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Foothills Kids to Become Non-Profit Organization

with Help of Lenoir-Rhyne University MBA Graduate Students

December 10, 2020

Previously a classroom educational supplement published by local magazine editor Carmen Eckard, Foothills Kids Magazine will become its own not-for-profit organization with the help of Lenoir-Rhyne University Masters of Business Administration students.

With a mission to “enrich and promote the educational development of children and instill pride in the communities of western North Carolina”, Foothills Kids Magazine will be a tax-exempt 501(c)3 organization with the purpose to publish quarterly editions focused on educational topics for grades three to five. Topics include science, history, and culture related to the foothills region of western NC.

The brainstorm of local magazine publisher and editor Carmen Eckard, Eckard wanted the educational supplement she had previously gifted to local schools to “be in the hands of every young student in western North Carolina”.

To achieve this expansion, she and local community organizer Aaron Kohrs teamed up with the 2020 spring cohort of Lenoir-Rhyne University MBA students under the direction of Dr. Ralph Griffith to develop a sustainable non-profit plan.

As part of their experiential learning for the MBA graduate program, the LRU graduate students spent their spring semester brainstorming a model for the developing non-profit - including board of directors by-laws, capital fund plans, and marketing campaigns.

LRU MBA Students include Alexander Langer, Kendall Fischlein, Carlos Rubio, Josh Alderson, Jaclyn Denny, Mee Vang, Ryan Crompton, and Cassidy Joyner.

The LRU MBA students’ proposal of Aaron Kohrs as Foothills Kids Magazine executive director and Carmen Eckard as Creative Editor and Chief was accepted and will be implemented.

Similarly, Foothills Kids Magazine will have a board of directors structured at the recommendations of the MBA students and will include Board President Cliff Moone, Katye Fredieu, Monica Parache, Richard Eller, Tracy Hall, and Jack Alameida.

Over the next several months, Foothills Kids Magazine will use the MBA students’ recommendations to organize the non-profit and begin distribution of the planned quarterly magazine to regional schoolchildren.

Contact information, upcoming developments, and sponsorship opportunities can be found at the Foothills Kids Magazine website http://foothills.media/digest/foothills-kids/.

Foothills Kids Magazine aims to enrich and promote the educational development of children and instill pride in the communities of western North Carolina as a not-for-profit publication.

Attachment: Spring 2020 photo of joint collaborative meeting between Foothills Kids Magazine executive team and Lenoir-Rhyne University MBA students; from left to right - Alexander Langer, Josh Alderson, Ryan Crompton, Jaclyn Denny, Cassidy Joyner, Mee Vang, Foothills Kids Director Aaron Kohrs, Foothills Kids Creative Editor and Chief Carmen Eckard, Foothills Kids Board Member Tracy Hall, Carlos Rubio, Foothills Kids Board Member Jack Alameida, and Kendall Fischlein.