June 19, 2006

GREENSHEET HEADLINES

• Final Inning

• ‘A dream come true’

• Lyon College names new director of career of development

• Lyon College public lecture series to chronicle Scots-Irish connection to the Ozarks

• Lyon College pipe band to compete at world championships in Scotland

• Sports

• Lyon’s Summer Sports Camps offer food, fun and fundamentals


Final Inning
Lyon’s Dean of Faculty John Peek and his wife Mieko enjoy the grilled burgers and sunshine at Lyon Night at Ray Winder Field in Little Rock on June 15. It was the last time the event will be held in the historic ballpark because at the end of the 2006 season, the Arkansas Travelers will move into the new Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock. Built in 1932 and holding 6,083 people, the field was named after Ray Winder, who had started as a ticket seller in 1915 and became part owner in 1944.

 

   Alumni donations to Lyon College rising to record levels

By Wil Shane
Lyon College News Bureau

With gifts ranging from a $300,000 sports complex to a simple check, Lyon College is far ahead of any other college in the state in terms of alumni who donate time and money to their alma mater.

Tim Bruner, vice president for Institutional Advancement, said the percentage of Lyon alumni who give is more than double the national average for alumni giving participation.

“The standard national rate of graduates who contribute to their school is around 20 percent,” Bruner said. “During the last fiscal year, 49.6 percent of our alumni contributed to Lyon College, and that’s easily the highest percentage of any college in the state. No one else even comes close.”

Two outstanding examples of alumni giving back to Lyon College include 2003 graduate Doug Gillam and 2006 graduate Eric Wilson (shown above at left with Vice President Bruner).

Gillam and his family operate Gillam farms, and its accompanying store, The Fruit of the Vine, near Judsonia. The store sells items such as fruit juices, spreads and preserves, pickled vegetables, fruit butters, syrups and gift baskets.

A former baseball player under head coach Kirk Kelley, Gillam had only been out of school for a month when he returned and pitched an idea to Lyon President Walter Roettger.

“He told Dr. Roettger that he wanted to build an indoor baseball complex,” Bruner said.

The project’s cost came in around $300,000, and Gillam saw it through to completion.

“He and his family built it with their own hands or gave money or got in-kind gifts given to the project until it was done,” Bruner said.

In addition to the complex, Gillam also built an entire outfield fence for the College’s baseball field after high winds knocked down about 100 feet of the old wall in November 2005. Once again, Gillam stepped up to the plate on behalf of his former team.

“The previous fence was eight foot high, wood board and wood frame construction,” Steve McDaniel, Lyon’s director of the physical plant, said. “The weather and age had taken its toll on it. Last fall, a wind blast from one of the straight line thunderstorms caused approximately 100 feet of fencing to collapse.”

Gillam and his family provided the materials and manpower to erect the new outfield wall and the college purchased the concrete for the fence footings. The wall features a strong metal design and incorporates two observation decks outfitted with picnic tables. Both decks are wheelchair accessible.

These projects were unusual in that Gillam was such a recent graduate, he added.

“Most alums give back to their schools years after graduation, when they’ve had time to get settled a little,” he said. “Doug’s was the quickest ‘give-back’ I’ve ever known for an alum. The ink was barely dry on his diploma.”

Wilson’s gift was unique in that he brought a check into the office of Tim Bruner, vice president of Institutional Advancement.

“It was only a small check, but I hope the action is what’s important, not the amount,” Wilson said. “Hopefully, it expresses my gratitude to Lyon College, and my intention to give more in the future.”

Bruner agreed that the giving is more important than the amount.

“The percentage of alumni giving is a major factor in the funding process of foundations that give out grants,” he said. “They don’t ask how much they give; they ask us the percentage. The foundations figure, if the alums don’t believe in the school and what they’re doing, why should the foundations?”

That makes Wilson’s gift much more valuable to the College than he realizes, Bruner said.

“Though Eric thinks his gift is small, those types of gifts add up,” he said. “They really help us get major gifts and grants. That so many of our alumni give back is a strong statement of encouragement to us at Lyon and to the foundations that award the grants.”

Gillam and Wilson are “symbolic” of ever-increasing numbers of graduates giving back, he added.

“They have a growing desire to assist Lyon College, and that’s borne out by recorded numbers.”

