The Foundation for Vancouver Public Schools has announced that the Ed & Dollie Lynch Fund gifted the Foundation a $1 million grant in support of the new trades center to be built on Hudson’s Bay High School’s campus. This generous gift closes out a $2.5 million campaign to bring this project to fruition.
Ed & Dollie Lynch had a passion for Vancouver. They loved the community and supported many programs in our educational institutions here in SW Washington. The Career, Trades, & Education (CTE) project the Foundation for VPS is working on with Vancouver Public Schools (VPS) is an example of the type of project they would support and so it is exciting to have the Ed and Dollie Lynch Fund at the Community Foundation of Southwest Washington step up to make this project a reality.
There is a dire need for skilled trade workers in our community and our schools have been doing their best to support this need. VPS has an incredible construction trades program, but program space is limited and unable to accommodate current student levels.
In January of 2023 Mark Wreath (Director of CTE at VPS) and Jenny Thompson (the Foundation for VPS Executive Director) met with The Endeavour Fund who were inspired by the work VPS is doing. Mark shared with them that the trades program needed a new building, so they decided to step up to launch a fundraising campaign with the Foundation for VPS to build this new building with a seed gift of $1 million dollars. When asked why they chose to give so generously they said, “The Endeavour Fund strives to ignite positive change that prioritizes youth and educational opportunities. The Endeavour Fund works collaboratively, seeking to empower our community to generate platforms for future generations.”
With an initial gift of $1 million dollars from the Endeavour Fund the Foundation for VPS began to seek $1.5 million dollars more to fund building a structure on Bay’s campus that not only strengthened the current construction trades program, but also gave the opportunity to offer a new pathway for students around maritime. One of the first advocates the Foundation for VPS met was Jon Girod of Quail Homes who was eager to support the efforts saying, “It is vital for our community that we offer as many opportunities for our young people to experience the trades in hopes that they will be inspired to make a career in the trades. And we as the trades community need to be active in this process, stepping up where we can because it will help us too.”
By June of 2023, the Foundation had raised $1.5 million of the $2.5 million needed to make the building a reality. The Foundation for VPS knew our community was excited about the project and our trades community was particularly eager to see this project come to life. The Foundation was ecstatic when it learned the Ed & Dollie Lynch Fund wanted to close out our fundraising, joining with The Endeavour Fund’s original gift of $1 million dollars.
Michael Lynch had this to say as to why they chose to support this project, “It was a longtime desire of Ed’s to have his legacy help open another skills center in our community. It’s with great thanks to the Vancouver Public Schools Foundation as well as the other amazing donors who have this same vision. We hope that the Vancouver School District is so successful with this project that they will need to create more of these facilities to meet the demand for our students and community.”
“Without the generosity of philanthropists like The Endeavour Fund and the Ed & Dollie Lynch Fund, projects like building a new structure for our students wouldn’t be possible or at least wouldn’t be possible as quickly. We are excited to support VPS in bringing this opportunity to our students and if all goes well, we will be opening this center for our students in the fall of 2024!” said Jenny Thompson, Executive Director of the Foundation for VPS.
The Foundation for Vancouver Public Schools is an independent, 501(c)3 educational non-profit corporation established in 1988 to support Vancouver Public Schools (VPS). Governed by a volunteer board of directors made up of business, community, and education leaders, the foundation creates opportunities to cultivate and inspire student success. As an educational non-profit entity, the foundation serves students at all 40 VPS schools and programs, providing direct aid to students facing learning barriers due to economic need, as well as financial assistance for learning enrichment and mentoring programs that cannot be funded by the school district. The Foundation for VPS is supported by donations from school employees, parents, students, community members, businesses and foundations.
