{"id":1734,"date":"2019-10-18T19:09:31","date_gmt":"2019-10-18T19:09:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/?p=1734"},"modified":"2021-07-14T19:01:03","modified_gmt":"2021-07-14T19:01:03","slug":"estate-planning-leaves-lasting-legacy-alumna-makes-plan-to-benefit-future-salukis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/?p=1734","title":{"rendered":"Estate planning leaves lasting legacy: Alumna makes plan to benefit future Salukis"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Kimberly Omelson (left) is pictured with her roommate from freshman year (1988) at the homecoming game on October 19, 2019.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Jeff Wilson<\/p>\n

SIU made a lasting impression on Kimberly Omelson, and now, she plans to leave her mark on the university.<\/p>\n

Omelson, who graduated in 1993 with a bachelor\u2019s degree in English, has planned an estate gift that will benefit the College of Liberal Arts and Morris Library.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t have to have a lot of money in order to make a difference,\u201d she said. \u201cSure, we\u2019d all love to donate $1 million to our alma mater, but that\u2019s not going to happen for the majority of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her uncle, Albert Hall, attended SIU in the 1960s, and the scholarships Omelson creates will be named after her and her uncle.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m single, and I have no children. My parents and grandparents have all died. My only sister died and did not have children,\u201d she said. \u201cIf I didn\u2019t have a will and make my own estate plans, the State of Illinois would determine who benefits from my estate when I\u2019m gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Choosing SIU made sense to Omelson because of her great memories from Carbondale. She joined the Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority and made lifelong friends. One of those memories is when she brought her mother to Founders Day in 1990.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom saw a lot that day \u2013 her daughter being acknowledged by her sorority for academic achievement.\u00a0She saw I had great friends.\u00a0She saw that I had something that made me truly, genuinely happy,\u201d Omelson said. \u201cShe was diagnosed with breast cancer later that year and died in May 1991. So, she didn’t see all of my college career, but she saw the aspect of it that meant the most to me \u2013 my sorority and my sisterhood.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through estate planning, anyone can be a philanthropist, and the SIU Foundation is ready to help anyone make the greatest possible impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s kind of moving to know I’m going to be able to help a kid in the same boat I was in so many years ago,\u201d Omelson said.\u00a0\u201cPhilanthropy is pretty incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

To learn more about estate planning, visit siufgiving.org<\/a> or call 618\/453-4900.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jeff Wilson SIU made a lasting impression on Kimberly Omelson, and now, she plans to leave her mark on the university. Omelson, who graduated in 1993 with a bachelor\u2019s degree in English, has planned an estate gift that will benefit the College of Liberal Arts and Morris Library. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to have a … Continue reading Estate planning leaves lasting legacy: Alumna makes plan to benefit future Salukis<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,3,4,11,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-donor-stories","category-higher-education","category-illinois-higher-education","category-philanthropic-women","category-siu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1734"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1739,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1734\/revisions\/1739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}