Martha Risley Reiners

People who knew Martha Risley Reiners knew her as a caring, involved, and extremely generous woman. Recalls her friend Alan Bubalo, "Martha Reiners always had a big heart and believed that people, whether she personally knew them or not, were important.

When Reiners needed help to create permanent support for the charities she cared about, she turned to the Daviess County Community Foundation and eventually established five endowed funds.

The Stella Mulholland Bogner Memorial Fund was established in memory of Reiners's mother to benefit the Daviess County Historial Society Museum. The Carnegie Public Library Fund provides annual support to the library, the Red Door Industries Fund benefits Four Rivers Rehabilitation Services, and the Dwight Risley Scholarship Fund provides an annual scholarship in memory of her first husband.

Since these funds were created in 1997, the scholarship fund has allowed for awards totaling nearly $65,000 to 36 students pursuing advanced education, and the other three funds have allowed for grants totaling more than $26,700 to the organizations Reiners designated.

Reiners passed away in February 2002, but not before ensuring that another agency she cared deeply about would receive the same kind of perpetual support. Through her estate plan, Reiners created the Daviess County Red Cross Service Center Fund to benefit her county's chapter of the Red Cross. In three short years, the fund has allowed for grants of nearly $40,000 in support of the organzation's services and programs.

Reiners's estate plan also included a sizable gift to the Foundation's Friends of Daviess County Fund, an unrestricted endowment that allows the Foundation to address the community's changing needs and respond to promising opportunities.

"Martha was one of the finest ladies I have ever known. Her support of the community is an example of what the Foundation is all about," says Bubalo. "She perpetually supports Washington because her gifts are forever."