Patience (left, clockwise from bottom), Patricia, Primrose and Prisca Chareka (with Coleen Jones) pictured last spring. A trust fund was set-up for the girls, along with older sister Missy, following the death of their mother Ottilia in March 2011. (Submitted photo)

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Contributions may have slowed down over time but Jeff Orr, trustee for the Memorial Trust Fund for the Children of Ottilia Chareka, said the support shown by the community has been “overwhelming.”
Ottilia Chareka, a popular education professor at St. F.X., died last March leaving behind five daughters.
“We’re just so thankful for everything,” Orr, who shares trustee duties with Mary Jane MacDonald and Joe Amoako-Tuffour, said.
“The warmth, care and support of the community has been overwhelming and humbling and we’re just so appreciative to those individuals who contributed and the people who, with not a lot of means, are finding ways to make little monthly contributions. That is really the kind of thing Ottilia would have done herself,” Orr, the dean of education at St. F.X., said.
He noted the trust fund is still going through the legal process and should be formalized this spring.
“We’re in the final stages of going through the documentation with the legal system to formalize the trust as a legal entity,” he said, adding the pro bono work of Harry Munro, from the Mac, Mac and Mac Law Firm in New Glasgow, has been invaluable on that front.
He noted the support has already played a role in helping the two oldest daughters pursue their education goals. Missy, the oldest, is a student at Mount Royal University in Calgary while Patience is attending St. F.X.
“It’s good to see them be able to pursue their academic work,” Orr said.
In noting the slow-down of contributions, Orr said trust fund supporters would “certainly be very interested in encouraging other people to provide small monthly contributions.”
The trust fund is set-up at the Bergengren Credit Union and can be contributed to in either a lump sum or in monthly payments. Details on the trust fund can be accessed from a link on the home page for St. F.X.’s education department.
“We’re really pleased with what the trust fund has been able to do for the Chareka girls,” Orr said. “I just think it’s inspiring to see what people do in very difficult times.”