By Brennan Phillips
Special to the Western News
Penticton businessman David Kampe has donated $195,000 to the Penticton Secondary Schools Bursary and Scholarship Foundation and is encouraging others to show their support as well.
“I’m sure there are other individuals or businesses in the community who can come forward to support our youth and donate a scholarship of $200 to $5,000 or more,” said Kampe in a news release. “This could really give our financially challenged young people a helping hand.”
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Kampe’s donation will help students from lower income families enter post-secondary education or vocational training. Thirty bursaries of $5,000 each and 15 vocational awards of $3,000 each are being made available to 2018 graduating students, at Penticton and Princess Margaret Secondary School, who demonstrate a financial need. The donation from Kampe will effectively double the amount of award money the Bursary and Scholarship Foundation will be able to distribute this year.
The larger grants to those in financial need will help keep up with the rising costs of education.
“The significance of these new gifts is that they’re of a size that truly reflects the cost of a post-secondary education today,” said foundation president Bernice Grieg in the news release. “They are large enough to really make the difference between going on and not going on to post-secondary education or vocational training.”
Since it was founded in 1984, the Penticton Bursary and Scholarship Foundation has received donations from hundreds of individuals and groups.
The $5,000 bursaries will be the largest single awards the foundation will offer. In previous years, the largest offered was $3,000, with most of the awarded scholarships and bursaries falling in the $500 to $1,000 range.
Grieg said with the costs of post-secondary education skyrocketing, the large donation, and further support from members of the community, will help break down barriers to graduating high school students and their families.
Criteria for determining the successful recipients of the new awards is financial need, then a student’s character and school marks. Vocational priorities include students accepted in the School District 67 apprenticeship program, or who are currently employed in a trades program or plan to enter a two-to-four year technical program at a post-secondary institute.
The Penticton Secondary Schools Bursary and Scholarship Foundation is a registered charity and therefore all donations are tax deductible.