Happy holiday thrills at Lexington Children's Theater
Lexington Children's Theater is among 100 small and local charities that rallied enough support among Facebook users to make the cut in Round One of Chase Community Giving. Each nonprofit will receive a $25,000 grant from Chase and now goes into the running to receive a grant of $1 million.
"It was one of the most popular campaigns ever on Facebook, with more than one million voters signing up from around the country," according to Nancy Norris with Chase Media Relations in Louisville.
Eligible charities included 501(c)(3) charities with an operating budget of $10 million or less, serving the general public in designated areas. Round One ended at midnight on December 12 and culminated with a surge of voting in the final week.
"This has been one of the most popular crowdsourcing campaigns in Facebook history. Millions of people using Facebook have taken up the Chase challenge to demonstrate the power of crowdsourcing for philanthropic giving," said Elliot Schrage, vice president of global communications and policy at Facebook. "The program is unique in that a person can leverage their vote on Facebook - in addition to their wallet - to collectively help those in need during the holidays or support a cause important to them."
In Round Two, the 100 organizations from Round One will have the option to submit a $1 million grant proposal to Facebook users, detailing the difference they would make in their local community with the significant extra resources. Facebook users will vote starting January 15, and on or around February 1, one organization will receive $1 million from Chase, provided all eligibility requirements and standards have been met and reviewed by the Chase Community Giving Advisory Board. Five additional organizations will receive $100,000 each. Also, the advisory board will select additional nominated charities from either round to share in another $1 million.
In addition to the donations made through the program, Chase will provide a $25,000 honorarium to each board member who does not work for Chase or Facebook, which will be donated by Chase to the charity of the member's personal choice.
JPMorgan Chase donates a total of more than $100 million annually to more than 3,000 nonprofit organizations in local communities, nationally and abroad. This $5 million Facebook effort is in addition to the bank's traditional philanthropic giving, and if successful, the bank hopes to commit more of its annual philanthropy funds using this innovative method of giving.
State utility chief joins search for clean coal
Kentucky Public Service Commission Commissioner Charles R. Borders has been named to the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) panel on clean coal technology.
The NARUC Subcommittee on Clean Coal and Carbon Sequestration explores ways to continue the use of coal while reducing emissions, particularly those of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide.
Want to be a farmer? This program's for you
Getting into farming may not be the easiest of ventures. Even if you have the land and expensive equipment, it's a tough business, but a University of Kentucky (UK) Cooperative Extension program recently got a monetary boost that will help beginning farmers get a better start.
Through a nearly $750,000 USDA grant, Cooperative Extension will be able to offer a comprehensive training program for beginning farmers and those contemplating becoming a farmer.
Titled "A Common Field," the program will be a two-year course offered in 20 different areas of the state and will be a partnership between UK and Kentucky State University. The grant came through in October and the next step is to bring in 10 or 12 groups of extension agents for training sessions in a couple of weeks, said Lee Meyer, extension professor in the UK Department of Agricultural Economics.
"They will put together clusters of beginning farmers who are interested and then help coordinate the program at the local level," he said.
Meyer and UK colleague Jennifer Hunter are the co-principal investigators on the grant.
Hunter said the course will cover topics such as enterprise evaluation, land-labor resources, nutrient management, farm record-keeping, agriculture water quality plans and marketing plans, among others, during its first year.
"The main educational component will be a 12-session, face-to-face program, a fairly traditional-type extension program where we'll go out to multi-county areas and deliver a series of topics," she said.
Aside from recruiting new farmers, there will also be a mentoring component to the program that will recruit and train experienced farmers to participate and help these beginning farmers learn the ropes.
Such programs will also be important to rural communities to survive and maintain their character, Meyers noted.
"If you look up in the Northeast, there is a lot of rural land, but it's not in farming anymore. It's become woods, and while it's valuable as a timber resource, there are no fertilizer dealers anymore, no grain elevators, no stockyards, and those add to employment levels and keep rural communities active," he said.
UK was one of 29 universities and agriculture organizations from across the country chosen by the USDA to receive the Common Field funding.
