Life Happens

September 28th, 2024

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
And good morning everyone. Welcome to Life Happens Radio. I'm
Lou Pierro, your host for this morning, and this is
a program brought to you by Pierre O'Connor and Strauss,
which is a law firm here in Latham with offices
around New York State. And we try to bring you
information and ideas that help you plan your future, the
future for your families, your children. And today we have

(00:20):
a very special topic. We cover on this show a
lot of different things, and I'll talk a little bit
about some programs we have coming up dealing with medicaid
and changes to the medicaid program. You may have heard
there's an election coming up in a few weeks and
that's going to change some things. Perhaps it's going to
change things one way or another. But tax policy, how's

(00:41):
it going to affect you? Things that you rely on
in terms of government and government program, social Security, medicare, Medicaid,
all things that we deal with on a day to
day basis, and the tax policy could change in a
radical way depending upon how the election cards fall. So
we'll keep you advice been informed on all of those

(01:01):
issues as we go forward, give you our take on
the impact of the election once it happens. But today
we have a topic that I think is two things.
It's a heartwarming topic, but it's also a topic that
can directly affect how you plan your tax future. So
we're going to talk about a special place and someplace

(01:23):
that has it's very local, but it has developed into
one of the premier programs for people who have special needs,
young children, children who have the ability to do things,
but need a place that really nurtures and caters to
their needs, and that is the Double H Ranch. It's

(01:46):
right here, just north of us and we're very fortunate
today to have the CEO of Double H and that
is Alison Wilcox. Good morning, Alison, Good.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
Morning, Louke. Thank you so much for having us today.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
And she's going to talk about the heartwarming part of things,
and on the tax and planning side of things, we
have the major gifts and plan giving director at the
Double H. Eric Fellows, Good morning, Eric, good morning, thank you.
And so Allison, let's start with you, and you are
relatively new to the Double H Wrench and we've been
doing this show now for about twelve years and your

(02:20):
predecessor has been on a few times. Max Herenda who
retired recently, and we've had some good conversations. But give
us a little bit about Double H why you chose it,
and what it means to you, and then we'll get
into your background a little bit.

Speaker 3 (02:36):
Oh great, absolutely so. Double H Ranch has been in
existence for thirty one years and is a camp and
year round program for children with serious illness and their families.
And we provide summer camp for eight weeks in the summer,
an adaptive winter sports program January to March, and spring
and fall family weekends and Double H Ranch is completely

(03:00):
free for children and their families and was originally founded
by Paul Newman and Charles Wood as part of the
Serious Fun Children's Network.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
Why I chose it?

Speaker 3 (03:10):
When I was first learned of the opportunity to service CEO,
I was living in Buffalo, New York, overseeing the Girl Scouts.
But when I heard about the mission, it really struck
a chord with me because I had three siblings with
disabilities and two with illnesses that would have qualified at
Double H to be campers, and I understood the impact

(03:30):
that a program like this could have that for my siblings,
but also that the whole family, including other siblings and
parents could have and it meant a lot to me
to help steward the organization through this transition because Double
H has been so lucky to have the same CEO
for the whole entirety, and it has such a strong
legacy support from the board and community that it just
really called to me to come and help make sure

(03:51):
that this transition was smooth and we make sure that
double H is strong and thrives for the campers who
need us for the next thirty years and beyond.

Speaker 1 (03:59):
That's fantastic. And as we talked about right before the show,
we used to share this show with Kevin Johnson, boy
Vandy Brian Johnson, and that was part of Kevin's charitable giving.
He's a big supporter of DOUBLEH. I think he's on
the board of double H, and so I get called
in to support double H to Kevin on a number

(04:21):
of occasions. We'll talk about that and his upcoming golf
tournament and some things that they're doing. But you said
two things. You said that this is free for all
of the campers, and Eric, that doesn't mean that it's free.
It means that it takes a lot of money to
support each and every one of these campers. So your
role is to help build that base of funds.

Speaker 4 (04:44):
Good old fundraising.

Speaker 1 (04:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (04:47):
So we've been around for thirty one years. Our first
session ever was July fourth, nineteen ninety three, and we
had four campers show up that day, and it was
amazing that the first four were great. Over the past
thirty one years, we've had the privilege of serving eighty
two thousand children living with chronic and life eatening illnesses.

(05:08):
The sustainability and growth of an organization is thanks to
the amazing community of donors and volunteers, and we have
both near and afar to Like you said, this is
it's a big facility. We have a lot of campers
and so we have to do a lot of fundraising.
Our annual budget is a little over five million dollars,
so every single year we rely on the community to

(05:28):
help us reach those goals. I think that we have
such a strong basis of corporate sponsors, individual donors, foundations
that kind of help us achieve these goals. And and
I know you just had your gala. Yeah, we had
our gallus. We do events throughout the year, so last.

Speaker 1 (05:50):
Week and that's that's a big event. I understood I
heard from Bob. I didn't make it this year. I
went last year. I bought some wattion items, but this
year it was out of town and it's He said
that you had a record crowd to record number of people,
which is fantastic.

Speaker 4 (06:02):
Yeah, so we do our gala every year. It was
at the Great Escape. We had about six hundred and
seventy people in attendance, and it was so nice to
see everyone come out to support the Double A tranch
and to learn more about the organization. There was a
lot of new faces there, which is really nice. The
gala is always such a big fundraising event for us
thanks to our very strong group of corporate sponsors and
individual sponsors for that event. And we had a lot

(06:24):
of auctionisms. Items were great. We had about one hundred
and eighty silent auction items. We had a few live
auction items. But at the end of the day, it
was just it was really nice to have a camper
parent that came up and they just spoke about the
mission and what DOUBLEH does to these people and to
these kids.

