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Neil Etienne
The Gravenhurst Rotary Club has been given a new fundraising challenge to kick off 2013, with a $200,000 anonymous matching donation to the club’s bursary endowment fund. Club treasurer Dick Augustine hoisted the cheque during Rotary’s first meeting of the New Year Jan. 7 to show his fellow members the generosity while to his right bursary fund chair Ken Little made the announcement. Photo by Neil Etienne
Gravenhurst’s largest charitable fund is quickly churning toward its first million dollars.
This past Monday, Jan. 7, Gravenhurst Rotary’s Bursary Endowment Fund committee chair Ken Little announced through gentle tears another anonymous $200,000 donation to the fund has been received and if matched by Dec. 31, 2013, it means that $1 million mark will be left well in the dust.
It’s a similar challenge the club faced in 2012 when given the same amount by another anonymous donor, who stipulated the $200,000 had to be matched in community donations or the remainder had to be returned. With a deadline of April 2013, the club handily met their goal by mid-December for that challenge, but there’s no rest for the weary and the next is now before them.
Little explained the new $200,000 donation doesn’t have the catch the funds must be matched or the residuals returned, but any donations made up to Dec. 31 will be matched by the $200,000 until it is all spent. If successful, Little said that will push the bursary fund up from its current $850,000 to more than $1.25 million.
“It is my opinion that there is no greater expression of charity than a donation made by an individual or couple who do not seek any attention for their gift, (but) rather they find it important to support children in need and take great satisfaction in that alone,” Little said in praise of the anonymous donors.
Little said since its beginnings in 2009 when the Rotary club committed $50,000 to kick start the fund, it has grown in leaps and bounds to its current sum.
“In the beginning it was agonizing to have 11 deserving students apply for support and were only able to provide five bursaries,” he explained.
“From good, solid investments last year, we provided bursaries to 23 children and the equity in the fund is still greater than the donations received.
“But if we supported 20 students last year and another 20 graduating students this year need help, we may need to support as many as 60 to 80 students with a bursary during their studies,” he added, saying the average bursary granted thus far has been between $1,000 and $2,400.
The bursary provides financial support to local prospective post-secondary education students who otherwise would not be able to afford the education. Little said he has been thrilled with the success of the fund, particularly in the last two years when it has ballooned significantly thanks to the anonymous matching donations.
“We asked those in the community who are financially able to help change the perceptions, the expectations and the opportunities of a student in our community; the community has responded and continues to respond overwhelmingly to the need they have recognized in our town for years,” Little added.