“A community grows great when old men and women plant trees, whose shade they know they will never sit under” says an old Greek proverb. The gift left by Joe Zadnik to the Community Foundation in his will is a good example of that: some six years after his death the earnings from his invested gift funded the pathology room in the Mirboo North Medical Centre built in 2021.
Joe Zadnik was a tree feller and cattle farmer who lived with his wife, Martha, on Grand Ridge Road in Allambee South. Originally from Slovenia, he emigrated to Australia after World War II without a word of English. This had changed by the time he met his wife, Martha, who had also emigrated from Europe: English was their one shared language, as Martha’s first language was German.
Joe’s frugal and self-sufficient approach to life and farming, common to many in our region, meant that he had considerable assets to distribute when he died. Through his will, he supported a number of causes which were important to him. One of those causes was his community: he left a gift of almost $225,000 to the Community Foundation in his will. He specified that the gift be used for the benefit of the community that he called home.
By 2020, Joe’s gift of $225,000 had been invested for five years and had earned more than $80,000. The Community Foundation had committed to building a medical centre, but the pandemic had brought the realisation that the pathology service needed to run out of the medical centre building also. It was decided to allocate most of the $80,000 earnings to cover the cost of adding the pathology room footprint to the medical centre building. This was completed in 2021 and is named in Joe’s honour, which you will see if you need to visit our pathology service.
A gift in your will is one of the most powerful ways to create lasting impact. It is estimated from ABS Census 2021 that in South Gippsland over the next 5 years $1.3 billion will be passed down through wills. If only 1% of that were donated to Community Foundations, there would be $13 million to invest in our communities – and that’s before it is invested for the future. Every gift large or small helps create a stronger, more connected community – today and for generations to come.
To find out more about leaving gifts in your will to support something you care about after you have gone, drop in to Co-Space or call Ruth on 0418 301 092.