Speaker 1 (06:39):
Yeah. I want to follow up on that because I've
been to a number of the Double H events and
the golf tournaments and the galas, and every time I go,
I walk away saying how lucky we are to be
able to support this kind of an activity and that
we have it right here in our own backyard, and
that these kids and the experiences and some of them,

(07:02):
the ones that really touched me are the ones that
have become counselors. You know, they've gone through the program,
succeeded and are now back as counselors in the camp
and that means so much to them and the kids
that they're counseling. The success stories and some that are
not success stories. I mean the one dad who's on
the board whose child was very active and it's no

(07:22):
longer with us, and it just tugs at your heartstrings.
Tell us what this camp means and the types of
children that get served through the summer and winter programs.

Speaker 2 (07:36):
Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 3 (07:38):
One of the like as we talked about, the program
is free, and it's really important to us that as
lifelong part of the mission, that it's completely accessible to
any campers and parents who wish to come to the program.
And we have a wide range of diagnosis that we
can serve that if anyone was interested, they could find
on our website or our missions is the website double

(07:59):
eh Ranch the word double d o U b L
e h ranch dot org.

Speaker 1 (08:05):
And check it out. Folks. Yes, I'm telling you we
hear so much negative news. All you have to do
is turn on the television and the radio wherever you're
getting social media, and it's a stream of negativity. But
when you go to these galas, or you go to
these events and you talk to the kids and you
see the people working with them, it just lifts you up.

Speaker 2 (08:24):
Absolutely.

Speaker 3 (08:25):
That was something we were talking about at the gallon
the other night, and as Eric said, we had a
wonderful camper and camper mother speak about the impact, and
what she described was that for the first time she
felt a sense of hope, you know, since and her
child was diagnosed as a baby, A sense of hope,

(08:45):
the ability to take a breath because in the summer,
leaving your child knowing that we have a medical team
of doctors and nurses who are there to make sure
that our program is completely run safe.

Speaker 1 (09:00):
These are not just for kids that are that are
not doing okay. These are kids that have real serious illnesses. Yes,
and so a lot of them have never left their
parents' side, they have been with their parents, and their
parents have been with them since Perth.

Speaker 2 (09:13):
Yes, we actually have.

Speaker 3 (09:14):
For the words of one of our campers, which is
in one of our videos on our YouTube channel, he
said that Double H gave his parents a place to
park their helicopter.

Speaker 4 (09:23):
I was just thinking about this.

Speaker 3 (09:24):
Yes, So like on an all children thrive in a
camp environment and at Double H because we have the
medical safety and adaptive accessible regardless of ability.

Speaker 2 (09:37):
That and we meet children where they're at.

Speaker 3 (09:39):
So situations like skiing in the winter, snowboarding, horseback riding, archery,
the rope's course, it's all the type of traditional camp
activities you would see.

Speaker 1 (09:50):
But some of these kids can't ski, but there's somebody
skiing with them.

Speaker 2 (09:56):
Yes, so it's an instruction.

Speaker 3 (09:57):
So we have the ski industry locally has been extremely supportive.
So we have a hill, we have chair lifts and
conveyor belts and wide range of equipment and people specialized
in teaching skiing. And we serve in the winter program
children with various serious illness, but also children who are

(10:18):
visually impaired and children with autism. We have mono skis
and by skis and various adaptive equipment so that children,
no matter what their building is, there'll be a way
for them to skier snowboard down there.

Speaker 1 (10:30):
I saw a sled ski with someone skiing behind the
sled and the child getting a thrill of the speed
and being outside and the wind in their face, but
being skied down the hill with an instructor.

Speaker 3 (10:41):
Yes, absolutely so. The mono skis and by skis too.
There's a wide range of athletic ability to master those.
So depending on the ability of the camper, there's a
lot that they can learn how to navigate with someone
assisting them to make sure that they learn.

Speaker 1 (10:58):
And I once had the number of people that volunteer
in that winter program. They just boggled my mind. You know, offhand,
how many people volunteer their time for that winter ski program.

Speaker 3 (11:07):
We have over two thousand volunteers throughout all the various programs,
and in the ski program we have over two hundred volunteers.
And it operates every weekend Saturday and Sunday from January
to March with three family weekends.

Speaker 2 (11:19):
And it's absolutely incredible.

Speaker 3 (11:20):
And when you said about hope for humanity and lightness
in the community throughout the winter, even when I wasn't
scheduled to work. I was driving in on Saturday and
Sunday just to be there and to spend time with
the volunteers, campers and families because I felt like it
was the happiest place on earth and a sunshine in
the winter that you really need. And it brings out
the goodness and people because they know our campers are

(11:43):
at the heart of it.

Speaker 2 (11:44):
They are.

Speaker 3 (11:46):
Seen as strong and able to do anything that they
want to take on, and volunteers and donors are there
to make it possible. And I think it really and
the parents are also so excited to be part of
it and to have a chain, to have a break
or connect with others that it just there's a lot
of joy on site and I think it just brings
out the best of people.

Speaker 1 (12:06):
Negativity is infectious, but so is positivity.

Speaker 2 (12:09):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (12:10):
And if you find it, and you get this bug,
and you go get off your couch, get out from
that TV set, you know, unplugged from social media, get
up to the Double Ah ranch and just take a tour,
take a look, and if you get the bug, like
a lot of people do, two thousand volunteers have gotten
that bug, yes, and it means so much to them.

Speaker 4 (12:29):
To be able to give back to these kids. The
Double A Tranche is a magical place. I think camp
does a lot for social development, confidence, leadership, all those
kind of things, and I think the Double A Tranch
helps teach these kids and give them a lot of
respect and equity, something that they might not see outside.
So I think they're a little time here at the

(12:50):
Double A trans whether it's for six days in the summertime,
whether it's for one day in this in the ski season.
Hopefully it kind of helps like lead out into the
rest of the year, and it gives them that sense
of timism and that sense of confidence that they might
have lacked prior.

