One thoughtful plan, two fitting gifts
Cafer honoring family legacy, cultural diversity with gifts in her estate
Mitzi Cafer, ba '80
Mitzi Cafer, ba '80, was surprised at the relief she felt after she completed her estate plan and it included provisions to help her family, her animals and organizations important to her.
"It really is a huge load off my shoulders," she said. "Just to know that my family, friends and courtrooms won't be responsible for figuring out what my wishes were. And I know in my passing, some good will happen with all I leave and all I've worked for during my life."
Mitzi Cafer and her two siblings made a gift to a scholarship fund created in memory of her father, Glenn Cafer (pictured).
The results of her planning include a pair of gifts in her estate to Washburn University that will benefit things important to her. The first is a gift to a scholarship fund created after her father, Glenn Cafer, passed away in 2011. The other is to the Fannie L. Brown Cultural Diversity Endowed Fund, an existing fund she decided to support.
Mitzi, her sister, Glenda Cafer, bba '83, and their brother Douglas Cafer, bba '86, are proud of their father's legacy and happy it lives on through his scholarship. He served as Washburn's men's basketball head coach, athletic director, women's basketball assistant coach and is in the Washburn Athletics Hall of Fame. The family moved many times as he built his coaching career before he ended up at Washburn in 1967. They've been a proud family of Ichabods ever since.
The diversity fund interested Mitzi after she looked over other areas she could support. The fund supports educational opportunities and intercultural cooperation concerning diversity. "I think if you have all of one thing and nothing new is inserted into the equation, it's dangerous," she said. "Diversity is important in our society."
Mitzi earned a degree in communications and was a member of Delta Gamma at Washburn. Her degree taught her about group dynamics and interpersonal, nonverbal communications. She worked as a project manager for bank data processing in Little Rock, Arkansas, in what she considered a very demanding job that used what she learned in her education. As her parents grew older, she moved back to Topeka. She's now service desk manager for the State of Kansas Department of Administration.
She's glad her estate plan is helping her have an everlasting legacy at Washburn.
"I didn't really realize how important it was to me until we went through this process," Mitzi said. "I just feel so good that I can leave money to Washburn and I've got people in my family taken care of in terms of what I want to leave to them. It's just a huge relief and it feels wonderful."
Like the Cafers, you too can make a gift that supports future Washburn University students. Contact Erin Aldridge at 785.670.4483 or PlannedGiving@wualumni.org to get started.
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