At the  usual Monday afternoon Rotary  luncheon an unusual announcement was made by the Rotary Bursary Endowment Fund’s chairman, Ken Little.    An anonymous donor had provided the Rotary Bursary Endowment fund a cheque in the amount of  $100,000.00.   The announcement was received by a standing ovation of the club members.   The chairman noted this donation would provide for over $5,000.00 each year to be given in bursaries to needy students wanting to extend their studies, providing those studies lead to a degree, diploma or certificate.   The bursaries are also available to adults wishing to upgrade their skills.   Ken Little said a donation that did not expect any recognition of the donor, but given solely on the intent of the donor to support a cause of interest to them was  a tremendous expression of one’s generosity and should be applauded by all.

via – Cottage Country Now

Rotarian Dick Augustine, treasurer of the Rotary Club of Gravenhurst, accepts an anonymous donation of $10,000 to Rotary’s bursary endowment fund from bursary fund chair Ken Little during the Dec. 19 club meeting.

The Rotary Bursary Endowment Fund this week received a surprise gift of $10,000 from a local couple wishing to support the Rotary Club of Gravenhurst’s effort to provide post secondary opportunities for students in Gravenhurst.

The couple wished to remain anonymous.

The donation was gratefully accepted by bursary endowment fund chair Ken Little, who said it reflects the real spirit of the holiday season.

“The true spirit of giving comes alive at Christmas and Hanukkah as individuals and families give to each other and also to those they may never know,” said Little. “Charitable donations are determined by the interest of those who are giving. It may be their church, their old university, the local hospital or a charitable organization such as the Rotary Club of Gravenhurst and the Rotary Bursary Endowment Fund initiated two years ago. The bursary fund is dedicated to providing bursaries to needy Gravenhurst students wishing to have a post secondary education.”

Since the fund was started, it has grown by over 300 per cent, Little said.

This year the fund provided its first bursaries to four graduating students studying at four different colleges and universities in Ontario.

“If families know there is help right here we hope they will have a higher expectation of their children … and the child will have a higher expectation of themselves,” said Little.

This year the Rotary Bursary Endowment Fund also received 500 shares of CIBC stock valued at $70 per share. The stock may have been purchased for only $35, which would normally mean the owner would pay a large capital gain tax. However, Revenue Canada allows the donor to transfer the stock to a charitable organization like the Rotary Club of Gravenhurst and therefore not pay any capital gains. The donation is also tax deductible, Little explained.

Allyson Snelling
via – Cottage Country Now

CHARITY BALL. The Mayor’s Charity Ball was held at the new Terry Fox Auditorium at Gravenhurst Centennial Centre on Saturday, Oct. 22. From left are Richard and Christine Hall, deputy mayor Jeff Watson and wife Patti, Christine Miller and husband Norm. Photo by Bev McMullen

Amid the glitz and glamour of Mayor Paisley Donaldson’s Oct. 22 Charity Ball, a significant pledge was made to the Gravenhurst Rotary Bursary Endowment Fund.

At the ball, endowment fund chair and Rotarian Ken Little announced the fund had received an anonymous $40,000 pledge.

The pledge will be added to the more than $140,000 earmarked for the endowment fund, which disperses its interest to deserving students from lower income families in the form of post-secondary school bursaries.

“It capped a great evening to have a donation from an individual in Gravenhurst that supports the needs of children with a better university or college education,” said Little. “It’s the true spirit of giving when you give without any recognition for a sizable gift.”

Little said over the past year the Gravenhurst Rotary Bursary Endowment Fund has gained momentum. The Mayor’s Charity Ball helped to raise the profile of the fund even more among the 120 to 125 people who attended.

“More and more people know about it and know it’s a serious endowment fund that will support a lot of children in Gravenhurst forever,” said Little. “Someone could leave the event and say ‘it’s something that needs to be supported.’ You never know what will come (from) that later.”

During the event, Little spoke to the need of changing perceptions in the community.

