John Sokolowski has made a $50,000 donation to help build a new early childhood education classroom at Okanagan College (OC) .
The classroom will be part of the OC’s new Health and Sciences centre, which is currently under construction at its Kelowna campus.
READ MORE: Okanagan College announces new fundraising campaign for health sciences centre
Sokolowski said the donation was made in honour of his mother Janina Sokolowski, who survived being held in a German concentration camp for two years.
“My mom was a champion of education for as long as I can recall,” says John.
“The gift to the college will help educate future early childhood educators, who can teach the values of acceptance and inclusivity from an early age.”
Janina grew up in a one room home in Poland with her three sublings and was forced to drop out of school at the age of 12 to escape poverty. Through adversity and determination, Janina later immigrated to Canada for a better life.
The 18.9 million health sciences sentre at OC is expected to be completed late this spring. For more information on the project, you can visit OC’s website.
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