Dotty and Paul Rigby share 2013 Distinguished Service Award

The Center for the Performing Arts has named State College couple Dotty and Paul Rigby recipients of its 2013 Distinguished Service Award. The Rigbys will be honored at an invitation-only dinner April 22 at The Atherton Hotel in downtown State College.

Two years ago the couple created a $150,000 charitable gift annuity that will provide equal support for the Center for the Performing Arts and Penn State’s Music at Penn’s Woods festival.

“I am so pleased to see Dotty and Paul Rigby receive this recognition given their long-standing and passionate interest and support for the Center for the Performing Arts,” says George Trudeau, director of the Center for the Performing Arts. “Their annual support through membership and sponsorship is extraordinary, and the endowment they established will ensure this legacy of support will continue in perpetuity. The Rigbys are great advocates for the Center for the Performing Arts, and their service on the center’s Community Advisory Council has been exemplary.”

The Rigbys are members at the Leadership Circle level and annually sponsor classical music presentations. Most recently, the couple sponsored the presentation of Germany’s Beethoven Orchestra Bonn with Canadian piano virtuoso Louis Lortie.

The couple served on the Center for the Performing Arts Community Advisory Council from 1994 to 2000. In 2008, Dotty Rigby accepted a request to rejoin the council.

“On behalf of the College of Arts and Architecture, I congratulate Dotty and Paul Rigby for their recognition as 2013 Center for the Performing Arts Distinguished Service Award recipients,” says Barbara O. Korner, dean of Penn State’s College of Arts and Architecture. “The Rigbys support for the arts truly comes from their hearts and inspires us all.”

Read our feature article about the Rigbys.

Dotty Rigby was born in New York City and moved to Miami when she was in sixth grade, while Paul Rigby was born in Humboldt, Arizona, and moved with his family to Pachuca, Mexico, when he was three months old. There his father was an engineer and superintendent of a mine owned by a British company.

Paul and his family left Mexico when he was 14, and he attended high school in Biloxi, Mississippi. He earned two diplomas at the University of Texas: a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1945 and a doctorate in statistics in 1952.

He taught statistics and economics for two years at the University of Alabama, two years at Georgia State University, six years at the University of Houston, two years at the University of Mississippi, and thirty years at Penn State. He retired in 1994.

The Rigbys met at the University of Alabama, where Dotty was a student majoring in speech management. They wed in 1954, the year she graduated. They have two grown sons, Peter and Mark.

Dotty earned a master’s degree in social studies at Penn State in 1968. She taught in public schools in the State College area for seventeen years before retiring in 1981. She then worked for an interior design firm for twenty-five years.

The Distinguished Service Award recognizes significant contributions and distinguished service to the Center for the Performing Arts, which has presented the honor annually since 1996.

Candy wrapper collection to provide more than 400 meals to the hungry

The Center for the Performing Arts has collected more than 10,000 candy wrappers during its 2012–2013 season. Through an innovative recycling program, that translates into more than 400 free meals for hungry Americans.

Thanks to a TerraCycle® program called the Candy Wrapper Brigade®, which awards points for each wrapper collected, the Center for the Performing Arts is able to provide 415 meals through Feeding America. The charity, with a mission to provide nourishment to America’s hungry, uses a nationwide network of member food banks.

“The Center for the Performing Arts is excited about how much participation we have received this year, especially from churches and schools in the community and beyond,” says Len Codispot, a member of the Center for the Performing Arts Green Team. “A big thanks goes out to St. Marys Area Middle School. Our Green Team was recently invited to their Day of Giving, where we received twenty-two pounds of candy wrappers.”

Last season the Center for the Performing Arts collected more than 6,400 wrappers that were redeemed to provide clean drinking water for a year to forty-three people in developing countries.

Candy wrapper drop offs are still welcome. Patrons attending events at Eisenhower Auditorium, on the corner of Shortlidge and Eisenhower roads at University Park, may place used candy wrappers in lobby collection boxes. Eligible waste — from auditorium concession sales or from home or office use — includes individual candy wrappers, large candy bags, and multi-pack candy bags.

Candy wrappers and bags may also be dropped off at Eisenhower during regular business hours, weekdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., or at the Penn State Downtown Theatre Center (146 S. Allen St., State College), weekdays 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturdays 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Penn State employees may send candy wrappers and bags via campus mail to Pam Aikey at Eisenhower or Shannon Bishop at the Downtown Theatre Center.

Each year millions of candy wrappers are needlessly thrown away. Most end up in landfills. TerraCycle® partners with Mars®, Wrigley®, and Cadbury® to create a second life for candy packaging, but all brands of wrappers and candy bags are accepted for the recycling program.

Learn more about the candy wrapper program.