{"id":4030,"date":"2024-11-08T15:27:56","date_gmt":"2024-11-08T15:27:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/?p=4030"},"modified":"2024-12-05T15:16:22","modified_gmt":"2024-12-05T15:16:22","slug":"gazdeck-pledges-100000-a-gift-52-years-in-the-making","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/?p=4030","title":{"rendered":"Gazdeck pledges $100,000, a gift 52 years in the making"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Elaine
Elaine Gazdeck stopped by the Paul & Virginia fountain outside of Davies Gym during her trip to campus.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Jeff Wilson<\/strong><\/p>\n

CARBONDALE \u2013 After visiting the Southern Illinois University Carbondale campus for the first time in 52 years, Elaine Gazdeck was inspired to make a transformative impact on women\u2019s sports.<\/p>\n

The 1972 graduate pledged a $100,000 planned gift to establish the Elaine Gazdeck Women\u2019s Sports Empowerment Scholarship Endowment Fund, which will benefit women\u2019s basketball and women\u2019s golf.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want young women who choose to go to SIU to have the means to do that,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s helping somebody have an opportunity to see what their potential is academically and athletically.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Elaine
Elaine Gazdeck poses in front of Bowyer Hall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gazdeck is a member of Sigma Sigma Sigma, commonly called Tri Sigma, and she has periodically gathered with her sorority sisters.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have always said \u2018Let\u2019s go back,\u2019 but for one reason or another, it didn\u2019t happen,\u201d she said. \u201cThen we met in October in Quincy, and I was able to come down for a visit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kat Martin, director of development for Saluki Athletics, set up a full schedule for Gazdeck during her short trip to Carbondale.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe had a great itinerary. We had lunch, went to basketball practice and met with coaches and team members. I had a great talk with (Women\u2019s Basketball) Coach Kelly Bond-White,\u201d she said. \u201cI had dinner with (Women\u2019s Golf) Coach Rory Weinfurther, went to a softball game, volleyball match, and the football game. I had breakfast with (Athletic Director) Tim Leonard and Kat. It was clear that Tim really cares about women\u2019s sports.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Kat
Kat Martin, director of development for Saluki Athletics, and Elaine Gazdeck visit the King Tut memorial outside of Saluki Stadium.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gazdeck played sports in high school and started golfing at an early age with her father.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was young, my father got me golf lessons. He was off work on Wednesdays and had no one to golf with, so he asked me \u2018Wanna golf?\u2019 So, I went with him on Wednesdays,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Coming full circle<\/strong><\/p>\n

Growing up in a suburb outside of Cleveland, Ohio, Gazdeck wanted to attend college out of state, but her parents didn\u2019t want her to stray far. She wanted to major in botany and narrowed her focus to three universities \u2013 Miami of Ohio, Oregon State, and SIU.<\/p>\n

\u201cOregon was too far, so the summer before my senior year of high school, my father rented a camper and we camped at Crab Orchard Lake,\u201d she said. \u201cWe got to see campus, and my parents liked it. Tuition was a little less expensive than at Miami of Ohio, so we decided to give it a try. I received a scholarship for the first year, which helped.\u201d<\/p>\n

After studying botany for three years, she changed her major to recreation and graduated from what is now the College of Health and Human Sciences. She moved to Chicago and took a job with a pharmaceutical company, working to help its veterinary division understand and meet new drug regulations. After about 10 years, she switched to human pharmaceutical development. She worked in Kansas City, San Francisco, and then took a \u201cgap year\u201d and traveled across the U.S. and Canada. She settled in Colorado in 1988, continuing a career in pharmaceutical development helping start-up companies navigate the regulatory pathway in drug development.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a great career. I worked during the time that pharmaceutical development embraced new technologies to help people. It was good times,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Outside of work, she has lived an active lifestyle, continuing to golf, travel, ski and kayak. She also became involved with sled dog racing, working with a team in the 2008 Iditarod.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn sports, you learn how to work as a team. A lot of life skills come from it,\u201d she said. \u201cI want to give young women opportunities to develop these valuable skills.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Elaine
Elaine Gazdeck visited SIU’s campus for the first time in over 50 years in October 2024.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During her visit to Southern, Gazdeck also made a trip to the spot where her Saluki journey started.<\/p>\n

\u201cI drove out to Crab Orchard. I wanted to see where it all began. I sat by the lake. It was pretty nostalgic,\u201d she said. \u201cI had such a good experience at SIU and made lifelong friends. With this being a planned gift, I won\u2019t be here to see it manifest, but that\u2019s OK. I just want women to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n

To learn more about planned giving, visit siufgiving.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jeff Wilson CARBONDALE \u2013 After visiting the Southern Illinois University Carbondale campus for the first time in 52 years, Elaine Gazdeck was inspired to make a transformative impact on women\u2019s sports. The 1972 graduate pledged a $100,000 planned gift to establish the Elaine Gazdeck Women\u2019s Sports Empowerment Scholarship Endowment Fund, which will benefit women\u2019s … Continue reading Gazdeck pledges $100,000, a gift 52 years in the making<\/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":[7,17,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-donor-stories","category-saluki-athletics","category-siu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4030","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=4030"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4030\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4036,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4030\/revisions\/4036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}