(Butler, PA) A Butler resident’s nearly $660,000 in summertime contributions will finance construction of a pavilion on Butler County Community College’s main campus in Butler Township and will represent BC3’s assets in its seeking state funds to subsidize other projects also envisioned to enhance the student and community experience.

Harold Larrick designated that his financial gifts, made in July and August to the BC3 Education Foundation, were to be used to create a pavilion outside the east entrance of the Student Success Center in support of BC3’s ongoing Future Fund campaign.

The college will earmark $625,000 of his donation toward pursuing a matching $625,000 from the state Department of Education to fund other campaign objectives that include renovating the Student Success Center’s upper lobby and establishing the Glenn T. Miller Welcome Center in its lower lobby.

BC3 trustees in a special meeting this afternoon approved the college’s request to pursue the community college capital funds from the state Department of Education, whose application deadline is Nov. 15.

“The timing was really so perfect, like it was meant to be,” said Megan M. Coval, BC3’s president. “We learned about the incredibly generous gift from Mr. Larrick and shortly thereafter about this opportunity from the state.

“When we looked at our project, his gift was almost right on the nose with what we needed for the grant.”

 

 

“I think for Mr. (Harold) Larrick this project represents the way that he cares about this institution and our students.”

- Megan M. Coval, BC3 president

 

A pavilion outside the Student Success Center could accommodate events should weather turn inclement and eliminate the need for the college to rent large pole tents for galas, said Torey O’Donnell, BC3’s associate director of student life.

New Student Welcome Day, an ice cream social, Constitution Day, Oktoberfest, Halloween and a Funavit carnival are among annual student-life events held near the Student Success Center, O’Donnell said.

A pavilion would benefit additional activities such as the BC3 Education Foundation’s Pioneer Pursuit, the registered nursing club’s egg extravaganza, open houses and spring semester student-life gatherings such as Chillebration, Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day, O’Donnell said.

“I think for Mr. Larrick this project represents the way that he cares about this institution and our students,” Coval said. “It’s going to highlight one of the most beautiful places on our campus and increase the foot traffic and the sense of community that is so important to what we do.”

Faculty members also instruct drawing courses and stage literary performances outside the Student Success Center.

 

“I think it is also very important for people to have an area to take their mind off of studying for a while. It will be sort of a place for improving social life, which is just as important, I think, as education.”

- Harold Larrick, Butler, contributor of nearly $660,000 to BC3 Future Fund

 

 

“They can think, ‘This is a nice place to be’’’

“For people to devote their time to studying, they have to have a presence around them,” Larrick said. “They don’t have to have their mind on something else. “They can think, ‘This is a nice place to be.’

“I think it is also very important for people to have an area to take their mind off of studying for a while. It will be sort of a place for improving social life, which is just as important, I think, as education.”

Larrick is the husband of the late Janice Phillips Larrick.

The Janice Phillips Larrick Family Charitable Trust in 2017 contributed $1 million to the BC3 Education Foundation toward construction of the state-of-the-art Victor K. Phillips Nursing and Allied Health Building, a 25,000-square-foot hospital-like facility that opened in August 2023 on the college’s main campus.

Janice Phillips Larrick attended BC3 from 1967 to 1968 and worked 10 years as a registered nurse. A scholarship she established in 2002 to support the college’s registered nursing students has been awarded annually by the BC3 Education Foundation, which in 2017 also received from her a $50,000 gift to construct a realistic hospital room within a simulation lab.

“I would imagine that certainly it would make you more relaxed,” Janice Phillips Larrick said in 2017 about the hands-on training afforded to students by the simulated hospital room. “There is nothing like feeling well-prepared. If you are not well-prepared, you are not good at what you do.”

Mikayla Moretti is the executive director of the BC3 Education Foundation and external relations.

“The Larricks have been instrumental in the growth of our nursing program through their gifts and through their scholarship,” Moretti said. “During my time in speaking with Harold, one of his biggest priorities is making sure that BC3 students have what they need to succeed.

“And in the short time that I got to know Janice, she too was very student-centered and wanted to make sure that not only did students get a quality education, but that their time spent here on campus is special.”

The grounds near the Student Success Center, Moretti said, represent “a gathering point, not only for our students, but for the community, right in the center, right at the heart of our campus.”

 

 

Future Fund campaign celebrates BC3’s 60 years

An approximately 2,500-square-foot pavilion is among projects identified in the ongoing BC3 Future Fund campaign, which celebrates the 60th anniversary of the college’s founding in 1965.

The campaign’s priorities are to improve the experience of students, to strengthen that of the nearly 18,000 community members who in 2025 attended 176 events on BC3’s main campus, and to invest in workforce innovation.

BC3’s Future Fund also intends to relocate the college’s Pioneer Pantry to an expanded location within the Student Success Center, revitalize areas such as Founders Hall to create a more flexible and accessible event space, and to support investment in equipment, technology and partnerships that prepare students for high-demand careers to meet evolving employer needs.

The BC3 Future Fund is the foundation’s first large-scale fundraising campaign in more than a decade.

Its goal is to raise $6 million.

More than 1,300 financial gifts, including those from Larrick, have been pledged or contributed to the campaign, which has raised $3.5 million to date, Moretti said.

Miller, after whom a Welcome Center will be named, earned an associate in arts degree from BC3 in 1981, helped to form the college’s Alumni Association in 1997 and served 28 years as a BC3 trustee until his death at age 66 in January.

The state Department of Education is expected to notify successful grant applicants in mid-December and distribute funds in January.