Kelowna business student creates athletic scholarship

A top-level mountain biker and Kelowna business student has established a scholarship to help student athletes.

Kelowna-born Evan Guthrie is only midway through a diploma in Business Administration at Okanagan College, but says it’s never too early to start supporting young athletes.

That’s why, with the help of the Central Okanagan Foundation, he created the Evan Guthrie Fund. He says the fund is aimed at supporting student athletes who compete in sports outside of school.

As he pursues his diploma, Guthrie continues to compete as a high-level athlete. He’s a former BC Male Mountain Biker of the year, and four-time national mountain biking champion. He says he wants to help support the sometimes enormous cost of competing in sports outside of school.

As a high school student, Guthrie received a bursary founded by Kristi Richards, the Olympic freestyle skier who hails from the Okanagan. He said that award was one of his earliest inspirations that lead to the Evan Guthrie Fund.

“I just find the idea of athletes giving back and supporting other youth athletes inspiring,” Guthrie says. “I’m so grateful for the support I received, and my hope is that young athletes will use this support to continue reaching for their dreams.”

Guthrie says the fund will focus on supporting high school graduates who demonstrate athletic ability and good sportsmanship: grades and academic performance, Guthrie says, won’t be considered too strongly.

“Those types of criteria open the door to many more students – as a student I was unable to qualify for almost every bursary or scholarship in grade 12 because of my marks and pursuing out-of-school sport,” he writes on his website.

Athletes awarded the scholarship will be able to apply it to post-secondary tuition, books, and fees, or purely toward athletic costs while in school.

“I wanted the criteria to be flexible and allow a wide array of young people to apply,” explains Guthrie. “School wasn’t something that came naturally to me, but heading back to College as a mature student I have come to appreciate the doors that education can open in our lives and careers.”