NIC gets gift of lifetimes
Administrators at North Idaho College were amazed and smiling Tuesday after an announcement that the school’s foundation received the largest donation in NIC’s history.
Steve and Judy Meyer, of Coeur d’Alene, announced their $1 million donation to a crowd of about 50 in front of the new Health and Sciences Building, and pledged that the money would go into an endowment to pay for technology upgrades at NIC.
“Our intent is to provide a way for the college to keep the classes and equipment at the leading edge as technology changes,” said Judy Meyer, also a member of the NIC board of trustees. “Steve and I want to help keep NIC programs and students ahead of their counterparts in India and China.”
A beaming NIC President Michael Burke said the donation will take NIC “to a place we’ve never been before.”
The money will fund classroom technology like projector screens and distance learning equipment, said Rayelle Anderson, executive director of the NIC Foundation.
“It’s going to help students for, well, forever,” said Dick Sams, president of the foundation.
The Meyers formed Parkwood Business Properties, a commercial real estate development company, in 1975 and have served on various boards over the years. Judy Meyer was appointed to the Idaho State Board of Education and was elected president of that board in 1998.
Steve Meyer was a founder of Advanced Input Devices in 1979 and serves on the NIC Foundation board of directors.
Both said they felt it was important to invest in their local community college to enhance the region’s economy.
“Historically businesses have come here because we had high unemployment, low wages and a good work ethic,” Steve Meyer said. “We would like to help change those reasons to make the intellectual capital of our citizens the primary point of attraction.”
The college recently opened an $11.9 million Health and Sciences Building, increasing NIC’s classroom space by 25 percent. The state paid for the building itself, but all furniture and technology had to be paid for by the college, which launched a campaign to raise funds.
The Meyers’ donation blew away the campaign’s original goal of raising $2 million, bumping the total raised to more than $3 million, with more gifts from others still to come, Anderson said.