" no family ties ‘ NEW Fflllllllfllillll flfllliflalflll I0 \lG|'Ill0IlI GIBT flommllnilll BY CAROLYN ASHBY ill Lippert has been a Bpart of many of the organizations that sus- tain the GLBT community in Vermont: Vermont Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Rights, Out in the Mountains, Outright Vermont, Vermont CARES, and Pride. Now, another seed that Lippert planted and nur- tured is blooming: the Samara Foundation of Vermont. Lippert noticed patterns in his community work and per- sonal life. Every time a GLBT community initiative or organi- zation started up, money and and often few Ilia Mission: Attorney David Curtis dis- cussed a special fund with the Vermont Community Foundation in Middlebury, but ultimately decided it would be best to create an organization that could be politically autonomous. Enter Bob Mundstock. He was a candlemaker in Weybridge, coming out of a marriage when he met Lippert. Mundstock moved to Montpelier, switched to paint- ing and glasswork, got involved with Out in the Mountains and VT CARES, and discovered that he was HIV+. resources Lippert were always discussed a critical first A the founda- issue. He saw; tion . idea aging friends . W i t h b e c 0 min g ‘Mundstock, aware of get- and in 1992 ting older and . received an ' y o u 11 g c r ' Qultimatum. ‘friends facing Mu'nd's{tot:k . their morta1i- ; feaehefli j’-ty due to the _ fl 1 a r -critical,»-‘ _,‘tf‘AiDS epi- a m G « r -ah stage . fdemic. With in F r’: 4 e’ r E p 2] 65 N‘ f m _. . illness .’ no or - . a. s : .1. . - . O i‘ bluntly and colorfully to friends, how - Lippert, should they The Samara Foundation of “Its time. If a p p o r t i o n Vermont is a charitable Y0“ d0D’t their estates? . . . . h3V¢ 501116- These pat_ foundation whose mission IS thing orga- terns merged A nized before mm 3 Single to support and strengthen _ I die, I can thought for Ver-mont’s gay, lesbian, leave you Li ert fol- . anything.” 1053,, two bisexual, and transgendered Lippert P 3" 1 C "13 ’ communities today and build g“ the me?‘ deaths. One 3333- D3V1d older man, an endowmnt for tomorrow. Curtis did wanting to the paper- leave his WOFK, and estate ID a GLBT orga- nization but not knowing of one in Vermont, left fifty thou- sand dollars to the Lambda Legal Defense Fund. Another acquaintance became ill and died suddenly, leaving his estate to his local church at which he had been totally closeted. Lippert thought, “Wow, if only I had been able to offer them_ a way to leave that money to our community, in Vermont.” This seed began to take root in his imagination in the late ‘80s when he paid a visit to the Pride Foundation in Seattle, WA. A fledgling organization, the Pride Foundation was function- ing as a sort of gay United Way and was also becoming a vehicle for bequests. This example inspired Lippert to discuss with friends the possibility of a simi- lar foundation for Vermont, but V no one knew quite how to do it. the Human Rights Foundation was in place in time to receive its first bequest of four thou- sand dollars from Bob Mundstock. Curtis and Lippert chose the non-GLBT specific name to facilitate privacy for people who might want to leave money to the community without the worry of outing themselves to their lawyers. For the next few years, the Foundation remained virtually dormant, an aside to Lippert’s increasingly busy life now that he was in the State Legislature. At the same time, a national network of foundations like Pride in Seattle was forming. Human Rights Foundation funds provided Lippert with the means to attend a confer- ence and meet with people from organizations from across OUT IN THE MOUNTAINS — NOVEMBER 1998 — 21 Mary Hurley and Bill Lippert unveiled the Samara Foundation at the V CLGR Conference in October They announced inaugural grants to Youth Aware, Outright Vermont, The Pride Committee, and OITM. the country, and he began to think that, with the network’s support and technical assis- tance, the HRF could become a more active reality. ' [But it would take ariother personal '''_intervention _._to’ '_ once - again nudge the .seedling ‘toward the 4 sun . 5 ‘W’. ’ fl ‘ ougi-I’owe’s ;)_aVrtneir‘Frar1k Shivers 'had"died-, and Howe called on Howdy -Russell for ideas about plans he needed to make for their estate. Russell pointed Howe to Lippert, a long-time friend. Howe felt that his family did not need the money thathe and Shivers had accumulated and was deter- mined to have it do something for the gay community. Howe’s commitment to con- tributing to the community, especially to benefit GLBT youth, following his partner’s death and facing his own epito- mized Lippert’s vision of new growth in the - midst of coconutscoospooncancoo-ocanooccooncocanoccu-oneoncecnonoceancanoooonoouuuouonnuaoononoo Members and supporters of the community can have an eflect beyond individual mortality. tragedy—the creation of an “endowment to benefit the community in perpetuity,” a way for “members and sup- porters of the community to have an effect beyond individ- ual mortality, a vehicle for sup- porting everything else in the community, for creating money in order to give it back.” Doug Howe died in January of 1996, sooner than he had expected, before he could real- ize his desire to help others contribute in the way that he planned to. Lippert got the call from Howe’s attorneys: the Human Rights Foundation was the beneficiary of an estate of over $500,000, in trust and direct bequest. Lippert decided it was time to make good on the commitment that he. had made to Mundstock and Howe. During the year and more that it took for the lawyers to settle the estate, Lippert invit- ed experienced, respected, committed members of ‘the community to form a board;.of direc__tors_.»for the Found ' I1, lay.ingJ1'i.he groundwork f _Founda_t:_ion’to bloom. v « Invl‘998, the board hogan ’ the hard work of defining mission statement, creating grant guidelines, and deve-lop- ing a way to present the Foundation to the community at large. As money began to accumulate and the desire to start to give back to the com- munity grew, the board set itself a deadline. The Foundation would be ready to come out at the VCLGR Annual Town Meeting on October 10 and the first grants would be awarded. The board decided, in the irri- tial year, to choose grant recip- ients from among organiza- felt that it was important to consider changing the Foundation’s name. All the standard names’ were sorted through, left to sit, and, sorted," through again. Disc‘gt§sions"r,§v~ flared up‘, died do-wn,v;."still'f. nothing was being "decide, upon. during one discussion about a suggestion that Bob Mundstock had once made. He _ had spoken of a word filled with symbolism —— planting seeds, new life, possibilities, a ' connection with Vermor1t~— that would be a wonderful ~ name if the foundation idea really got going. The word was samara. More commonly tinctive winged fruit of the maple tree which spins its way photo: Scot Applegate Samara board member Howdy Russell, left, and Vermont CARES director Tim Palmer were among the community leaders attending the Town meeting. tions that had already been at work for some time, organiza- tions which Howe had men- tioned as examples: Out in the Mountains, Pride, Outright VT, and one new one further- ing the scope of Outright’s work with youth, the Queer Youth Provider Network. « Guiding his seedling to a new period of growth, Lippert down to fertile ground to begin its new life. A little piece of the old life in motion on its way to the new. A familiar image for a new name and a symbol of new vitality for the Foundation which will acquire layers of meaning over time. _ A V called ' helicopters, samara is the dis- ‘ Na»- One name, not ’one";of the"-.'," usual ones, kept bobbingiup to’ _ the surface over and over ‘ again. Lippert had told-a story ’ «-/