Donation to St. Marguerite School

IC photo/Linda Petersen

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Some of the St. Marguerite Catholic School students and Principal Trisha Kirkbride thank Karyl Maynard for an endowment which will benefit the school.

TOOELE – The worries of a Catholic school principal in 2021 are significant: shrinking enrollments and budgets and the effects of the pandemic among them. St. Marguerite Catholic School Principal Trisha Kirkbride has borne more than a few of these, but her burdens were lifted significantly when on May 26, Karyl Maynard gave a $10,000 endowment to the school.

St. Marguerite’s does not receive a lot of endowments, making Maynard’s donation even more appreciated, Kirkbride said. “It’s a blessing to our school because we’re such a small school and we were affected by COVID. Our enrollment is down – normally, in our younger grades especially, we’re usually booming, so when we were hit by COVID, we had to tighten up our budget just to be able to provide some of the activities that the students are used to having, especially textbooks and testing, so this is a huge blessing to be able to provide these things and to be able to save towards the future of next year.”

This year there are 94 students enrolled at the school; prior to the pandemic there were 120. Kirkbride is hopeful that next year enrollment will return to pre-COVID numbers.

Maynard, who is 90, gave the gift on behalf of herself and her husband Phil, who passed away in 1995.  Neither of the Maynards was Catholic and, never having children of their own, did not have children or grandchildren attend the school. However, Karyl Maynard became friends with longtime St. Marguerite parishioners Bruce and Susie Cummings when she and Bruce Cummings worked together at Tooele Army Depot. The Maynards adopted the Cummings family and the neighborhood children as their own.

The Cummings also introduced the Maynards to Msgr. Matthew Wixstead (pastor of St. Marguerite Parish from 1996 to 2008) and Sister Marianne Rohr, S.A., with whom they became fast friends.

Both the priest and the religious sister provided great comfort during Phil Maynard’s long illness, Karyl Maynard said. At his request, when Phil Maynard passed away his funeral was celebrated by Father Jerry Lynch, who was the parish pastor from 1989 to 1996.

Karyl Maynard had planned to leave the endowment to the school after she died, but decided it was needed now, she said.

“You know where it needs to go,” she told the school officials after she presented them with the check. “You got it; you spend it.”

The endowment will provide a Catholic school education for children, said Jennifer Carroll, executive director of the Catholic Foundation of Utah. “It allows not only for tuition but for books, school supplies, student needs; this is a huge gift for St. Marguerite’s.”

“It is significant because it allows our students to be educated at Catholic schools, specifically in Tooele at St. Marguerite Catholic School,” she said. “I think that people always feel that what they’re doing is just a drop in the ocean and it’s huge; it makes such a difference.”

Kirkbride will consult with Fr. Murillo, pastor, to determine how most effectively to use Maynard’s endowment.

“I want to make sure it benefits the whole student body in some way,” she said.