OLLI Receives Best Buy Tag Team Award

The University of Southern Mississippi Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) has been granted a Tag Team Award from Best Buy Children’s Foundation.

Best Buy’s mission is to give back to the community and the company encourages local volunteerism.  The Tag Team Award provides grants to organizations where employees volunteer.

Sylvia Pinegar, a senior advertising major at Southern Miss and customer assistant at Best Buy of Hattiesburg, decided to give back to her community by volunteering at the OLLI. 

“I had a great time volunteering at the institute,” said Pinegar, who taught a class on modern technology.  “We learned about computers, cell phones, home theater systems and televisions, and how to burn CD’s.  I’m going to try to do another class in the summer – same theme, just more in depth.”

According to Pinegar, the company asks employees to complete 40 hours of volunteer work.  “We volunteered more than 200 hours at the Osher Institute.”  Through Pinegar’s volunteer work, the OLLI received a $5,000 gift from Best Buy’s Children’s Foundation.

According to Pat Yelverton, OLLI President, the $5,000 donation will be put to very good use.  “Part of the money will be used to purchase a defibrillator.  That is a priority for us.  We’re very appreciative of the gift from Best Buy because it will help us with programming and to be able to purchase things like a defibrillator, which we would not have been able to get otherwise.”

The OLLI is an association of active men and women 50 years of age or older who seek to explore stimulating learning experiences while developing new friendships.  The all-volunteer program, with over 500 members, is directed and run for and by members of the institute.  All class seminars and topics are selected from the suggestions of the membership.  Topics include conversational foreign languages, religion, philosophy, computer use, financial planning, history, geography, the natural environment, genealogy and the political climate. 

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Best Buy presents a corporate gift of $5,000 to the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at The University of Southern Mississippi.  Pictured from left is Laura McGlocklin, Best Buy general manager; Sylvia Pinegar, Southern Miss student and customer assistant at Best Buy; Pay Yelverton, OLLI President; Sue Pace, Director, OLLI; Chris Justice, Southern Miss Audio Video Technician.