Education empowers students on their way to greater futures, opens new worlds through research and builds better communities. These are the reasons driving Limitless, the largest-ever fundraising campaign launched by Thompson Rivers University.

With a goal of $50-million, Limitless is even more significant an undertaking in that it is taking place during the university’s landmark 50th anniversary in 2020.

TRU President and Vice-Chancellor Brett Fairbairn unveiled the public campaign Thursday evening to a room packed with more than 300 people, including students, staff, faculty, donors and community members.

TRU President Brett Fairbairn mingles with university supporters, students, faculty and staff after launching the Limitless fundraising campaign.

“The power of education to changes lives is limitless. Education empowers our students on their way to greater futures, opens new worlds through research and builds better communities,” he said.

While Limitless has just gone to the public, the campaign toward such an ambitious goal been in a quiet phase. To date, $41 million has been donated by generous supporters.

“Many of our supporters – new and old – have been with us through the past few years helping us to get to where we are today. Now we look to others in our communities to consider helping us surpass our $50-million goal,” said Fairbairn, noting no amount contributed is too small.

Business and theatre student Kennedy Aberdeen asked the other students in the room to stand, then she addressed the audience:

“TRU is a place of promise and potential, just like us,” she said, also noting students don’t often get the opportunity to thank the people who support them through scholarships and bursaries. Limitless will increase the number of those awards to ease financial pressures for more students.

A crowd of TRU supporters, students, faculty and staff celebrate the launch of the university’s largest-ever fundraising campaign: Limitless.

“A gift can be anything. But to us, it is worth everything,” Aberdeen said.

The Limitless campaign consists of four pillars:

• Supporting students establishes more scholarships and bursaries to open doors for more students and ease their financial worries so they focus on their education, discoveries and achievements.
• Innovating for the future provides funding for more research initiatives; TRU’s researchers often collaborate with businesses or organizations in surrounding communities. They are exploring solutions to problems that affect people’s lives, from land reclamation to retaining early childhood educators to justice for people with mental health issues.
• Building capacity establishes better spaces on campus and provides latest equipment, enhancing learning experiences for students and researchers. The Nursing and Population Health building is a prime example of a facility that will help our community by training health-care workers on state-of-the-art equipment so they can care for the people where they live.
• Collaborating with community helps build more of the services and relationships that TRU has been increasingly developing in all of the communities it serves.

During the launch event, longtime TRU supporter Frank Quinn summed up the heart of the Limitless campaign.

“One thing we know for sure is the growth of post-secondary education is critical to our community.”

There is a Limitless web page where anyone can find more information about the campaign.