Image: Okanagan College
Three community builders will be honoured with Okanagan College’s highest honour later this spring.
Mollie QuilQuil Sneena Bono, Rick Thorpe and Patrick Waunch will be named Honorary Fellows of Okanagan College in June.
Bono has served multiple terms on council for the Okanagan Indian Band and has been an advisor for OK College’s regional advisory council in Vernon. She is currently a trustee for the Vernon school district and last year she received the Community Leadership Award.
Thorpe was an MLA for the Okanagan-Westside and Okanagan-Penticton ridings from 1996 to 2009. He served in the federal cabinet for eight years and was a member of the treasury board of Canada for nine years.
Thorpe was involved in the brewing industry before politics and helped reposition the B.C. grape and wine industry. Since retiring, he has served on many board of directors for local and provincial associations.
He notably created the Rick and Yasmin Thorpe and Friends Scholarship in 2006, which has awarded $112,250 to 53 OK College students.
Waunch has served as the chair for several construction associations, and has received the Canadian Construction Association Community Leader Award. He is the president and CEO of Kelowna-based Rambow Mechanical and holds Red Seal tickets in plumbing, steam fitting, gas fitting and other trades.
The Patrick Waunch Scholarship Award awards $3,500 each year to a mechanical trade apprentice at OK College. Waunch has long been associated with OK College, having served as chair of the program advisory committee.
“Each of these remarkable individuals has contributed significantly to our region, province and country,” OK College president Jim Hamilton said in a news release.
“They have done it in diverse ways and richly deserve the honour our College is bestowing on them.”
Including Bono, Thorpe and Waunch, 40 individuals have now been given the Honorary Fellows Award since its inception in 2006, all of whom can be found here.
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