Gregg Pavilion Spiritual Life Endowment

Endowment Purpose and Spending Criteria

This endowment is created and shall be applied to the purposes of the donor(s) as follows:

• The Gregg Pavilion Spiritual Life Endowment serves as an ongoing source of supplemental spiritual life program funding for the Lewis & Clark Office of Spiritual Life for programming and activities that might not otherwise be possible, and it is expected that many of these programs will take place in the Gregg Pavilion.
• The Gregg Pavilion Spiritual Life Endowment is designed to help promote personal and collective spiritual life experiences, along with opportunities for religious expression and gratitude. It provides the opportunity for the Lewis & Clark spiritual life staff to promote the intentional utilization of the Gregg Pavilion as a place for the kind of spiritual life programs, practices and activities that are better suited to a smaller space than the chapel sanctuary. These programs will ordinarily include things such as labyrinth walks, speakers and symposia, musical offerings with the Betty Balmer memorial piano, worship, contemplative prayer, guided and mindfulness meditation, and other spiritual practices.
• The annual spending rate is to be awarded by Director of Spiritual Life or his/her designee. If the Director of Spiritual Life position is vacant, the Vice President of Student Life will award the annual spending rate.
• Each year the Director of Spiritual Life will assemble a small advisory committee consisting of the Director, one additional spiritual life staff person, a student life staff colleague, and a student. The Committee will review the available resources and possible programs for the coming academic year and will create a plan for using the available financial resources. The Director of Spiritual Life will be responsible for managing and appropriating funds, and at each subsequent annual advisory committee meeting will provide the committee with a brief report of how the endowment funds have been used. Each year the Director of Spiritual Life will communicate by telephone and/or email with Sandy Osbome to provide an annual overview of the expenditures and programs, and to update her on plans for the upcoming year. An annual summary report, along with a description of the Gregg Pavilion Spiritual Life Endowment, will also be made available for public viewing on the Office of Spiritual Life’s institutional web page.

Sandy’s Story

“I began my connection with the Agnes Flanagan Chapel in Fall 1968 when I arrived on the campus of Lewis & Clark College for my Freshman Year. I was assigned Forest Hall (Spruce) and remained there for 4 years with a direct view of the spire and the Chapel as I walked to my classes and to eat in Fields Dining Room, or go to the Bookstore.

I also remember the protests and articles in the student newspaper in the Fall of 1968 and Spring of 1969 speaking against the construction of the Chapel on campus. Still the Chapel construction was completed, the chapel endured, thrived, and continues to make a contribution to the life of the campus, the community, and alums.

In 2011, I contacted Chaplain Duntley to see if the British Isles Overseas Group of 1971 could gather for a reunion in the chapel. Chaplain Duntley told me of the newly completed Gregg Pavilion as a possible location for the reunion. The British Isles group had an amazing time gathering in the Gregg Pavilion for our reunion. When the group went overseas in 1971 all the Balmer boys (sons) and Don and Betty were an integral part of the experience along with Dr. Balmer as our leader. By the end of the 2011 reunion event Mark Duntley knew more about all of us and all the Balmer family (who had been overseas with us) and how much we meant to one another. I recall him saying to me, ‘I had no idea how deep your connections were with one another.’

After the reunion event in the Gregg Pavilion I sensed that a grand piano would be a great addition to the space. It thought it could be used to support a number of activities including, worship, meditation opportunities for music to be provided for prayer and contemplation activities, walking a labyrinth and more. I worked with the British Isles ’71 group, the Balmer Family, and others to help purchase a grand piano for the Gregg Pavilion to honor Betty Balmer. During our overseas program Betty educated us, informed us, and urged us to attend musical events in England and Scotland and was a resource to us throughout the overseas experience. I attended the dedication of the piano and still recall the smile on Betty’s face as she played the piano as did others in the family on that dedication day in the Gregg Pavilion.

I returned to campus for the funerals of Don Balmer and Betty Balmer, as did many from our overseas program. The Chapel was an anchor to me in 1968 and my time on campus through 1972, as well as recently for the gatherings that have occurred with the British Isles group and the Balmer family in the Gregg Pavilion and all it has meant to me. So with a truly grateful heart I wish to provide an endowment for the continued ministry of the Gregg Pavilion for Spiritual Life.”