Charity Gets Surprise $77,800 Boost VT-NH “Survivor of the Year” Nominations Sought for 2010

Charity Gets Surprise $77,800 Boost

By PATRICK McARDLE
Rutland Herald Staff Writer - Published: February 14, 2010

RUTLAND – A local woman's donation of $77,800 to the Vermont-New Hampshire affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure is the largest ever received, officials said.

Pauline B. Fulton, who was 96 when she died in January 2009, left the donation to the organization that is best-known for its annual Race for the Cure event.

According to Debbie Peretz, president of the Vermont-New Hampshire affiliate, Fulton's bequest came as a total surprise.

"That was just astounding. At this point, still, we are an all-volunteer organization and we have a woman who comes in an hour a day to open the mail and open phone calls. She got a call from this fellow in South Carolina. He said this woman from Rutland had passed away and she had no family and she was leaving her estate to five charities. (We) thought, probably, a few thousand dollars or something and we were just blown away when it turned out to be $77,800," she said

Peretz said no other single donation has even come close to Fulton's gift, although the affiliate has gotten sizable donations in the range of $15,000 to $24,000 from corporate sponsors.

The trustee of Fulton's estate, Robert C. Stubbs, of South Carolina, said she had outlived her friends and had no family left by the time she died so she decided to leave her estate to five charities. Stubbs said all five received the same amount but declined to name the other recipients except to say they were also local to Fulton.

According to her obituary, Fulton died on Jan. 10, 2009, at Rutland Regional Medical Center. She was born in Rutland and graduated from Rutland High School in 1931.

Fulton worked in the billing department of Central Vermont Public Service for more than 30 years before retiring in 1977.

While Stubbs said he didn't know why Fulton had chosen to leave money to the Komen affiliate, Peretz said Fulton was a breast cancer survivor.

Peretz said Komen was a favorite choice for donors not only because it is the largest source of funding for breast cancer research besides the federal government, but also because most money raised by an affiliate stays local. Each affiliate passes along about 25 percent of what it raises to be used for breast cancer research and devotes the remainder to local programs.

Peretz also pointed out that Susan G. Komen for the Cure has a solid reputation. The organization was one of about 10 that received the highest rating from Charity Navigator, a service that helps donors evaluate nonprofits.

Fulton's donation comes at the beginning of what is expected to be an exciting year for the Vermont-New Hampshire affiliate, Peretz said.

For the last five or six years, the Vermont-New Hampshire affiliate has raised enough to make annual grants of about $500,000 with an additional amount of about $150,000 annually going to research.

The Race for the Cure, which takes place at Hildene in Manchester, is the largest contributor to those efforts but Peretz said there are other significant events like a snowshoe fundraiser, about two weeks ago, that generated about $47,000.

This year, the affiliate plans to hire an executive director and start to plan a second race, this one in New Hampshire. The affiliate is the only one that covers two states, and therefore the only one that would host two races, Peretz said.

The second race is likely to be in Concord in 2011, according to Peretz.

The Vermont race, scheduled for July 17, will still be at Hildene but Peretz said it will change days this year from Sunday to Saturday.

"For the last three or four years, our numbers have gone down a little bit. We've raised as much money, one way or another, but our number of participants has dwindled a little bit. So we decided it was time to shake it up," she said.

More information about the Vermont-New Hampshire affiliate is available on the Internet at the Web site at www.vtnhcure.org/index.html.

patrick.mcardle@rutlandherald.com