“Many teenagers don’t expect to go off to post-secondary because they don’t have the money. If there’s opportunity and hope, maybe those expectations and perceptions will change,” said Little. “If we can provide hope, offer opportunity and change expectations of our residents in need, we will change the social fabric of our community.”

This summer, the endowment fund helped four students pursue higher education at Trent University, Nipissing University, Georgian College and the University of Waterloo with bursaries totalling $5,500.

The Mayor’s Charity Ball was held at the new Terry Fox Auditorium at Gravenhurst Centennial Centre. It featured music and dancing, mingling and gourmet food.

Allyson Snelling
via – Cottage Country Now

Rotary Bursary Endowment Fund chair Ken Little and secretary Brian Ferguson display the donation the Rotary Club of Gravenhurst received from the Christina Mary Hendrie Trust in Scotland.
Photo by Allyson Snelling

The Rotary Club of Gravenhurst has received a substantial donation to its bursary endowment fund from halfway around the world.

The club is the proud recipient of 10,700 pounds sterling or approximately $17,000 Canadian from the Christina Mary Hendrie Trust.

Perhaps just as intriguing as how this Scottish trust came to be is the story of how its contribution ended up in Muskoka.

In the fall of 2009, CBC Radio reported on a Scottish trust whose mandate is to distribute the interest to causes benefiting children and the elderly in Scotland and northern Ontario.

The local Rotary Club had recently established the Rotary Bursary Endowment Fund to provide opportunity and hope for post-secondary students from lower income families.

The fund’s chair, Ken Little, listened with interest to the CBC program. The timing could not have been better, he said.

After researching the criteria of the Scottish trust, the Rotary Club of Gravenhurst made an application stressing the club’s attempt to change the expectations of families in Gravenhurst for their children’s future.

“In an area so dependent on the cottage industry, where work is often seasonal and supported by unemployment insurance during the winter, the club wants families and children to know there is financial help locally for those wanting to further their education,” Little explained in his application. “It is easy to be discouraged if there is no expectation of you, no apparent opportunity and your perception of the future does not offer hope.”

The Scottish trust was about to offer encouragement.

Dick Augustine, treasurer for the Rotary Club, recently received a nondescript envelope in Rotary’s mailbox.

After opening it, he drove to Little’s office to share the news. The envelope contained a polite note asking for confirmation of its receipt and a cheque for 10,700 pounds sterling, drawn on the Royal Bank of Scotland.

“How simple! How Scottish!” said Little. “A simple note and the equivalent of $17,000 Canadian from the Christina Mary Hendrie Trust.”

The trust was created in 1972 from the estate of Christina Mary Hendrie, the sister of Murray Hendrie.

According to the trust’s website, in 1904, somewhere in western Canada, Murray Hendrie walked into a bar and asked the barman to give him a bottle of whisky in exchange for a piece of paper he had in his pocket.

The paper was, in fact, the title deed to land in northern Ontario, received from the Canadian government following Murray’s return from South Africa where he had fought in the Boer War with the Allied Army.

The barman refused the offer, declaring the land to be worthless, mosquito ridden and desolate.

Fifty years after Murray’s death in 1914, prospectors found large deposits of zinc, copper and silver on the neglected land. Eventually the land was sold and a share of the proceeds was passed to the estate of his sister, Christina Mary.

Christina Mary died in 1950, noting in her will that the residue of her estate was to be left to charity.

The trust was created in 1972 and funds are distributed in accordance with what was understood to have been the wishes of Christina Mary, to the benefit of Scottish and Canadian charities, specializing mainly in the young and the aged.

Most of the trustees are family members from both sides of the Atlantic.

“To have the trustees of the Christina Mary Hendrie Trust support Rotary’s endeavour in Canada is a tremendous vote of confidence, and provides a sense of substance and credibility for those individuals locally who have thought about donating to this fund,” said Little.

He hopes area cottagers will consider making a donation to help change the futures of local students, some of whom have had academic averages as high as 85 per cent, but could not afford to go to university.

