Re: Small gift + time = big benefits...

["Linda Pall" <lpall@moscow.com>]

Dear Charlie and Visionaries,

Thanks for the great example. You are so right about the compounding of
interest and what it can do in the long run. I know that the Council (at
least THIS City Council member!) will be looking at some form of long term
investment for some of the funds.

Actually, your posting went to the heart of what I heard for more than a
year of campaigning for Congress: While Social Security is a success as a
program to prevent abject poverty, many of our older citizens lack friends,
family, resources, etc. to deal with the parts of life that make it just a
little easier to navigate through a day.

Many of these same people cannot afford their prescription drugs or other
health aids they need. It is essential for us as friends, family and as a
society to get a better handle on this. Notice also that this fund benefits
women... this is a very large and growing larger segment of 'elder
poverty...'

Thanks again for your thoughtful information.

All the best to you and your pups, Charlie, and to all you Visionaries.
Linda Pall
Moscow City Council Member


----- Original Message -----
From: <Charle5170@aol.com>
To: <vision2020@moscow.com>
Sent: Thursday, November 16, 2000 10:10 AM
Subject: Small gift + time = big benefits...


> Visionaries:
>
> Here's a heartwarming story about how a small gift given and invested over
> time has done so much.  I believe the so-called "Dream Team" contemplating
> what to do with Moscow's windfall for "youth" consider what an impact such
a
> gift could have forever if invested properly.
>
> Charlie Powell
>
> Wednesday, November 15 12:05 PM ET
> Small Town Fund Brightens Lives
>
> By TRUDY TYNAN, Associated Press Writer
>
> GREENFIELD, Mass. (AP) - Nearly a century after bachelor farmer George W.
> Davenport left $10,000 in his will to help ``aged and deserving women over
> 55,'' his generosity is still brightening lives in three small towns in
the
> hills of western Massachusetts.
>
> In recent years, the income from Davenport's bequest - the principal is
now
> worth more than $409,000 - has fixed porch steps, bought mouthfuls of
> dentures and even paid the veterinary bills for a retired minister's
beloved
> service dog.
>
> ``This is the kind of fund that can help a grandmother just getting by on
> Social Security buy a plane ticket to visit a new grandchild in Ohio,''
said
> trustees chairwoman Irmarie Jones, who joined the three-member board more
> than a decade ago.
>
> ``Of course we don't think of 55 as being old today, but it was in 1905,''
> Jones said.
>
> The trustees are allowed to give up to $1,000 per person in a single year
to
> eligible women living in either Leyden (population 660), Bernardston
> (population 2,000) or Greenfield (population 18,000). But most of last
year's
> 30 grants, totaling $16,600, were for a few hundred dollars.
>
> A woman dying alone of cancer got a television after her set stopped
working.
> ``We decided it was a mental health emergency,'' Jones said. Another
elderly
> woman got a new bed after hers was stolen along with the truck being used
to
> move her possessions.
>
> ``It's just a wonderful program,'' said Myrtle Whitsett, 81. ``I'm very
glad
> I was born in Greenfield. My back porch was falling down. My husband is 86
> and we are just living on Social Security. It really helped us.''
>
> Little is known about Davenport, a friendly, humorous small-town
> philanthropist, who lived to 66, and studied law, but never practiced. He
> inherited his money.
>
> ``A brief biography I found years ago said he was wounded in action during
> the Civil War and dabbled in farming,'' Jones said.
>
> Davenport, who was fond of children and known for helping out in the
> community with both time and money, also left several small bequests of
$100
> or $200 to local widows in his will.
>
> He left no wife or children when he died in 1905, but many of his other
> relatives fought the will, Jones said. It was years before the fund
prevailed
> in court.
>
> ``He really just wanted to help elderly and needy folks in a practical
way,''
> Jones said. ``And that's what we are doing.''
>
> Initially, the grants were limited to women born in the three towns near
the
> Vermont border where Davenport had farms, but about eight years ago the
> trustees persuaded a judge to include women who'd lived in the towns a
> minimum of five years.
>
> ``With today's mobile society, it just didn't make any sense any more,''
said
> Jones, a columnist for The Recorder of Greenfield.
>
> ``It's peace of mind,'' said the Rev. Eleanor Kreiger. The Davenport Fund
> pays for her service dog's annual physical and shots and bought a special
> backpack the dog wears.
>
> ``I depend so much on Sheeba. She walks beside me and balances me,''
Kreiger
> said. ``The Service Dog Association helps with her training, but her
medical
> care is my problem.''
>
> The fund even provided Sheeba with a little sign the friendly
shepherd-collie
> mix wears while she and the retired minister make their rounds. It reads,
> ``Please ask to pet me.''
>
> Many of those being helped are widows. ``They have this big, old house
they
> don't want to leave and all these things going wrong,'' Jones said.
>
> But it's really lives that are being repaired.
>
> ``Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the $1,000 you sent to my
> dentist to help with my teeth,'' one woman wrote.
>
> Dentures aren't covered by Medicare, Jones explained.
>
> ``I am wearing my new dentures and they are absolutely perfect!'' another
> woman wrote. ``You will never know how thankful I am to you for what you
> did.''
>