Donors Archive

Gordon and Kathy Marando

Couple Supports ACH through Limited-Time IRA Rollover Opportunity

Kathy and Gordon Marando, who donated funds to ACH through Gordon's IRA, recently toured the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit.

When Gordon Marando, a retired electrician from Cabot, learned he could either donate money from his IRA to charity or take the withdrawal and pay tax on it, the choice was simple: he and his wife, Kathy, would contribute funds equally to Arkansas Children’s Hospital and another charity.

At age 70-1/2, holders of traditional IRAs, like Marando, must begin taking withdrawals from their accounts, and that income generally is taxed. But under the Pension Protection Act of 2006, individuals who are 70-1/2 or older can transfer up to $100,000 a year directly from an IRA to a charitable organization without undesirable tax effects.

Marando says he is pleased with his decision to support Arkansas Children’s Hospital in this way. Although his three sons never needed the services of ACH while growing up, he and his first wife had always heard about the hospital’s wonderful reputation for helping kids. In 1998, he and Kathy were married, and since that time, one of Kathy’s nieces has had a successful back surgery at ACH.

“It’s just fantastic what they do,” Marando says. “There’s nothing else like it.” He says he would encourage others to think about contributing to ACH through their IRAs.  “They know they have to give it someplace, so what better place than Arkansas Children’s Hospital.”
     
Some things to keep in mind when considering an IRA rollover gift:

• You must be at least 70-1/2 years old at the time a transfer (rollover) is made from your IRA.
• The gift must be made directly from your traditional IRA or Roth IRA to the Arkansas Children’s Hospital Foundation.
• Transfers cannot be made to charitable gift annuities, charitable remainder trusts or other life income arrangements. 
• The combined value of all transfers made (whether to one or more charities) cannot exceed $100,000 per taxpayer per taxable year. Check with your plan administrator for specific minimum dollar requirements. 
• The gift must be completed on or before December 31, 2007.
• The gift qualifies as a distribution for purposes of satisfying any minimum distributions required for your IRA.
• Transfers are not deductible as charitable gifts.

This is a limited-time opportunity to make a meaningful gift to charity. For more information about the benefits of transferring funds from your IRA to the Arkansas Children’s Hospital Foundation, contact Mary Starr Ross at (501) 364-5308.

W.P. Sturgis Foundation

W.P. Sturgis Foundation board members, back row (from left): Ronnie Echols, Freddy Conine, Bill Fowler and Euodias Goza. Front row: June Anthony and Carol Jean Ketchum.

When June Anthony, of Arkadelphia, was asked to serve as temporary secretary of the W.P. Sturgis Foundation until a replacement could be found, she had no idea she’d still be doing the job more than 20 years later.

“I was a legal secretary for Circuit Judge Hugh Lookadoo, and he is the one who had drawn up Mr. Sturgis’ trust,” Anthony began. “The judge’s sister had been secretary of the foundation, but she passed away, and so he asked me to help them out until they could find someone. They’re still looking!”

Although Anthony never met W.P. Sturgis, she knows he made his money through the timber business and had a special interest in children. It was his wish that the W.P. Sturgis Foundation be established after his death and that a percentage of the net income be used to support three causes annually: Arkansas Children’s Hospital, the Methodist Children’s Home and student scholarships. The Foundation was established in 1954.

Five individuals currently sit on the W.P. Sturgis Foundation Board, two of whom are children of past board members. The other three are community leaders in Arkadelphia. “Serving on the board historically has been a lifetime commitment,” Anthony says. She says the main job of the board is to review student scholarship applications.

“We typically have about 200 applications to review each year, and we may meet five or six times to discuss them,” she says. “What I think is so wonderful about these five people is that they just give of their time and expertise without compensation. It’s not a paid position – it’s just from the goodness of their hearts.”

Anthony says that although it isn’t the board members’ decision to support Arkansas Children’s Hospital – they are merely carrying out Mr. Sturgis’ wishes – they still view the annual donation to ACH as a very positive thing. In fact, Anthony’s daughter, Ashlee, who is now 26, had a kidney problem as a child and was a patient at the hospital. Ashley still has a toy helicopter that one of the ACH staff members gave her at that time.

“I don’t know of anything better to do than to support the health and care of children,” she says. “I wish we could give more.”

Reta and Dan Kostecky
  

Reta Kostecky (top left) with her daughter Viki Kuykendall and grandaughters Maggie (bottom left) and Sarah.

Reta and Dan Kostecky, of Conway, have always known about the good work done at Arkansas Children’s Hospital. Their daughter Angela was involved in Circle of Friends, a volunteer group that raises money and awareness for the hospital, and Reta and Dan faithfully attended all the group’s fundraising events for years.

“I’ve known about Circle of Friends and Arkansas Children’s Hospital for several years, but never, ever did I think I’d use it,” Reta says.

That all changed two years ago when her granddaughter Maggie was diagnosed with a heart condition known as tricuspid atresia and transposition of the arteries before she was even born.