One reason alumni are willing – and able – to give something back to the College is because Lyon graduates leave school with far less of a debt load on their shoulders than students at other colleges throughout the country do.

Most Lyon students graduate owing about $13,000 in student loans, but that’s far below the average of about $25,000 to $30,000 seen at many national universities. Those figures put Lyon College on U.S. News & World Report’s list of liberal arts colleges in the nation whose graduates leave school owing the least.
 

‘A dream come true’

Little Rock’s Second Presbyterian Church hosts grand opening for new Youth Building

Little Rock’s Second Presbyterian Church, a group with strong ties to Lyon College, is sowing seeds for the future, and the move has made “a dream come true.”

On Sunday, June 4, church officials hosted a grand opening and blessing ceremony for its newly constructed Youth Building.

Larry Kirchner, architect for the project, said many of the church’s young people enjoy going on church sponsored ski trips. That inspired him to pattern the building’s design like a ski lodge. Kirchner, a church member, was also the architect for the Derby Center at Lyon College.

The new church facility’s interior features lodge-style ceilings with exposed beams, a large stone fireplace that reaches 30-plus feet up to the ceiling, rooms upstairs and downstairs for meetings classes, a loft balconies, a pool table room with plasma screen televisions and much more.

The building’s exterior is made of red brick trimmed with white stone. Its design is reminiscent of the Derby Center’s appearance and style. The contractor on the project was Kullander Construction Inc. of Little Rock.

Nancy Coleman, administrative assistant at Second Presbyterian, said the facility is a valuable addition to the church family and the community as a whole.

“It’ll serve as a place where young people can come together in fellowship, and I hope that we will be opening this building to the wider community as well as our own church,” she said.

Church member Vic Fleming agreed.

“It’s part of a dream come true,” he said. “Now it’s up to us to ask God to put (in) the sinews and breathe life into it, and I’m sure we’re up to it.”

Charles Allen, another member of the church, said the new addition will help the congregation reach out past the front door of the church.

“We’ve always prided ourselves on opening its doors to the community and having so many different functions,” he said. “We’re just excited that this has finally come to fruition and to be able to offer it for our youth for God.”

Steve Hancock, pastor of Second Presbyterian Church, said having the new facility will allow the church to serve not only its own members, but also others working toward a common goal within the denomination.

“We’re very excited about not only this building but what it can do in the lives of the youth of this church,” he said. “We’re also designing it to be a resource for the larger denomination, for touring mission groups, and choir groups and youth groups. We’ve got showers and washers and dryers here and so this is something we are very proud of for our own folks, but also for the larger denomination.”

Director of Youth Ministry Bruce Carl said it’s taken three long years to see the project completed, but it was worth the effort. Bruce and his wife Marcy are both members of Lyon’s Board of Church Advocates, as is church member Sandra Tranum.

“It’s finally open – a place that the youth can call their own and be nurtured in their faith,” he said. “We’ve already booked five different groups from across the United States who are coming through this place on their way to and from mission projects.”

Carl said people are coming in from Ohio, Texas, Georgia and Tennessee. The church’s vision is to be partners with youth groups like these, which is why their plans included the installation of washers and dryers, showers and a comfortable place to rest.

“It’s a dream come true,” he said, echoing the sentiments put forth by church member Vic Fleming. “It’s (been) a vision of mine for a long time and it’s good to see it come to fruition.”

Shannon Rookey, a young member of the church, said the new space will benefit all members of the congregation. “I like it because we can finally do all the youth activities we want to without disturbing everyone in all of the different buildings,” she said..

Pastor Hancock’s wife Missy said the church’s young people were eager for the facility to be opened.

“I am tremendously excited for all the youth that we have now and it was great fun watching all of the young ones watch for the ribbon to be cut,” she said. “They couldn’t wait to get in.”

Jeannie Ford Andrews, director of Christian Education at the church, said the new addition gives the youth ministry a place of its own.

“We took their space when we built Bible Village for the first through fifth grade, which is our rotation learning center,” she said. “That was where the junior and senior high students were meeting. For two years, they’ve been meeting in Bruce’s office and in classrooms here and there. They now have this place that’s really cool for them.”

Renie Rule, who served as campaign chair on the construction project, said the original goal was to raise $4.4 million, and they eventually surpassed that goal and raised $5.2 million.

