www.northboroughrotary.org
www.rotary7910.org
Northborough Rotary welcomed Kim Corwin, Plan Counselor with Westland Services Corporation. Westland assists families in caretaking for cemetery plots with the company vision “Respectful Remembrance.” In many cases, relatives who can no longer care for a loved one’s resting place due to geography, age or other circumstances turn to Westland for assistance. Plan counselors meet with family members to discuss a plan for maintenance, flowers, decorations etc, all the while working with owners of the cemetery in order to navigate the varying rules of what is allowable or not for each particular cemetery.
Maintenance plans for a loved ones resting place are funded through an up-front, one-time fee that purchases a 25 year term contract. Monies for the remembrance plan are placed in an irrevocable trust managed by an outside trustee. Irrevocable trusts remove assets from one’s estate and are frequently used as part of an overall estate planning process. Current tax laws subject family assets in excess of $2 million dollars to a 45% Federal tax, which when added to the state estate tax puts the overall tax burden above 50%.
Westland was founded by Philip Haddad in 1987. A successful funeral director in Worcester MA, Mr. Haddad discovered a need through family members of clients who could no longer care for their loved ones resting place and subsequently expressed an interest in having someone else manage the sites. Twenty years later, Westland Services continues to carry on with the noble mission of caring for a family’s hallowed ground with the motto that “A life worth is living, is a life worth remembering.”
Club Business:
The Board passed a budget for the upcoming fiscal year and voted to incorporate as a non-profit.
The club has unanimously launched Cheryl Ann Owoc towards the District Governor’s race and is also encouraging newer members of Rotary to attend RLI, Rotary Leadership Institute.
Although club dues were due in July, some members still have not fulfilled their responsibility and are encouraged to do so expeditiously.
The annual scholarship pancake breakfast will be held on March 2 2008, please mark your calendars.
*Any member who has a speaker for next month is encouraged to send any and all information to our either our PR Representative Cheryl Rosen or Newsletter lackey Will Oliveira.
Birthdays and anniversaries: None this week
Funnies: “Why do blondes stare at frozen orange juice? It says concentrate.”
Poem for the week:
“The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus
“Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles.
From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!"” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
