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Tuesday, 29 November 2005 05:48 |
By DAVID FORBES
| UNCA Chancellor Anne Ponder embraces Asheville businessman Joe Kimmel after the announcement of his $2 million gift towards an arena space
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UNC Asheville took a major step toward building the N.C. Center for Health and Wellness last Wednesday when Asheville businessman Joe Kimmel announced his donation of $2 million for constructing a convocation space that will be used for basketball and volleyball games and graduation ceremonies.
In honor of his gift, the wellness center??s multipurpose arena, which could seat up to 5,000, will now be named the Kimmel Arena.
The center, funded in large part by $35 million from the General Assembly and located near the Justice Athletic Center, is expected to break ground next year.
Chancellor Anne Ponder, speaking at the announcement ceremony in the Owen Conference Center, termed the donation ?®a great day for UNC Asheville,?∆ and a major step forward in the project.
?®We as a university took on the obligation to raise $5-7 million
privately, so that we would be able to have a multipurpose center
within,?∆ Ponder said. ?®Even while we are in the preliminary planning
stage, the insight and desire to do good has brought us this pledge of
a $2 million gift.?∆
She noted that the construction of the Kimmel Arena will open up possibilities for UNCA.
?®We
can actually have a convocation and a commencement inside,?∆ Ponder
added. ?®Our campus can use this space, too. We can have health fairs
and lecturers. The only spaces we have had until we build, this one has
been so small, that for some very famous speakers we??ve had to turn people away.
?®The opportunity to gather, and to have the opportunity for UNCA to do something this splendid, rests with this initial gift.?∆
In
his remarks at the announcement, Kimmel, who heads the Kimmel &
Associates executive search firm and has seen six of his seven children
graduate from UNCA, said that this is his way of giving back to the
university and the community.
?®What a state, what a community,
what a university,?∆ Kimmel said. ?®I moved here in the early ?¥80s to
raise my children, and just what a community. What I owe to this
community that raised my children. All, of course, are turning out well.
Meanwhile, he said that what the gift is ?®really about... the hundred men and women that work at Kimmel &
Associates
and their families. They understand giving and serving in a way that
has been the greatest blessing a man could ever have.
?®That??s what it??s all about ?? these people who know and want to uphold the community, the state, the city and
the university,?∆ Kimmel continued, before acknowledging employees of his company who were in the crowd.
?®Thank you guys, you??re what this is all about,?∆ Kimmel said. ?®This could not have happened without you wonderful people.?∆
While
noting ?®I thought I was done with universities a long time ago?∆ after
studying to become a nuclear engineer, Kimmel recalled his work on
submarines with Westinghouse and his reaction to his children wanting
to attend UNCA.
?®The ordeal of working on submarines was very
painful for me. I said to myself, ?¥If I ever get out of here, and I??m
all right, I??m never going to do any more learning,?∆ Kimmel said. ?®I
walked really carefully, I was so full on information. I have a
half-life now of six-to-nine weeks when it comes to new information.
That??s the excuse I use now with my children when I can??t seem to
understand things.?∆
However, he noted with a chuckle ?®that when
my children came to me and started talking about college, I was shocked
into the reality that my experience with universities was not over yet.?∆
Moreover, ?®all my children came to (UNC) Asheville. By the grace of God, they all got in and some of them got
out really well,?∆ he said. ?®What a state, what a community.?∆
Earlier,
Ponder had said that the size of Kimmel??s gift would boost UNCA??s
attempts to raise the rest of the private funds needed for the arena.
?®Because
it is initial, it is a substantial and inspiring gift ?? we aren??t used
to receiving gifts of this magnitude,?∆ she continued. ?®We are delighted
not just for what the gift will do, but for the example that it will
set to other
benefactors going forward.?∆
Ponder also noted that Kimmel has given before ?? but usually not so publicly.
?®This
allows us to recognize this deeply modest and private person in the
good that he and his company have already done,?∆ Ponder said. ?®There
are other gifts previous to today. Those have to do with scholarships
and scholarship provisions.?∆
During the past eight years, Kimmel has matched the holiday donations of his employees to endow UNCA??s
scholarship funds with $130,000.
In
2003, Kimmel and his youngest son, Stephen, a 2003 UNCA graduate,
bought a historic collection of land speculation documents from the
Ramsey Library.
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