Peters donate $10 million to ACC

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This article was published 13/12/2023 (1056 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Assiniboine Community College is flying high after a “transformative” donation to its School of Business.

Local philanthropists Gord and Diane Peters donated $10 million to the ACC School of Business, which will now be called the Peters School of Business.

The donation is the single biggest gift from an individual, family or business to the college and in the Westman region.

For the Peters, Gord said it was an easy decision.

“Well, we’ve been active in philanthropy for a long time. We need a certain amount of money to live on and at the end of the day, we have more capital than we need, so we have to put it to use,” Gord said.

Diane added: “I think a lot of the times we’ve thought that we want to do it now. We’re not wanting to wait until we’re not here. We’d just as soon be part of it. And that’s why we enjoy the philanthropy part and donating and seeing the results. We just liked seeing what people can do with it.”

Mark Frison, ACC president, said the donation was “transformative” for the college and came from already huge supporters of ACC and Brandon.

“It’ll go to a variety of things to advance the school. Student financial assistance will be a big piece of this, helping us to engage more with industry to do things to enhance the student experience, and some seed capital to help with planning for an eventual building to house the School of Business here at the North Hill campus,” said Frison.

Frison made the announcement to a packed room at the college’s Manitoba Institute of Culinary Arts on Tuesday afternoon.

He told the crowd that naming the School of Business after the Peters will greatly increase the college’s profile.

“We know that to flourish, a great school of business relies on reputation. And we wanted the school’s branding to reflect not only our considerable ambition, but also our humble roots and practical approach. One name that stands above them all: Peters,” Frison told the audience. “Diane and Gord have donated to all our major campaigns and almost all our annual causes.”

Most recently, in 2021, the Peters donated $500,000 to ACC’s Prairie Innovation Centre.

Frison said the Peters were eager to see what impact their donation would make, adding that plans are already in the works.

“I think one of the things that is important, both to Gord and Diane and to us, was that we get rolling right away. And certainly, financial assistance is a big piece of that. We want to make sure that when students are getting their offers, that they’re getting offers to come to school in September, and that is from Peters School of Business. That’ll happen immediately,” Frison said.

Diane said she and Gord are hopeful their donation will lead to many others for ACC.

“We want to open up the gates and let people know that it can feel good,” she said. “Projects sometimes don’t get off the ground because it seems so large and it’s so insurmountable. ‘It’s not going to happen, because we need so much.’

“But if you start off with lots, then it seems as if it’s more attainable. People start saying, ‘Yeah, my money will help, we will get to the finish line.’”

» khenderson@brandonsun.com