EACH year for the next five years, two Wingham High School students will get a financial leg up in their pursuit of university education.
And they have the generosity of a 92-year-old woman to thank.
Dr Dorothy ‘Billie’ Greening of Hallidays Point has made a $50,000 donation to Wingham High to help our kids achieve their dreams.
Dr Greening was renowned throughout the Manning for her passion and expertise as an obstetrician and gynaecologist, and her philanthropy is fuelled by a desire to ensure students are not denied a quality education due to financial need.
Wingham High School principal Dave Elliot said Dr Greening’s donation will be set up as a scholarship fund, with two year 12 students each year to receive a $5000 university boost. Mr Elliot said the school will spread the joy over the next five years until the funds are used up.
“When (Dr Greening) rang me with the idea, I was overwhelmed,” Mr Elliot said. “I actually started to get a bit emotional on the phone. It is just a wonderful, generous, overwhelming gesture, and it will certainly generate some excitement come term three.”
Class of 2009 students Maddock Collins and Ricky Tasker-Gilbert are the first recipients of the Dr Greening Scholarship. Both have been accepted into university this year and will be given $5000 each to ease the financial burden of their transition.
“Kids from rural areas like Wingham are at a bit of a disadvantage when it comes to setting up at uni,” Mr Elliot said. “They’ve usually got to travel to the city as well as go through the hassle of setting up their accommodation.”
Wingham High kids aren’t the only ones to have benefited from Dr Greening’s generosity over the past three years.
She has also made a $100,000 scholarship donation to the Sydney University medical school, as well as dual $50,000 donations to Taree High School and the Black Head Ocean Baths.
But Dr Greening is very hesitant to divulge the details of her philanthropy.
“Basically I’m in my 90s, I’ve got all this money, so what am I going to do with it?” she said after her donation to Taree High in 2008. “I’ve done fairly well out of the medical field and there are a lot of students out there today facing hard times. I had been hoping to make these donations for some time. But to be honest, I think everyone has made an awful lot of fuss about nothing.”
Dr Greening completed her medical training in Sydney before she moved to Taree, where she was renowned in the fields of obstetrics and gynaecology. After completing her higher medical training in England, she blazed a trail as Taree’s first clinical specialist.
She now feels it is time for future generations to benefit from her hard work.
2009 Wingham High students Maddock Collins and Ricky Tasker-Gilbert were chosen from a host of applicants for the inaugural scholarship. Maddock, who is studying a bachelor of science at Sydney University, said he was honoured to receive the prize.
“It has certainly made the transition to university much easier,” Maddock said. “I can now focus more on my academic work without having to worry about so much of the other stuff that comes with it.”
Ricky, an Armidale-bound nursing student, was also chuffed with his $5000 bonus.
“I was so stoked when mum told me,” he said. “It is a big relief for me and my parents. I think my text books alone cost $1000 this year.”
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