Lincolnshire library gets largest-ever gift
The Vernon Area Public Library has received a $100,000 donation, the largest gift the Lincolnshire facility has ever gotten from a private source.
The check came from the Helen N. Morrow Trust, named after a Wilmette resident who died last year.
Morrow was a history teacher who worked at New Trier High School for nearly 40 years. She made religious and educational causes priorities when it came to distributing her estate, according to attorney Scott B. Friedman.
The Waukegan Public Library received a $100,000 gift from the trust last month.
As is the case in Waukegan, the Vernon Area Public Library will use the money to enhance and expand educational resources.
"We are honored and so grateful to receive this gift," library Director Cynthia Fuerst said. "We are committed to honoring her legacy and continuing her lifelong contribution to education."
Library spokeswoman Catherine Savage was moved by the donation, too - and its source.
"She wasn't a Fortune 500 CEO - she was a teacher," Savage said of Morrow. "Those dollars represent hours spent in a classroom, late nights grading papers, and personal splurges not made. She wanted her savings to continue to work to better the world, even after she was gone. That is the measure of the thing, and those are the values that we intend to live up to with this gift."