A late SD78 teacher has willed a considerable bequest to the Fraser-Cascade School District.
The district recently announced that Allen Porter’s estate has given them a donation of $40,000, which will go towards maintaining and creating cultural activities for SD78 schools.
“Projects for various cultural activities whose focus is expanding students’ learning have now gone ahead with the funding from Mr. Porter’s estate, and others will proceed in the next school year,” the district stated.
Porter, who passed away in 2021 at the age of 79, was a former teacher of Yale Elementary School, a Hope-area school that last operated in 2006 before closing down due to a reduction of students in the area. The building was later offered as a rental space to the Yale and District Ratepayers’ Association for a yearly fee.
Porter served in the school district for 24 years.
So far, funds from Porter’s estate have funded several projects in Hope, Boston Bar, Agassiz, and Harrison Hot Springs.
In Boston Bar, students will benefit from an $8,000 gift to plant a garden with local elders. Thanks to the bequest, Hope Secondary School students have funding for a variety of field trips, including to the Tashme Museum, Chilliwack Cultural Centre and to the anthropology museum at the University of British Columbia.
Meanwhile in Agassiz-Harrison, the funds have been used for a grand piano for Agassiz Elementary Secondary School, a middle-school theatre program in Agassiz and a theatre workshop at Harrison Hot Springs Elementary School.
The Fraser-Cascade School District is accepting additional submissions from schools until the $40,000 is entirely spent.
Porter was originally from Hoquiam, Washington, graduating with a degree in music education at Washington State University in 1964. He taught in Ketchikan, Alaska before moving to B.C., where he held positions in Prince George and Mackenzie prior to moving to Hope in the 1970s.
Porter is survived by his sister, Barbara and a number of cousins in Washington.