Every year at the BC Truck Loggers Association convention there’s a silent and live auction. Nothing unusual about that; lots of organizations raise funds this way. What’s different at the TLA convention is that bidders routinely pay at least twice what the auction item is worth, and gleefully outbid each other in friendly competition.
They do this because much of the funds raised go to support student awards at UBC, BCIT and Vancouver Island University. At UBC the TLA supports five undergraduates each year, and has done so for over five decade.
The UBC Faculty of Forestry was still in its infancy in 1955, when the TLA established three awards for students entering first year forestry. In 1987 the Association added two awards specifically for students in the Harvesting major.
TLA Executive Director Dave Lewis (BScF’94) says, “Our organization represents independent forest contractors, and they account for 70 per cent of coastal forestry in BC. We encourage a business approach to forestry, and we want students to understand the breadth and scope of the industry.”
Claire Errico is in her first year of the Bachelor of Science (Forest Resource Management) program, and she received the Truck Loggers Association Scholarship as an entrance award. “I am very grateful to the TLA for their generous support,” she says. “Receiving the scholarship was wonderful because I am able to focus more on my studies now that some of the financial burden of school is eased. I have also been able to take an additional course on aboriginal forestry that I wouldn’t have been able to without the scholarship.
“The Truck Loggers Association is very generous and it’s really great how supportive they are of forestry education in BC,” she says.
The Faculty of Forestry is grateful for TLA’s longstanding support and encouragement of Forestry students, and appreciates the generosity of its members.