Long-time donor’s Caribbean Friendship Event raises funds for UOIT student scholarships

Close to 600 guests recently gathered at the residence of philanthropist Grant Morris in Pickering, Ontario for an event to raise funds for University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) student scholarships and bursaries.

Since 1997, the independent planning and development consulting firm Grant Morris Associates Ltd., has hosted The Caribbean Friendship Event as a way to give back to the community. For the past seven years proceeds from the event have been donated UOIT to help young people achieve their dreams of higher education. To date, Grant Morris has pledged $472,000.

The funds support the Grant Morris Caribbean Friendship Event Award; the Ontario Graduate Scholarship, supported by the Grant Morris Caribbean Friendship Event; and the capital contribution that supports the Grant Morris-Caribbean Event Family classroom. Thanks to the leadership of Grant and his wife, Patricia Sammy, three deserving full-time UOIT students will each receive $1,300 in financial support, and one full-time graduate student will be awarded a $15,000 scholarship.

Grant has also found other creative ways to invest in student success. For his birthday, he requested his guests make a donation to UOIT in lieu of gifts generating more than $5,000 toward his pledged donation.

"On behalf of our students, our faculty and staff, and the entire university community, I would like to express UOIT's deep appreciation of Grant's inspiration and imagination, and his ongoing investment in the university," said UOIT President Tim McTiernan, PhD. "UOIT will continue to produce a new type of graduate - a highly engaged citizen leader with an ignited passion for intellectual pursuit and discovery, who is prepared to excel in the modern workplace."