Speaker 1 (13:03):
So we're gonna come back after a short break and
talk about the programs at Double H the children that
it serves, but also how you can get involved and
how can you volunteer, how can you donate, how can
you build this ranch program and keep it going the
way that it's been serving the children that have such
special needs. Stay with us. I'm Lupiro, your host for

(13:24):
this morning. We'll be back right after this short break,
and we're back. It's a beautiful weekend out there. I
hope you're enjoying it. Hope you're enjoying Life Happens Radio.
We have a special program today and we're very fortunate

(13:46):
to have Eric Fellows, who is the director of Planned
Giving and Major Gifts at the Double H Ranch, and
Alison Wilcox, who is the CEO of the Double H Ranch.
And we're talking about the work that the DOUBLEH does.
And as Alison mentioned, it was founded thirty some years
ago and it had a couple of people. One you

(14:07):
may know, one you may not.

Speaker 3 (14:09):
Yes, So the Paul Newman founded after he created his
salad dressing and other food products, which became Newman's Own Company.
In Newman's Own foundation, he created a Hole in the
Wild Gang Camp because he had heard from so many
parents that were looking for charitable help because they had

(14:31):
a child with serious illness, and just because the only
legal way for him to do that was to create
a nonprofit that could do that type of programming and
created Hole in the Wild Gang Camp in Connecticut. And
then Charles Wood, who many know in our community a
major philanthropist and community leader. He really loved this idea
and thought that there should be one in the Adironics

(14:53):
and found a site up in the Lake Luzerne region
on Lake Vanair, and our history says that he was
very persistent and Paul Newman was on one hundred percent
sure he wanted to make a second camp, but when
he came up and saw the site, he decided that
he wanted to co found a second Serious Fund camp,

(15:14):
which is the Double H Ranch, which the double AH
stands for health and Happiness and Charleswood was known for
toasting health and happiness and that's where our name comes from.

Speaker 2 (15:23):
And you really do feel the health and happiness on site.

Speaker 3 (15:25):
And after Double H was founded, there are now thirty
Serious Fund member camps or programs around the world globally
and fifteen camps and nine of those in the US.
So we're part of a really great network where families
throughout this country and around the world was with the
child of serious illness can attend. And one of the
real core parts of the program is that's completely free

(15:47):
of charge, so that any child with serious illness.

Speaker 2 (15:52):
Is eligible to attend.

Speaker 1 (15:53):
And kids with serious illnesses faced so many challenges, as
do parents of those children. And we talk about the
bond that builds between the parent and the child, and
it is so strong and with the drop off day,
I know there's a lot of parents with Greek trepidation,
as you said, parking the helicopter, parents that have never
left their child's side. And just give us again a

(16:16):
little bit about the kits, where do they come from,
what kinds of things are they facing, what challenges are
they facing, and then we're going to talk about why
it's so important to support this camp.

Speaker 3 (16:25):
Yes, absolutely, we serve children with a wide range of
medical diagnosis including neuromuscular conditions, sickle cell anemia, cancer, hemophilia,
wide range and all the diagnosis are available on our
website and we are able to provide medically specialized camp
because of our medical team. We have strong partnerships including

(16:47):
Albany Med with various hospitals and health providers in the region,
and really wonderful volunteerism from the medical community, so we
always have physicians and nurses on site. And what is
really specials the camp feels like a camp, so whether
or not someone's a medical professional, they're probably in tied
eye out on the rope's course or down in the

(17:09):
cabins with the kids. And one of our founding nursing
directors or founding might not be the right word, but
a long term nursing director. There's a quote from her
that said, we remember so the kids can forget. So
the medical team make sure that their medical needs are
taken care of, so the kids can just be kids.
And for the first time, many of our campers feel

(17:32):
that they can just set aside their diagnosis and the
you know, the all the different things that are part
of their life just be a kid, be met where
they are, be just seen for the child that they are.
And when you're talking about that opening day, there's I
think every parent's nervous putting their kids to camp for
the first time, and for the parents that of the

(17:53):
kids we serve particularly because they need to trust that we.

Speaker 2 (17:56):
Can attend to the medical needs.

Speaker 1 (17:58):
These are serious condition, yes, and they're taken care of.
You don't want to be in the bubble, right, yes,
So this is getting them out of the bubble that
they've lived in. A lot of them in their homes
just being taken care of on a day to day basis.
And this is not something that oh, we have to
go with the doctors next week. No, No, this is
a day to day condition that you live with. And
that you have to cater to and basically revolve your

(18:20):
life around. So here they come to camp, parents drop
them off, and now they're with other kids just like them,
which is the beauty of it.

Speaker 3 (18:29):
Yes, and when you talk about that opening day one
of the things that I think helps the parents. And
when I first started last August, because as you said,
I'm pretty recent, it was an opening day, was my
first day, and I was peck pulling things out of
my car to bring to the office, and I heard
all this cheering, really loud cheering, and I went out
across the street to the parking lot and there's something

(18:50):
like around one hundred people, which is all the camp
counselors and volunteers on opening day, just cheering. Every time
a camper arrives and they shout out the camper's name,
people cheer and welcome them. They go over to their
car and help them, and you just see the beaming
of the children that people are so excited to see them.
And for the returning campers, I think the parents are
having a hard time keeping them in the car till
they make it to their parking spot, absolutely because they

(19:12):
want to jump out, and just the beaming faces and
people running to see their friends. And I've worked in
camps and children's programs for a large part of my
career and I've never seen anything like that. And I said,
I can feel the magic everyone talked about. It's definitely present.

