By Bonnie Polak, VP of Philanthrophy and Community Engagement

What does it mean to leave a legacy? Simply put it means leaving your mark on the future and making a contribution to future generations. What a powerful thing to do something that will bring joy, peace or security to people you may never know.

At Trinity Woods individuals who leave a legacy gift are part of our Tin Man Society. Each member of the Society will be part of this community long after they are no longer living here. Imagine helping a future neighbor at Trinity Woods that you don’t even know and who has not even selected Trinity Woods for their home yet.

WAYS TO LEAVE A LEGACY:
• Will or Revocable Living Trust: Designate a specific or percentage amount to go to Trinity Woods a contingency bequest names Trinity Woods to receive the remainder and residue of your estate if other beneficiaries are deceased or cannot inherit.
• Current gifts that establish a permanent endowment.
• Charitable Gift Annuity: You donate your cash or appreciated property in exchange for a fixed income (with rates based on your age) for the rest of your life.
• A Charitable Remainder Trust pays you income for life. With a Unitrust there is the potential that your income could increase over time with growth in the trust. An annuity trust pays out a fixed amount each year based on the value of the property donated at the time it is gifted.
• Insurance Policy: You can give your life insurance policy to Trinity Woods and receive a charitable income tax deduction. Then make deductible contributions each year that we may use to pay the
premiums. You can also designate Trinity Woods as the beneficiary of your life insurance policy.
• Beneficiary designation on IRAs, CDs, commercial annuities, savings accounts, and savings bonds. Also, if you are 70½ or older, you can make a gift of up to $100,000 to Trinity Woods from your IRA to meet your annual distribution requirement. By making an IRA charitable rollover gift, you are able to avoid taxes on the IRA distribution while supporting our charitable mission.

By doing any of the above, one becomes a member of the Tin Man Society. I encourage you to think deeply about the areas of your life where you can leave a lasting legacy. Trinity Woods is a community of
kind, compassionate people and through your generosity, others will be able to experience it for years to come.

By Weldon Tisdale, Trinity Woods Chaplain

Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

February marks Black History Month, a tribute to African American men and women who have made significant contributions to America and the rest of the world in the fields of science, politics, law, sports, the arts, entertainment, and many other fields.

No one has played a greater role in helping all Americans know the Black past than Carter G. Woodson, the individual who created Negro History Week in Washington, D.C., in February 1926. Woodson was the second Black American to receive a PhD from Harvard—following W.E.B. DuBois by a few years.

To Woodson, the Black experience was too important simply to be left to a small group of academics. Woodson believed that his role was to use Black history and culture as a weapon in the struggle for racial uplift. By 1916, Woodson had moved to DC and established the “Association for the Study of Negro Life and Culture,” an organization whose goal was to make Black history accessible to a wider audience.

Woodson was a driven man whose only passion was history, and he expected everyone to share his passion. This passion led Woodson to create Negro History Week in 1926, to ensure that school children be exposed to Black history. Woodson chose the second week of February in order to celebrate the birthday of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.

Woodson had two goals: One was to use history to prove to white America that Blacks had played important roles in the creation of America and thereby deserve to be treated equally as citizens. In
essence, Woodson—by celebrating heroic Black figures—be they inventors, entertainers, or soldiers—”hoped to prove our worth, and by proving our worth”—he believed that equality would soon
follow. Ultimately Woodson believed Negro History Week—which became Black History Month in 1976—would be a vehicle for racial transformation forever which was his second goal.

Black history is American history.