OCC giving sets a record

The Orange Coast College Foundation set a campus record this year by raising $5.6 million in donations, with the world-famous racing yacht Pyewacket making up a full half of the haul.

Last July, at the start of the 2005-06 academic year, boat owner Roy Disney donated his 86-foot vessel to the OCC School of Sailing and Seamanship, a gift that the campus valued at $2.8 million. That acquisition, combined with cash and other in-kind gifts, helped OCC to exceed the record of $5.5 million that it set a year ago.

The OCC Foundation’s announcement continued a landmark year for educational philanthropy in Orange County. This year, UC Irvine also set a personal record for private donations with $101 million.

Doug Bennett, executive director of the OCC Foundation, said he believed the gifts to his campus were part of a larger trend, and not the result of the same few donors.

“People continue to be generous and believe in education, whether they support us or UCI or Cal State Fullerton,” Bennett said. “I don’t believe it’s necessarily the same people.”

Due largely to Pyewacket, the $3.6 million that OCC raised in in-kind donations was an all-time campus high. The boat, which Disney had raced in a number of world competitions, is now used by students in the sailing courses. Disney gave the vessel to OCC after announcing his retirement from racing.

Among the other notable gifts to OCC over the last year were $340,000 from the estate of pediatrician Richard Houghton, which benefited the campus’ Student Health Center and School of Allied Health, and $650,000 given anonymously to the sailing school.

Bennett said that OCC may use the latter donation for a planned expansion of the sailing school, which is on West Coast Highway in Newport Beach. The Orange County Sanitation District has plans to build a pumping station across the street from the sailing school, but as soon as that project is done, OCC hopes to erect a bridge across the highway and possibly add classrooms and parking spaces.

The funds raised by the foundation last year also encompassed $297,000 for scholarships, $20,000 for the culinary arts team and $56,600 for the men’s rowing team. A pair of key campus structures, the Frank M. Doyle Arts Pavilion and the Harry & Grace Steele Children’s Center, each got around $15,000.

David Cline, the foundation president, credited the record funds to community outreach.

“It’s word of mouth,” he said. “It’s a very strong connection to the sources of philanthropic funds in the area through a longtime relationship with the community.”

Since July 1, Bennett said, the OCC Foundation has amassed more than $315,000.