The Greater Victoria Sports Hall of Fame (GVSHF) is looking to help more local athletes.
For the last nine years they have partnered with the Bate family to award the The Bate Family Greater Victoria Sports Hall of Fame Award.
The award is given every year to a first year University of Victoria varsity student athlete who played for a Greater Victoria high school. To qualify students must also maintain an 80 per cent average. The award also comes with a $2,500 scholarship.
Oak Bay High graduate Lachlan Kratz won this year.
GVSHF President Doug Jennings said that his organization is interested in trying to recruit more partners.
“The idea is to look for community patrons who are interested in supporting sport in our Greater Victoria community,” Jennings said. “That’s how this one got started, through the Bates family – David and the family they partnered with us, and we partnered with the university in terms of establishing this scholarship.”
The scholarship portion of the Bate family award is funded through an endowment – meaning the scholarship money is sourced from the interest on an investment.
“If there are other members of the community that instead of just making a donation, would like to talk about establishing a similar type scholarship for sport – we’d be happy to talk with them,” Jennings said.
He went on to say that the GVSHF is open to partnership that would target other schools besides UVic, so long as the project would help support locally-raised athletes who spend their post-secondary careers here.
Anyone interested is encouraged to reach out through the contact page at gvshof.ca.
jesse.laufer@oakbaynews.com