“One of the most exciting things about it is that we won’t have to take a loan out with the bank to do all of this building,” she said. “We’ll come in close to budget and that will be great.”

Claudia Marsh, Lyon’s director of church relations, said the church’s commitment to its young members mirrors the College’s vision for its students.

“Both Lyon College and Second Presbyterian Church have a strong commitment for providing young people with a quality education and tools to help build strong moral character for them to become outstanding leaders in the future,” she said. “This includes building state-of-the-art facilities that help facilitate this purpose.”

Several members of Second Presbyterian Church are on Lyon’s Board of Trustees, including: Herb Rule, Frank Lyon, Dickson Flake, Robin Orsi and Bill Tranum. Pastor Steve Hancock also sits on the board.

Lyon College names new director of career of development

By Wil Shane
Lyon College News Bureau

When Lyon College’s new director of career development decided it was time to leave Alaska, he and his wife spent eight months traveling 45 states, six Canadian provinces and part of Mexico.

But none of the places they saw felt like home until they came to Arkansas.

“We didn’t find anywhere we wanted to live until we came here,” he said.

Greg Maloney has taken over the position vacated by Bethany Pitts when she left to move to Little Rock. His wife, Linda, also has a new position as the executive director of the local United Way chapter.

With degrees in psychology, political science, education and philosophy, and a background in education, business and the U.S. Peace Corps, Maloney now takes on the task of helping sell Lyon students in the workforce.

A native of Avon, Ill., Maloney earned bachelor degrees in psychology and political science from the University of Oregon, where he graduated summa cum laude. Following this, he served more than two years with the U.S. Peace Corps in the Philippines.

“One of our main projects there was helping clean up after a typhoon hit the town,” Maloney said. “It wiped out everything. They had to hold school in the cockfighting pit because it was the only building left standing.”

Upon returning to the U.S., he spent three years in the Dominican Seminary at St. Albert’s Priory in Oakland, Calif., studying philosophy and theology, and also worked with area public service agencies.

When he decided that wasn’t the life best suited for him, he traveled to Hawaii and became the general manager for a tourist business in Waikiki. There he ran the company, conducted advertising and developed marketing strategies.

“I lived in Waikiki at first, but later moved out to the north shore,” Maloney said. “We used to body surf and get mangled up. It was fun.”

About a year later, he became program director for the Care-A-Van Homeless program at Waikiki Health Center in Honolulu. There he worked with the state legislature to secure funding and developing a database for a caseload of more than 2,000 people. Following this, he completed an education specialist degree in school psychology at Western Illinois University, graduating with honors.

In 1994, Maloney became a school psychologist in Morrison, Ill., but he wanted to see Alaska.

“I consciously chose Alaska,” he said. “I always wanted to go there.”

He worked as an “itinerant school psychologist,” traveling to many Alaska villages and providing services to rural and remote schools.

He and Linda also operated a bed and breakfast inn in their hometown of Juneau.

“The tourists would get off the cruise ships and come into town,” he said. “They only got a surface experience of what Alaska is really like. That’s why I’ve always thought it’s so much better to move somewhere and really get to know it – the way we’re doing now in Batesville.”

During his eleven years in Alaska, he also served as the Alaska State Director of Special Education, working closely with the state legislature, school districts and parents to improve the services being provided to students with disabilities.

Later he developed and operated his own consulting firm, G&L Services, through which he performed an extensive array of educational services for public and private agencies.

Even though he met many wonderful people, it’s the natural beauty that he misses most about Alaska, he said.

“I loved being outdoors, seeing the whales, scuba diving for crabs and scallops,” he said. “The people were great, but I really miss the landscape, even when it was fifty degrees below zero.”

Maloney begins his duties at Lyon on June 26. He said his first step will be to listen to what students, faculty members, administrators and others identify as priorities for the center. He will also focus on working with private and public agencies to expand the range of training opportunities available for Lyon’s students.

“I’m excited about building on what the center has already accomplished to help students begin achieving their career goals,” he said. “This is an exciting opportunity and I’m looking forward to getting started.”

Maloney may be reached at his new office at 870 698-4207.

Lyon College public lecture series to chronicle Scots-Irish connection to the Ozarks

The music, culture and heritage of the Ozark region reflect the history of the Scots-Irish peoples who settled in the area, and an upcoming free lecture series at Lyon College will soon detail those influences.

