The York School 2024/25 Year in Review - Donor Spotlight: Virginia Priscus and Julian Padfield

Virginia Priscus has volunteered for many organizations that are important to her. She’s raised money for the Bishop Strachan School, from which she graduated, Trinity College at U of T, and the minor hockey team her son, Fraser ‘25, played on. In addition to her volunteer efforts, Virginia works as a Senior Stewardship Officer at Sunnybrook Hospital. 
To honour Fraser’s graduation and show the family’s gratitude for the education he received at York, Virginia volunteered to help lead the Class of 2025 Campaign to raise funds for the school’s bursary endowment. The endowment provides need-based bursaries for highly promising and hardworking students.

Virginia says she was excited to join the committee. “I like getting involved and meeting new people – and I think it’s important to give back. I also wanted to model that behaviour for our kids so they can see their parents stepping up and supporting the school. It’s fun to ask people to give for this sort of thing and to get people involved,” says Virginia. She and her fellow committee members set the goal of having a higher participation rate than any graduating class campaign to date.

Virginia wasn’t the only member of her family who got involved in the Class of ‘25 Campaign. This was the first year that students were asked to participate and Fraser, who was a Grade 12 Class Rep, collaborated with fellow Class Rep Tony Song, to ask their classmates to donate $25 of their own money to the campaign.
 
The Class of 2025 Campaign was a great success. Eighty percent of families participated, which surpassed the Class of ‘23 Campaign. It raised $334,542, including two gifts totalling $125,000 that families gave to kick-start the campaign.  

Fraser’s dad, Julian Padfield, is happy that the growing bursary endowment will make it possible for future recipients to have the same type of broad education and opportunities that Fraser benefited from. “Fraser had an outstanding experience in the school’s Music program. During the pandemic, his teacher advocated for the students to bring their instruments home so they could practice, and also play during online classes. Fraser went on jazz trips to New Orleans, Havana and Puerto Rico. That’s pretty amazing!” says Julian.
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