Category: Philanthropy

The John William Pope Foundation granted $10,000 to the Pathways Women and Children shelter to provide lodging with shared kitchen and laundry facilities for up to 10 family units of women with children. The Mountaineer, By Becky Johnson, June 23, 2019:  COMMUNITY STEPS UP — A ribbon-cutting for a transitional shelter for homeless women with children located on the Pathways Center Campus was held in June. An outpouring of community support and fundraising made the project a reality. As with those in the men’s and women’s dormitories, mothers with children are offered a safe environment for a limited period as long as they are working with the staff social worker toward a permanent solution to their homelessness. A transitional shelter for homeless women with children trying to build a new life became a reality last Friday, with the celebrated opening of The Haywood Pathways Center Myr-Ken Building. The $650,000 addition to the Haywood Pathways Center will provide lodging with shared kitchen and laundry facilities for up to 10 family units of women with children. Nearly 100 people gathered for a ribbon cutting of the Myr-Ken Building Friday. “Pathways started as and continues to be a community project,” said Pathways Director Mandy Haithcox. “From financial support to volunteer presence to persistent prayer to community education and advocacy, Pathways would not be what it is today without all of you.” Nick Honerkamp, pastor of New Covenant Church, recounted the evolution of the Pathways Center from idea to reality. The need for not merely a homeless shelter but creating a transitional program to help people start a new life crystalized one day four years ago as Haywood County Sheriff Greg Christopher saw two inmates being released from jail with nowhere to go. “They walked out and sat on the curb with nowhere to go and the sheriff said ‘We’ve got to do something about the recidivism rate. We can’t keep arresting the same people over and over,’” Honerkamp said. The community rallied to the cause, raising funds and donating labor to convert a shuttered state prison in Hazelwood into the Pathways Center four years ago. “We had 1,500 volunteers that flipped this prison into what it is today. If you ask anyone in Haywood County who is responsible for flipping this prison, they’ll say ‘we are.’ Truly it was the citizens of Haywood County that came together,” Honerkamp said. However, it soon became evident that The Pathways Center lacked a critical element: a separate unit capable of housing women with children. “Together we have created not just a building but a safe and welcoming home that serves to facilitate life transformation as moms and children find respite, as they work to break the cycles that got them here and build new foundations,” Haithcox said. While the community at large pulled together around the project, Haithcox recognized a few key champions at the celebration. One was the Friends of Laurel Ridge, which provided $300,000 to jumpstart the fundraising campaign. “This group of folks in particular has had this project in their hearts and on their minds for a very long time,” Haithcox said. The John Williams Pope Foundation gave $100,000 to the project. “That allowed us to start this project while continuing to fundraise,” Haithcox said. The Mountaineer was also recognized for its community campaign that pushed the fundraising campaign over the finish line last fall. “The Mountaineer hosted a readers challenge to help Pathways raise the remaining funds needed so we could build this building debt free. This effort raised over $150,000 in a months time,” Haithcox said. Also recognized for their contribution were Ken and Myrna Snyder, who gave $100,000 donation that led to the building being named in their honor. “They have long had a heart for struggling and they wanted to share the resources they have with those who need a hand up,” Haithcox said. The Myr-Ken Building is a combination of their first names. Lastly, Haithcox recognized Pathways board member Jim Blythe. “This project would not have been possible if not for the countless hours and true dedication of Jim Blythe, our project manager and all around mastermind of this project,” Haithbox said. The Pathways Center has seen an increase in the number of clients seeking services, often resulting in a waiting list — all 60 slots were full Friday at the ribbon cutting. The Pathways Center is more than a homeless shelter. It emphasizes job training, spiritual counseling, rehabilitation and life-skills coaching as clients prepare to reenter society. “About 60 percent of our folks leave here and move into housing or move back in with family,” Haithcox said. “We feel like we are making a lot of progress.” Haithcox added that 70 percent of those staying at Pathways currently are employed, many of them full-time as they save up money to move into housing of their own. “Lives have been changed. People have been rescued from poverty and addiction and despair. They have turned their lives around,” said Celicia Willett with Haywood County United Way. An open house of the Myr-Ken Building allowed community members to see the rooms, beautifully decorated with rugs, wall pictures, lamps, stuffed animals, books and other comforts of home. All the furnishings and interior decor were provided by volunteers. Realtors with Beverly Hanks led the effort to furnish and decorate the