"Charitable Giving: Past, Present & Future" at PSU's Hershey Medical Center
On Thursday afternoon, October 29, 2009, beginning at 4:30 pm, Penn State University and the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, will hold a reception and then a one-hour presentation entitled Charitable Gift Planning at the Hershey County Club, in its Picard Grand Pavilion, 1000 E. Derry Road, Hershey, PA 17033.
The reception is hosted by Harold L. Paz, M.D., Senior Vice President for Health Affairs for Penn State, Dean of Penn State College of Medicine, and Chief Executive Officer of Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, and by Mark Faulkner, Esq., Partner, McQuaide Blasko.
The speaker will be me.
I will make a presentation for an hour (5:15 - 6:15 pm) entitled "Charitable Giving: Past, Present, and Future" tracing what has transpired, is happening now, and can happen in Hershey, Pennsylvania through charitable donations.
In nearly fifty PowerPoint slides, I borrow from etymology, world and local history, the Milton S. Hershey legacy, Professor Don Kelly's fine software program The Intuitive Estate Planner (now in Version 13, updated 10/13/09, published by Thompson-West), recent photos taken at Hershey Medical Center, the ten-year development plan for HMC, and my own recent experience as a patient in a similar medical system to consider the purpose and value of charitable giving.
I conclude that the greatest giving arises from the deepest appreciation of suffering and the strongest determination to remedy it beyond ourselves.
We lawyers draft documents to define purposes and uses of charitable gifts. Accountants count the income and estate tax savings accruing from charitable gifts. Investment advisors study the most appropriate holdings or income earnings of gifts in the hands of a charity. Development officers tout the merits of one institution or gift program over another.
But the real purpose of a charitable gift is to help others with the least fuss and the most effect.
In my recent examination of the great work, the good people, and the consistent mission of Penn State's Hershey Medical Center, I conclude that its facilities, research programs, and patient services are worthy objectives for charitable donations, small or large.
