“ELEEMOSYNARY”

Many years ago, I wrote about one of my favorite words. “Eleemosynary” is one of those different and neat words in the English language. Many people do not know what it means. Many people don’t even know how to pronounce it and it is even more difficult to spell.

The way to say it is “e-li-mas-in-airy.” It means to give freely to a charity. The GCU proudly has a charity arm and it is used to help people in need or to promote a good charitable purpose.

The GCU Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charitable entity organized by GCU for the purpose of advancing the interests of GCU members, members of Byzantine Churches in the US, and individuals who are interested in learning more about the Byzantine Catholic Church, its Slavic heritage and its Rusyn culture. The GCU Foundation advances the above interests by making monetary grants for charitable, educational and religious purposes.

So, what does this mean to you and to the GCU Foundation? It means that you may want to make sure that your estate plan is in order for the protection of yourself, your family, and to make a gift to the GCU Foundation to help someone in need. You may be able to direct where your donation will go.

The GCU Foundation is the donation arm of the GCU. Like all successful businesses and companies, there is a separate foundation set up for the purposes of advancing the interests of the foundation in making charitable, educational and religious donations. In coming issues, I will attempt to show you what the GCU Foundation does with its money and how it decides where to make donations. In fact, if you make a donation to the GCU Foundation, you get the tax deduction and you can direct where you want your donation to go.

Over the years, the GCU has used the Foundation to raise money to help people who have been in a disaster. It has also been used to help our seminarians with their educational expenses. In a future issue, a list of some of the recipients of the GCU donations will be listed.

If you have any questions or concerns or need further information about the GCU Foundation, feel free to contact Tim Demetres at the Home Office.

Questions, comments or ideas about future articles contact me at jurban.gcu@gcuusa.com

Atty. John J. Urban