Patricia Paterson Family Bursary

Patricia has had a keen interest in education not only for herself but for the health and welfare of those she taught.
Born in Scotland to a mother from Moncton, New Brunswick and met her Scottish husband who was training in New Brunswick with the Royal Air Force. She was in Scotland for only a few weeks before her mother returned to Canada.
She attended the University of New Brunswick, received her teacher’s certificate shortly thereafter and taught for a year in Moncton before heading for Toronto. She taught at the Junior High School in Forest Hill and at Brockton High School located behind Bloor College. It was here that she met her husband, Peter Grabowski from Berlin Germany, whose interest in woodworking led to a teaching job. Patricia was an independent woman and unlike many married women of the time, she chose to keep her maiden name.
Peter’s high school tech class at Brockville High School in 1971 constructed wall sections for a cottage he had plans for. They were transported to Reay Lake in Gravenhurst where the the fabricated cottage was erected at the lakeshore of Reay Lake and he completed most of the work himself to save money. An addition in the late 1980’s expanded the cottage to 2,000 square feet making is suitable to live year round and so they moved to Reay Lake in 1992.
Teaching afforded them the opportunity to work for 4 years and take the 5th year off for travel. They took camping equipment and travelled around the coast of the United States before settling on a winter location in Florida, east of Tampa, due to its proximity to ‘a nice golf course’.

Patricia finished her teaching career in Muskoka and knew there were families struggling to provide for their children. She had a specific interest in those children who were ‘plodders’ because they were often successful once they learned how to study.
Life skills were not a focus of the educational system but Patricia had benefited from those skills. She was a saver and invested in the stock market, believing that over time this would help supplement any pension received in the future. Her first stock was BCE and each year another stock or two was added to her portfolio. Peter was also a saver and the life skills such as woodworking, investing and money management would be important to their future.
Education continued to be important and she continued to take courses and read not only for enjoyment but to learn.
Patricia is passionate about golf, bridge and the importance of an education. When she learned of the Rotary Bursary Endowment Fund through articles in the local paper she chose to support a cause of helping students such as you to be the very best you can be!
You are benefiting from the life skills she acquired and an interest in helping families in the neighbourhood she lives in.
Someday in the future she hopes you get that education you are striving for and you too will give back to your community and help make it a better place to live!

Patricia donated shares from her investment portfolio and saved taxes and contributed to the education of the Town’s students at the same time….brilliant!