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On January 20, The Riley Foundation celebrated 25 years of making significant investments in our community that have stimulated a renaissance of activity and energy, particularly in the heart of downtown Meridian.
Major donations, often totaling multimillions of dollars, have jump-started and supercharged such transformative projects as the Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience, Hope Village for Children, the Mississippi Children's Museum-Meridian, the Riley Workforce Development Center at Meridian Community College, and the Foundation's first high-profile, high-impact investment, the Mississippi State University Riley Center for Education and Performing Arts.
Fittingly, the Foundation chose the MSU Riley Center as the site for its anniversary event. MSU President, Dr. Mark Keenum, was the guest speaker. Board members, staff and invited guests commemorated the Foundation's legacy and looked forward to future endeavors.
"We have always believed in picking projects that made a difference," said Foundation Chairman and CEO Marty Davidson. "And those projects have had a lot of ripple effect."
In 2000, the Foundation invested $15 million in the conversion of a 19th-century downtown department store and a Victorian-era theater, into the MSU Riley Center, a performing arts and conference facility owned and operated by MSU, which opened in 2006.
The Foundation continued partnering with the University to redevelop two more architecturally significant buildings on the same block. Together, with the Riley Center, those buildings now constitute MSU-Meridian's Riley Campus. The Foundation's total investment exceeded $38 million.
The campus includes an educational conference center, Grand Opera House, studio theater, exhibit halls, classrooms, faculty offices, computer laboratory, library, and a Bulldog Shop that sells MSU apparel and MSU cheese and ice cream. It also houses Mississippi's first publicly funded Master of Physician Assistant Studies program. Day and night, it brings people to Meridian's downtown area.
"That block, spanning from the Riley Center to our health sciences building, really is at the core of our future and our looking at what we can do to improve our community," said Dr. Terry Dale Cruse, associate vice president and head of campus at MSU-Meridian.
"Meridian has the coolest downtown in the State of Mississippi," said Keenum, "and it's because of The Riley Foundation and its wonderful group of individuals who love their community."
The foundation's roots extend back to 1930, when pediatrician Dr. Franklin Gail Riley opened a 12-bed children's and maternity hospital in Meridian. It grew into the 200-bed Riley Memorial Hospital.
In January 1998, the directors sold the not-for-profit hospital to a for-profit company. With $60 million from that sale, Dr. Billy Riley and Dr. Richard Riley, along with longtime friends Alfred Rosenbaum and Bob Deen, created The Riley Foundation. It has bestowed grants totaling more than $76 million.
Here's a sampling of projects the Foundation has supported:
The Foundation has also spent more than $1 million on a summer work program that introduces college students to nonprofit organizations. "Those interns have added so much to our museum operations, from marketing to education to technology," said Clair Huff, director of education and programming at the Children's Museum. And over $1.5 million on the Riley Scholars program, a prestigious scholarship program at MSU-Meridian.
"In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we were busy identifying ways the Foundation could help. We partnered with local hospitals to provide funds for needed ventilators and high flow oxygen units," said Becky Farley, Executive Director of the Foundation.
At the end of the last fiscal year, the Foundation's assets had grown to more than $106 million. It continues to look for impactful new projects that will greatly improve the quality of life for the people of Meridian and Lauderdale County.
"We're interested in large projects that make a large difference," said Davidson. "That's the mission of The Riley Foundation. I think when we look back on the last 25 years that has certainly been accomplished."
