The donor: Theresa Dow
The gift: Raising $17,000 and climbing
The cause: Scholarships for high school students in Vancouver.
When Michael Dow was receiving seemingly endless medical treatments for cancer, one of the few bright spots was meeting so many of his former Grade 12 chemistry students.
Mr. Dow had been a long-time science teacher at three Vancouver high schools, winning praise from students for his unique teaching style, which was more like coaching. He died in May, 2017, at the age of 64 after a lengthy battle with a bacterial infection and a form of pancreatic cancer. After he died, his wife, Theresa Dow, wanted to do something in his memory. So she organized a fundraising gala last February to raise money to fund a scholarship through the Vancouver Foundation.
The event raised $17,000, enough to fund a $650 annual scholarship for many years to come. Ms. Dow plans to award the scholarship on a rotating basis at the schools where Mr. Dow taught; Magee, Britannia and Killarney Secondary Schools. She’s considering doing another gala to increase the overall amount so that more scholarships can be awarded.
“It’s just to keep his name and his memory alive. For me it was very important,” said Ms. Dow, 61, who is also a teacher. “He was just a super science guy.”
Paul Waldie