Building A Legacy
When Jock Fleming ’74 came to Lakefield College School in 1969, the academic expectations may have been foremost in his mind, but he quickly discovered that LCS offered so much more. “As students, we were encouraged to try new things, to get outside our comfort zones,” he recalls. “I was a little guy, but I played football. That wouldn’t have happened at a larger school. I was in lots of plays—that gave me a lifelong comfort with public speaking. We built fibreglass kayaks and had marvellous times racing them through white water rapids.” Jock also remembers the feeling of family among the school’s teachers, staff and 225 students. “You learn how to adapt to different people,” he explains. “To get along, you figure out how to communicate and work with all kinds of personalities and that helped me tremendously in my business life. Now that the school is coed, it offers even more of that. We need places like this, where boys and girls learn to relate as equals, friends and colleagues.” Because Jock values his experience at LCS so much, he wants it to be available to anyone who might benefit from it, regardless of financial circumstances. “If our world is to become better,” he muses, “surely it starts with education. LCS teaches such great values—confidence, accountability, leaving places better than you found them—I want more kids to learn and live what LCS has to offer.” With two sons, Rob Fleming ’06 and John Fleming ’03, who spent their high school years at The Grove, Jock and his wife Sue understand that the busy family years are not always the right time for people to make the gift they might want to make to LCS. Estate giving—a bequest, an insurance policy or other planned gift—allows people like Jock to create a substantial contribution that will benefit the school in the future. “It doesn’t cost you anything now,” he urges. “If you have enough to live on in your senior years, give through your estate. Imagine your bequest helping a student who went on to make a significant change in the world! That’s why you want to support bursaries through legacy giving.”