rooms, working together in pairs or small groups to take on different rooms. “It was our goal to honor the women and children who find themselves in this situation. We wanted to be part of creating a comfortable and welcoming space for them as they begin the journey toward a new life,” said Pamela Williams, a Realtor with Beverly Hanks. The Haywood County faith community has been instrumental in the success of The Pathways Center. A blessing for the Myr-Ken Building was offered by Paul Kaptak, a volunteer chaplain with Pathways. “Bless the roof and the walls that will create a safe space for new beginnings. Bless the table where meals will be shared nourishing bodies and spirit. Bless the families who will find rest and encouragement to follow your path of light,” he said. “May all who enter these premises sense your presence power and love.” Source: bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2020/03/23/exclusive-north-carolina-retailer-sticks-to-brick.html?ana=e_ae_prem&j=90

Press Release, Vance-Granville Community College, September 10, 2018: The Pope Foundation has created a new Academic Achievement Scholarship at Vance-Granville Community College in honor of retired Variety Wholesalers, Inc., President Wilson Sawyer of Raleigh. The scholarship will award $500 per year to a deserving student enrolled at Vance-Granville. Priority will be given to students who are employees of Variety Wholesalers (home store, distribution center or retail stores) and members of the families of those employees. Preference will be given to students who are pursuing a degree in Business Administration. “Our business roots in the area go back many years and we are proud to call Henderson and Vance County ‘home,’” said James Arthur “Art” Pope, chairman of Variety Wholesalers. “Wilson never lost sight of our customers and our promise to deliver great value and prices. We’re grateful for his friendship and dedication over these many years. We hope this scholarship inspires a new generation of leaders who share Wilson’s commitment to service.” “There are two reasons I’m excited about this scholarship,” said the honoree, Sawyer. “Number 1, if it helps folks in the company that helped me for many years, that’s a plus. Number 2, I’m a big supporter of the community college program and I think it’s important to encourage folks to start their education here.” Sawyer knows about the community college experience first-hand, he said. His daughter was a student at Central Carolina Community College in Sanford before transferring to a four-year institution when the family moved to Raleigh. “She excelled in college and I think it’s because of the basis that she got at the community college.” His daughter is now a school teacher, he said. Following a lifelong career in retail, Sawyer retired as president of Variety Wholesalers in February.  He started his career in the Maxway store management program, rising to hold various roles. When Variety Wholesalers acquired Maxway in 1990, Sawyer stayed with the company as president of the Maxway division. After years of leading multiple store brand divisions, he was named president and chief operating officer of Variety Wholesalers Stores in 2003. When Bruce Efird joined Variety Wholesalers Stores as president in 2017, Saywer moved to holding company leadership. He remains on Variety’s board of directors and is assisting the company in an advisory capacity. “We are excited that the Pope Foundation and Variety Wholesalers have chosen to honor Mr. Sawyer with this new scholarship,” said Eddie Ferguson, director of the VGCC Endowment Fund. “Both have been stalwart supporters of our students and the college through contributions to scholarships and activities such as our golf tournament which also benefit students.” “I’ve been so impressed with the community support that has come to my attention since becoming Vance-Granville’s interim president,” added Dr. Gordon Burns, who assumed the new role in mid-August while VGCC searches for a permanent president. “This gift from the Pope Foundation will continue to honor Mr. Sawyer and help students each and every year, serving as a reminder of the importance of a community and its institutions getting involved in the education of our citizens. We are so grateful.” Founded in 1986 and located in Raleigh, the Pope Foundation makes grants to advance individual freedom, personal responsibility and encourage opportunity for all North Carolinians. The Pope Foundation’s lifetime giving totals more than $145 million directed to over 400 nonprofits. The Pope Foundation receives its support from the Pope family, owner and operator of the Henderson-based Variety Wholesalers, Inc. The new scholarship will add to the more than 9,000 scholarships that have been awarded to students since 1982, funded by interest earned on the Endowment Fund and Scholarship Program. Scholarships have been established by individuals, industries, businesses, civic groups, churches and the college’s faculty and staff to assist deserving students. Tax-deductible donations to the VGCC Endowment Fund have often been used to honor or remember a person, group, business, industry or organization with a lasting gift to education. In the Fall of 2017, Vance-Granville awarded scholarships to 306 students. For more information, the Office of the Endowment can be reached by calling Endowment Specialist Kay Currin at (252) 738-3409.

