‘Sheila was committed to young people and a well-rounded education,’ Ken Haycock said of his late wife, for whom he established the endowment.BEN NELMS/The Globe and Mail
The donors: Ken Haycock, Rick Haycock and friends
The gift: Raising $100,000 and climbing
The cause: Vancouver School Board
The reason: To fund arts programs
Sheila Tripp spent more than 30 years as an educator in Vancouver and won accolades for developing novel programs that helped students learn about music, theatre and the outdoors. She organized trips to theatres, four-day camping excursions and musical events.
Not long after she retired, Ms. Tripp was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and she spent her final weeks at home, planning more activities such as a mystery book club for some friends. She died in 2011 at the age of 64.
A year later, her husband, Ken Haycock, established the Sheila Tripp Endowment for the Performing Arts, a donor-advised fund that is managed by the Vancouver Foundation. Thanks to donations from Mr. Haycock's brother Rick and many friends, the fund has grown to more than $100,000. (Donor-advised funds issue tax receipts for gifts like charities do, but the money is managed by the foundation. Disbursements from the fund are made to other charities according to the wishes of the people who set it up).
Mr. Haycock has earmarked annual disbursements to the Vancouver School Board to help fund arts programs. So far, the fund has helped pay for artistic performances at more than 20 schools annually.
"Sheila was committed to young people and a well-rounded education, a deep belief that I share," said Mr. Haycock, a renowned academic who specializes in library and information sciences. "This is a relatively easy way to honour her legacy. I am amazed at the number of people who stepped forward to contribute. It obviously strikes a chord."
Paul Waldie