Donor Stories 
The Gift of Nursing Education
Seventy years after graduating from St. Paul’s School of Nursing, Eleanor McKay Reichardt continues to make an impact on her nursing profession. Although the School of Nursing no longer exists at St. Paul’s, the legacy of excellent training from the Grey Nuns lives on. The new Eleanor McKay Reichardt Scholarship at St. Paul’s Hospital Foundation has been established to provide financial assistance to students enrolled in the University of Saskatchewan and SIAST’s nursing programs.
The first scholarship was awarded to Jan Clark, 3rd year nursing student at the U of S College of Nursing.
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“I am very honoured to have been chosen among so many other deserving students to receive this scholarship,” says Jan. “This will allow me to worry less about my finances and focus more on my studies. I am very happy with my career choice because of the difference I will make in peoples’ lives. I want to listen to, care for and empower my patients so they have successful health outcomes.” |
Eleanor, who grew up on a farm in Lebret, Saskatchewan was the only child of a single mother who worked very hard to ensure that her daughter received an education. After graduating in 1940 from St. Paul’s, Eleanor continued her studies in the United States where she met and married her husband, Robert Reichardt, and moved to Aurora, Ontario. They had one daughter, Karen, who died in 1999 followed by Robert’s death in 2000. Eleanor died in 2006. Her wish was to endow a scholarship for deserving students who required financial assistance.
“I have learned that Eleanor was very passionate about and committed to her profession and thought very highly of the education she received at St. Paul’s,” says Jan. “I am very appreciative for Eleanor’s endowment gift which will help students like me continue to study nursing for years to come.”