Speaker 1 (19:29):
Yeah. Again, it's right up in Lake Luzern, folks, and
everybody's in our listening area here at WGY. Take it.
Do yourself a favor, take a trip. How can they
contact the ranch to a rink because it's not open
all the time, but you do have times when people
can visit.

Speaker 3 (19:43):
Absolutely, we organize public tours, but we also if anyone
was interested, would work with them to identify a time
that we could offer a tour. So the best thing
to do is to go to our website and look
up and just contact us.

Speaker 2 (19:57):
Our phone number and email is there, and it's a website.

Speaker 3 (19:59):
One more time, doublehranch dot org the doublest spelled dou
b l e the letter h ranch dot org or
google double a tranch and we should come right up
and we and definitely if you just fill out the
contact form on the website, we'd be very happy to
talk with you and help you find ways to be involved.

Speaker 2 (20:18):
And to check us out.

Speaker 1 (20:19):
If you need a feel good moment in your life,
just take the tour and Eric. This isn't free, although
it's free to the campers, which is the beauty of it.
So it's it doesn't matter if you're rich or poor.
You can benefit from this camp as a child with
a serious disability and serious condition. So what does the
Double H ranch do to raise that five million dollar

(20:39):
year budget because that's a challenge.

Speaker 4 (20:42):
So about fifty four percent of our budget is raised
through the generosity of individuals. We have about eighteen percent
that come from private foundations, eighteen percent comes from corporations
and corporate partnerships, and then ten percent comes from other organizations.
We have a lot of general donations that come in.
There's a lot of different ways as someone could give,

(21:03):
whether it's a one time donation, it could be an
in kind donation. We have a very strong recurring gift
program as well.

Speaker 1 (21:09):
So let's break those down because you're going a little
fast for our listeners. Yes, let's let them know what
each of those tools is. And we work with our
clients all the time and one of the questions we
asked when we do first interview, do you have charitable intent,
and some people know they have it and some people
don't know they have it, and when we tell them
what the tax benefits are, oh yeah, I could be charitable,

(21:31):
I guess. So what are some of the ways they
can give directly?

Speaker 4 (21:35):
So you can make a one time gift, It could
be either financially, it could be an in kind donation
as well. You could sign up for our recurrent gift program,
which is our monthly go program. I think that's really
nice for some people that like the idea of just
like set it and forget it, and they know that
over a twelve month period it might have a larger
financial donation as opposed to a one time gift. We

(21:57):
do a lot of events sponsorships as well. If you
or someone you know manages a private foundation, there's always
those grant requests that we could put in or happy
to meet with these foundations and kind of talk about
the different programs that we have if there's a need
that they might want to be able to fund, whether
it is our summer program, our winter program, it could
be a facilities project. In general. There's stock gifts if

(22:19):
you'd like to do as well. There's also gifts that
are made in tribute of others or in memoriam, so
in case someone passes away, so one might make a
gift in their honor as well. And then at the
end of the day too, one of the most impactful
gifts that can be made is a plan gift. This
is ensuring the future of the organization by leaving a legacy.
This can be done in a variety of ways, and

(22:41):
I think when it comes to plan giving, it's a
conversation about sustainability, the sustainability of the work that we do,
our mission, our values, and as someone in fundraising, we
know about the short term needs, we know about the
mid term needs. We also know about the long term
needs and the long term needs, and the long term
gift is what plan gives is.

Speaker 1 (23:00):
And we're going to come back to that a little
bit more in the second half and we'll unpack all
the opportunities to do planned giving. But I want to
just mention one thing for our clients and our friends
and our listeners away that you can give dollars that
are not all your dollars, and those are dollars in
retirement accounts. Retirement accounts when you pass them on, you

(23:20):
pay the tax when you pull the money out. Your
kids pay the tax when they pull the money out,
and sometimes they're going to pay a lot more tax
than you would pay if you pull the money out.
And now, because of the Secure Act, children who inherit
iras have to take it all out over ten years
and pay all of the tax on that account. But
there are ways you can give directly from an IRA
to a charity and not have any of it tax.

(23:43):
And you can pull out up to one hundred thousand
dollars a year from your IRA and give it directly
to a charity and it doesn't impact any of your
other sold security, Medicare, any of your other income. It
doesn't appear at all on your tax return. It's a
completely tax free gift. So we have a number of
clients that do this on an annual basis, and it
becomes because they want to whittle down that taxable account

(24:06):
and keep the cash because they're from a tax perspective,
you're much better off to take those dollars and give
them to charity than to give stock because stock will
get a step up in basis or cash which you
don't pay income tax on. So it becomes a tax play.
And we're gonna talk more about plan giving and the
ranch and all the things that are there and the
wonderful things and some events that are actually coming right

(24:28):
up that you can participate in. So stay with us.
You're listening to Life Happens Radio. I'm lu Piro, your
host for this morning. We're gonna be back in studio
with our guests Alison Wilcox and Eric Fellows in just
a moment. Stay with us, have a wonderful weekend, enjoy
the sunshine and the leaves that are starting to turn.
We'll be right back.

Speaker 4 (24:55):
All the way.

