Scott Crosby Featured in the Commercial Appeal for Involvement in Kroc Center

December 27, 2009

Scott Crosby: Making the Kroc Center a reality

Scott Crosby, a distinguished attorney with Burch, Porter & Johnson, wouldn't seem the most likely person to show up every week at the Salvation Army's shelter for homeless women and children in North Memphis.

But on most Wednesday mornings of 2009 Scott was there, along with his wife, Meg. Together, the young attorney and the former executive with Google chaired the Salvation Army's fundraising campaign for the $85 million Kroc Community Center in Memphis.

Meg and Scott spent many long hours, organizing how to contact hundreds of Memphians who might be interested in donating to the Kroc Center.

By the end of this year, all fundraising for the center had to be in place. The Kroc Foundation pledged $60 million to the Memphis project -- on the condition that the local fundraising effort would chip in the other $25 million. Foundations provided a significant part of the local money, but Meg and Scott were still on the hook to raise millions.

And they did it. In the teeth of the worst economic downturn in decades, the Salvation Army announced just days ago that it had reached its fundraising goal for the Kroc Center. It will move forward this spring with construction of the showpiece that will provide world-class facilities for kids and families to play sports, learn about music and the arts, and do it all in a beautiful and spiritually enriching environment.

''Scott and Meg just did a marvelous job,'' said Salvation Army development director Elizabeth Duncan. ''They are energetic, enthusiastic and bright. They are all that you could want to help on a project like this. And the neat thing was that they brought in a whole lot of other people from their age group.''

Scott, who is 45, grew up in Memphis, attended MUS, and learned about the Salvation Army's good work from his mother, Nancy. For years, Nancy Crosby organized all the volunteer bell-ringers for the Salvation Army. When she died this fall, Scott and Meg noticed that the gifts to the Kroc Center fund began to grow faster as people across Memphis remembered Nancy's good works.

''Scott and I just want to be part of the solution in Memphis,'' Meg Crosby said.