How this local foundation is supporting the Okanagan valley and beyond

• Recent $1.25 million gift to UBCO
• New UBCO dining hall named in honor of the foundation
• Has made significant contributions to health education

Colin Pritchard met a fellow lawyer one day who was doing work in Ethiopia, and decided to join him on the trip.

It was there he saw what poverty was actually all about, and it’s what inspired him to start his foundation.

The Colin & Lois Pritchard Foundation has done work across the Okanagan, with the commitment to improve lives not only in the valley, but in the province and globally as well.

The foundation has contributed to health education at the University of British Columbia Okanagan (UBCO) many times.

“In the last 10 years, they have contributed to a simulation lab, to scholarships for students, research projects for students and faculty, work in cancer, it’s been a really holistic and wide ranging series of things they’ve worked on,” Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Principal of UBC's Okanagan campus, Lesley Cormack, told Kelowna10.

A $1.25-million gift was recently given to UBCO by the foundation, which will create two new endowment funds to support generations of nursing students and fellowships linked to clinical research.

“This funding will support nursing students, both those who have come from Okanagan college and are transferring to UBCO, and those who are starting at UBCO,” Cormack said.

She added there’s a shortage of nurses at the moment, and there’s a need to support students as they become nurses and really help to improve health outcomes here in the Okanagan and beyond.

“UBCO is only 17 years old, and where we have gone in 17 years is just astonishing, and is only possible with alumni like Colin Pritchard,“ Cormack said.

UBCO’s newest eating facility, the Pritchard Dining Hall, has been named to honour the Colin & Lois Pritchard Foundation.

“I was humbled and honoured that they wanted to do that. I have a very close connection with UBC campus, so it just further binds me to that campus and the work that I’ve done and will continue to do in the future there,” Colin Pritchard said.

Looking back on his life, Pritchard said that he was born under a lucky star. He was able to accumulate some wealth, and he added that you can’t take your wealth with you.

“You might as well do something to help those that weren’t born under the lucky star, so it’s a matter of sharing at the end of the day,” Pritchard said.