“Woman left life earnings to charity”
Charlotte, NC
February 2010
After she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000, Lynn Kennelly and a group of her friends helped form a team for the Susan G. Komen for the Cure 5K event in Charlotte. An avid runner who competed in the event every year, winning her age group at least once, Kennelly took to walking in the event after the disease returned in 2006, metastasizing as bone cancer. And last summer, when the cancer ravaged most of her body, Kennelly turned to Abigail H. Kerr, a friend, fellow breast-cancer survivor and Komen teammate, to help her create an estate plan.
When Kerr told Kennelly her retirement plans had accumulated substantial assets, Kennelly replied she wanted to "give a bunch to charity," Kerr says. Kennelly, who was vice president for sales channel and consulting for Hill-Rom, died last Sept. 21 at age 50, leaving a total of $260,000 to five local charities she designated in her estate plan.
"Lynn gave away everything that she had earned," says Kerr. With her other assets, she set up a trust for her elderly parents, and provided bequests to benefit other individuals and her pets.
Every Saturday, Kennelly attended yoga practice with Kirsten Sikkelee, a long-time personal friend and Komen team member who is CEO of YWCA Central Carolinas. Sikkelee, who created and for 12 years directed the YWCA's Women in Transition program, Charlotte's main transitional housing program for homeless women, says Kennelly attended events for the program and supported it.
Kennelly's estate plan left Women in Transition $65,000, which the YWCA put in an endowment to support the program. It also named the exercise studio in its fitness center for her.
Other bequests included $65,000 to Komen Charlotte, $52,000 to the Charlotte Gay and Lesbian Fund at Foundation for the Carolinas, $52,000 to the Greater Carolinas Chapter of the American Red Cross, and $26,000 to the Humane Society of Charlotte.
That team, known as "Circle Up," had grown to over 300 members over the years, including many of Kennelly's friends from Charlotte's lesbian community.
In the last 10 years, Circle Up, a name that refers to circling up to help friends, raised over $300,000 for breast-cancer research.
The above story is excerpted from the Philanthropy Journal’s Giving and Community page, sponsored by NCGives. Read the full article here.
Gifts Included
Talent
Lynn supported the participants in the YWCA of Central Carolinas’ Women in Transition program, a transitional housing program for homeless women.
Treasure
Through her estate, Lynn left a total of $260,000 to five Charlotte-area charities: Women in Transition program at the YWCA of Central Carolinas, Susan G. Komen for the Cure Charlotte, Charlotte Gay and Lesbian Fund at Foundation for the Carolinas, Greater Carolinas Chapter of the American Red Cross, and Humane Society of Charlotte.
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