Roses to Dr. Hugh “Chip” McAllister Jr, who last week bestowed a staggeringly generous gift to UNC’s Ackland Art Museum and the McAllister Heart Institute at the UNC School of Medicine.

McAllister presented a $10 million gift to the two Carolina institutions in honor of his father and namesake.

The largest portion of the gift is a collection of artwork worth an estimated $5.5 million, the biggest gift of art in the Ackland’s history. It includes pieces by artists including Willem de Kooning and Albert Bierstadt, and is especially rich in art from the West and Southwest.

The gift totals more than 150 individual paintings, sculptures and artifacts. The museum will keep 50 of them in its permanent collection, and will sell the remainder to raise an estimated $2.5 million, which will go to the McAllister Hart Institute and cardiovascular researchers.

McAllister is contributing an additional $2.5 million to the institute.

Father and son both graduated from the UNC School of Medicine, 31 years apart, and went on to careers that took them to the top of their fields.

McAllister has contributed more than $18 million to the university during the past 15 years. His goal, he said, was simple.

“It’s my intent to annihilate atherosclerosis, the No. 1 killer of Americans,” he said.

 

Roses to the Chapel Hill-Carrboro YMCA for its decision to drop the idea of merging with the YMCA of the Triangle.

The merger proposal drew fire from some in the community because the YMCA of the Triangle doesn’t include sexual orientation in its nondiscrimination policy. The Chapel Hill-Carrboro YMCA does include that language.

Representatives of the local Y said the decision wasn’t based solely on that issue, or any other single issue, and that the Chapel Hill-Carrboro organization would continue to maintain a positive relationship with the Triangle one.

That’s fine. But we’re glad the Chapel Hill-Carrboro YMCA will retain control over its own nondiscrimination policies.

 

Roses to Chapel Hill High School social studies teacher Jennifer Ballew and the local government officials who collaborated to give students a closer look at what local government actually does.

Ballew organized Local Government Day at CHHS, and officials visited the high school to give students the opportunity to learn how government works from those who actually make it work, as opposed to reading about it in textbooks.

The students asked questions, and they saw that government is not some faceless machine but consists of actual people from a wide variety of backgrounds and viewpoints. Among other things, they also learned that what the government does affects their own families and their own lives. They learned, too, that they in turn have a voice in what the local government does

Valuable lessons all.

 

Roses to Lena Hu, 14, of Chapel Hill, one of just 15 students nationwide named winners of the 2012 Hands-On Explorer Challenge competition.

Her essay was chosen among more than 1,000 submissions from young explorers aged 9-12 in the competition organized by National Geographic Kids. She and her fellow winners will go on an expedition to Montana, accompanied by National Geographic staff.

Happy exploring, Lena!