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October 3, 2003
High school will be built
Entire $18.3 million was collected by the deadline.
KYLE BERGER REPORTER
The chair of the Vancouver Talmud Torah High School (TTHS) campaign
has officially announced that there will soon be a new school facility
at the corner of West 41st Avenue and Willow Street.
After years of hard work and a successful $18.3 million fund-raising
campaign, Jody Dales said the committee is very excited about finally
taking Jewish community education to a new level.
"We [in the committee] are so incredibly proud to have been
offered an opportunity to change the physical and spiritual landscape
of the Jewish community of Greater Vancouver forever," Dales
told the Bulletin. "The establishment of this fine institution
will provide every Jewish parent living in the Lower Mainland with
choices that they did not previously have."
The accomplishment of Dales, her co-chair Lorne Cristall and hundreds
of others who contributed to the campaign seemed even more substantial
as time became a factor earlier in the summer.
At the end of June, with a deadline of July 31 looming, the committee
was short approximately $1.6 million. Failure to meet the deadline
would have been devastating, as it would have resulted in the termination
of the Diamond Foundation's commitment to donate the $6 million
piece of land next to the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver
(JCC).
However, several donors who had already contributed to the campaign
stepped up and supplied the final $1.4 million with the caveat that
their additional funds would be repaid once the money is collected
from others avenues.
"While we anticipate that much of this money will come from
corporate gifts and government funds," Dales explained, "the
rest will need to be generated from the many community members who
indicated that their gifts will come when the high school is secured."
In the meantime, representatives of the new school will work on
the design of the building, while creating a structure of authority
in the form of boards and committees.
"The building committee will continue to meet regularly in
order to ensure that the high school structure is visually exciting,
of high-quality standards and constructed in a timely fashion,"
said Dales. "The high school administration, led by new principal
Perry Seidelman, is dedicated to creating a school of excellence.
Current policies, procedures, academic standards and Judaic curriculums
are being evaluated."
Of the $18.3 million raised for the project, more than one third
came in the form of the land title, another $2 million and $3 million
came from the Diamond Foundation and the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg
Foundation, respectively, as matching grants.
Significant community contributors included Sam and Fran Belzberg,
Arnold and Anita Silber, Ralph and Elaine Schwartzman, and Gary
and Diane Averbach, along with more than 450 others who donated
time and money.
The campaign was also aided by an agreement that the JCC would defer
part of the facility usage grant they are to receive through the
campaign.
"The generosity of so many people, some of whom have supported
the high school from its inception and some of whom have joined
in the effort now, created the foundation on which this dream was
built," Dales said. "The Diamond Foundation, Vancouver
Talmud Torah elementary school , the JCC and [the Jewish Federation
of Greater Vancouver] bought into the dream and presented the community
with a tangible campaign. And the dozens of individuals who committed
to making it all a reality and went out and sold the dream share
an equally significant part of the success."
Kyle Berger is a freelance journalist and graphic designer
living in Richmond.
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