{"id":31925,"date":"2026-03-02T06:01:50","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T12:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/?p=31925"},"modified":"2026-03-02T06:01:50","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T12:01:50","slug":"eiu-effingham-county-alumni-and-friends-advocacy-group-launched","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/local-news\/31925-eiu-effingham-county-alumni-and-friends-advocacy-group-launched\/","title":{"rendered":"EIU Effingham County Alumni and Friends Advocacy Group Launched"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pdfprnt-buttons pdfprnt-buttons-post pdfprnt-top-right\"><a href=\"javascript: window.print()\" class=\"pdfprnt-button pdfprnt-button-print\" target=\"_self\" ><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/plugins\/pdf-print\/images\/print.png\" alt=\"image_print\" title=\"Print Content\" \/><span class=\"pdfprnt-button-title pdfprnt-button-print-title\">Print<\/span><\/a><\/div><p>Friday marked the launch of the EIU Effingham County Alumni and Friends Advocacy Group.<\/p>\n<p>EIU, in partnership with Paul Koerner of Koerner Distributor and other community leaders, launched the group. The new effort involves successful business leaders and professionals whose careers were shaped at EIU.<\/p>\n<p>Goals of the group include:<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;creating partnerships between EIU and Effingham County businesses and community leaders<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;strengthening professional and personal connections in the community<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;supporting EIU&#8217;s efforts to recruit students and athletes from the area<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;encouraging philanthropic opportunities that directly benefit EIU students<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;promoting the value of an EIU education to local families and businesses<\/p>\n<p>Guest speakers in addition to Koerner were EIU President Jay Gatrell, Interim Provost Holly Farley, and Vice President for Enrollment Management Josh Norman.<\/p>\n<p>Regular gatherings will be held to further the partnership.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Friday marked the launch of the EIU Effingham County Alumni and Friends Advocacy Group. EIU, in partnership with Paul Koerner of Koerner Distributor and other community leaders, launched the group. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7495,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>EIU Effingham County Alumni and Friends Advocacy Group Launched - Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/local-news\/31925-eiu-effingham-county-alumni-and-friends-advocacy-group-launched\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"EIU Effingham County Alumni and Friends Advocacy Group Launched - 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