Thrifty woman boosts charities

SANDPOINT – A North Idaho woman who officials say spent her final decade living a frugal life in solitude to save money has donated $1.5 million to area charities.

Officials said the anonymous philanthropist worked with Panhandle State Bank to grow the Community Focus Trust that she specified help women, children and animals.

“She lived the last 10 years of her life very frugally to set up this trust,” said Dale Schuman, senior vice president of trust and investment services at the bank. “It was in her mind as her goal long before she died.”

The Bonner County Daily Bee in Sandpoint describes the woman as having been born in New York in the 1920s, having a photography career on a cruise ship, starting an art gallery in California, and then retiring and moving to Idaho.

“She was a very humble woman in a lot of different ways,” Schuman said.

He said the woman had specific ideas about who should get the money.

“For example, she didn’t want her money to assist criminals,” Schuman said. “She wanted to help good social beings that had fallen on hard times.”

Organizations receiving the money drafted proposals and answered a series of questions to make sure the woman would approve.

“While we were helping her grow her money, she gave us a very good sense of exactly what she wanted her money to accomplish after she was gone,” Schuman told the newspaper.

The Bonner Community Food Center is receiving $50,000.

“This grant will surely be a blessing,” said Alice Wallace, program director for the food center. “We’ve been plugging away for the past while.”