From Carolina Journal April 6, 2017 John Locke Foundation founder and former chairman Art Pope today was elected chairman of the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, one of the nation’s largest conservative grantmaking charitable organizations. Pope is the owner and chairman of Variety Wholesalers Inc., which owns and operates a chain of discount retail stores with 7,000 employees in 17 states. He’s also chairman of the John William Pope Foundation, a family grantmaking foundation he has led since its creation in 1986. He was a member of the North Carolina General Assembly and, most recently, was the state budget director from 2013-14. “It is an honor to serve as chairman of the Bradley Foundation, an organization which does so much to strengthen the fabric of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the entire country,” Pope said in a press release. “Dennis Kuester, the outgoing chairman, and Mike Grebe, our previous president, have done such excellent work and have left a fine example for me to follow. I look forward to continuing Dennis’ valuable work.” The Bradley Foundation’s vision “is for a nation invigorated by the principles and institutions that uphold our unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Its mission is to restore, strengthen and protect the principles and institutions of American exceptionalism. The core principles which guide the Foundation’s grant making include a commitment to free markets; fidelity to the Constitution with its principles of limited government, federalism, separation of powers and individual liberties; commitment to the fundamental institutions of civil society that cultivate individuals capable of self-governance; and dedication to the formation of informed and capable citizens.”

June 14, 2016 Thirteenth annual prizes recognize esteemed leaders for excellence Milwaukee, WI — The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation will award the thirteenth annual Bradley Prizes in a ceremony on Wednesday, June 15, 2016 at 7:30 p.m. EDT at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ Terrace Theater. The 2016 Bradley Prize recipients are: political scientist Charles Murray, British historian Andrew Roberts, Emeritus Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, and actor and humanitarian Gary Sinise. Video tributes to each Bradley Prize recipient will be shown, and nationally syndicated columnist George F. Will will serve as Master of Ceremonies. Entertainment will be provided by the Grammy winning a cappella group Take 6.  Each Bradley Prize recipient will deliver remarks. The public can also participate via Twitter by using the handle @BradleyPrizes16. Pope Foundation Chairman Art Pope will attend the Washington, D.C. event.  He is a member of the Board of Directors for the Bradley Foundation and a sponsor of the Bradley Prize event. Founded in 1985, The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation is devoted to strengthening American democratic capitalism and the institutions, principles and values that sustain and nurture it. Its programs support limited, competent government; a dynamic marketplace for economic, intellectual, and cultural activity; and a vigorous defense, at home and abroad, of American ideas and institutions. Recognizing that responsible self-government depends on enlightened citizens and informed public opinion, the Foundation supports scholarly studies and academic achievement. Source: The Bradley Foundation

From the Charlotte Observer: So a liberal and a conservative walk into a bar… By Taylor Batten, Editorial Page Editor June 4, 2016 Charlotte Observer  Conservative Art Pope and liberal Rick Glazier walk into a bar… This is no joke. Pope, Glazier and some of North Carolina’s other most prominent liberals and conservatives are breaking bread together, trying to find something that has been elusive in recent years: a shred of common ground. These 35 leaders in business, politics, philanthropy, education, law and other areas are investing their time to test whether bipartisan ideas and civil discourse between Republicans and Democrats really are dead. It’s called the North Carolina Leadership Forum, and it’s just ramping up. The group met for the first time in March and will gather again on