NSU’s 21st Annual Celebration of Excellence will be held on Feb. 2, and will bestow the 2019 President’s Award for Excellence in Community Service upon Rita and Rick Case. The award is given annually at the celebration, which is meant to invoke the “community” core value of the university.
Previous honorees include The Miniaci Family, David Horvitz & Francie Bishop Good, Guy Harvey, and last year’s recipients, Drs. Kiran C. and Pallavi Patel. The Patel’s gift renamed the Colleges of Osteopathic and Allopathic Medicine, as well as the College of Healthcare Sciences, which was announced at the 2018 celebration.
Rita and Rick Case, of the Rick Case Arena in the Don Taft University Center, have had a strong relationship with NSU. In Jan. 2017, the university renamed the recreational arena after Mr. Case, who has also served on NSU’s Board of Trustees since 2002, and has helped direct funds to develop and improve university grounds. Additionally, Mr. and Mrs. Case created an endowed scholarship under their names, which provides undergraduates and alumni of the Boys & Girls Clubs with the opportunity to attend college. This academic year, three of the scholarship recipients are attending NSU.
“If you’re looking for a great example of what it means to give back to the community, look no further than our backyard. The impact from Rita and Rick Case can be felt here at NSU, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Broward County, American Heart Association, Cleveland Clinic, Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital, Habitat for Humanity and many other organizations throughout South Florida,” said President George Hanbury in an NSU news brief.
Beyond the President’s Award for Excellence, the Celebration of Excellence also honors donors whose cumulative donations to NSU reached $1 million. This year, benefactors Michael Dezer, William J. and Susan M. Gallo, Jerry W. DuBois, Gallo Herbert Architects, The Estate of Conni Gordon, Mary Jane Harlow Charitable Trust/Mary Short, Tropic Star Lodge and Adolfo and Marisela Cotilla will be welcomed into the “Shark Circle.”
The black-tie optional event is invite only, and will take place at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 2, appropriately in the Don Taft University Center’s Rick Case Arena.
