75 Candles for 75 Years

School with a ‘strong history of pitching in’ launches fund-raising campaign for tuition assistance

February 26, 2020 | News | Volume 24 Issue 5
Janet Bauman | Eastern Canada Correspondent
Kitchener, Ont.
David Martin, right, executive minister of MC Eastern Canada, announced a $250,000 grant from the regional church for tuition assistance for students from the regional church’s first-generation Canadian congregations, at the Rockway Mennonite Collegiate’s Founder’s Day Chapel, celebrating the 75th birthday of the school. The grant was gratefully received by Ann L. Schultz, left, Rockway’s current principal, on behalf of the school. (Photo by Yuanpei (Robin) Xiang)

Citing a “strong history of pitching in” at Rockway Mennonite Collegiate, David Martin, executive minister of Mennonite Church Eastern Canada, announced a $250,000 grant to Rockway, with the vision of making the school more accessible for students from the regional church’s first-generation Canadian congregations. 

Inspired by the grant, Rockway launched a year-long fundraising campaign of its own, called 75 Candles for 75 Years, to raise an additional $270,000 in tuition assistance for students from MC Eastern Canada congregations.

Christine Rier, Rockway’s director of advancement, announced the school’s Founders’ Day Online—Day of Giving on Feb. 14 to kick off the campaign. As donations were received toward the goal of 75 donations for 75 years, “vintage gems” from the Rockway vault were “unlocked” and shared through the school website and social media.

The first gem was a “musical treat” from a boy’s quartet called the Rockway Four from 1960. Others included footage from the 1987 Christmas concert and the 1996 musical production of The Sound of Music.

Rockway will continue to unlock remaining videos from the vault, and the campaign will continue through the year.

“Just as in 1945, our community is coming together to share the gift of Mennonite high-school education, which is as relevant today as it was then,” said Ann L. Shultz, principal, in a news release from the school.

Do you have a story idea about Mennonites in Eastern Canada? Send it to Janet Bauman at ec@canadianmennonite.org.

Related story:
Rockway celebrates 75 years

David Martin, right, executive minister of MC Eastern Canada, announced a $250,000 grant from the regional church for tuition assistance for students from the regional church’s first-generation Canadian congregations, at the Rockway Mennonite Collegiate’s Founder’s Day Chapel, celebrating the 75th birthday of the school. The grant was gratefully received by Ann L. Schultz, left, Rockway’s current principal, on behalf of the school. (Photo by Yuanpei (Robin) Xiang)

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