
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, April 2, 1995                   TAG: 9504150010
SECTION: HOTEL ROANOKE                    PAGE: 5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

RENEW ROANOKE SOUGHT GIVERS BIG AND SMALL

Community response to fund-raising efforts for Hotel Roanoke was "remarkable when I think back on it," said Tom Robertson, who led a campaign that accounted for $7 million of the $27.5 million project.

He didn't enjoy going hat-in-hand to businesses, he said. He didn't always emerge with as much as he asked for, and sometimes he got no donation at all. But he thinks the reason so many businesses opened their pockets was the number of small contributors who came forth.

The project was just the right combination of "nostalgia and sound business reasons" to work, Robertson said.

Robertson, who is chairman of Carilion Health Systems, supported the project from the beginning because his company needed meeting space like the conference center would provide. The Carilion board of directors gave $1 million to the project and loaned it another $1 million. Carilion already has four events booked there, and Robertson intends to promote the project with several statewide and regional health groups of which he is a member.

The Renew Roanoke campaign began in November 1992 and was run by Robertson with the help of Susan Reardon, a fund-raiser for Virginia Tech, and "lots of volunteers."

"What a community effort this was," Robertson said. "It was really a tribute to Roanoke and ought to get rid of any inferiority complex it has."

by CNB