Founders’ Award

First a little background… some years ago, with the initial donation received from her son, Alex, in memory of Eleanor Maxwell, one of BVALL’s original founders and in honour of her commitment to lifelong learning, the BVALL Executive decided to set up a BVALL Founders’ Award to a graduate of Georgian Bay Secondary School, now GBCS, Meaford. This award was not intended, necessarily, for a top academic achiever but for a student whose curiosity as a learner consistently demonstrated an enthusiasm for expanding her/his knowledge – intellectually, socially, culturally and emotionally.

Funding for this award has consistently come from membership registration fees collected for our series. Each year we have been able to offer two awards of $1000 to graduating students identified by their teachers and following the criteria set out in the award’s intention. We continued the awards despite Covid cancellations and the subsequent decline in membership experienced by all lifelong learning organizations. To date the BVALL Founders’ Award has helped 20 grads with their continued educational pursuits!

Unfortunately, a drop in revenue these past years has resulted in two awards of only $500 each. While acknowledging that we are not a registered charitable organization, we very much want to reinstate the former award amount of $1000 to 2 nominated students.

This is where we need YOUR help. If you are able and interested, we ask you to help us continue to support these amazing high school grads in their journey of growth, of learning and experience.

Donations can be made below. We will also have a donation box available at our series. Thank you for helping us carry on with this Award for our community grads.