Your legacy: It Starts Here
“The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” –Chinese Proverb
Think back 20, 30 or 40 years. There were many people who decided to ‘plant a tree’ by leaving a gift in their Will for Saskatoon City Hospital. Today, thousands of patients benefit from those decisions made decades ago.
You can do the same for the generations to come. You can plant a tree for your children and their children to enjoy.
Creating or updating your Will takes time and effort but it is so rewarding. It means you choose who shares your assets. Your Will is the statement you make about what you hold dear.
If you’re unsure of what to do, you’re not alone. Legal advisors can help you plan a new Will or update your existing Will. Financial advisors can discuss tax benefits and how leaving a gift in your Will may mean more is left for your loved one.
And we can help. Saskatoon City Hospital Foundation can provide information and resources. We can also meet for a confidential conversation about including the Foundation in your plans. It’s always wonderful to hear stories about what the hospital has meant to our most loyal and cherished donors, so please don’t hesitate to connect at any time.
Thank you for your ongoing and vital support!
Nicole Semko, Director of Development
Saskatoon City Hospital Foundation
306-655-8538
[email protected]
If you’ve been thinking of gifting the Foundation in your Will or leaving a legacy, you’re in good company. Here are just some other donors who’ve done the same:
Longtime Saskatoon family physician Dr. Steven Goluboff experienced the other side of a healthcare recently. A stroke in summer of 2024 sent him to RUH. He then spent time in the inpatient rehab ward at Saskatoon City Hospital, working with social workers as well as occupational, physio, speech, and recreational therapists.
Dr. Goluboff was so grateful for the care that he and his wife, Leila, decided to create an endowment to fund ongoing and emerging needs of the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation department at City Hospital.
“The endowment was to say thanks for my care but also because I think of Saskatoon City as ‘my’ hospital. I’ve been associated with it since 1981. My dad, Dr. Nathan Goluboff, worked at City where he was chief of pediatrics. I was once chief of family medicine, so, really, it’s ‘our’ hospital.”
It’s no surprise that Foundation CEO Steve Shannon and his spouse, Cindy Roth, have left a gift in their Will – naming the Foundation as a beneficiary of a life insurance policy.
Steve has a long history with and strong passion for the hospital and the Foundation. He joined the volunteer board of directors in 2000 and served for more than ten years, including as chair of the board of directors. He became CEO in 2010. But Steve and Cindy’s reasons for giving are even more personal.
When their son Billy was three years old, he was diagnosed with lazy eye and referred to the Eye Care Centre, where he received excellent care to correct his vision problem, including patching and surgery.
To honour this care, Steve and Cindy chose to support Saskatoon City Hospital with a planned gift but not specify one particular area. “How do we know where funds will be needed in 25, 30 or 40 years? By not restricting our donation, it allows the Foundation to use it where patients need it first,” Steve says of the donation.
What goes around comes around. In spring of 2021, Bohdan “Bud” and Eileen Bayda won more than $600,000 in the Hospital Home Lottery’s 50-50. A little more than a year later, they gave Saskatoon City Hospital Foundation a generous gift of $30,000. Then they decided to create an endowment to fund emerging needs of the hospital’s the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation department.
Supporting the hospital was a given, as the couple met there and have a long association with it. Eileen graduated from the Saskatoon City Hospital nursing school in 1967 and worked in it several times during her career. Bud, a commerce graduate, worked for the hospital and then the Health Region from 1974 until his retirement in 1999. They’ve also been patients at City Hospital.
“We’ve basically been donating like this for a number of years but on a smaller scale,” Eileen says. “We now have the ability to do more. We’re both retired and living comfortably, so we can.”
George Horton’s passing in 2024 concluded a legacy that he and his sister Marion created for three Saskatoon hospitals more than 20 years ago. Marion predeceased her brother in 2017. George was a well-known businessperson in Saskatoon, operating a popular and much-loved confectionary on Avenue A, now Idylwyld Drive.
The siblings chose to donate by creating an endowment in 2002 as tribute to the compassionate care their parents had received from the hospitals in Saskatoon. “We were honoured to do it,” George said at the time. “We decided to support the hospital because that’s something everyone benefits from.”
