Are you leaving a legacy? (besides your children)

Parent Cafe
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<p>Is anyone here leaving a legacy? That is, besides their children. </p>

<p>Many years ago our Parks department was looking for people willing to chip in and make a committment to the local parks.We had noticed our local park had lost many trees due to storms, ice and snow. We had also noticed the trees had not been replaced, also that the sports teams were becoming larger and larger and were having more and more impact on the local public land. So, it started with us donating a few trees that were enviromentally friendly and a benefit to the ecosystem. Now, nearly 10 years later, I think I have established my legacy to the future generations in the community. I established an azalea garden, where families come to play hide and seek on Mother’s Day. I established a 9/11 Memorial Garden, and keep it in order with white tulips and flowering perennials. I established a Monarch Butterfly Habitat, which has not only helped this threatened species but has added beauty to the community as well. I have planted a variety of eco friendly trees and North American hardwoods. As the saying goes," it takes one generation to plant a tree, another to enjoy it’s shade." I planted some fruit trees in areas they do not bother people, just for the birds, squirrels, chipmonks, foxes, and anyone who cares for an unsprayed pear, apple or cherry.I look after everything with water and mulch and a day does not go by that I don’t appreciate my accomplishments and what I did to make the enviroment better .</p>

<p>Just wondering if anyone else has done something or made a difference that they feel will live on after them. Have a great day!</p>

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<p>How wonderful of you!</p>

<p>There is a butterfly garden at the rehab center next to local hospital, the legacy of a wonderful woman who resided there. Uncle set up scholarship program at 2 summer camps and his local college. After my parents’s deaths, I donated their library et al to local Hospice–no plaque, but it was a way to show gratitude.</p>

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<p>No surprise ‘bookworm’ would donate a library! That was very generous of you!</p>

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<p>If you do leave a legacy, the real quandary is, what will happen after I die? I wonder, among the others who really feel they are leaving something of consequence after they die…how do you come to prepare your legacy for that inevitablity?</p>

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<p>I’m not single handedly responsible for it, but did head up a committee that created a Learning Garden for my kids’ elementary school.</p>

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<p>It seems extremely difficult to leave a permanent legacy. One can improve the odds, it seems, and extend the legacy by establishing designated funding the legacy, and/or by searching now for a successor who shares one’s passion for the legacy.</p>

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<p>Ah!..My initiated threads heading off to the trash heap! So be it,…Have a great day all!</p>

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Or by having a poet write about it. Think: “The Iliad.” :)</p>

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<p>Forgive me for being dense, but just what do you mean by a legacy? Do the gardens you established have a sign indicating that you created them? Or is it enough that you know that you did this lovely thing that will live on after you?</p>

<p>Dh & I have moved around a bit. There are several churches in which our names are inscribed on little brass tags, some on “giving trees” hanging on walls in the narthex, others on pews, etc. The first time I learned that our (then) parish was placing such signs, I felt uncomfortable about it, and dh hated it. It was also awkward when our very young son got upset that someone else was sitting in “our” pew. :wink: </p>

<p>As our income has increased, so has our ability to give, but most gifts were made anonymously. Many are not permanent, either. A car given several years ago to an organization that helps folks transitioning off welfare by providing them with good transportation is likely no longer running. Hopefully, the recipient did well and now can afford her own car. A nearly new piano donated to an after-school program for inner city kids may not have survived all of the joyful noise created on it, but perhaps at least a few children had a new love of music nurtured. Computers given to similar programs have surely become obsolete by now. </p>

<p>As former homeschoolers (K - 12), we had a pretty big library. When dh had some health problems diagnosed, we built a new house and downsized from over a dozen tall bookcases to just four. A bunch of books went to kids forced to relocate by Katrina & living in a nearby state park, while the rest went to local libraries. The libraries keep some donated books, but most are sold at their annual fundraiser sales. </p>

<p>The only gift that I know for certain is still in use is a pool table, billiard balls & cue sticks given to a seniors’ center in memory of my dad, who loved to shoot pool before Alzheimer’s robbed him of his ability to play. I did agree to a small sign with his name on it, but haven’t been back to see if it was ever posted.</p>

<p>We have not established any scholarships, as we’re still paying college bills, but we have donated to one set up in memory of our children’s former classmate who died this year. Dh & I had earmarked those funds for a purchase, but felt this was more important. The parents are told who contributes, but not the amount. However, we were not too thrilled to learn that the donation landed us on a “president’s council” for the university. Dh reacted very emotionally to the death of a young man whom he’d never met, plus he does not like his contributions to be public.</p>

