St. Mary’s Connection Inspires Legacy GiftSt. Mary’s has been a part of Billy and Brooke Wagner’s lives for more than 10 years. For Billy and Brooke, St. Mary’s represents the best of our community. All four of their children (Parks, Cameron, Rossi and William) were born at St. Mary’s Hospital for Women & Children.

As a baby, Parks spent four days in St. Mary’s Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU). The experience left a lasting impact on their family. Billy shares, “The feeling of seeing your newborn in the NICU is life-changing. The confidence the staff displayed in their level of care instantly told Brooke and me everything was going to be okay. After our experience, we wanted to leave something behind for the NICU. It is a very special place.”

The Wagner’s did just that. Billy and Brooke recently made a legacy gift of life insurance to St. Mary’s. They designated St. Mary’s Health Foundation as the beneficiary of the policy, for the benefit of the NICU.

The advantages of using life insurance as a charitable giving vehicle are simple. In most circumstances, life insurance is paid out 100% tax free. Using certain types of permanent life insurance ensures that the contract will be enforced at the donor’s passing, assuming premiums have been paid. At the donor’s death, the charity receives a tax free death benefit in the amount of the life insurance policy. It is also a beneficial option for donors who want to use after tax dollars to pay a life insurance premium.

Through this act of generosity, Billy and Brooke’s relationship with St. Mary’s will continue well beyond the next 10 years. They are the newest members of our Healing Legacy Society, an honorable group of people who have chosen to make a powerful difference for our Mission. Their generosity will help future generations of our tiniest and most precious patients.

Fall 2016

Memorial Scholarship EstablishedThe family of Rebekah Shinabarger, a St. Mary’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU) nurse who passed away at the young age of 25, has created the Rebekah Lynne Shinabarger Memorial Scholarship Endowment. The scholarship fund will assist a future St. Mary’s nurse completing their degree or pursuing graduate school who models Rebekah’s hopes and dreams. To date, St. Mary’s associates, physicians and our generous community of donors have contributed more than $55,000 to the scholarship fund. Donations will be accumulated until there is enough principal to allow the interest to provide for the annual scholarship.

Her family shares, “Rebekah was a vivacious young lady who had an inquisitive mind that delighted in learning and a heart filled with God’s love, which allowed her to serve and enjoy others. Within weeks, she went from being a 25-year-old ICU nurse, graduate student and mini-marathon runner to experiencing illness leading to multiple organ failure. She met her Savior Jesus face-to-face Christmas morning 2014. As her family, we decided one way to honor her would be to establish a scholarship fund so others who share her passion for life and learning could be blessed as they serve patients at St. Mary’s.”

You can honor Rebekah’s legacy and impact the life of a future nurse. Visit stmarys.org/donate or mail your check to St. Mary’s Health Foundation to help us reach the $100,000

total needed to begin offering the annual scholarship.

Rebekah Lynne Shinabarger

Deb Mosley, OTRPhysical Medicine

John Rodrigues, MDSt. Mary’s Medical Group

Rachel Spalding, RNPerioperative Services

Taylor Binyon, RNCardiovascular

Intensive Care Unit

Billy and Brooke Wagner with their children (left to right) Cameron,

Rossi, Parks and William.

Nursing Leader Darcy Ellison will be honored at 29th Annual Cornette BallThe historic West Baden Springs Hotel will be transformed into an “Enchanted Forest” for St. Mary’s Health Foundation’s 29th Annual Cornette Ball on October 22. Darcy Ellison, Senior Vice President of Clinical Operations and Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) for St. Mary’s Health, will receive the prestigious Steward of St. Vincent de Paul Award, the highest honor bestowed by St. Mary’s Health each year.

Darcy leads a team of over 1,000 nurses and their calling to deliver an exceptional patient experience, known as the “St. Mary’s Experience.” During her tenure as CNO, Darcy has worked to continuously elevate the practice of nursing at St. Mary’s and has led St. Mary’s Medical Center to achieve Evansville’s first Magnet® designation in January 2011. In March 2016, St. Mary’s was honored with its first Magnet® re-designation. As Darcy shares, “This is not the effort of just a few. Achieving Magnet® designation and being re-designated is thanks to the incredible hard work and commitment of associates across all of St. Mary’s Health.”

Darcy and her husband, Lamont, reside in Evansville.

Cornette Ball Chairs Dan and Cindy Carwile are expecting a sold-out crowd again this year. For more information, please contact Jessica Roos, Grants & Events Coordinator for St. Mary’s Health Foundation, at 812.485.5850 or jessica.roos@stmarys.org. We hope you will celebrate with us at West Baden!

Darcy Ellison MSN, RN, NEA, BC St. Mary’s Senior

Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer

What is your legacy?These are questions we all ask ourselves. I’m still trying to create and define my legacy, but I know I want to leave one.

On the front page, you met Billy and Brooke Wagner. Billy and Brooke will leave a legacy of healing in the St Mary’s Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Their legacy gift is based on experience and emotion. As Billy shared, the vision of his first-born son in our NICU is forever embedded in his memory, as is the compassionate care our doctors and nurses provided

during Parks’ growth and development.

In a gesture of generosity, Billy and Brooke decided to thank our NICU staff by designating a life insurance policy in their honor. This caring couple made this decision in their 30s, while they still have their entire lives ahead of them.

Most people don’t start thinking about planned gifts until later in life, but Billy and Brooke are proof that age is not a factor when creating your legacy.

I hope you will consider joining Billy and Brooke in St. Mary’s prestigious Healing Legacy Society. The 46 men and women who make up this society of giving will be remembered for their generosity for generations – forever.

Several members have chosen to include St. Mary’s Health Foundation in their will or estate. Some are choosing to receive a fixed income and tax benefits while they’re still living through a Charitable Gift Annuity or a Charitable Remainder Trust. Others have established endowments. Planned gifts can be made in a variety of ways: cash, IRAs, stocks and bonds or through a life insurance policy, like our good friends Billy and Brooke.

So, I ask again: How do you want to be remembered? What kind of legacy do you want to leave? What difference do you want to make?

Please call me today and we’ll discuss options for your forever gift. Thank you for Supporting our Healing Ministry!

Blessings,

Rick Peltier | Director, St. Mary’s Health Foundation812.485.4412 | richard.peltier@stmarys.org

Are you 70 ½?

In 2015, Congress enacted a permanent extension of the IRA charitable rollover. Individuals age 70 ½ or older can make gifts directly from their IRA to a charity in 2016 and beyond. Do you want to make an impact on our Mission and lower your income and taxes from your IRA withdrawals? Through an IRA charitable rollover, you can support St. Mary’s and you’ll benefit, too.

For more information, please contact Rick Peltier at 812.485.4412 or richard.peltier@stmarys.org.

Thank you to everyone who participated in St. Mary’s Health Foundation’s 36th Annual Heritage Open Golf Tournament on June 13! The net proceeds exceeded $100,000 and will benefit St. Mary’s Center for Children.

St. Mary’s Health Foundation3700 Washington AvenueEvansville, IN 47750

812.485.4265

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