Speaker 1 (24:57):
Back listening to Life Happens. I'm loop Or, your host
for this morning. We are live in studio with people
from the Double H Ranch, Alison Wilcox and Eric Fellows.
I want to get right to that in a moment,
but before I do, I just want to give you
a heads up on an educational program that we have
coming up. And it's going to be a little later
this month because the second Monday falls on a holiday,

(25:20):
so we're going to be doing it October twenty first,
and we call it Medicaid Monday. And for those of
you that follow our Medicaid program, our education, our webinars.
Medicaid Monday has become something that people look to to
get solid information. And right now in New York State,
we have a medicaid crisis. We have a lack of

(25:41):
home healthcare, a lack of home health aids. And there
is a program that has evolved that has been a
lifeline for people with disabilities, people who are aging, and
that is called the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program. Well,
New York State has taken a big whack at the
Consumer directed program and they have said that the six

(26:02):
hundred agencies that are administering this program can no longer
administer this program and they're turning it over to one
single company that's going to run this for the entire
state of New York. There are no less than five
lawsuits that have been filed. And what we have is
actually the director of the Personal Assistance Program statewide and

(26:23):
he's going to be joining us to talk about how
we can advocate, how we can be part of this.
And I hope you can join us on October twenty first,
and it's at noon, It's twelve to twelve thirty. Find
out what's going on in New York State in regards
to home care the Personal Assistance Program and we hope
you can join us. It will be a really interesting discussion.

(26:44):
Brian O'Malley will be with us, Frank Heming and myself
and we hope that you can join us. And right
now we're going to get back to the Double H
ranch and all the wonderful things that it does and
the fact that it takes money to do it. It's not free.
So Eric is talking about some of the things you
can do to direct gift. Write a check always the

(27:05):
easiest way to do this. You can gift appreciated securities.
If you don't want to pay capital gains tax, you
can use your IRA and you can actually withdraw money
from an IRA and give it directly to the Double
A Tranch without paying any income tax or having any
consequence on your tax return. But there are some more
long term giving strategies and plan what we call planned giving.
Eric that you also operate for Double Ahe talk a

(27:26):
little bit about that.

Speaker 4 (27:28):
Yeah, So we have a plan giving program. It's called
the Legend Society. And when it comes to plan giving
and a state planning, it's a it's a commitment to
the future of the Double A Tranch. There's a number
of avenues that you can do to help ensure the
sustainability in the future of the double A tranch. We
always suggest that you speak with your financial advisor and

(27:48):
your attorney about what works best for you and your.

Speaker 1 (27:51):
Don't bother with the financial advisor, just justice to your attorney.
We work very closely with financial advice just because they
have the finances, they have the assets, and they know
that as it's better than we do. So we work
hand in hand with financial advisors and accountants at times
because you're looking at tax rates and tax returns and things.
So the team should be working together for any client
that wants to do planned giving. Your lawyer, your financial advisor,

(28:14):
your accountant, because these are real a state planning techniques
that you need to pay attention to, You need to monitor,
you need to manage so and.

Speaker 4 (28:23):
I think when it comes to giving too, I think
a lot of people are usually focused on the immediate
or like the one time gift, and they don't realize
that if you take the proper steps in the estate
planning process, you can actually make a larger gift to
the organization. And if it is a double H tranche
that you care so near and dear about like you
can make such a large impact that you might not
know about. So there are a number of avenues that
you can go down, whether it's the charitable bequest you

(28:45):
could name the Double H as a beneficiary and a
retirement plan or a life insurance policy. You can sign
up for a charitable gift annuity as well, a charitable
remainder trust, or you can even make an endowment gift
as well. So I know, Lou, you're the expert on
all of this.

Speaker 1 (29:00):
So we do a lot of work with our clients
on charitable trusts and foundations. We set up a number
of private foundations, donor advised funds that support things like
the Double H ranch. We actually had the folks from
the Community Foundation in about a month ago and then
we had a great show with them talking about all
the things the Capital Region Community Foundation does. But it's

(29:22):
a lot of different ways, and no one way is
right for every person. So the key is really to
get a good thorough assessment of your assets, your resources,
your income needs, What can you afford to give, what
could you maybe give later through a will or through
a trust or upon your passing. And again, if you're

(29:44):
looking at tax consequences. We've had clients come in and say, well,
I have the double h ranch in my will for
fifty thousand dollars. I said, oh, that's great, and you
have kids and your kids are getting the other assets,
including your retirement account. Well, the kids could get the
fifty thousand dollars under the will tax free. The kids

(30:06):
are going to pay full income tax on the fifty
thousand dollars under the retirement account. Just flip it. So
leave double hed fifty thousand from the retirement account, leave
the kids the assets under the will. You get it
one hundred percent tax free, and the kids get their inheritance.
Simple things like that that. Oh, no one ever told

(30:27):
me that. But you don't know until you really dig
in and you do that thorough assessment. We do charitable
remainder trusts. Something that you mentioned. These are interest rates sensitive.
So for a long time we didn't really do remainder
trusts because the interest rate was one and the leverage
on the charitable remainder trust wasn't there. But now the

(30:48):
interest rate's up around five. So these make a great
deal of sense. And you take, for example, I have
a client that right now has Microsoft stock that he
bought twenty years ago. It has no cost basis, doesn't
want to sell it because of the capital gains tax.
But we said, okay, you want to get a cash
flow from this, and you want to liquidate the Microsoft

(31:10):
and diversify it because you never know what Microsoft's going
to do. And so we did a charitable remainder trust
and put the Microsoft stock in. You sell the stock,
you don't pay any tax on sale, You defer all
the capital gain carves out an income stream of seven
percent off of that charitable trust. So for life, it's
going to collect seven percent off of the trust. The

(31:32):
trust can now be reinvested and continue to grow, but
whatever happens, he's going to get that seven percent annual
payment and at the end of the trust doubleh would
get the balance. So these are very very good, efficient
income producing vehicles for people that have assets that they
want to liquidate but they don't want to pay that

(31:54):
capital gains tax. They want to collect an income stream.
Perfect vehicle for folks like that. Yeah, and I think.

