A Truly Special Event

It’s clear the relationship between Allin Foulkrod and Ellen Klingler is special.

Klingler is assistant vice chancellor for university special events at NC State. Foulkrod (’92) founded Raleigh-based Creative Visions, a total event solution provider, as a student.

Together, over the last several years, they have partnered to transform the university’s graduation ceremonies, key athletics events and major development and advancement celebrations, becoming friends in the process.

Foulkrod — who received a Meritorious Service Award from the NC State Alumni Association last month during Red and White Week — and his wife, Barbara, have honored that friendship by making a gift to NC State that will support the important work done by Klingler’s group.

The Foulkrod-Klingler Endowment will provide funds for professional development opportunities for the university’s special events team, which he calls memory makers connecting the power and passion of the Pack.

“I never in my wildest dreams thought that our working together on projects would impact the university in this way,” Klingler said. “We’ve changed the way the university uses special events, and that’s very impactful, but he recognizes that we need to be able to support our people as well going forward.”

The entrepreneurial bug bit Foulkrod young. He traces it back to third grade, when his teacher at Brooks Elementary School gave him a job setting up audiovisual equipment she would need to teach each day.

Later, as a student at Broughton High School, he started his first business, which after graduation led to a year as national president of DECA. He spent a year of travel and public speaking, leading the then-180,000-student organization before enrolling at NC State.

“I saw the advantage of being someone who could solve problems, troubleshoot and creatively find a way to get something done,” Foulkrod said.

His next business would build on the skills he had developed. His freshman year in Metcalf Residence Hall, his next business was born. The name, Creative Visions, came from a client who told him she had hired him to create her visions.

When the opportunity arose early in his career to partner with NC State, it was the perfect fit.

“NC State, and especially under Chancellor [Randy] Woodson’s leadership, is truly one of the greatest public institutions in the nation,” Foulkrod said. “It’s the community, the university and the corporate world, all together.

“It touches all of us — there’s just no one that escapes the impact of the Pack.”

Fast forward to today, and he says he couldn’t be more proud of Klingler’s advance to assistant vice chancellor. Though it’s Klingler who calls Foulkrod a mentor, the admiration is clearly mutual. The two have worked together over the years with a passion for NC State’s mission.

“We’d dream together; she gave me permission to come back with the unexpected,” he said. “And yet, she would, in a measured way, dial in the project to be sure that it was always about the university’s donors or those who were attending the experience.”

As the Foulkrods thought about giving back, they thought about Klingler and about their own values. The couple hope to make a difference in the future while showing gratitude for a person and a place that inspired them. The two consciously think about inspiring generosity in the next generation, including their adult children and grandchildren, two of whom are NC State graduates.

“Our faith informs so many of the decisions we make,” Foulkrod said. “It’s about the heart and the ‘why’ — that is a very important part of our life.”

At NC State’s Day of Giving last March, with four generations of the Foulkrod family present, the Foulkrod-Klingler Special Events and Experiences Endowment was announced, providing funds for professional development opportunities for the university’s special events team.

While the endowment came as a complete surprise to Klingler, the Foulkrods’ generosity was no surprise to her.

“Having private support allows us to elevate our staff for the purpose of elevating NC State, and it also allows us to attract some of the best staff,” she said. “It allows us to think big about what we can offer the university.”

Special events at NC State have evolved to be much more than events, Klingler said. They have become opportunities for shared experiences and storytelling that reach people in very personal ways.

A gift to support the people behind these events is an evolution of its own — perhaps the first gift of its kind to NC State. While Klingler does receive some funding from the university for staff professional development, it isn’t always enough to go around, and this gift will provide more opportunities to her staff, she said.

In fact, Klingler gets a little emotional now when she talks about Foulkrod.

“He’s a very dear mentor and friend of mine at this point,” she said.

Foulkrod clearly feels the depths of that bond with Klingler as well.