“We were going in for a gender check when we got the news about her heart defect,” says Reta’s daughter Viki Kuykendall. “We were living in Portland at the time, and my husband, Grady, and I looked at the hospital there, but we just felt like Arkansas Children’s Hospital was where we needed to be. We moved back to Arkansas within a week of Maggie’s diagnosis.”

Maggie was born at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences on November 29, 2005, and was immediately transported to Arkansas Children’s Hospital. She had her first open heart surgery a few days after her birth and another about five months later. Her heart surgeon was Dr. Jake Jaquiss, who had recently come to ACH from the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.

“We really felt that fate brought us to Arkansas Children’s Hospital,” Viki says. “My parents had a lake house so we were able to move here quickly, my husband’s job allowed him to move, we had recently changed our health insurance coverage from west coast only to nationwide coverage, and Dr. Jaquiss arrived at ACH just when Maggie needed her first surgery. God definitely had a part in it.”

Reta and Viki both say their family was very impressed with everyone they met at ACH, “from the nurses and doctors to the clean-up crew.” One person that really stands out in Viki’s mind is a volunteer babysitter who came to hold Maggie once so she could take a shower.

“He told me that when babies smile in their sleep, it means angels are talking to them,” Viki remembers. “That’s the first time I had ever heard that, and every time I saw my baby smile, I felt all the angels around. It was so wonderful that he knew to tell me that story.”

Today Maggie is a happy 1-year-old with pretty blue eyes and a pleasant, “angelic” personality. She loves running after her big sister, Sarah, and carries her “ba-ba” (bottle) everywhere. Although Maggie will need another heart surgery before she turns 5, Viki says they are just enjoying every moment with their baby girl and leaving the rest in God’s hands.

Reta says she and her husband have financially supported Arkansas Children’s Hospital for many years, but their support has grown since Maggie’s experience. She encourages others to also consider contributing their time and/or money to ACH.

“All you have to do is walk through that hospital and see any one of those children – you can’t help but have your heart go out to every one of them,” Reta says. “We would have preferred just being donors – we didn’t want the experience of having to use the hospital – but if we had to have the experience, I’m glad it was at Arkansas Children’s Hospital.”

Mary Maier

Mary Maier, left, at the Children’s Circle of Care Conference with ACH Foundation vice president Libby Smith.

Mary Maier, of Fayetteville, has been a supporter of Arkansas Children’s Hospital for many years, but until fairly recently, she didn’t like to have her gifts publicized.

“I felt like my gifts were not significant enough, or perhaps, it just wasn’t my style,” Mary began. “But I had a friend who said to me, after seeing my name listed, ‘Mary, I know that you’re not a multi-millionaire, and I decided that if you can make a gift then maybe I can do one, too.’ I realized at that point that there is value in letting your gifts be known.”

Mary was born in El Dorado, Ark., where she lived until graduating from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in 1949. She met her future husband, John Maier, at the University, and the couple moved to northeast Louisiana for a few years before settling in John’s hometown of McGehee, Ark. Mary stayed in McGehee until her husband passed away in 1992. They had three children: John Lewis Maier, III, and Nancy Cooper Maier, of Fayetteville, and Marilyn Maier Fincher, of Little Rock. Mary also has one grandson, Raley Fincher.

She says she was blessed with healthy children and a healthy grandchild, and that is why she feels so strongly about supporting Arkansas Children’s Hospital.
“It was wonderful raising the children realizing and knowing that Children’s Hospital was there – knowing people who had used it and what a difference it had made in their lives,” Mary says. “So it was not hands-on personal experience, but rather, seeing how it brought healing to others’ lives that made me realize what a special jewel ACH was in our state.”

Mary is a member of the Children’s Circle of Care, a north American honor society established in 1995 by 19 prominent pediatric hospitals, including Arkansas Children’s Hospital, to advance philanthropic support of children's health care and to recognize the most generous donors of this essential endeavor. Membership is made up of individuals and family foundations who give $10,000 or more a year to their local children’s hospitals.

“What a privilege it is to be a part of that group,” Mary says. “I recently attended the Circle of Care Leadership Conference in Chicago, and we were so proud to have our own Dr. James Aronson as one of the featured speakers. It was truly a wonderful experience to know that our hospital in Arkansas was a part of this very prestigious group and to know how blessed and fortunate we are to have it.”

Mary says large donations to Arkansas Children’s Hospital are important, but she also wants people to realize the importance of small gifts.

“Some of the gifts that God has entrusted to us are large ones and some are small, but we all have the gift of choice as to how we will use them,” Mary says. “I hope people will realize how many lives ACH does touch. Every gift is important, and there’s no gift too small.”

Dr. Charles Kemp

Frances and Charles Kemp

In 2004, Dr. Charles Kemp, a pediatrician at the Children’s Clinic in Jonesboro, chose to support Arkansas Children’s Hospital by establishing the Frances T. Kemp Endowment. Dr. Kemp says he supports ACH for a variety of reasons: the high quality of care his patients have received at Children’s, the quick response he receives when his clinic requests help in emergencies and acute situations, the hospital’s policy of not turning away any Arkansas child regardless of a family’s inability to pay, and the large number of doctors now in his clinic who trained at Arkansas Children’s Hospital.