Speaker 4 (32:01):
A couple of years ago, when you just think it
for myself included like when I started thinking about like
plan giving and all that I had the very simple
idea of like it's what's in your bank account at
the time, but it's not. And that's why it's important
to talk to people like you and their state planning
and all that, because they can learn that there are
avenues that you don't know about that benefit both you
and your family, but as well as the organization that

(32:22):
you choose, and in this case is double A Tranch.
So it's it's very important for us, and I think
it's important for everyone to kind of get in line
with how they want to do their state planning. And
I think, like I said earlier, it's for the sustainability
of the Double AH tranch. We said earlier, how we
have to do five million dollars a little bit over
every single year in our air fundraising goal. But at
the same time, we also want to look to be

(32:44):
able to grow for the next thirty years and gifts
like this have a huge impact in that.

Speaker 1 (32:48):
And you don't have to be rich to be smart. No.
You know people that think, oh, tax planning is state planning.
That's for people that have hundreds of millions of dollars AH.
You want to maximize the value of every dollar that
you have for yourself and for your family, and doing
it with tax wise planning is absolutely essential to make
sure that you're achieving those kinds of goals. I'll tell

(33:11):
one more war story and then i'll come back because
I want to talk a little bit more about the
ranch at a client we started planning for and he
was an executive in a company and had a bunch
of stock options. Well, stock options have a lot of
tax consequences if the company's doing well. And there's a
trust called the charitable lead trust, and this is just
the opposite of the charitable remainder trust. In this one,
you give the charity and income stream and the remainder

(33:35):
what's left goes back to the kids. So in this case,
we did a first round of stock options and we
did a charitable remainder trust and we generated a very
substantial income tax deduction for him and he gets a
check from the irs. He said, hmm, this is pretty good.
So the second year he does another round of stock
option exercise and lo behold, he does another charitable lead

(33:57):
trust and we were let's say, dumbing down the interest
of the charity, so minimizing the charitable interest in the beginning,
maximizing the value ultimately to the family comes back for
round three, does a third charitable lead trust, but this
time he wants to maximize the value to the charity
and not so concerned about what's going to the kids

(34:19):
at the end of that. So he has these three
income streams now pouring into his family foundation and it's
a substantial amount of money now that's accumulated and it's
going in and at the end of these trusts, twenty
years down the road, everything comes back to the family.
So there are a lot of different ways to approach this,
and it's all factor of it. It's all about you.

(34:42):
What do you have in your portfolio, What do you
have available to you in terms of income and assets,
How do you want to benefit your family, And if
you do have philanthropy in mind, what's the best way
for you to do it? And that takes some personalized planning.
I want to come back, Alison to the ranch, and
I know you have different issues that you face. Our

(35:03):
ranch has equipment, it has housing, it has all kinds
of capital structures and things that you need to do.
And there was a period of time when nothing was operational.
We called that the pandemic. So how did you know
we were all impacted by it, every business, every family,
every individual. How did it impact the ranch?

Speaker 3 (35:24):
Yes, and so since I started in August twenty twenty three,
I wasn't there during this time, but in just talking
with our board and staff team and community, the impact was.
In twenty twenty the ranch, like any other camp or
children's program, did not operate live programming that summer, so
created a virtual type experience where they sent supplies to

(35:47):
the camper's homes and connected virtually. The next year, twenty
twenty one, doubleh opened back up for in person programming,
which was one of the few serious fun camps to
do it. And what we started seeing was just due
to COVID restrictions and because the children that we serve
already may have many immune concerns just because of their

(36:10):
serious illness, that there was apprehension of being able to
come back into the camp. And so we saw the
enrollment taking some time slowly over the next few years
to rebound. This year, we're really excited that enrollment was
seventeen percent up over last year in the summer program,
and that all of our family weekends were maximum enrollment,

(36:31):
So we saw families really eager to come back to
that type of programming. The other thing that happened was
construction costs, as you know, like every industry face, just
have accelerated and increased significantly, and then the cost of
food and other supplies, so the ranch has become more.

Speaker 2 (36:46):
Expensive to operate.

Speaker 3 (36:48):
We still like everything else, so we're still completely free
to campers and their families. Were rebounding now with campers
and families coming back, but it's now much more expensive
to operate. Still critical tests to keep it free. So
the need for fundraising has really increased or in kind
donations or different ways to keep the costs down. And
because it is a legacy program. You know, my predecessor,

(37:12):
Max Rnda co Like was the founding CEO. Just absolutely
incredible that there was such sustainable, steady leadership during the
whole entirety of Double H until his retirement. And before
it was a serious fun children's camp, it was a
dude ranch, hidden valley ranch on h in Valley Road, Lakeliser.

(37:34):
So it's a really there's some very old buildings, old structures,
new buildings created for camper cabins and things like that,
but a lot is needed. So a few years ago
the Double H had a significant capital campaign five point
five million capital campaign, and last year we broke ground
on the remaining project. So a new staff volunteer lodge

(37:57):
that can hold forty four staff and volunts called Circle
H Lodge was created. And we also have a new
adaptive playground which is just a phenomenal playground that this
is the first summer the children were able to use it,
completely adaptive and accessible for children of wide range of abilities.
And then right next to an outdoor pavilion so we

(38:19):
can have full camp wide cookouts and playground time and
really let the children just have freedom and fun out there.
And then we broke ground this past August on a
new outdoor camp theater named after Max Sharenda and our
founding volunteer physician. So it's called the Raymax Camp Theater
after doctor Ray Wilshon Max Shrenda, and that one will
be it is currently in construction, will open up next spring.

(38:42):
So it's a theater, it's an outdoor camp theater. So
we do have an indoor stage area that was historical
with the original Dude Ranch where the talent shown night,
which is the last night of camp, is very legendary
and so this will allow us to hold morning assemblies
outdoors and a really beautiful lotion fully accessible every level
because right now Mourning assemblers are in a parking lot,

(39:04):
which is not the most conducive for the kids.

