about the Enrichment Fund Society
Roger McKay, Vice-Principal SOSS 1966 - 1996
Wife Gunhild McKay and children
Spencer - SOSS Class of 1986
Cameron - SOSS Class of 1989
Alison - SOSS Class of 1991
In the beginning, as told by Roger
Back in the day, I used to go to work early. In fact, most days I was at my desk before 6am. I did this so I could get some paperwork and some reading done before the hectic part of the day began.
One morning I was reading an article about a high school in West Vancouver {Sentinel I think} that was trying to start an endowment fund to financially help their graduates with post-secondary education. My immediate thought was that we could and should do that here. I knew it could be successful because a few years earlier when I started the SOSS Alumni Association, we found that a large percentage of our grads had positive feelings about "their school", therefore we could expect many positive reactions.
When Don Wallace, Principal of SOSS 1980 – 1998, arrived at work that morning I floated the idea to him--he thought the idea was a good one and asked if I wanted to pursue it. And so it began!!
The first person I talked to was Terry Killough who was the District's Secretary Treasurer. Terry was the "money man" of the school district and I wanted to see if he would support my idea and what thoughts he might have. His response was very positive.
The next move was to call an initial meeting of people who I knew were supporters of SOSS. People like, Bill Ford, Dave Wight, John Echlin, Linda Schaffrick, Beth Garrish etal. We met in the SOSS staff room after dinner one evening--the response was totally positive. As a result, we agreed to call more people and meet again.
I asked Ernie Dumais, John McCarthy, Greg Norton and others to join us.
Our second meeting was in room 35 at SOSS. I have to say a lot of brainstorming took place. We had been using the word "endowment" which really meant money. Greg Norton suggested we use "enrichment" instead. His thinking being that gifts to the school could be material things as well, such as computers, score clocks, or machinery for the Tech-ed Department. The group, that night, adopted the word Enrichment---and so it began.
Our next meeting was upstairs in the sewing room--we needed more space as others became involved. John McCarthy managed to get some Okanagan College fund raising people who gave us ideas and contacts.
We knew we were going to have to become a registered society. I also knew we needed a talented person to take on the leadership as we moved in that direction. I approached Janet Shaw and asked her if she would take on that task. Thankfully she said yes!! Knowing that we would be dealing with lots of "legalese" I asked Jack Frank to come on board and again thankfully he said he would!
With Janet and Jack on board I asked for a meeting with District Superintendent, Brian Fox, and the trustees. We met, I introduced Janet as our Chairperson and Jack as our lawyer. I gave the trustees an outline of our goals and plans. They thought it was great and agreed to incorporate the funds they held in trust for scholarships into our society when it was formed. AND AWAY WE GO!!
FIRST BOARD OF DIRECTORS &
START UP FUNDS
March 1994 saw the following individuals, Janet Shaw, Beth Garrish, Jack Frank, Russ Fox, John Echlin, Ernie Dumais, Greg Norton, Dave Lindsay, Dave Wight, Roger McKay, John McCarthy, Bill Ford, Bill Barisoff, Terry Wells, Jack Tait, Morey Thomas, Denise Thomas, Vic Casorso, Frank Stariha, and Sue Kelly join together to outline procedures and timeline to establish a society.
In January 1995 the Society's fund was $26,000.00.
In 2000, Norm Francis, in memory of his parents, Blaine and Alice Francis of Oliver, donated $100,000 to the Society, with 2/$2500 scholarships first awarded June 2001.
In 2015, the current directors hosted a wine and cheese, inviting donors and past members to recognize the 20th anniversary of the Society and celebrate the success of the Enrichment Society.
The Directors of the Society are volunteers from our community, who utilize the professional administration of the Vancouver Foundation and the Community Foundation of the South Okanagan for the actual fund management. We provide scholarships based on a secure endowment fund that will guarantee awards every year.
The board is committed to preserving and increasing the size of the capital endowment. Over 500 graduating SOSS students have received financial assistance since 1995. The class of 2023 received awards totalling over $37,000.00.
PRIMARY FOCUS
The role of the Southern Okanagan Secondary School Enrichment Fund Society is to offer financial assistance to graduating students who are pursuing post-secondary education. Various scholarship, trust and memorial funds make annual scholarships available to all students demonstrating excellence in their chosen field of academic, technical, trade, or vocational training.
The average cost of attending a post-secondary institution could be close to $19,000 per year. The following website outlines some of the post-secondary costs. The cost of a Canadian university education in six charts | Maclean's Education (macleans.ca)
Southern Okanagan Secondary School has been helping to shape the futures of our young people since 1948. We continue to take pride in the success of all our graduates.
The need for higher education is a necessity. It is, in our community’s and society’s best interest, to support the educational aspirations of all our students.