A host of family members and friends gathered June 24 at Pleasant Valley Country Club for a buffet dinner celebration of Joyce Faulkner's 80th birthday, and businessman and philanthropist Jim Faulkner made sure just about everyone but Joyce knew about it.
So she couldn't know that the Benton High School Marching Band would "crash" the party to play a few selections, or that her husband was going to announce the Faulkners' $50,000 donation to the high school to establish the Joyce P. Faulkner Band Scholarship at the school.
The scholarship is designed for a graduating senior and Benton High School band member who plans to major in music in college. Joyce Faulkner, who graduated from the school in 1952, was first-chair clarinetist during her senior year.
It's not the first gift to the school the Faulkners have been instrumental in. In May, she and her fellow alumni donated a 9-foot-long bronze panther in honor of the school's mascot. The sculpture now graces its main entrance.
High Profile on 07/13/2014