The Scots-Irish Connection to the Ozarks Lecture Series will host a series of evening lectures in Nucor Auditorium on the Lyon campus at 7 p.m. beginning July 10. The lectures open to the public and will feature nationally and internationally recognized scholars in the field of Celtic music and heritage.

The lecture series is supported in part by a grant from the Arkansas Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The first week’s lectures begin on Monday, July 10, with a presentation focusing on the Gaelic language. It will be given by Dr. Jamie MacDonald, a member of the Celtic Studies Department at Saint Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, Canada.

MacDonald earned his Ph.D. in Scottish Studies at the University of Edinburgh in 1993. Dr. MacDonald is a fluent Gaelic speaker and enjoys singing and collecting Gaelic songs. He was the first Native American to win a prize in the gold medal Gaelic singing competition at the Scottish National Mòd.

On July 11, the second lecture will focus on the history and heritage of the Scottish small harp on July 11. Holly Callahan, who has published numerous articles and arrangements of traditional Scottish harp music and has served as a guest lecturer at the Ohio Scottish Arts School, Oberlin, Ohio, will host this event.

She is currently employed as a part-time Librarian in the Genealogy and Family and Local History unit of the Maryland Historical Society and runs a hand-spinning and hand-weaving business on her llama and alpaca farm in Freeland, Maryland.

An overview of the migration pattern of the Scots-Irish into the Ozarks will be the focus of the third lecture on July 12, given by Dr. Brooks Blevins, assistant professor of history at Lyon College. He will also serve as humanities scholar. Among his many books and other publications are two that deal with Arkansas subjects: “Hill Folks: A History of Arkansas Ozarkers and Their Image” and “Lyon College, 1872-2002: The Perseverance and Promise of an Arkansas College”

On July 13, Angus John MacClellan will present the fourth lecture, which will focus on the life and music of renowned Pipe Major Donald MacLeod. Angus is a Scottish piper well known for his solo and band accomplishments, as well as being a judge and a teacher of piping. He is former Pipe Sergeant of the world-renowned Strathclyde Police and is a double Gold Medallist. He has served as an instructor for The College of Piping and as a consultant for Dunfion Bagpipes.
The second week’s lectures run July 17 – 20.

On July 17, Dr. Terrell Tebbetts will present a public reading and lecture on selected works of Robert Burns. Dr. Tebbetts holds the Martha Heasley Cox Chair in American Literature at Lyon College, and received his Ph.D. from the University of Arkansas in 1971. Since joining the Lyon College faculty in 1970, he’s been voted Professor of the Year four times and was awarded the Williamson Prize for Faculty Excellence in 1981. In 1992, he was named the CASE/Carnegie Professor of the Year for the state of Arkansas.

On July 18, Dr. H. Tyler Blethen will give a lecture on the transmission and transformation of Scottish Culture, examining their settlement preferences, agricultural practices, religion, music and storytelling.

Dr. Blethen is professor of history at Western Carolina University and served as director of the University’s Mountain Heritage Center from 1985 to 2003. His latest book, “High Mountains Rising: Appalachia in Time and Place,” received the 2005 Appalachian Writers Association’s Book of the Year Award for Nonfiction and the 2005 Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award.

And on July 19, Blevins will present “The Scots-Irish Influence in Ozark Traditional Music.”

Lyon’s Director of Scottish Heritage and Pipe Major Jimmy Bell, along with Dr. Blevins, coordinated planning for the Scots-Irish Connection to the Ozarks Lecture Series. Other members of the planning committee included Lyon staff members Kenton Adler, academic services coordinator, Webmaster and member of the Lyon Pipe Band; Kim Boehm, director of the APPLE Project Upward Bound Program; and Mary Baxley, administrator of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

For more information on the Scots-Irish Connection to the Ozarks Lecture Series, contact Jimmy Bell at (870) 698-4298.

Lyon College pipe band to compete at world championships in Scotland

By Wil Shane
Lyon College News Bureau

When more than 200 pipe bands from across the world gather in Scotland this summer to compete for the world championships, Lyon College’s band will be there working to make their third trip the lucky charm.

