how quickly news travels -- we have received congratulations and inquiries from all across the country in just a matter of hours.
How do you express in a press release – or a 140-character tweet -- the impact that one person’s generosity will have?
Our answer is you can’t. “Mrs. B,” as many called her, possessed both generosity as well as a vision that will have impact in perpetuity. Her willingness to pass on her good fortune in an effort to make North Carolina a better place to live and work is a gift that she gave to all of us. So it’s right to take the time to say thank you.
We are incredibly grateful to serve as stewards of this fund. We understand the responsibility that accompanies charitable gifts of any size -- and are honored by the trust placed in us by folks across our great state.
While we have known about the gift for a while, we could not announce it publicly until this week. Few members of our staff knew Mrs. B well, except Beth Boney Jenkins, who helped to steward her giving for many years.
It has just now become appropriate for us to ask the questions that we all want know. Who was Louise Oriole Burevitch and what fueled her generosity? We fully understand that those who never had a chance to meet her are intrigued to hear the details of her life and her passions.
Now we can ask the questions, and we will be sharing more in the coming weeks. The story of Mrs. B unfolds… Stay tuned!