ENVIRONMENT
Upstate Forever receives $75,000 grant from Hollingsworth Funds
Hollingsworth Funds has awarded Upstate Forever a $75,000 grant to “empower and equip Greenville’s community leaders, citizens, and quality-of-life stakeholders with land-use solutions to help address the most urgent issues facing our community,” according to a media release. The grant follows the release of a study commissioned by Upstate Forever and its partners that shows development trends in Greenville County becoming unsustainable from an environmental and economic standpoint. The study also illustrates the connections between land use, affordable housing, and public transportation. “Our sprawling pattern of growth, in addition to being exorbitantly expensive to serve, also is effectively limiting housing diversity, public transportation viability, and the potential for mixed-income neighborhoods,” said Lisa Hallo, land policy director at Upstate Forever, according to the release. “With generous support from Hollingsworth Funds, we will help community leaders understand how land use regulation and zoning influence nearly every aspect of our daily lives — expanding, or drastically limiting” opportunities for local residents.
PHILANTHROPY
Drive announce Stewart Spinks as 13th Annual Green Day honoree
The Greenville Drive has announced that Stewart Spinks, chairman of The Spinx Company, has been selected as the honoree for the team’s annual Green Day event. The 13th annual Green Day celebration presented by TD Bank will be held beginning at 7:05 p.m. Aug. 1 at Fluor Field. The evening’s game will pit the Drive again the Asheville Tourists. Each year, the Drive pays tribute to an individual who has helped make Greenville what it is today. Spinks has been chosen as the 2018 honoree because of his commitment to serving the Greenville community through his role as the founder of The Spinx Company, which is the largest privately owned retail company headquartered in South Carolina, with 81 locations and more than 1,400 associates. Spinks also has a great presence in the Greenville community. He has been inducted into the Convenience Store News Hall of Fame and is an American Cancer Society’s Susan Eison Award recipient, Greenville Tech Foundation’s Workforce Development honoree, Greenville Tech Entrepreneur Award recipient, Furman University Riley Institute diversity fellow, and Boy Scout-Blue Ridge Council Outstanding Leadership Award recipient. Spinks also served as the chairman of the Greenville Chamber of Commerce in 2005 after chairing the Small Business Committee for three years. “Stewart has devoted his life to serving others, both as a family man and a businessman, and he is undoubtedly deserving of recognition for his leadership in the Upstate community,” said Craig Brown, Drive owner and team president, according to a media release. “Stewart welcomed me to Greenville with open arms when the Drive arrived in 2005 and we are thrilled to celebrate his leadership and dedication as part of our Green Day celebration on August first.”
Spinks joins an acclaimed group of Green Day honorees, including former Greenville mayor Max Heller and his wife, Trudy (2006); Greenville City Councilwoman Lillian Brock Flemming and Greenville County Councilwoman Xanthene Norris (2007); former Greenville Technical College President Dr. Tom Barton (2008); businessman and philanthropist C. Dan Joyner (2009); civic leader, judge, and attorney Merl Code (2010); former S.C. Governor and U.S. Secretary of Education Dick Riley (2011); South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities Founder Dr. Virginia Uldrick (2012); environmentalist and attorney Tommy Wyche (2013); philanthropists Hayne and Anna Kate Hipp (2014); Centennial American Properties CEO David Glenn (2015); Erwin Penland co-founder Joe Erwin (2016); and Hughes Development Corporation Chairman Bob Hughes (2017).
In honor of Greenville’s 187th birthday, Drive players will wear special green uniforms and caps on Green Day, and fans are encouraged to create a “green out” by sporting green as well. First pitch is at 7:05 p.m., and the first 2,000 adults who enter when the gates open at 6 p.m. will receive a commemorative Green Day T-shirt, while the first 1,000 kids at Fluor Field will receive a commemorative Green Day superhero cape, all courtesy of TD Bank. Following the game, fans are invited to stick around for a fireworks show in celebration of Greenville.
NONPROFIT
A Child’s Haven receives $750,000 grant from The Duke Endowment
A Child’s Haven has received a $750,000 grant from The Duke Endowment to support the integration of behavioral-health treatment and therapeutic child-care services. The Duke Endowment award will help ACH’s program model secure scientific evidence required to become a leading early-intervention therapeutic child-care provider that delivers a holistic approach to rehabilitating children and their families. This support will allow ACH to grow and expand its reach to more families in need of its services. Ultimately, ACH’s program model will be positioned to be replicated by other organizations with similar missions. The award, $250,000 annually for three years, aligns with ACH’s efforts to diversify public/private sources.
FURMAN UNIVERSITY
Grants from SC INBRE support biomedical research on campus
Three Furman University Department of Biology faculty members have received research grants of $72,000 from the S.C. IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (SC INBRE) program for the 2018-2019 fiscal year. Biology professors Adi Dubash (“Desmoplakin Harnesses Rho GTPase and p38 MAPK Signaling to Coordinate Cell Migration”); Linnea Freeman (“Sex Differences in Microgliosis: The Role of Gut Microbes”); and Alison Roark (“Interspecific Communication Between Anemones and Their Algal Symbionts”); each received funding from the SC INBRE Developmental Research Program. The awards were applied on July 1 to conduct biomedical investigations with undergraduate researchers on the Furman campus. Dubash was renewed for a second year of funding while Freeman and Roark received funding for the first time. The SC INBRE DRP has committed more than $730,000 in competitive research funding to Furman faculty since 2015. Additionally, Furman will receive $1.3 million via the INBRE mechanism supporting undergraduate research access across all departments engaged in biomedical research between 2015 and 2020. SC INBRE is funded by the National Institutes of Health with the goal of increasing the biomedical research capacity of the state.
