Lindsay Core wants former Nicol Scholars to imitate some of the amazing generosity of the man who gave so many LCCVI graduates a financial hand up in post secondary education.

For the past 29 years, students at the Petrolia high school who have excelled in academics and have served their community have received $10,000 US scholarships from a fund set up by former Petrolia resident, Robert Nicol.

For Core, who won the scholarship with 15 others, it was a huge help.

“I finished undergrad degree with no debt… Starting out my adult life with zero educational debt was amazing.”

And it inspired her to continue the trend when she went back to get her masters degree.

“I worked first… so I could go back again without any debt.”

While the scholarship gave her a financial advantage, it also gave her inspiration to be generous. A number of years after receiving her scholarship, Doug English wrote a book about Nicol which she read and learned how “unbelievably generous” Nicol was.

In the last few years, as the investment market faltered, the Nicol Fund has depleted. This year, just three people received the award instead of the 15 in Core’s graduating year. So Core thinks its time to step up.

She’s set up a website (nicolscholarship.com) to encourage former scholars to help build the fund back up again.

People can go to the website to get information about the campaign and leave contact information. Core is working with the Petrolia Community Foundation to take in the donations.

“I can imagine my fellow Nicol scholars, at the 30 year anniversary of the fund, wanting to contribute,” she says.

“With 30 years of scholars… 20 years of scholars who are quite well established – they might want to contribute and they may be able to help their community.”

And while she was inspired to do this during the 30th anniversary, Core hopes it can become an ongoing project for Nicol Scholars to give back to the community.

“Eventually if every former scholar could donate… on an annual basis… I think it would be great if we could provide two or three different scholarships of $10,000 a year,” she says. “Two or three of those a year would be amazing.”