$10 million from Peggy Britt brings a new park building and greenways to Chapel Hill
Bill Britt knew how a town runs.
Before he built a fortune, he spent his working days on municipal budgets, road plans and the many needs a town can’t yet afford.
He worked as assistant to the city manager in Raleigh, served as city manager of Sanford and Goldsboro, and later became town manager of Carrboro, the small town that shares a border with Chapel Hill.
Decades later, the foundation that carries his and his wife’s names has given Chapel Hill a $10 million gift that pays for exactly the kind of projects he used to see shelved.
The Bill & Peggy Britt Foundation gift will fund a new building at Cedar Falls Park and two greenway extensions. Without it, those projects had no money attached to them.
The Chapel Hill Town Council accepted the gift and voted to name the new facilities in memory of the Britts, who lived in Chapel Hill for more than forty years.
Their home sat on high, wooded ground in town, not far from the park that will now carry their name.
“Bill and Peggy built a life here, and we are incredibly honored that their legacy will make a difference for Chapel Hill residents for many generations to come,” said Mayor Jess Anderson.
She called the gift “a wonderful example of how philanthropy can create lasting benefits for an entire community.”
Both Britts were North Carolina natives, and both had worked for what they had.
Bill was one of eight children and served in the Army during the Korean War. Peggy Garner was the first in her family to go to college.
They met as students and married the next year. Bill moved through city halls across the state and earned a Master of Public Administration at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Then a failed business venture cost him $10,000, which was a crushing sum for a young public servant.
A friend suggested Amway. With a $25 start-up kit, Bill and Peggy set out to win the money back.
What followed went far beyond that. Over 43 years together in the business, the Britts built one of the largest Amway organizations in the world.
They reached its top rank in the United States and, later, in India. Their company, Britt Worldwide, trained and mentored thousands of independent business owners on several continents.
People who worked with them often described Peggy as the quiet strength behind Bill’s success.
She was also known in her own right for her ability to inspire people and for her commitment to giving.
Bill liked to say that success meant one person, or one situation, was better off because he had been there. Their network helped raise more than $32 million for Easter Seals over three decades.
Peggy outlived Bill by about eleven years.
In that time she created the foundation to carry on the causes that mattered to her, and she made sure its trustees understood what Chapel Hill and public service had meant to the couple. The foundation has carried out her wishes since her death.
This gift recognizes the pride and affection the Britts felt for the community they called home.
Most of the gift, $5.8 million, will cover planning, design and construction of the Bill and Peggy Britt Building at Cedar Falls Park, off Weaver Dairy Road.
This indoor pavilion will provide year-round space for wellness classes, recreation programs, and community meetings. It will replace the park’s outdated restroom building and add the indoor space the park lacks.
“This generous gift will add a great new amenity to one of our busiest parks, close to where the Britts lived in Chapel Hill,” said Parks and Recreation Director Atuya Cornwell.
The remaining $4.2 million will extend two trails.
The Campus Recreation Trail will reach from the N.C. Botanical Garden to Barbee Chapel Road. The Pritchard Branch Trail will connect West Cameron Avenue to Morgan Creek.
New markers on each greenway will honor the Britts.
“Those were high-priority projects in our Mobility and our Everywhere-to-Everywhere Greenway plan,” Anderson said.
Deputy Town Manager Mary Jane Nirdlinger said the trails move the town toward a simple goal: letting people get from all parts of town to where they live, work, and shop on foot or by bike. “It just improves people’s access to the whole town,” she said.
Bill would have recognized the problem the gift solves. Town Council member Melissa McCullough explained that philanthropy can cover what the budget cannot.
“We can’t afford to do everything we need to do, much less everything we want to do,” she said. “Critical needs have to get taken care of first.”
Anderson put it more plainly: “It’s a huge acceleration of these projects. Without the money, we would not have designated funding sources for them.”
Gifts this size are rare for a town.
“We really appreciate that there are people out there who are willing to make those kinds of gifts because it doesn’t happen every day,” Nirdlinger said.
Anderson also saw the gift as a reward for years of planning. “I think it’s a testament to all the good work we’ve done in Chapel Hill that we have these projects ready to go and waiting,” she said.
“And then when people do amazing, generous things for our community like this, then we can get moving and get things done.”
The Chapel Hill gift is part of a larger pattern for the foundation. Just weeks later, it gave $5 million to the UNC School of Government, where Bill studied, to create the Bill and Peggy Britt Legacy Endowment for Service and Public Leadership.
The endowment supports the Master of Public Administration program, a new undergraduate minor, and fellowships that place recent graduates in local governments.
It sets aside opportunities for veterans and for students with financial need, people whose path looks a lot like Bill’s.
“These are all public amenities,” Anderson said, “so we’re expecting and hoping that everybody enjoys them and uses them.”
For a couple who started with $25 and a reason to try, that may be the right tribute: a new place for neighbors to gather, and new trails to bring them there.