WASHINGTON — June 29, 2021— The National Council of Textile Organization’s (NCTO) Fiber Council announces Rachel Crouse of Reidsville, N.C., as the recipient of the 2021 Paul T. O’Day Scholarship Award. She is the daughter of Sandra and Martin Crouse, who is employed by Unifi Inc.
Crouse graduated in June with high academic honors and achievements from Rockingham County High School. She will attend North Carolina State University in the fall. She plans to pursue a career as an engineer working to reduce the environmental impacts of the textile industry. She expressed: “I am extremely grateful to be the recipient of the NCTO Paul T. O’Day Scholarship as it will help enable me to fully focus on academics through college. With the help of this scholarship, I hope to graduate early and begin making an impact either through research within a graduate studies program or through my career.”
NCTO Fiber Council Chairman David Poston, president of Palmetto Synthetics LLC, commented: “We are pleased to recognize Ms. Crouse’s record of honors and achievements and passion for critical thinking and problem solving as we name her the 2021 recipient of our Paul T. O’Day Memorial Scholarship. On behalf of the Fiber Council, we congratulate Ms. Crouse and wish her continued success in her academic career.”
The scholarship program was created in 2014 in honor of Paul T. O’Day who served as president of the American Fiber Manufacturers Association (AFMA) for more than three decades. The Association merged with the National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO) in 2018, and NCTO’s Fiber Council now administers the scholarship program. Recipients receive a $5,000 award each year, totaling $20,000 for four years of study. Sons or daughters of NCTO’s Fiber Council member company employees are eligible to apply.
NCTO is a Washington, DC-based trade association that represents domestic textile manufacturers, including artificial and synthetic filament and fiber producers.
- U.S. employment in the textile supply chain was 530,000 in 2020.
- The value of shipments for U.S. textiles and apparel was $64.4 billion in 2020.
- U.S. exports of fiber, textiles and apparel were $25.4 billion in 2020.
- Capital expenditures for textiles and apparel production totaled $2.38 billion in 2019, the last year for which data is available.
Posted June 29, 2021
Source: The National Council of Textile Organization’s (NCTO)
