In 1993, Hazel Richards gave a gift to UUCT with one purpose in mind: helping people get to the Mountain Retreat and Learning Center in Highlands, North Carolina. More than thirty years later, that fund has grown to over three times its original size. That single donation invested wisely, in a diversified, low-cost portfolio that in recent years has reflected our values through ESG investing (investing that only has holdings that represent our environmental, social, and governance values).

The real story, though, is in the people who’ve gone to camp because of her generosity. Hazel’s fund typically covers about half the cost of a scholarship (the committee can work with the individual if other arrangements are needed). We don’t send someone every single year, sometimes it’s every couple of years, but the fund has continued to be a valuable fixture for the church’s spiritual growth, allowing congregants to make a pilgrimage to a very special part of the Appalachian Mountains.

Hazel is gone now, but her generosity lives on. Her gift is proof that a single act of kindness, given time and stewardship, can keep giving for decades. It’s one of several funds in the UUCT endowment, each with its own story, and each showing what patient generosity can do.

Interested in a Mountain Retreat Camp scholarship? Reach out to UUCT Mountain Ambassador Sarah Chipps-Walton (mountainambassador@uutallahassee.org) to learn more.

Curious about leaving a gift or bequest like Hazel’s? The endowment committee would love to talk with you about it at endowment@uutallahassee.org.