7/26/23: Joe Collonge Building & Technology Fund

If you were here pre-Covid, you likely knew Joe & Sally Collonge. Sally was the former Sally Klein, director of OLLI for many, many years. Sally and Joe became members in Feb 2014, and tied the knot in June of that year. Over time, Joe developed dementia and died Oct, 2020. Joe was known as very generous in life—and that generosity has continued after life in the form of a generous bequest, to which our church benefitted.

We received $14,750 Dec 2022 and just recently, the estate was settled and we received additional $815. We created the Joe Collonge Building & Technology Fund (recommended by Finance Committee and approved by Council), folding in $133 left of the Technology money we received from Conference—money used to help us upgrade for Zoom church.

And these funds have come at a very helpful time, for we have upgraded WiFi on our campus, purchased a mounted video camera (that moves and zooms, remotely) for our hybrid church services, purchased a church-owned computer and now (ordered but not yet installed) a 75” TV to be wall-mounted on an articulated arm in Fellowship Hall, to the left of the entrance to the Sanctuary. This will allow us to bring the worship experience closer to the back of the church and a host of other uses, some not yet imagined. With this purchase, there remains about $5k in the fund. We aren’t done yet!

And what about Sally? I connected with her upon receiving this final payment from the estate. She is living in Idaho, and here is what she said about herself (copied, with permission):

• I am enjoying being close to my son, John, and his sons Kyler (16) and Maeson (13).  My health is good so far…I am meeting people and loving my home.  What could be better?  Sending my wishes for a wonderful future to you and UCC.

Sally is not in Breeze, but you can email Sally here.

As an aside for now, we have also received a bequest from Donna Swanson’s estate of $10k and a first payment from Helena Sohl’s estate of $1,570 (with $4k expected next year). Finance Committee will be talking about these generous gifts. We also have been notified that we are named beneficiaries in the Hungerford estate.

This fall we will begin talking about our Endowment, a targeted way of giving that keeps on giving.