Meet Our Benefactors
We thank all our planned-gift donors for their generous support. Here are some of their stories.
Charitable Gift Annuity Makes Scholarship a Reality
Elaine Schermerhorn Dennis ‘57 takes great pride in her College education. “It has changed my life in many amazing ways,” she says.
“At Beaver College, I learned from the very best faculty and felt appreciated as a student. I worked hard, made the Dean’s list and became an active student leader. With each achievement, I discovered that I can make a difference in the world. I made many friends at Beaver and we continue to stay close today.”
Dennis reveals “For me, this wonderful education would not have been possible without the generous scholarships I received. I’ve always wanted to set up a scholarship fund, but I wasn’t in a position to make a large outright gift.”
She discovered an easy way to make her dream of an endowed scholarship a reality with a charitable gift annuity. “In return for making a charitable gift, I receive annuity payments for life. While my goal is to help other women with scholarship support, my charitable gift annuity also provides me with many benefits. I increased my income. My stock paid less than 2% in dividends, while my charitable annuity pays me more than 6%. There are also tax savings, both in the year you make your gift, and a portion of your annuity income may be tax-free.”
Dennis has her quarterly payments deposited directly into her checking account, saving a trip to the bank each quarter. “Direct deposit is ideal if you do a lot of traveling or have a second home,” she reveals.
Lyanne Lindo Wassermann ’61
“I owe a lot to my college experience for making me who I am.”
University President Jerry Greiner’s commitment to further internationalize Arcadia’s campus sits well with alumna Lyanne Lindo Wassermann ’61. Lyanne, a native of Panama, was an international student herself when she arrived on the Arcadia campus in the late 1950s.
Lyanne says her parents “wanted me in a very safe environment,” near her brother and cousins, who were students at the University of Pennsylvania. With home so far away, she spent breaks and holidays in America, returning to Panama only during the Christmas holiday season. “I made so many friends that I never lacked for a place to go for the holidays,” she says.
Lyanne, who received her degree in Spanish, started out as a pre-med major, but says liberal arts studies soon drew her away from medicine. “I had never studied the arts,” she says, adding that many of the faculty members on campus at that time inspired her in the areas of art, theater and music. “As a result,” she says, “I have such a love for all the beautiful things in life.”
Lyanne and her husband, Barton, who met on a blind date while she was a student at Arcadia, are “perpetual” students. Lyanne says all members of her family are big believers in being loyal to their alma maters. “Education is so very, very important,” she says. “You need to pass that on to your children.”
It is for this reason she joined Arcadia’s Covenant Society, informing the Office of Gift Planning that she has named the University as a beneficiary in her will.
“You reach a certain point in your life when you start talking about two new real-life issues: estate planning and long-term care,” Lyanne says with a smile. Then she adds a little more seriously, “It’s a time of reflection. What would I like my tiny piece of immortality to be?” Barton adds, “How have I served others?” And as the discussions about estate planning progress, Lyanne says you first think about your children and grandchildren, then you think about your religion, your education, and what she calls “other bonding experiences you had in the past.”
Additionally, Lyanne says of her planned testamentary gift and her many years of loyal support for Arcadia, “I feel it’s a personal obligation to support your alma mater—to support it while you are living and to support it when you are gone.”