Jimmy Bell, Lyon’s director of Scottish Heritage, said the band made its first trip to the world competition in 1997, before he joined the Lyon staff. And in 2001, when they made their second trip to the competition, the group took a second place under then-director Will Muirhead while competing against the best in the world.

And this year, they’ll have a chance to take home the top honors.

Slated for Aug. 5 – 15, the trip will take the Lyon Pipe Band group to Glasgow. And on Aug. 12, the band will compete in the World Championships on the Glasgow Green in the center of the historic city.

Kenton Adler, Lyon’s academic services coordinator, said 20 members of the pipe band will make the trip, and Brooke Hollis be going for a Highland dance competition

This trip will be ‘strictly business,’ and the business is winning the World’s,” he said.
The Pipe band recently returned from Glasgow, Ky., he added.

“We were on a recruiting mission, and Jimmy was judging solos and bands,” Adler said. “I competed in the Grade II solos and had second in the Piobaireachd, third in the Hornpipe/Jig, and third in the March/Strathspey/Reel.”

One of Lyon’s tenor drummers, Nancy Love, competed in the Grade IV solos.

“No prizes, but she accomplished what she set out to do, which was to get up in front of judges and play her tunes,” Adler said. “She got a particularly good Piobaireachd score sheet and I think she shows some promise there. We made a good impression all around I think, and talked to quite a lot of people about Lyon while we were there.”

Adler said Lyon’s pipe band has a legitimate shot at taking home the top prize at the World’s competition.

“Jimmy’s doing a great job preparing the band,” he said. “And I think we have an excellent chance to win the World’s in our grade.”

For more information on the Lyon College Pipe Band and the Scottish Heritage Program, go to www.lyon.edu.

Sports

Lyon’s Summer Sports Camps offer food, fun and fundamentals

The young athletes who participated in this year’s Summer Sports Camps at Lyon College learned a few things about technique and being a part of a team. But for some, the highlight of the camps was found on the tables in the dining hall.

All campers enjoyed buffet-style, all-you-can-eat meals served in the Edwards Commons Dining Center. The food has been one the most highly praised things at the camps other than sports. The camp coaching staff believes athletes must eat well before they can play well.

The best medical clinics and hospitals are available for emergency use in Batesville, and a trainer attended most of the camp activities during the week.

Basketball

The Lyon College basketball camps are run under the direction of both the men’s and women’s basketball staffs. Assisting in the 2006 camps will be some of the state’s top high school coaches. Women’s head coach Tracy Stewart-Lange directed the junior–senior girls camp. Men’s head coach Kevin Jenkins directed the junior-senior boys camp.

The coaches teach the fundamentals of shooting, ball handling, rebounding and individual offense and defensive skills, with instruction given on an individual basis. A full slate of lectures, demonstrations, and practice sessions fill the schedule of each day, and each night, campers will get game-type experience.

The boys basketball camp wrapped up June 14, and the girls camp ran June 25 - 28.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

Baseball
The baseball camps are run under the direction of the Lyon College baseball staff and players, who emphasize the importance of basic fundamentals in hitting, pitching and base running in all sessions.

Instruction is given in small group settings, with the groups broken down by age and skill level. A full schedule of drills, demonstrations and practice sessions take place each day, and the campers receive game-type training at the end of each session.

The baseball camp wrapped up June 15.

Soccer
The soccer camps will run July 24 - 27. Operated under the direction of coaches Jeremy Bishop and Chris McNaughton, the camp coaching staff will be comprised of other college coaches and players.

The soccer camps are designed to teach the fundamentals and skills needed to excel in the game. The campers learn in a fun, no pressure environment. Technical work, on-field instruction and small-sided games contribute to improving individual performance and greater understanding of tactical play.

Tennis
Lyon College tennis camps are under the direction of John Bennett, head men’s and women’s varsity coach.

All Students enrolled in the tennis camp receive in-depth training in:
• Proper footwork and positioning for all shots;
• Basic strokes, including the serve and ground strokes;
• Advanced players will be instructed on volleys and passing shots;
• Sportsmanship;
• Strategies for both singles and doubles;
• The rules of the game;
• How to take care of yourself on the court;
• Hand to eye coordination; and,
• Temper control.

The tennis camp finished up June 16.

Volleyball

The volleyball camps were held May 26-28 and June2-4: Both these camps were by “invitation only.” Head volleyball coach Justin Dee directed the camps.

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