{"id":2409,"date":"2024-07-24T23:56:12","date_gmt":"2024-07-24T23:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/foundation\/?p=2409"},"modified":"2024-07-25T00:00:35","modified_gmt":"2024-07-25T00:00:35","slug":"a-legacy-of-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/foundation\/2024\/07\/24\/a-legacy-of-care\/","title":{"rendered":"A Legacy Of Care"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/files\/2022\/08\/Copy-of-Marc-and-Wilda-EOU-1-11-1920x935.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2205\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Caring professors and coaches made a lasting impact on Wilda Stratton, \u201972, and now she\u2019s determined to pay it forward.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stratton and her husband Marcus Watt have set up a $2 million estate gift to the EOU Foundation that will benefit women in STEM fields and student-athletes. Adding this legacy to their will ensures a legacy of education and opportunity for rural students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a biology student and multi-sport athlete at EOU, Stratton built connections with peers and mentors across campus. These relationships kept her on track during a difficult time in her young adulthood<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI was very adrift because both my parents had passed away and I had to leave our home, but I kept coming back to EOU because I knew the professors,\u201d Stratton said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>State scholarships and a consistent flow of weekend and evening jobs allowed Stratton to stay in school and enter the medical field. She built a career overseeing blood banks and transfusion services for major hospitals. Traveling to inspect facilities, Stratton used her experience at EOU to make friends everywhere.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe big thing that stuck with me was the ability to get along with all kinds of people and appreciate their strengths,\u201d she said. \u201cIn a team sport each person brings something different and you have to respect each other.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stratton and Watt are both volleyball players, and 15% of their gift will benefit EOU\u2019s women\u2019s volleyball team. The other 85% will provide scholarships for women in science, technology, engineering and math, fields like Stratton\u2019s that have historically been dominated by men.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The process of establishing an endowed estate gift was new to Watt and Stratton, and they found expert help in EOU Foundation staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI wasn\u2019t sure what to expect, but a couple of phone calls really solidified those particular desires I had in mind,\u201d Stratton said. \u201cOnce we started the process, you could focus on it and keep making progress to get it right.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIf people are unsure, they should really just call and ask!,\u201d Watt said. \u201cStaff do this every day, and so often people don\u2019t realize those resources are there. It can be intimidating to know who to call, but once you start there are resources to guide you. Hesitancy shouldn\u2019t be a barrier.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Caring professors and coaches made a lasting impact on Wilda Stratton, \u201972, and now she\u2019s determined to pay it forward.&nbsp; Stratton and her husband Marcus Watt have set up a $2 million estate gift to the EOU Foundation that will benefit women in STEM fields and student-athletes. Adding this legacy to their will ensures a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":491,"featured_media":2410,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-foundation-profiles","category-magazine-profiles"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/foundation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/foundation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/foundation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/foundation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/491"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/foundation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2409"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/foundation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2414,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/foundation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2409\/revisions\/2414"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/foundation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/foundation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/foundation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/foundation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}