TWU
Home > Marketing
& Communication > News
Releases
TWU announces Jo Kuhn, PointBank and the National Council
of Jewish Women, Greater Dallas Section as 2007 Founders’
Award recipients
2/09/07
DENTON —
Ms. Jo Kuhn, PointBank and the National Council of Jewish
Women, Greater Dallas Section are the recipients of the 2007
Founders’ Awards presented by Texas Woman's University,
the TWU Foundation and the Former Students Association of
TWU.
The awards will
be presented at a luncheon at 11:30 a.m. Thursday, April 5
in Hubbard Hall on TWU’s Denton campus. Tickets for
the event are $25 per person. Patron seats are available for
$60. Benefactor tables for eight are available for $500. For
information on sponsorship opportunities, contact Patrice
Benfield Frisby at (940) 898-3867. Proceeds from the event
benefit the TWU Chancellor’s Endowed Scholarship Fund.
Reservations are required by Friday, March 30.
With more than
30 years of accomplishments as a TWU athletic administrator,
coach and faculty member in kinesiology, Ms. Jo Kuhn of Denton
has established herself as an ardent promoter and devoted
supporter of TWU women’s athletics. Ms. Kuhn became
the director of TWU athletics in 1982, and in 1988, she succeeded
in gaining TWU’s admission to the Lone Star Conference
— a Division II conference — making the university
the only women’s institution in the nation in a coed
athletic conference. Under Ms. Kuhn’s leadership, TWU’s
athletes began their streak of maintaining a cumulative grade
point average of 3.0 or better, which has lasted for more
than 24 years. She also established the Pioneer Scholarship
Campaign, which has distributed more than $1 million in athletics
scholarships to TWU student athletes since 1984.
She resigned as
the TWU athletic director in 1992 to return to teaching and
retired from TWU in 1997. TWU Athletics established the Jo
Kuhn Leadership Award in 1992, which is presented each spring
to a student athlete who has demonstrated outstanding leadership
qualities. Ms. Kuhn also was inducted into the TWU Athletics
Hall of Fame in 1997.
Ms. Kuhn has received
a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association
Collegiate Women Athletics Association, a Hall of Fame Award
from the National Association of Sport and Physical Education
and the Pathfinder Award for Texas from the National Association
Girls and Women in Sport.
“Although
I have received many awards in my lifetime, this award is
particularly meaningful to me because I am being honored by
the university I love and where I worked for more than 30
years,” Ms. Kuhn said.
Ms. Kuhn has been
a generous philanthropist to TWU through her contributions
to the Pioneer Athletics Scholarship Campaign, the TWU Hall
of Fame, the Donna Terry Endowment, the Boots Cooper Endowment,
the Kitty Winter Magee Endowment, the College of Professional
Education, Friends of the Library, the Department of Sociology
and the campaign for softball lights. In 1997, she established
the Jo Kuhn Endowment Fund for Women’s Athletics to
provide scholarships for TWU student athletes.
PointBank —
established in 1884 and chartered in 1892 — is the oldest
locally owned, full-service bank in Denton County and North
Texas. The company has continuously showed its support to
TWU by contributing to the university’s scholarship
campaign, making enhancements to the TWU athletics competitive
environment and encouraging employees to wear maroon and white
TWU Pioneers T-shirts in the bank.
The company is
an annual member of the TWU Chancellor’s Circle and
supports TWU Athletics as a top-level corporate platinum sponsor
and contributor to the TWU Pioneer Athletics Scholarship Campaign.
Led by CEO Raymond David, Sr., PointBank donated the scoreboards
in Kitty Magee Arena, purchased advertising rights to the
softball scoreboard and provided protective netting, and is
sponsoring the soccer field scoreboard, which will be in use
when the new field opens in August.
“PointBank
is proud to be associated with the wonderful heritage and
pioneering spirit in all that TWU represents, both in the
future of its students and its impact in the Denton County
community,” said Ray David, Jr., bank president.
For nearly a century,
the National Council of Jewish Women, Greater Dallas Section
has been at the forefront of social change — championing
the needs of women, children and families — while courageously
taking a progressive stance on such issues as child welfare,
women’s rights and reproductive freedom. NCJW is a volunteer
organization, inspired by Jewish values, that works through
a program of research, education, advocacy and community service
to improve the quality of life for women, children and families
and strives to ensure individual rights and freedoms for all.
The NCJW, Greater
Dallas Section has supported TWU through the Reba M. Wadel
Scholarship Fund for graduate students in family sciences.
Since 1990, the scholarship has assisted graduate students
in child development or family sciences in their pursuit of
scholastic achievement. The non-profit organization has consistently
supported TWU for many years by providing funds for this scholarship
and other philanthropic endeavors.
“We are very
proud to support the efforts of graduate students in the field
of early childhood development at TWU through the Reba M.
Wadel Scholarship Fund,” said Sue Tilis, president of
the NCJW, Greater Dallas Section. “This is one of many
community service projects provided by the Greater Dallas
Section to improve the quality of life for women, children
and families.”
As of Feb. 9, sponsors
of the Founders’ Award luncheon include: Bill DeBerry
Funeral Directors; BlueCross and BlueShield of Texas; Chancellor
and President, TWU; City of Denton; Coca-Cola Bottling Company
of North Texas; Compass Bank; DATCU; Denton Record-Chronicle;
First State Bank; First United Bank & Trust; NORTHSTAR
Bank of Texas; PointBank; Presbyterian Hospital of Denton;
Ramey & King Insurance; TWU Former Students Association;
the TWU Foundation and Verizon.
Founders’
Day was known as Pancake Night when the Ex-Students Association
started it in 1924. When the school was renamed Texas State
College for Women in 1936, the event was given its present
name.
The first Founders’
Awards were presented in 1998 to honor organizations and individuals
who have supported TWU. This year TWU has moved its annual
Founders’ Day celebration from February to early April
to coincide with the date the university was established by
the state of Texas. Legislation was signed on April 6, 1901,
forming what is now known as TWU.
###
For Further
Information Contact:
Amanda McKeen Simpson
Director of News and Information
Tel: (940) 898-3456
e-mail: asimpson1@twu.edu |
