Radford University celebrates 100 years

Roanoke Times - Radford University is preparing to launch its Centennial Celebration, and light post banners that read "Celebrating the Century, Forging the Future" now line the campus perimeter.

The official celebration will be observed beginning Jan. 1, according to a news release from the university.

The Centennial Service Challenge -- which asks Radford students, faculty, staff and alumni to donate community service hours wherever they live -- will course through the yearlong celebration, Gary Ellerman and Barbara-lyn Morris, who are serving as the co-chairs of the Centennial Steering Committee, said in the news release.

Ellerman, a retired professor, and Morris, a member of Radford College's Class of 1965, said committee members chose to build the centennial around a grassroots salute to service because it symbolizes the way Radford has been serving society since the school was chartered as the State Normal and Industrial School for Women in 1910.

Service will also highlight the centennial's "red-letter" day of celebration during the university's Charter Day Convocation on March 24.

The Student Government Association will sponsor an appearance by Blake Mycoskie, founder and proprietor of TOMS Shoes, as the keynote speaker in the campuswide event. Mycoskie is known for his pioneering role in socially responsible free enterprise. The company promises to give one pair of new shoes to an impoverished child for every pair it sells.