Board Member Spotlight
Karen Chamberlain
““What’s important to us is what’s important to the Community Foundation of SWLA... taking care of each other and our neighbors! Having the opportunity to serve as a Board Member since 2019 and see first-hand the many good and noble ways that the Foundation makes an impact, completely confirms our decision to participate in the Leave a Legacy Program and become members, and increase our annual membership giving. It is a great privilege.” ”
Article originally written by Crystal Stevenson and published in the American Press on August 18, 2019.
Our Lady Queen of Heaven holds a special spot in the hearts of Karen and Ken Chamberlain. The couple met there, married there and one day plan to be buried in the church’s Consolata Cemetery. For all the church has given them, the couple said they want to do something for it.
The Chamberlains have chosen to leave a legacy through an endowment at the Community Foundation that allows a person or couple to leave something for their family, church, and community all in one place. “We’re so excited to be doing this,” Karen said. “Everybody thinks it’s so sad, but it’s not. This process brought us joy thinking of what we care about today and how we have made plans to support those things forever.”
Karen said the endowment has allowed her and her husband to make their end-of-life plans now and fund it after they’ve enjoyed their lives. “We had a couple of goals, one of them to make sure each other would be taken care of first, one of them was to leave money to our family, and then to leave money to our church and community,” Karen said. “When we started putting together our end-of-life documents, we realized it was a little tricky to know how to do it and the Community Foundation gave us a vehicle for all of it.”
The couple knew of the community foundation through various organizations for which they volunteer. “But we didn’t know we could piece together what we wanted to do with what the Foundation does,” she said. “When we started putting together our will and educating ourselves about what our choices were, we realized we were going to have to make some decisions.” She said the couple aren’t ready to commit a dollar amount now because they don’t know what that number will be. Instead, they are choosing to leave percentages of their estate to their family and other percentages to their church and other organizations within the community.
“This Church and our Catholic faith have been part of everything we’ve done from the first night that we met all through the years of us dating and even now,” Karen said. “We had an opportunity to move out of town and didn’t because of this church. It’s our family and its home; it’s us and it’s everything we know.”
Karen said it’s their wish to continue to share their love with Our Lady Queen of Heaven even after their passing. “We could have made the decision to give a percentage of our will to the church then it would be a one-time thing,” she said. “The Foundation will allow the church to receive money every year from the fund forever. We love that idea.” Ken said there is no stipulation in their endowment on how the church can use the funds. “It’s a gift that will keep on giving,” he said.
The couple also set up a separate endowment for the Diocese of Lake Charles that will contribute to seminarian training. “We love our church community, and we also love Lake Charles,” Ken said. “Why wouldn’t we want to do this?”
Karen said their plans also instruct the Foundation to focus funds on organizations dear to them, particularly those that serve children like the Junior League, United Way, Big Brothers Big Sisters, and Harbour House. “It seems like this is a gift given away when it is a gift that we have given to each other. It is all the more joyful because the decision was made together, with much thought and prayer, and gives us peace of mind knowing our love will live on in our family, church, and community,” Karen concluded.