Currie/Baehr Family Endowment Fund
The Currie/Baehr Family Endowment Fund will offer personal development opportunities to at-risk youth who are seeking a better future. Support from the Fund is intended to encourage these young people and to help provide them with an opportunity to learn, grow, share and actively participate in building a future for themselves. And, as much as the Fund may have helped others, Karen and Alex have found their lives enriched immeasurably through their connections with Vancouver's youth.
About this fund
In 1993, Alex and Karen Currie celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary by creating a Fund to support the community in a permanent way. They established the Currie/Baehr Family Endowment Fund, the first Donor Advised Fund at the Vancity Community Foundation, developed with the help of David Driscoll, Executive Director of the Foundation at the time. To celebrate special occasions and to honour the lives of others, they now make donations to the Fund rather than buying gifts. Family and friends have been encouraged to do the same and receive a thank you letter and tax receipt from the Vancity Community Foundation.
Both graduates of the University of British Columbia in 1969 - Alex from the Faculty of Engineering and Karen from the Faculty of Agriculture -- they spent their early married years in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario. Returning to BC in 1981, Alex became active with Amnesty International both at the local level and on the Canadian national executive. As well, in Vancouver he supported Aunt Leah's Place as a board member. Karen was on the board of the Canadian Mental Health Association and was very connected to community outreach through her role as Vice President of Human Resources and the Environment at Vancity Credit Union. Both Karen and Alex are aware of and committed to the needs of our community.
Fund Criteria
Grants will be provided to community-based programs for youth in the Greater Vancouver area. Particular focus will be to support cross-cultural initiatives that develop self-esteem and promote self-reliance. Typically support would be provided to:
- skills training, particularly on the job
- arts projects or workshops
- cross-cultural development programs
- peer group support or financial initiatives
- community mentoring programs.
Previous Grant Recipients
- KB Woodward Elementary
- KidSafe
- One to One Children's Literacy Program
- Union Gospel Mission
- City Central Learning Centre
- Justice for Girls
- Potluck Cafe
- Take A Hike Foundation
- Aunt Leah's
Future Of the Fund
As well as ongoing generous support from family and friends, Alex and Karen have purchased a life insurance policy with the fund as beneficiary to ensure that the Currie/Baehr Family Endowment Fund will support youth in perpetuity.