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When Margaret Hamilton Duprey learned at the October 2019 ������Ƶ Board of Trustees meeting that the college hadn ������Ƶ ’t raised enough money through donations to cover the entire cost of the new veterinary education center, she stepped up.

Duprey─a Wilson Trustee who had already made a $1 million gift to the veterinary center─made another pledge: From then through December 2019, she would match every dollar contributed to the project to help close a $90,000 gap between what had already been raised and the new facility ������Ƶ ’s $3 million price tag.

������Ƶ “(Duprey) said she wanted to provide a matching gift scenario where she would match any gift that came in from that point forward, ������Ƶ ” said Vice President for Institutional Advancement Camilla Rawleigh.

Duprey announced the one-to-one match before the board meeting ended and the effect was almost immediate. Wilson Interim President A. Richard Kneedler and his wife, Suzette Gallagher Kneedler ������Ƶ ’67, made the first gift to what was dubbed the VEC Duprey Challenge.

And in a serendipitous coincidence, another former Wilson president, Donald F. Bletz, made a gift around the Christmas holiday that pushed the veterinary center campaign to its goal in just two months, Rawleigh said.

������Ƶ “The Duprey Challenge was very successful in helping us reach our fundraising goal, ������Ƶ ” said Rawleigh. ������Ƶ “We are enormously grateful to Margaret for her continued generosity─and to all who donated the project, ������Ƶ ” said Rawleigh.

In total, the college has raised $3,008,341 from 103 donors for the veterinary education center, according to Rawleigh.

The veterinary center is home to Wilson ������Ƶ ’s four-year veterinary medical technology program. VMT is the second-most popular major at the college, after nursing.

The new center opened just before the fall 2019 semester began, replacing the cramped and outdated Helen M. Beach ������Ƶ ’24 veterinary facility, which has since been torn down. The college held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Oct. 19, 2019, to mark the opening of the building─named the Breakefield Veterinary Education Center in recognition of Susan Breakefield Fulton ������Ƶ ’61, who contributed the lead gift and other gifts totaling $975,000.

Fulton and Hamilton both attended the ribbon-cutting for the center, where the clinical suites, animal facilities and onsite programs and courses are collectively known as the Margaret Hamilton Duprey Center for Veterinary Excellence.

A lifelong horsewoman and business owner, Duprey also contributed $500,000 to Wilson in 2015 to establish an innovative home healthcare nursing program for horses called Equi-Assist®. A focused concentration within the college ������Ƶ ’s VMT program, Equi-Assist® trains students to provide home healthcare to horses, under the guidance of a veterinarian.