Speaker 2 (39:06):
So that's why this is gonna be wonderful.

Speaker 3 (39:08):
But also when weather permits, we could do the talent
shows out there too, and just it's going to be
a beautiful.

Speaker 2 (39:12):
Place at the heart of camp.

Speaker 3 (39:14):
So basically in a nutshell, camp costs a lot to
maintain all those buildings. We you know, have our staff team,
we have all the supplies, food and everything like that.
So that's why fundraising and people who see this as
a really impactful mission and meaningful to them, we rely
on that kindness and that generosity to make sure that

(39:35):
children who really need the ranch and look forward to
coming every year have the ranch available.

Speaker 1 (39:39):
To Where does the capital campaign stand now?

Speaker 3 (39:42):
Yes, so we we did complete the capital campaign, Thank
you so much. So we're very fabulous. Yes, our co
chairs of the campaign Lisa Bob Moser and Neil golab
led and amazing and fully supported by the board and
members of the community. We're so grateful to everyone who
is part of it, and we will be conducting another

(40:04):
one in a few years. So right now we're just
assessing what camp needs next for the children, for the
future of the camp, and just to keep preserving the buildings.
And every year we also have capital expenditures just because
of maintenance of equipment, ski hill, lodges, everything like that.

Speaker 1 (40:20):
So we're going to talk a little bit more about
the ski program when we come back, and we're gonna
take a short break and talk a little bit more
about fundraising. But folks, again, if you have an opportunity
on a bright sunny day, just take a ride up,
go to the website which.

Speaker 2 (40:33):
Is double Ranch dot org.

Speaker 1 (40:36):
Do O U, B L E h Ranch dot org
exactly and pick a time a range of visit. Check
this out. It's amazing. If you want to wait till
the kids are skiing, that's even better. Just to see
that hill and the energy that goes on there is
amazing and we hope that your day is full of energy.

(40:57):
Today we're here with the Double h Ranch. I think
the life happens radio every Saturday morning here on talk
Radio WGY. Be back right after this back. Hard to
think about skiing on a bright sunny day, that's seventy

(41:20):
degrees here in the Capitol region. But we're going to
talk a little bit about it because that ski program
up at Double H is just a special program. And
we talked a little bit about the volunteerism. Two hundred
volunteers just on the ski program, and if you want
to volunteer, you can always find Allison at the website
doublehranch dot org and talk a little bit about the

(41:42):
ski program, how that developed and what kinds of things
are offered for the winner for these kids.

Speaker 3 (41:47):
Yes, and as you said, right now with the beautiful
fall colors emerging and right now we're in fall family
weekend season. We finished up summer camp in the spring season,
and we're already starting to plan ahead for the winter
season because our volunteers start training in November. So this
is a great time to reach out if you're interested. So,
the the original Dude Ranch at Double A tranches On

(42:08):
already had an existing ski hill and a chairlift on site,
and so the all the founders of the camp, members
of the board were really interested in making sure that
any amenity that could be offered could be available. And
a woman who's known as the mother of adaptive skiing
Gwen Allard, who just passed at the end of last year.

(42:29):
Memorial for her was held at Camp this past June.
She championed adaptive skiing and certifications for instructors to be
adaptive and work with people with disabilities, and the entire
local ski industry rallied around double h so we we
have ski industry will volunteer to manage our chairlift. Volunteers

(42:53):
pulled together to launch a fundraising campaign to create a
conveyor belt for the Bunny Hill, and.

Speaker 1 (42:59):
We of everybody remembers that learning on the rope to
it was the hardest thing you ever did skiing exactly.
Getting up the hill was much harder than getting bar.

Speaker 3 (43:07):
I have to say, I've been learning to ski this
winner on the hill as well, whenever there was some
spare time throughout the season, and I I just remember
never being able to get on the t bar.

Speaker 2 (43:18):
So when when I saw the compara belt, it's like, Okay.

Speaker 1 (43:21):
How many times were you holding the tea bar boats
in front of you? It's you, yes, yeah, I remember
those days.

Speaker 3 (43:26):
Yeah, exactly so, And our instructors are first of all,
what what we'd like to tell people is that if
anyone is really solid on your skis, and you have
any interest, Double H Ranch will train the volunteers. You
don't already have to be someone certified to be an
instructor or to work with adaptive equipment. Our are double

(43:48):
H will work with anyone interested to train you if
you have interest. And then there are instructors are extremely
extremely skilled and are able to meet kids where they're at.
So we serve a wide range of medical diagnosis, just
like in our other programs children with neuromuscular conditions, we
have children with cancer, syco cellnemihemophilia, IBS, and various conditions

(44:14):
that all can be found on our website under the
diagnosis we serve. And then in the winter program we
also serve children with visual impairments and with autism. So
and then we also on family weekends will have camp
counselors who volunteer their time to be family pals and
they will hang out with the kids so if any
of the children feel like they don't want to be

(44:35):
they make smores, they play games, and then the parents
get to take a complete break. So for a parent,
and you know, parents of children with medical less don't
always have that chance to take a break, have any respite,
their siblings and the whole family gets to come completely
free of charge. They can stay in our cabins and
then they can even even for day skiing. You have
a cabin where you can just go take a break.

(44:55):
And so for many of our parents will say, you know,
it's a chance R could actually take a breath. Know
that I'm that I can leave my children in the
care of people who.

Speaker 2 (45:05):
I can trust.

Speaker 3 (45:06):
And because we have the medical team and ski patrol,
the program is safe. Fun is the core of everything
that we do. So that the program you know that
is safe and your children are in good hands.

Speaker 1 (45:15):
That starts in January.

Speaker 2 (45:16):
It starts in January.

