Each year, TRU hosts the Day of Giving, a fundraising event dedicated to improving students’ lives and providing necessary support. From investing in laboratories and research to championing the TRU WolfPack, donations received at the annual Day of Giving go a long way in reinforcing TRU’s goal of academic achievement.
This year’s Day of Giving was held on Feb. 27. For the first time since it began, the fundraising campaign was condensed to 24 hours instead of the regular period of two business days. Where the goal of the 2024 campaign had been to raise $48,000 in 48 hours, this year’s goal had been significantly higher: $50,000 in a single day. Despite the condensed time frame, the Kamloops community came together, raising more than $100,000 in just 24 hours, a significant increase from previous years.
According to Jessica Petruk, a senior communications consultant at TRU Advancement, the annual goals could continue to increase depending on whether the community continues to show up for students during these campaigns.
Donors at the event were invited to choose their cause and presented with options from funding scholarships, supporting the school’s sports teams, donating to wildfire research and finally, a cause dubbed “areas of greatest need,” which is directed at student support, research, special initiatives and more.
Since its inception, the Day of Giving has been an important event in supporting and advancing TRU students. Of all causes, most donations went to scholarships, bursaries and awards. Last year, these financial supports totalled about $2.2 million in donor funds awarded to students. The TRU Foundation distributes donations from events like this to support at least a thousand students annually, per Petruk.
Samantha Jo Haire, a fourth-year biology major, received a bursary in 2022. The support it offered her, she said, completely transformed her university experience.
Before the bursary, Haire had been struggling with the financial burden of school, juggling high work hours with her classes. As a result of the added stress of work, Haire said she had not been doing as well in her first year as she had hoped. Her decision to apply for financial aid came after some personal incidents in 2022 that threatened not just her grades but her ability to attend classes altogether.
The bursary application process, according to Haire, had been fairly simple. Applying through the myTRU portal, she was mainly asked questions concerning her GPA and financial struggles.
“I explained everything that was going on with me,” Haire said. “Both financially and mentally. I was like, ‘I kind of can’t handle this, and I may have to drop out.’ They reached out and said, ‘We’ll fund you [a certain] amount over the course of your degree.’ So most of my tuition is paid for, and most of that money does come from the Day of Giving.”
Today, Haire is not only on top of her classes but is also active in the TRU community. In addition to serving as a member-at-large in the TRU Students Union, she is an intercultural ambassador, works in the university’s Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Anti-racism, and is a member of the Anti-Discrimination and Harassment Strategist Committee. She believes that all of her achievements would have been significantly more difficult to obtain without the financial aid she received from the university.
“We hear often that the impact is not only monetary,” Petruk said. “It can be motivation to keep going, to keep following a dream or passion. It can inspire them to give back to their community [and] strive to give back in the future. Sometimes, it means making up the difference so they can complete their education. The impact is undoubtedly far-reaching.”
Beyond financial aid, donations from the Day of Giving have invested in important laboratories like those in the School of Nursing, the School of Trades and Technology, and the Faculty of Science.
According to Petruk, the university’s donors can be credited with some of the state-of-the-art equipment present in these laboratories.