Lina Wohlgemut Award

This bursary was established in the memory of Lina Wohlgemut who was born in West Prussia (now Poland). During WWII she and her three children fled the battle front, eventually arriving at the MCC refugee camp in Gronau, Germany. Her husband was missing and only half a century later did they discover that he had died shortly after the cessation of the war in a concentration camp.

From the refugee camp Lina and her three children came to Canada and settled in Kitchener. She immediately went to work for many years in what is now the Grand River Hospital, and then until retirement as a seamstress and sales clerk in a bridal salon, in order to provide a good education for her family. She was a woman of courage, optimism and strong faith who, out of gratitude, shared generously with others despite her many losses. Inspired by their mother, all three of her children are graduates of the University of Waterloo and all three have been educators in Canada and one in Malawi. Lina died at the age of 90 in 2002.