The 26th annual Ferris Foundation for Excellence Benefit celebrated 140 years of Ferris current and former Bulldogs to the JW Marriott in Grand Rapids.
Ferris Foundation Chair Arlen-Dean Gaddy announced a running total of $220,935.73 in donations at the end of the night on Nov. 7. As of Monday, Nov. 11 they raised almost $222,000.
Gaddy expressed the importance of what the money would go towards.
“Help make Ferris State University students overcome financial hurdles, offset tuition costs, remove food insecurities, but then elevate to gain confidence, an inner applied path to success,” Gaddy said. “Really elevate from Ferris State University students to becoming Ferris State University alum.”
The gala also took time to recognize past alumni who have accomplished notable things, with a conversation between Dr. David Pilgrim and President Bill Pink.
One of these alumni was Clarence Avery, who helped with the assembly line at Ford.
“I did not know that a Ferris person had played such an important role,” Pilgrim said. “So Clarence Avery, came to Ferris really early, actually, earlier than the other folks, when he and he took what we call what used to be called manual training. Now, a lot of people were involved in the brains and in the process of creating the assembly line, but the person who is most identified with that project, who led that project at Ford, was Clarence Avery, and he was a superior engineer.”
While the focus for part of the evening was around the last 140 years of Ferris, including its switch from a vocational school to a college to a university, it also focused on the future of its students.
Some students were invited to the gala and were asked to stand. Pink then asked for the alum who attended to talk to the students and to get to know them. This was primarily to keep the ties between the generations of Ferris students.
“I love the fact that we have some of our students here tonight because the students so often, I don’t think students get a good opportunity to drink in the history of the university that they’re attending,” Pink said. “And this is just a piece of it. I think we can see the slides that have gone with so many people on those slides during the evening that our graduates are folks who were Ferris, Ferris Institute, Ferris college graduates, helps our students know this is the university you’re part of.”
In addition to these conversations, Pink also announced the marching band, who then played for the gala, as well announcing with Pilgrim that ground would break for the Jim Crow Museum in the spring.