Why I Give: Library connects me to community

Posted on June 11, 2018

Written by Jean Preer [pictured with husband Jim]

For me, giving is a way to make and keep connections to places and institutions that have enriched my life. During our 14 years in Indianapolis, the College Avenue Branch connected us to our neighborhood. We were regular library users, walking to the branch to get books and DVDs. The book tile that we donated to the branch donor shelf is a reminder of that connection. When we moved from Indianapolis in 2016, we donated many, many boxes of books to be sold at the Indy Library Store book sale.

Giving also enabled us to be involved in the Library itself and in the greater Indianapolis community. We enjoyed attending the yearly Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana Authors Award Dinner, honoring contemporary Hoosier writers, and the annual Marian McFadden Memorial Lecture, featuring notable authors of books for adults and youngsters. I feel a special connection to Marian McFadden, director of The Indianapolis Public Library from 1944 to 1956. My husband and I heard historian David McCullough deliver the Marian McFadden Lecture in 2002, before we even moved to Indianapolis, and were impressed by the fine talk and the huge audience. In 2012, I spent a sabbatical semester at The Indianapolis Public Library Foundation. While doing research on Marian McFadden, I admired the way in which her generous bequest to the Library formed the basis of the Foundation and helped fund the lecture series named in her honor.

Though we no longer live in Indianapolis, I continue to include The Indianapolis Public Library Foundation in my estate plan. In this way I remain connected to the Library and to the community where we spent many happy years. As a member of the Foundation’s Legacy Society, I hope to follow Marian McFadden’s example as a donor, connecting to the Library’s past and supporting its future.

You can read more about making a planned gift to the Library Foundation here.