News Release

Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi makes giving easier
 

Southaven, Jul 2, 2002 - SOUTHAVEN - It's been almost five months since Rosa Lee Jennings lost her bout with cancer, but her memory remains quite alive with her husband, Claude.

He is assured of her living memory by a special scholarship fund created in her name by the staff and residents at Wesley Meadows Retirement Community - Jennings' place of employment for five years.

Jennings said he didn't know what to say when he heard of the scholarship fund.

"It stunned me so that I really couldn't say anything," Jennings said. "She had a lot to give for the people, and so it seems like they are giving something back to her."

The residents and staff at Wesley Meadows will be some of the county's first to benefit from the Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi. It serves as an umbrella support group for non-profit agencies and charities in the area. Monday, the foundation hosted an informative luncheon at Whispering Woods Hotel and Conference Center in Olive Branch.

Maddox Foundation president Robin Costa, who serves as chairman of the community foundation, said when the residents at Wesley Meadows considered creating a scholarship fund in Jennings' name, they needed some direction as to how to properly set up the scholarship fund.

"The residents wouldn't set up a scholarship fund themselves, and they didn't want to endorse one particular school," Costa said. "So they were able to set the fund up through the Community Foundation."

Through the foundation, Jennings now has an exclusive fund that will go to provide scholarships for students living in DeSoto County.

Janet White, who worked with Jennings for almost two years, said the $6,000 raised so far for the Jennings Scholarship Fund has been matched by the Maddox Foundation.

Scholarship funds are just one small piece of the community foundation's pie, Costa said. Tax incentives, donor-advised funds, endowments, grant writing, volunteer recruitment and gaining legal 501(c)(3) compliance are just a few of the advantages of working through the community foundation.

But perhaps the greatest service the community foundation will offer is in the legacies, such as Rosa Lee Jennings, that it will help leave behind.

"It's really something to know that she'll be remembered for as long as this scholarship exists," Jennings said. "It means a lot to know."