A family legacy set up in 2009 continues to help students who are working towards becoming nurses in the Peace Country.
The Joseph F. Reder/Hansen Fund with the Community Foundation of Northwestern Alberta has touched the lives of students such as Nicole Phillips, who completed the last semester of her nursing degree and began her career at the Valleyview Health Centre.
“The Community Foundation of Northwestern Alberta’s Awards Program has helped significantly decrease the financial burden of post-secondary fees over four years. I am very thankful for such a great foundation and all of the donors that make these awards possible,” says Phillips.
Recipients of the Joseph F. Reder/Hansen Fund
The Hansen Family set up the Joseph F. Reder/Hansen Family Fund in memory of Joseph, born in Saskatoon in 1912 and who passed away in 2004, having watched the world change before his eyes.
Joseph met his wife Jean, a nurse at the Saskatoon City Hospital, in 1932. They married in 1935 and settled down to raise their daughter, Carol. Nurses became an even more important part of the Reder’s lives in the ‘40s when Jean became ill and spent time in the Saskatoon Hospital and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, New York. They made it through the tough times and in 1973 retired, continuing to enjoy travelling, gardening and visiting their grandchildren in Grande Prairie.
When choosing to honour their father and grandfather, the Hansen family found it fitting to establish a fund with the Community Foundation of Northwestern Alberta for a program that not only touched their family, but is important to the whole community.
The fund is focused on helping students at Grande Prairie Regional College’s Bachelor of Science nursing program, with a priority given to those not receiving any other funding and who intend to work in the Peace Country for at least one year upon completion of the program. Since 2009, the fund has assisted 14 students with their post-secondary dreams.
You can make a difference in our community – not only for today but forever. When you make a donation to the Joseph F. Reder/Hansen Fund, we invest that gift into a permanent endowment fund and the original gift is never spent. Earnings from your gift are distributed to a student award to a student attending GPRC in the nursing program. Donations can be made online here – https://www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/41455 or by calling the Community Foundation at (780) 538-2820.
