Newsline: Church of the Brethren News Service -- Feb. 8, 2008 Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford, News Director 800-323-8039 ext. 260 -- cobnews@brethren.org
YOUNG CENTER RAISES MORE THAN $2 MILLION TO EARN N.E.H. GRANT
(Feb. 8, 2008) Elgin, IL -- The Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown (Pa.) College has surpassed a $2 million fundraising goal to receive a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) challenge grant of $500,000. Located in southeastern Pennsylvania, Elizabethtown College is a Church of the Brethren related institution offering its 1,900 students more than 50 academic programs in the liberal arts, sciences, and professional studies.
The NEH Challenge Grant--one of only 17 grants awarded nationwide in 2004--was designed to strengthen the Young Center's program and scholarship and solidify its standing as the nation's only research institute for Anabaptist and Pietist groups. As the NEH grant required a 4:1 match, the Young Center needed to raise $2 million by Jan. 31. The center recently surpassed that goal by more than $100,000.
The resulting $2.5 million endowment will create a faculty chair in Anabaptist and Pietist Studies, enhance the Young Center's Visiting Fellows Program, support research and teaching, and expand its collection of books and archival materials.
The Durnbaugh Legacy Endowment, in memory of the late professor Donald Durnbaugh, became part of the NEH effort following his death and raised $377,000. Mrs. Hedwig T. Durnbaugh donated a large portion of professor Durnbaugh's personal library of books and research papers to the Young Center.
"The NEH challenge grant recognized the Young Center for its outstanding scholarship and programing on Anabaptist and Pietist groups," said Elizabethtown president Theodore Long.
Director of church relations at Elizabethtown, Allen T. Hansell, directed the NEH challenge campaign. "This wonderful effort has enabled me to relate to many individuals and groups with deep roots in Anabaptism and Pietism, including my own Church of the Brethren," he said. "The high regard for the Young Center actually made an enormous challenge relatively easy to achieve. I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved, especially the generous donors, for helping to make this a highly successful campaign."
Donors will be recognized at a gala in April, which also celebrates the 20th anniversary of the Young Center. The event will include a concert of hymnody of the Amish and Mennonite, Brethren, and Lutheran traditions, at 7 p.m. on April 5 in Leffler Chapel on the Elizabethtown College campus. A hymnody exhibit will open on March 26 at the Young Center.
The Church of the Brethren is a Christian denomination committed to continuing the work of Jesus peacefully and simply, and to living out its faith in community. The denomination is based in the Anabaptist and Pietist faith traditions and is one of the three Historic Peace Churches. It celebrates its 300th anniversary in 2008. It counts almost 130,000 members across the United States and Puerto Rico, and has missions and sister churches in Nigeria, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and India.
(This report was written by Mary Dolheimer, director of Marketing and Media Relations for Elizabethtown College, 717-361-1587.)
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For more information contact:
Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford Director of News Services Church of the Brethren General Board 1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, IL 60120 800-323-8039 ext. 260 cobnews@brethren.org
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