From Summer Workers to Charitable Gift Donors: The Carlson Sisters’ Lifelong Support of Mosaic
August is National Make-A-Will Month. A will is only one of several ways to ensure your charitable planned giving creates a legacy beyond your lifetime.
Below is the story about Velma’s and her sisters’ lifelong support of Mosaic—from summer workers volunteering at one of Mosaic’s founding missions in the 1940s—to Charitable Gift Annuity (CGA) donors who continue to help people we love and serve to live full, meaningful lives in the way they choose.
It was 1941 when Velma Carlson, then only 15, and her sister Selma, then 16, arrived at Bethphage to hear a somewhat unimpressed Sister Emma Hanson say, “I thought they were going to send us workers, not kids.”
Bethphage was a ministry dedicated to loving and serving people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and the Carlson sisters were there to support the staff’s good works during the summer.
As Sister Emma determined they were more than capable, she asked the sisters to return the next summer and bring their younger sister Thelma. Among the three of them, Velma said they worked at Bethphage during most of the 1940s.
Today, Velma and her sister Thelma fondly look back at the experience. “We were blessed to have that opportunity. It was God leading and guiding us to help relieve the need,” Velma said. “That experience has been a mainstay in our lives and an important part of our spiritual, physical and mental growth.”
Sisters Thelma and Velma Carlson
In 2003, decades after Velma, Selma and Thelma were summer workers, Bethphage united with Martin Luther Home to become Mosaic. Because she knew firsthand how Mosaic’s founding ministry brought to life Bethphage’s original mission of “We are called to love and serve our neighbor” through the people it supported, Velma has given the organization a generous charitable gift annuity, and Thelma also contributes to Mosaic and has a separate charitable gift annuity of her own.
“I’m so happy Bethphage’s work has continued with Mosaic,” she said. “I stopped giving to some charities, not knowing how my donations were being handled. I do know now how they go directly to the people Mosaic is helping.
“I don’t think any of Bethphage’s founders and staff at that time thought their ministry and their mission would result in the things Mosaic is doing now in the U.S. and internationally,” Velma added. “It’s all so wonderful!”
Now is the best time to consider a Charitable Gift Annuity (CGA) with Mosaic: Your donation makes a visible, positive impact on the lives of the people we serve, and CGA lifelong payout rates are the highest they’ve been in 16 years. No matter how the stock market performs, Mosaic will pay you a steady, fixed income during your lifetime.
To learn more about the advantages and benefits of a Mosaic CGA, visit plannedgiving.mosaicinfo.org/charitable-gift-annuities or contact Jaime Corsar at 1.877.366.7242, ext. 31106 or by email at [email protected].