<p>Sorry, that was awfully long winded. It’s kind of nice to reflect back, in this anonymous setting, and to wonder if any of this has made a difference.</p>

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<p>H and I have given scholarships to several children and young adults overseas so they could attend school. Two are now in college (much cheaper than college here, of course). I am hoping that they will be able to find employment and then help their parents and younger siblings. One young lady in India is in her last year of college. Her dad is disabled and she has three younger sisters. (Her letters of gratitude make me weep–if only our own kids were so appreciative!) Who knows what effect this will have in the long run? Maybe life will be a little easier and the future more hopeful for a few families through our relatively small donations. </p>

<p>To all the givers and volunteers out there–thanks for making the world a better place!</p>

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<p>Hopefully I have left the love of music to a couple dozen piano students. Time will tell.</p>

<p>Have done a fair bit of volunteer work over the years, but on my cynical days (of which today is one) I have no conviction that it did any good.</p>

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<p>Thank you for all your responses! It’s nice to see that one does not need to plant a 100 yr tree to leave a legacy but can teach music and that love live on it the students.
Just to answer Robi, who has done so much for so many, no there are no plaques. Just dozens of trees and shrubs, all carefully cared for. Have a great day!</p>

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<p>My cousin has the perfect job, as head of a philantropic trust. I can think of no one who has done more than she for various people, groups, programs.
My uncle was fortunate enough to have the money to donate a building to a college & a hospital wing.
The rest of us do our part in small ways. My FA drove people for chemo treatment, my mom spent her adult life pitching in at her place of worship and as a member of charitable groups. Me? I hope former patients remember me with kindness. Oh yes, I do have many more books to donate</p>

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<p>Atomom, if you don’t mind me asking, how did you come to provide those scholarships for students overseas? Are there programs that organize such things? Or did you know these people from home stay programs? It’s such a terrific thing to do, and I can only imagine the long range benefit you’ve provided.</p>

<p>Binx, it helps to know that I am not alone in feeling cynical at times. There have been a few cases when we made a tangible donation because we did not have any cash to spare. We counted on getting a proper receipt for our tax return records because we anticipated reducing our tax liability. Lessening our tax bill by the 30% or so of the value of the donation sometimes made a big difference in our budget, and made it feasible for us to give rather than to sell the item and pocket the proceeds. It feels rather humiliating to repeatedly ask the receiving organization to mail the long promised receipt so that we can finally file our tax return. In a couple of cases, we later learned that some of our donations weren’t exactly used for their intended purpose.</p>

<p>BHG, I really appreciate public gardens because I do not have a green thumb. Whatever I’ve planted has usually failed to thrive either from insufficient care or from too much water/food (if a little is good…more is not better.) We support our local botanical garden, but I no longer buy at their annual plant sales. The gardens near our kids’ univ. are lovely, and each special section seems to have a plaque commemorating a donor or the donor’s loved one.</p>

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<p>Robi–some of the kids we help are through CFCA (Christian Foundation for Children and Aging) that works through Catholic missions. Others H met doing medical mission work. Most churches have mission groups that could connect you with those in need.</p>

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<p>When I had no money I used to give blood regularly. Unfortunately having spent the late 80s in Europe put the kibosh on that.</p>

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<p>On the same note as giving blood, you can donate your organs or donate your body to science after your death.</p>

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<p>Hey! Talk about leaving a legacy! Donating blood and organs certainly qualify! Thank you again, so many interesting people here!</p>

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<p>Besides the many buildings I will leave behind, I contributed some dramatic planning ideas to three schools and one church–on a pro-bono basis. The implementation of those ideas changed the life of all the students in attendance–and in one case–the entire community.</p>

<p>I have also obtained scholarships for a half dozen youngsters–either by pointing them in the right direction or by advocating on their behalf. I’ve been thinking about how to organize that in a more formal, possibly endowed manner.</p>

<p>Hopefully, I will also leave behind a positive legacy for openess and tolerance in my profession–depending on the number of granite ceilings I can get through.</p>

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<p>True, in fact I put in my will that I’d like my whole body to go to an anatomy lab somewhere. I hope my successors remember that! But if they don’t my driver’s license says I’m an organ donor.</p>