What do you do when you love all your small town has to offer? How do you choose just one cause to support?
Jack and Dorothy Jarrett spent 60 years of marriage just outside Pendleton. She was a nurse, he was an engineer. She was a golfer, he was a woodworker. Together they raised three sons, worshipped at the First United Methodist Church, and patronized the Pendleton Community Public Library, Pendleton Historical Museum (where you can see Dorothy’s nurse uniform) and so many other treasured hometown institutions.
With such a long history of associations, it would be next to impossible to choose just one cause to support. Perhaps this is why Jack and Dorothy never signed a Fund Agreement to narrow down the use of the funds they donated to the South Madison Community Foundation. When asked, Dorothy said – “Oh, anything is fine. Just make good use of it.”
So that’s what we’ve done. Now that Jack and Dorothy have both passed on, their donations are part of the Bright Future grant pool that awards wonderful grants each month to the people, places, and projects that make up the community the Jarretts loved. Without having to “choose,” the Jarretts chose to help all of the Foundation’s grant-making, every year, for the rest of time.