For more information about the program or to express an interest in enrolling, contact the local Kentucky Cooperative Extension office. - By Tim Thornberry
EKU PR students to work with '10 International Equine Fest
Eastern Kentucky University's Department of Communications is partnering with Horse Capital Productions, LLC of Lexington to provide support for the 2010 International Equestrian Festival. The exposition is scheduled to run throughout the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games being held at the Kentucky Horse Park near Lexington from September 25 through October 10, 2010.
EKU public relations students will have in-depth access into the mechanics of producing events associated with the International Equestrian Festival, such as managing social media, sponsorship activation and hands-on experience. The interactive learning opportunity will expose students to celebrities, corporations and visitors from around the world.
Homeland security seeks cybersecurity experts
What better way to recruit cybersecurity experts then to hold a cyber job fair? The Department of Homeland Security recently received authority to recruit and hire up to 1,000 cybersecurity professionals during the next three years. To get the job done, DHS is launching a virtual job fair at www.dhs.gov/cyberjobfair.
DHS is looking for applicants with experience in cyber risk and strategic analysis; malware/vulnerability analysis; incident response; exercise facilitation and management; vulnerability detection and assessment; intelligence analysis; and cyber-related infrastructure interdependency analysis.
Transy selects consultant to guide presidential search
Susan Resneck Pierce, senior consultant with Academic Search, Inc., of Washington, D.C., has been retained by the Transylvania University Board of Trustees to help conduct a national search for a successor to Charles L. Shearer, Transylvania's president since 1983. Shearer has announced his retirement, effective June 30, 2010.
Pierce has already visited campus to meet with students, faculty, staff and the board's executive committee to develop an institutional profile that will describe Transylvania's strengths, challenges and opportunities and that will also define the criteria the search committee will use in judging candidates. Beginning in January, Pierce will seek nominations and applications from presidents and senior administrators at colleges and universities across the country, from national education and foundation officials and from Transylvania's faculty, staff, students, trustees, alumni, parents and friends.
Coldstream executive director retires
Tina Carpenter, the executive director of UK's Coldstream Campus, has announced that she will retire from her position effective February 28, 2010. A new executive director is expected to be announced during the first quarter of 2010.
Accounting firms Blue & Potter merge
Blue & Co., LLC of Carmel, Ind., has merged with the Kentucky-based certified public accounting and consulting firm Potter & Company, LLP.
The resulting combined company will operate under the Blue name and adds a Lexington office to the firm, as well as a second office in Louisville.
All of Potter's professional staff will join Blue's more than 200 employees in a network of six offices in Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, according to Potter Managing Partner Greg Mullins. Potter partners join the 23-member ownership group of Blue.
UK-affiliated companies capture millions in funding
During 2009, 12 Kentucky high-tech companies associated with UK netted $4 million in federal funding through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program and the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program. In addition to the federal funding, Kentucky matching funds totaling $1 million were awarded as well.
Funding recipients included the following companies, which hold technology licenses with UK: ParaTechs Corp., Synergetic Technologies, Oraceuticals, Four Tigers, AllTranz, Adaptive Intelligent Systems, Topasol, and NuForm Materials. ASTeCC-based Transposagen and 3H, along with Coldstream-based ATI Inc. and Advanced Dynamics, also received funding through the SBIR and STTR programs.
Kentucky-owned Republic Bank scores top Freddie Mac ranking
Republic Bank has been ranked number one out of 155 mid-size banks by Freddie Mac for its servicing of mortgage loans. The bank services $1.2 billion in loans.
In support of that New Year's resolution to kick the habit
If you've made the decision to quit smoking but need help, it's available. The Lexington-Fayette County Health Department is signing up people who want to kick the habit for smoking cessation classes getting underway on January 12. Of the most recent class, 53 percent quit smoking, according to the department.
There is a $50 deposit, but it's returned to those who make it through all 12 classes of the program smoke-free.
Nicotine replacement products such as gum, patches and lozenges are provided at no cost to everyone who is smoke-free after the third week of the program.
Interested? Give them a call at (859) 288-2327.