“We do not know what in the world we would have done throughout the years without the support of Arkansas Children’s Hospital,” Dr. Kemp says. “A lot of Arkansas children are very, very poor economically and cannot afford this type of medical care, and yet, Arkansas Children’s Hospital has responded without ever questioning whether or not the patient can pay the bill.”

Dr. Kemp chose to establish an endowment at the hospital when his wife was dying of a terminal illness.

“At the end of her life, I made it clear to her that we were going to have some sort of endowment for her, and it was her choice that she picked out Arkansas Children’s Hospital,” Dr. Kemp says. “I think she chose ACH because my entire life had been dealing with children.”

The Jonesboro pediatrician says he believes others should consider supporting Arkansas Children’s Hospital because it is a good investment – a sound investment.
“Arkansas Children’s Hospital is unique in that it is a not-for-profit hospital and it’s located in a state that desperately needs help medically,” Dr. Kemp says. “We have some of the worst health statistics in the nation, so money invested in ACH is money invested in a well-administered financial institution that’s not-for-profit and has a good economic track record.”

Dr. Kemp grew up in Arkansas and graduated from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. He earned his medical degree from the University of Arkansas and did his pediatric training at Washington University in St. Louis. As to why decided to become a pediatrician: “I was attracted to young people. I found pediatrics very enlightening and encouraging. I’ve always enjoyed young couples and children more than attending to elderly people or adults – I still do, even though I’m now older myself. I just enjoy being around enthusiastic young people.”

Louise and Dale Givens

Louise and Dale Givens

Louise and Dale Givens, of Sparkman, have always believed in helping others. In addition to supporting their church, Tsunami victims, and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the Givens have been loyal donors to Arkansas Children’s Hospital for more than 20 years.

“The Lord gives it to us and we give it back,” Dale says.

Louise added, “We always think of the lives we might help save – those little babies who can’t help themselves.”

The lives saved at Arkansas Children’s Hospital are especially important to Louise and Dale. Thirty years ago, their granddaughter Terri was born prematurely and was treated at ACH. Then, more than 10 years after that, their grandson Clint was born with a hole in his heart and was brought to the hospital by the Angel One helicopter.

“Now he’s a big football player at Henderson,” Louise laughs.

Family is very important to Louise and Dale. They have six children: Edward Dale, Jr., Danny, Betty, Geneva, Gene and Rosemary. Together, the children have provided the Givens’ with 14 grandchildren: Anthony, April, Christi, Clark, Clint, Genna, Gregory, Jason, Kimberly, Mark, Sherry, Stephanie, Terri Lynn and Wendi.

“It’s a close-knit family,” Louise says. “Four of our children live right here. Arkadelphia is the farthest away.”

Louise and Dale take pride in the fact that they put all six of their children through college. Dale has been a tree farmer for 60 years, and for 30 years he and Louise worked their own sawmill. Today they no longer work the sawmill, but they still have 2,000 acres of timberland.

Louise says she and Dale have tried to pass their generous spirit on to their children.

“We started when they were young,” Louise says. “Rosemary was a singer, and when she started making a little money I told her she was going to have to start tithing – giving some to the Lord. One time she got $5 and asked how much she should give. I told her 50 cents, and she said, ‘That’s a lot, isn’t it?’ From that day on she tithed, and she’s taught hers to tithe, too.”

Today Rosemary tells her parents they are blessed because the more the Lord blesses them, the more they bless somebody else.

Patricia and Minor Chaney

For more than 25 consecutive years, Patricia and Minor Chaney, of Nashville, have been supporting Arkansas Children’s Hospital with annual donations. “My mother always gave to Children’s, and she would tell me, ‘If you want to give your money to a place where it will be used the way it’s supposed to be, give to Children’s,’” Patricia says.
    
What the Chaneys didn’t know when they began giving to ACH, was that their daughter’s life would one day be saved there.
    
The Chaneys have two children, Dennis and Sherri. “Sherri has Down syndrome, and when she was born in 1970 they said she had a heart murmur,” Patricia began. “It wasn’t until she was close to 26 that I took her in for a check-up with our local doctor and he said the murmur sounded worse. They sent us to Children’s, where they learned she actually had a hole in her heart.”
    
It was 1996 when Sherri had surgery at Arkansas Children’s Hospital to repair the hole in her heart. Eighteen months later, she had a second surgery to replace her mitral valve.
    
Patricia says she and her husband are very pleased with the care they received at Children’s.
    
“Everyone was extra nice, and we were just real pleased with the hospital,” Patricia says. “We had a good experience – it’s just that you don’t like to have to be there.” The Chaneys do not expect Sherri to need any additional surgeries, although they continue to take her to ACH regularly for check-ups
    
Patricia says she hopes her daughter’s story will inspire others to support the hospital.
    
“When I give, I can’t give much at a time,” she begins, “but I think if people would just go and see what’s there at Arkansas Children’s Hospital and how the children are helped – I think it would make them want to give more.”

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