The Insider: 10.21.15

The St. Louis Civic Pride Foundation recently honored the accomplishments of hometown soccer heroes Becky Sauerbrunn and Lori Chalupny, pictured above, at a luncheon Oct. 12 at the Missouri Athletic Club. The two are members of the U.S. Women’s National Team that won the World Cup last summer.

Civic leaders James McDonnell III and his wife Elizabeth recently donated $20 million to Forest Park Forever to fund improvement projects. McDonnell retired in 1991 from McDonnell Douglas, which his father founded in 1939. He has served on the boards of many organizations, including St. Louis Children’s Hospital and the Missouri Botanical Garden. Elizabeth serves as a trustee of Hollins University and is a life member of the Washington University Women’s Society.
Photo courtesy of Forest Park Forever

Poet Jane O. Wayne recently received the 2015 Tradition of Literary Excellence Award, funded by the Municipal Commission of Arts & Letters of University City. It honors living local authors who have received national and international acclaim. Wayne’s poetry collections include Looking Both Ways, winner of the Devins Award for Poetry, and A Strange Heart, recipient of the Marianne Moore Poetry Prize and the Society of Midland Authors Award. Wayne has taught creative writing at Webster and Washington universities. Photo: Gerard Hanewinkel

Concordia Seminary St. Louis recently announced the largest fundraising campaign in its 176-year history. The graduate-level theology school already has raised $111 million of its $180 million goal, earmarked for an expanded library, learning technology initiatives and more.

Washington University professor Henry Biggs recently donated more than $105,000 to three organizations that provide education and mentoring to children in North County, including Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Missouri. The United Way of Greater St. Louis will help administer the funds, which Biggs raised by swimming 27 miles around Manhattan Island.

Pictured: Becky Sauerbrunn and Lori Chalupny
Photo: David Preston