Speaker 3 (45:17):
It's almost every Saturday and Sunday from January to mid March,
with three family weekends. And one parent told me that
in his daughter's life, he said, because of her diagnosis,
almost everything in her life was slow, from getting ready
in the morning to getting out to school and things.
And he said, and he really choked up and said,

(45:38):
like in a double h when she went down the
ski hill, he saw that she could fly.

Speaker 1 (45:42):
Yeah, and that's that speed, that rush that a lot
of kids never get to experience. And you know, I
think about my three children. They're all grown now, but
how lucky that they had these experiences on their own,
and the kids at Double H would never have these
but for the fact that you're there, which is such
a great, great service.

Speaker 4 (46:03):
And I think this key program is really important too,
because it teaches them a lifelong skill, like you were
just saying with your children as well, like they can
take this with them elsewhere, and it gives them that
sense of speed and that sense of confidence and that
all that great stuff, and I think that's really important
for them as well.

Speaker 1 (46:18):
So there are some things coming up where if you
want to get out and get involved in Double H
to raise some money, you can go play some golf.
My good friend Kevin Johnson has golf tournament coming up.
Do you have details on that?

Speaker 4 (46:29):
Yeah, all golfers, if you're listening. October seventh, at the
Fairways of half Moon, we have the Advisors Insurance Brokers
twenty six annual golf tournament that benefits the Double A Tranch.
There are foursomes still available, so if you would like
to play, please visit our website which is Double A
Tranch dot org. The word double, the letter H, the

(46:50):
word Ranch dot Org. On the top right, you'll see
the calendar tab. Under calendar you'll see special events and
it's got all that stuff we're looking for. Foursome's any
corporatesponses that to be a part of it. It's been
an amazing tournament that's benefited us for twenty five years.
I'm really glad that there's the twenty six coming up
and the Fairways to have Moon is always a great
course to play at. We also have another event, another Gallic,

(47:14):
coming up on December third, and it'll be at the
River's Casino as well. Details to follow for that, but
again that's just a nice time to come out to
support the Double A Trains, to learn about what we do,
and just have a good evening down in Schenectady.

Speaker 1 (47:29):
Yeah, it's the golf tournament I've played in for many, many,
many years. It's great. It's a lot of fun. Kevin
does a great job with his team. They put it
on and if you want to get out play a
little golf, it's a great way to support the Ranch.
December third, the next gala coming up at Rivers Casino,
and again just get up to the Ranch and take
a look around. It'll open up your wallet, folks, because

(47:50):
it's just got that kind of an impact on people. Alison,
you're here now, new to the area, just moved in.

Speaker 3 (47:59):
Yes, we closed on our house this past tuesday, and
I started August twenty twenty three and relocating from Buffalo.
So been you know, going back and forth initially and
then renting in Lake Lizert. So very excited to finally
have a home, especially when I've found an organization that
means so much to me and I'm so proud and

(48:19):
grateful to be a part of.

Speaker 1 (48:20):
Yeah, and just a reminder that if you're dealing with
any of these kinds of issues and you have a
child or know of a child that could benefit from
the Double H experience, by all means connected because it
is just unique, something that is right again in our backyard.
It's right up the road, and it's something that can't
be replaced. So we have about one minute left. Just

(48:45):
your impressions of the Capital region.

Speaker 3 (48:47):
Oh, this is such a beautiful region. I'm originally from Canada,
but I lived in Buffalo the last twenty one years
and this whole year, like the beauty of all the water,
the mountains and the communit I found extremely welcoming, so
I've been really grateful to be a part of it.
And as you said, our mission is really to get
the word out. Double H is an incredible program and

(49:08):
most people once they learn of it. First of all,
for anyone who knows a child with serious illness, they
can't believe that their child could go or that person.

Speaker 2 (49:17):
So that's gratitude.

Speaker 3 (49:17):
But anyone who volunteers has said thank you for letting
us be part of this incredible program because they get
so much out of helping the kids and families. And
then donors also feel just proud and grateful that they
have a chance to make this program possible for kids.
So I find it's just a community where people are
so grateful to be part of and in this beautiful region.
You know, it's the best of all worlds.

Speaker 1 (49:38):
The world is a better place because of people who
care and who give, and whether it's your time or
your money. And Eric, any final thoughts on fundraising. Your
two events coming up October seventh, December third, get play
some golf on the seventh.

Speaker 4 (49:56):
I think I'd rather just take the time and just
thank everyone that's supported us so far. This year, we
had a lot of great events that have already happened.
The Naples Golf Tournament, we had a golf tournament at
the Sagamore, we had the Gala, we had an event
down at Saratoga, and then all just the donations and
support that we've had throughout the year, whether it's financially
or through volunteers. It's been an amazing year so far.

(50:16):
The spring and the summer program have been fantastic. We
look forward for the fall program and the winter program.
So thank you to everyone that's helped us make this possible.

Speaker 1 (50:24):
And I want to thank both of you for taking
your time here on a bright Sunday Saturday morning and
sharing it with me and our listening audience. And again,
follow our website at pyrolaw dot com. It's p I
E r r O l a W. One of the
things we didn't talk about today is the special needs
planning for these children, and that's the legal side and

(50:45):
financial side and creating trusts and the things that we
do as a law firm that kind of tie together
with what DOUBLEH is doing from the perspective of giving
them this unique and unparalleled experience. The child who has
never been able to get outside that bubble and to
be up on a ski slope, you know, speeding down

(51:06):
with the wind in your face. It's just go see it,
that's all I can say. Go to the ranch, check
it out. Eric Allison, thank you so much for being
with us today. Thank everyone for listening. We hope today's
show lifted you up a little bit. Stay with us.
We'll see you next week.