By Kathy Nevill, Trust Fund Chair

This year as we celebrate the first one hundred years of this great church, it is important that we honor those individuals and institutions that have helped us to grow and flourish. In 1981, Elizabeth Battle Jackson left $22,000 in her will to Belmont. Church leaders wisely established the Trust Fund of Belmont to accept that gift and others like it to assure that Belmont had the financing necessary for special projects and capital needs outside the regular operating budget. Over the last 30 years, 39 members have left estate gifts to Belmont, helping the Trust Fund to grow to an amount over $2 million dollars.
    
Over the last 12 years, the Trust Fund has provided over $1.1 million to support the work of Belmont. From total church computer upgrades and new vans to choir robes and handbells, the Trust Fund has provided for critical equipment needs. Even more than things, the Trust Fund has provided for the work of the church here and around the globe. The seed money for the mission in Malawi and the tutoring program at Edgehill was provided by the Trust Fund. The Trust Fund has supported adult, youth, and choir mission trips as well as scholarships for the weekday school and our college students. Most importantly, however, the Trust Fund has provided multiyear funding streams for building expansions such as our recent building renovation and community center expansion. 
   
  I am the current chair of the Trust Fund, but more importantly, I am a third-generation Belmonter. My husband, Pat, grew up in this church, and his mother, Mae Dee Pattillo Nevill, a spry 96, has been a member of Belmont for 70 years. Mae Dee and her mother Vadie Hill Pattillo returned to Nashville in the 1930s amid great personal loss, and Belmont was there for them. When our daughter, Leigh, was born, we drove to Belmont from Hermitage for her to be with her grandmother. Little did we know what an important part Belmont would play in our lives. Belmont is our family. 
    
I am passionate about the Trust Fund because I believe there will be a sixth generation of Nevills who call Belmont family. The Trust Fund will help to make that possible. I hope you will join Pat and me by considering an estate gift to Belmont to assure that future generations at Belmont have the financing they need to grow and flourish.
    
The Trust Fund has been a silent partner for Belmont for years, as many of our members have not known of its existence. The Trust Fund Board hopes to change that this year by celebrating and communicating about the Trust Fund and about how you can help to ensure Belmont’s future through an estate gift to the Trust Fund. We are available for presentations at Belmont gatherings or for individual meetings. Please contact me or another member of the Trust Fund Board should you want to know more about the Trust Fund.