June 17 at Duke University. They hope to convene in Charlotte later this year. What makes them think this is worth the effort? In an era of Trump and Clinton, Fox News and MSNBC, HB2, gerrymandered districts and legislators who are an ocean apart, it seems hopeless. But it is that deepening gulf in society that makes this effort so urgently needed. The group will meet four times in the first year, tackling the question of how to enable more North Carolinians to earn enough to support their families. They hope to agree on specific policy proposals, but they know liberals and conservatives may see very different causes of and solutions to that issue.   Just having the conversation, though, and doing so civilly and respectfully, may be a more important and lasting product of this experiment. The group was created as much to foster reasoned conversation as it was to devise policy solutions. Even if members can’t agree on a minimum wage, the thinking goes, they might set an example that others can follow, whether they are legislators, City Council members or just Uncle Fred at the Thanksgiving table. True listening to the other side, after all, rarely happens anymore. A lot of people consume only the news that reinforces their existing positions. Combine that with a politically divided state and “what you have is political discourse in North Carolina and lots of places that falls short of what we can and should provide,” said John Hood, president of the conservative John William Pope Foundation. “Lots of people are disenchanted.” The Leadership Forum was born after Hood wrote a column about North Carolinians living in “media cocoons” and the disappearance of civil debate. Democrat Leslie Winner, then head of the progressive Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, read it and met with Hood about changing that. They recruited a bipartisan steering committee, then the group of 35. Hood emphasizes that the goal is not to find moderate solutions. “Our point is not we have these extremes and if everyone was more centrist we’d be better off,” Hood told me last week. “We like the fact that we have people way out on the right and left. The goal is not to marginalize them and aim for the common denominator. “The point is to have a dialogue that is very robust with points of view strongly argued, but respectfully and with no name-calling. … If we can have people argue rather than bicker, make good-faith logical arguments, that’s a very valuable outcome.” It’s easy to imagine this group having civil conversations around a conference table, only to see the divisiveness persist among elected officials. But with what passes for debate today, I’m glad they’re taking a shot. The North Carolina Leadership Forum Anita Brown-Graham, Institute for Emerging Issues Pete Brunstetter, Novant Health, Inc. Pearl Burris-Floyd, Gaston Regional Chamber of Commerce Jack Cecil, Biltmore Farms, LLC Dan Clodfelter, Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein, LLP Gene Cochrane, The Duke Endowment Sharon Decker, Tryon International Equestrian Center Martin Eakes, Self-Help Credit Union Dan Gerlach, Golden Leaf Foundation Rick Glazier, North Carolina Justice Center Ann Goodnight, SAS Maurice “Mo” Green, Guilford County Schools Robin Hayes, Cannon Charitable Trust and Cannon Foundation Hank Henning, Commissioner of Guilford County John Hood, John William Pope Foundation Bob Hunter, North Carolina Court of Appeals Jeff Jackson, North Carolina Senate Raquel Lynch, Crisis Assistance Ministry Esther Manheimer, Mayor of Asheville Frederick “Fritz” Mayer, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University Chuck McGrady, North Carolina House of Representatives MaryBe McMillan, North Carolina AFL-CIO B.J. Murphy, Mayor of Kinston Chuck Neely, Williams Mullen Jim Phillips, Brooks Pierce Art Pope, John William Pope Foundation Robert Reives, North Carolina House of Representatives Tom Ross, Volcker Alliance Richard Stevens, Smith Anderson Law Firm William Thierfelder, Belmont Abbey College Eugene Washington, Duke University Health System Andy Wells, North Carolina Senate Brad Wilson, Blue Cross & Blue Shield North Carolina Stelfanie Williams, Vance-Granville Community College Leslie Winner, Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation