A $20,000 donation to Okanagan College’s Centre of Excellence is an important example of Windsor Plywood’s long-time commitment to building the community, according to Doug Sudchak, the owner and manager of the Windsor Plywood Penticton franchise.

The donation is a welcome signal of how a locally owned and operated company is supporting the community and the importance it attaches to sustainability in building practices, according to Jim Henderson, Vice-President of the Okanagan College Foundation and the man spearheading a $5-million fundraising campaign for the Centre.

“Windsor Plywood has been in Penticton for more than 35 years and we know the role that Okanagan College has played here. With expanded trades training and the new programs that the Centre of Excellence will bring, we know it is going to be an even more important part of the community,” says Doug Sudchak. “We are really pleased to be able to offer this support as acknowledgement of that.”

“Over the years we’ve provided builders and homeowners with many of the materials that have gone into building this community. You could say that this donation for the Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Building Technologies and Renewable Energy Conservation is doing the same thing.”

The $28-million Centre of Excellence promises to be one of the continent’s greenest buildings when it is complete in March, 2011. Federal and provincial investment, through the Knowledge Infrastructure Program, is being supplemented by donations from the community to make the 70,000-square-foot structure a reality.

“This is an investment in the future,” says Henderson. “We know that the Centre will create jobs and benefit companies in our region for years to come.”