by Owen Canfield, associate director for gift planning for the Catholic Foundation of Oklahoma
Each summer, Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Camp fills with hundreds of schoolchildren who spend a week making new friends, deepening their faith and playing. An endowed fund at the Catholic Foundation of Oklahoma helps defray costs for some youngsters.
The Jacob Meier Memorial Fund is designed to provide need-based camp fee scholarships. The fund, created in 2010 by Rich and Cathy Meier of Yukon, is named for his son, who was an active member of Saint John Nepomuk Catholic Church, attended Camp OLOG 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 fund is among the many field-of-interest endowment funds at the Catholic Foundation. The funds aid with specific needs such as youth ministry initiatives, with the foundation administering distribution of funds to address that need.
The Meiers began their endowed fund with a gift of $5,000. Through additional gifts from the Meier family, the Saint John Nepomuk youth group and 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 grow the endowment to $50,000 and beyond to provide more children with the opportunity to attend Camp OLOG each year.
In a story published in the Yukon Review shortly after the fund was created, Rich Meier said Jake once told him that when he was at camp, he always felt closer to God and often thought of becoming a priest. At the time of his death, Jake was taking classes to advance his youth ministry education.
Tax-deductible gifts to the Jacob Meier Memorial Endowment Fund can be made online at cfook.org/give-now or by mail to the Catholic Foundation of Oklahoma, P.O. Box 32180, Oklahoma City 73123.
Owen Canfield is the foundation’s associate director for gift planning. Contact him at [email protected] or (405) 709-2897.