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Balske’s incredible gift benefits local graduates

The Lorraine Balske estate last week donated $1.5 million to the Fairmont chapter of Dollars for Scholars, which provides scholarships to local high school graduates. Balske’s gift is incredible, and provides several important lessons.

The first and most important is the awesome legacy one human being can contribute to many others. Balske worked for 46 years as a secretary for the Fairmont school district, and obviously was an incredible saver. Many in the Midwest, and local area, are likewise thrifty individuals and sound investors. We hope others will at least consider Balske’s example and put provisions in their wills to support worthy local causes. We know many people do this already. They, like Balske, deserve praise.

Another lesson is for young people, who should look at Balske’s example and think about sound financial planning so that they too can build substantial nest eggs over their lifetimes. You cannot get your first job at age 24 and expect to be a millionaire by age 30. But a commitment to putting money aside and investing it appropriately will net substantial returns over the long term.

Which, if we can get slightly political for a minute, should be a lesson to our society about the best ways for people to save for retirement (and legacies). Even safer long-term investment strategies will return to savers more money than they could ever expect to receive through Social Security, especially if they were allowed to invest their Social Security payroll deductions themselves.

But, again, the main point: Lorraine Balske was an incredible person who continued to impact education beyond her years on Earth. We congratulate Dollars for Scholars on the donation and know it will use the funds wisely.

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