The University of Windsor’s EPICentre has received a $5,000 donation from the Roy Verstraete family to honour the entrepreneurial spirit of parents Camille and Juliana Verstraete. Awards will be named for each of the Verstraetes in support of the Epic Founders Program. This is in addition to a $2,500 donation to the program made by the family in March 2015.

Epic Founders is a 12-week intensive summer curriculum for students and recent alumni entrepreneurs. Participants learn the skills needed to develop ideas into businesses and is supported by business and legal mentors from the community. Participants are paid $6,000 during the program period, while working 35 hours a week to fulfill program requirements.

Camille Verstraete emigrated with his parents as a young child from Belgium. He was a farmer, entrepreneur and a leader in such farming and community organizations the Tobacco Board, the Soybean Board and the Kent Belgian Dutch Canadian Club.

His family says he had a passion for independence, and farming provided an environment where he could excel as an entrepreneur. Together with his wife and five children, Verstraete built a successful enterprise near Blenheim built on family values, hard work and love.

The couple is survived by all of their children, including former EPICentre executive leader, Roy Verstraete.