“We hope that the support of a lady from Scotland will encourage others locally to help us,” said Little.

Allyson Snelling
via – Cottage Country Now 

BURSARY BOOST. Rotarian Ken Little, chair of the Rotary Bursary Endowment Fund, accepts a donation of $25,000 from Ev and Florence Doherty on behalf of the Doherty family at Monday’s club luncheon. The funds will be used to assist needy Gravenhurst students in pursuing post-secondary education.

As monetary support continues to roll in for the Rotary Bursary Endowment Fund, Gravenhurst Rotarians were pleasantly surprised by a bonanza gift in the shape of a $25,000 pledge.

On Monday, during the weekly Rotary Club of Graven­hurst luncheon, Ev Doherty, retiree and PineRidge resident, pledged the funds on behalf of the Doherty family.

He passionately spoke about his early life as a barefoot farm boy and recalled his experiences with receiving assistance as a needy student, and the benefits of giving generously as an adult.

Doherty talked about education being a way out of poverty and told of several personal incidents where he was assisted by individuals when he had neither the money nor the means to continue his schooling. He credited his success to the generosity and care of others.

Doherty is a former vice-president of Purina and also was president of Cold Springs Farm. He and his wife Florence came to Gravenhurst nine years ago.

“They met at university,” said Ken Little, chair of the educational endowment fund. “He only got there only because of help from a local farmer and later from a professor at the university.”

With the Doherty donation, more than $100,000 has been committed to the endowment fund.

Rotary made an initial donation of $25,000 and pledged an additional $5,000 in each of the next five years. There have also been several smaller donations made, explained Little.

“People have stopped me on the street,” he said. “We’re very grateful that this has received such generous support from people in the community.”

The Rotary Bursary Endow­ment Fund has been created to assist Gravenhurst students in pursuing post-secondary education by distributing assistance from the interest on the investment. For example, interest on the Doherty pledge will be dispersed annually to a needy student in the family’s name.

Little called the Doherty pledge “very generous and kind,” adding it is coming to the fund through stocks Doherty owns.

The value of donating stocks, said Little, is that the owner doesn’t pay capital gains and also gets the full value of the stocks in a tax receipt.

“It’s a tremendous way to donate for those who have shares of a company,” said Little.

Although the club has not set a fixed goal, to help 20 students a significant amount of money is required. The club is hoping to provide between $5,000 and $7,000 to each person wanting to improve their education. The first bursary is expected to be awarded in 2011.

In order to qualify for the bursaries, an individual must be living in the Gravenhurst area, or attending school in Gravenhurst. Those living in town and attending catholic schools would qualify. Individuals from town wanting to update their skills by taking certificate courses also qualify. In every case, recipients must be in financial need of a bursary.

“We want to change expectations by changing perceptions and creating an opportunity,” Little previously said. “We want to change the future of children in this community by offering hope to families and their children for a better education.”

Gravenhurst is one of the lowest income areas in the province many families believe their
children will not have the opportunity to attend a college or university because of their financial
plight. From an early age many children realize there is an expectation of them to gain a higher
education. Regrettably, in some families with lower incomes, the parent’s perception is that any
opportunity to obtain a higher education for one child, let alone two or three, is just not realistic.

The Rotary Club wants to change expectations…by changing perceptions and creating an
opportunity.

The Rotary Club has initiated the process by creating the ‘Rotary Bursary Endowment Fund’ and
making an initial donation of $25,000.00, with a promise of an additional $5,000.00 in each of
the next 5 years. The Rotary Club has also undertaken to act as a catalyst in the development of
this educational Endowment Fund.

Of the 75 students that will graduate from Gravenhurst High School this year, about 20 to 25 will
require financial help that their families are not able to provide.

The bursary’s will be available to students who attended school in Gravenhurst or students living
in Gravenhurst but studying elsewhere such as Catholic students going to school in Orillia or
Bracebridge. It is also available to those adults wishing to upgrade their skills. All studies must
lead to a diploma, degree or certificate to qualify.