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<\/a>The joy of giving is something Person shares happily with others, as she co-chairs the annual Close to Home Campaign that gives UConn faculty and staff an opportunity to make a gift to the University. Since it began nine years ago, the campaign encourages employees, including emeriti and retired faculty and staff, to make a gift of any amount to any area personally meaningful to them, whether it\u2019s support for students, a specific school or college, the Health Center, the performing arts or a museum, or athletics. Last year, more than 1,000 current staff and faculty made gifts totaling nearly $750,000, while nearly $880,000 was given by 400 emeriti and retired staff members.<\/p>\nWith campaign co-chair Rob Hoskin, associate professor of accounting, Person reminds faculty and staff that the challenging economy and the state budget situation make their financial support \u2013 in any amount \u2013 especially important. \u201cIt\u2019s not the size of the gift; it\u2019s the participation that matters most,\u201d Person and Hoskin tell their colleagues around the University.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout 14 percent of faculty and staff contributed last year,\u201d says Karen Santasiere, director of annual giving at the UConn Foundation. \u201cThis year, we hope to reach a 20 percent contribution rate. Funds raised through the campaign can generally be used immediately, so we can provide current operations funding, and enhance areas when and where critical needs arise.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hoskin says he has found a variety of University causes he enjoys supporting. \u201cMy wife and I have a life-long love of the arts and have consistently given to support Jorgenson programs. We also donated to the opera program, because our daughter was an opera major in the School of Fine Arts.\u201d In addition, Hoskin has been both a donor to and participant in the Calhoun Challenge Ride to support cancer research, riding with a team sponsored by a former student and his business.<\/p>\n
To honor his parents since they passed away, he endowed the \u201cHoskin If We Rest We Rust\u201d scholarship, using the motto of his parents\u2019 graduating class, North Eaton High School, North Eaton, Ohio, class of 1933. \u201cMy Dad lived up to the motto all his life, and it serves as an inspiration to me when I feel like I should just \u2018rest\u2019 for a while,\u201d says Hoskins. \u201cHopefully, the scholarship will inspire the recipient not to rest and rust. It fits very well with my own outlook of life-long learning.\u201d<\/p>\n