Belleville, Ontario, May 27, 2016 – At the Annual Meeting of The Loyalist College Foundation on May 26, members learned that the endowed fund for student support stood at $9.2 million at March 31, 2016. Susan Scarborough was elected as Chair and Bernie Ouellet was elected as Vice-Chair for the upcoming year.
Kristin Crowe and Catharine Huff were elected to serve as Community Directors for the next three-year term. Other Community Directors include Donna Gowthorpe, Mark Rollins, John Sherratt and Margaret Werkhoven. Current College Board of Governors representatives include Board Chair June Hagerman, Natalie Bohnen-Twiddy, Bhavik Patel and Brian Smith.
Ex-officio Directors include College President & CEO, Maureen Piercy; Senior Vice-President Corporate Services & Chief Financial Officer, Cathy Rushton; and Executive Director of College Advancement & External Relations, Dianne Spencer.
Student support is a key goal of the Foundation. During the year, 379 awards were presented through the Foundation endowment, with a total value of $202,773. In addition to the awards from Foundation accounts, another $173,818 was made available through expendable awards, bringing the total presented to $376,591. This includes $117,000 from The W. Garfield Weston Foundation, for W. Garfield Weston Foundation Fellowships – an innovative program which is unique to Loyalist College, designed to increase interest and participation in careers in skilled trades.
In his remarks to members, Foundation Chair Bernie Ouellet recognized the significant contributions of the late Hugh P. O’Neil to the College. “We were saddened with the death of Honorary Director Hugh O’Neil on September 14, 2015,” he said. “Mr. O’Neil was a great supporter of the College, and led the College’s Foundations for the New Millennium Campaign in 1996-1998. That Campaign raised $3.1 million to support the College and College students – including $780,000 from the Ontario Student Opportunity Trust Fund (OSOTF), the first matching program established by the provincial government. The resulting boost to the endowment fund formed a strong foundation for additional donations through the years. Mr. O’Neil served as Honorary Chair of the Foundation from 1998-2012.”
Mr. Ouellet also commended College President Maureen Piercy’s support of the Foundation. “As College President Maureen Piercy prepares for her retirement at the end of August, I want to recognize her many contributions to the success of the Foundation during the past 11 years. Since 2005, the Foundation endowment has increased from $3.4 million to $9.2 million. President Piercy also played an integral role in the success of the most recent Capital Campaign for Loyalist College, which has now topped $7 million in total support.”
“Thank you to the Directors of the Foundation for your wonderful support through the years,” said President Piercy. “I want to add my thanks as well to our community donors for your support of students and programs at Loyalist College – as individuals, organizations and employers, you are important partners in the College’s continuing success.”
The Loyalist College Foundation was established in 1995 to provide leadership in meeting the goals for long-term development and fundraising to benefit the students and programs at Loyalist College.
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Media Contact: Dianne Spencer, Executive Director, College Advancement & External Relations,
Loyalist College, 613-969-1913, ext. 2235; email: dspencer@loyalistc.on.ca