Search
-
January 27, 2022Each summer, Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Youth Camp fills with hundreds of schoolchildren who spend a week making new friends, deepening their faith and playing games and sports.
An endowment at the Catholic Foundation of Oklahoma helps defray costs for some of the campers.
The Jacob Meier Memorial Fund is designed to provide need-based camp fee scholarships. The fund, created in 2010 by Rich and Sandy Meier of Yukon, is named for their son who was an active member of Saint John Nepomuk Catholic Church. He attended the camp as a youth and later became a counselor. Jacob “Jake” Meier died unexpectedly in 2009 as the result of a lifelong seizure disorder. He was 27.
The Meier endowment is among the many “field of interest” endowments at the Catholic foundation. These provide support to a specific ministry, parish or school need such as youth ministry initiatives with the foundation administering distribution of the funds to address that need.
The Meiers began their endowment with a gift of $5,000. Through additional gifts from the public, it has grown to nearly $30,000. At that level, the endowment’s annual payout is enough to cover the full cost for three campers.
The foundation wants to increase the endowment to $50,000 and beyond to provide more children with the opportunity to attend camp each year.
In a story in the Yukon Review newspaper published shortly after the endowment was created, Rich Meier said Jake once told him that when he was the camp, he always felt God was calling him to be a priest. At the time of his death, Jake was taking classes to advance his youth ministry education.
Owen Canfield is the foundation’s associate director for gift planning. Contact [email protected] or (405) 709-2897.
Tax-deductible gifts to the Jacob Meier Memorial Endowment can be made online at cfook.org/give or by mail to the Catholic Foundation of Oklahoma, 7501 Northwest Expressway, OKC 73132.