Kansas City Community Matters January 2016

Commun ty Matters Kansas City Presbyterian Manor COMING UP IN COMMUNITY MATTERS

Everyone has a story to tell

You can hardly turn on the television without being reminded that we are in a presidential election year. We’re looking for residents with a story to tell about a memorable election or voting experience. What motivates you to go to the polls? Did you ever hold public office? What was that like? Did you work on a famous politician’s campaign or meet a famous politician? Tell us your story.

If you’ve got a story to share about living out your civic responsibility, contact Tina Ashford, activity director, and your story could be featured in an upcoming edition of Community Matters.

Residents reminisce

January 2016

Maxine Hannah

When it comes to hard work, Maxine knows all about it. She worked at Montgomery Wards when she was a young adult at 25 cents an hour, and during WWII, she worked at the Lake City Ordnance Plant and made bullets for the war. She also worked at AT&T for 20 years. She remembers one day they called her into work, and she agreed but did not realize that it had snowed all night and the roads were bad. She went into work and remembers that many cars were in the ditch and a truck was turned over in the road. She did get stuck a little but made it to work in Lenexa. The company sent her home in a cab. They would send their employees home in a cab if they worked past midnight.

She wasn’t all work and no play though. She married and remembers going to Pla-Mor in Kansas City, which was a roller rink and dance hall. They would go with different married couples dancing on the weekend. When asked if she went before she was married, she giggled and said, “Oh no.”

They would also go to Swope Park for picnics and have watermelon and corn on the cob. She has 4 children and a step-daughter. She has lived in Kansas, California and Florida. She collects sunflowers and had a real one in her flower garden at her home.

Betty Shannon

One out of seven children, Betty Shannon learned resilience and self-

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Kansas City Presbyterian Manor honored for achievements Kansas City Presbyterian Manor received a certificate of recognition from Presbyterian Manors of MidAmerica for reaching goals in fiscal year 2015, July 1, 2014, through June 30, 2015.

The recognition came through PMMA’s new Emerald Awards Program, designed to encourage its 18 locations to achieve high levels of resident and employee satisfaction, meet financial goals, build philanthropic support for the organization’s mission and meet marketing goals. There are 11 areas measured for the Emerald Awards.

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Community Matters is published monthly for residents and friends of Kansas City Manor by Presbyterian Manors of Mid-America organization. Learn more at PresbyterianManors.org Peatric Gates, executive director Tina Ashford, activity director To submit or suggest articles for this publication, contact Tina at tashford@pmma.org.

Telephone: 913-334-3666 Fax: 913-334-2904 Address: 7850 Freeman, Kansas City, KS 66112-2133 Our mission: We provide quality senior services guided by Christian values.

KansasCityPresbyterianManor.org

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Peatric Gates, executive director, center, accepts an Emerald Certificate from Bruce Shogren, chief executive officer, left, and Bill Taylor, chief operations officer, right, of Presbyterian Manors of Mid-America. Kansas City Presbyterian Manor was recognized for meeting marketing goals.

To receive an emerald, a community has to meet its goals in all 11 areas.

Certificates of recognition were given out to communities that reached their goals in one or more category.

Kansas City was recognized for meeting marketing goals.

“This recognition is a visible sign of Kansas City Presbyterian Manor’s

commitment to the mission of PMMA of providing quality senior services guided by Christian values,” said Bruce Shogren, chief executive officer for PMMA.

Presbyterian Manors of Mid-America has been providing quality senior services guided by Christian values in Kansas and Missouri for more than 65 years.

Mobile library to come to campus

Kansas City, Kan., Public Mobile Library Bus will be making a stop at Kansas City Presbyterian Manor every other week for residents to hop aboard and check out library materials. Dates and times: January 7, 9- 10 a.m. and January 21, 9-10 a.m.

The surrounding community is also welcome to stop at the Mobile Library bus and check out books and library resources.

Mobile Library

4 rules for giving your heirs money while you're alive Before making a gift, be sure you know these tax implications

By Nick Clements Next Avenue Leaving money to heirs upon your death, by contrast, is a lot less taxing than you might expect. For inheritances, the 2015 federal estate tax exemption is $5.43 million per person.

That means 99. 8 percent of people never have to pay an estate tax, because so few people have assets that exceed $5.43 million. If you want to give money to your children or grandchildren while you are still alive, you have options.

The goods news is that the estate tax exemption is a lifetime exemption that can also be used for gifts. Every dollar that you give as a gift today will just reduce the amount that you can transfer tax-free at the time of your death.

Tax planning is complicated and tax laws change frequently, so if you do want to give your kids or grandkids money soon, meet with your tax adviser to come up with a workable plan.You don’t want to overestimate your retirement income and become excessively generous with gifts you’ll later regret.

4 tax rules for gifts to your heirs

If you do decide to provide gifts to your children or grandchildren while you’re still alive, you even have opportunities beyond the $5.43 lifetime exemption.

Here are four considerations that you can discuss with your estate planner: 1.The amount of tax-free gifts is capped each year. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) sets a maximum gift-tax exclusion annually. For 2015, it’s $14,000 per person.You can give

Careful planning helps you share assets with your heirs.

that amount to as many people as you like, and each spouse has his or her own annual $14,000 limit.

So if you and your spouse have two grandchildren, both of you can gift $14,000 to each child for a total amount in tax-free gifts of $56,000.

And remember, these are tax-free gifts above and beyond the $5.43 million exemption limit.

2. Medical, dental and tuition expenses can be excluded from that cap. If the reason you want to make a gift is for your child’s or grandchild’s medical or dental bills or tuition, this money can be exempt from the annual gift limitations.

However, in order to ensure these gifts are tax-exempt, you have to pay the doctor, dentist or school directly.

Although tuition expenses are exempt, there’s no educational exclusion for books, supplies or housing.The medical exclusion doesn’t apply to amounts paid for medical care that are reimbursed by your insurance.

Be careful about making your grandchild’s tuition payments directly to a college. A direct payment by anyone other than the parent will be counted as cash support, which will could reduce the amount of aid for the child.

3.You can give away more through a 529 college savings plan. Contributions to statesponsored 529 plans are not exempt from the gift tax limit, but you can make five years of contributions at one time without triggering a gift tax.

Most states let you deduct your donation from your state income tax return, up to their limit.

Once your money is in a 529, the earnings will be deferred on federal and most state tax returns. And there is no tax due when taking the money out for qualified education expenses.

The donation limits are high, and typically range between $300,000 and $400,000 per beneficiary.

One tip for grandparents: If you open a 529 for for your grandchild, he or she could end up losing a lot of financial aid.There is a workaround, though. Have your son or daughter open the 529 and then you can contribute to it.

4. Beware the “kiddie tax.” This law was created to make sure that parents didn’t give stocks to children under 24 in an attempt to avoid paying taxes themselves. If the amount of interest or dividends from the gifted shares exceeds $2,000, it will be taxable at the parents’ highest rate.

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MEMORIES continued from page 1

sufficiency at a young age. Her mom was a housewife and father was a farmer. They had horses, cows, sheep, pigs and chickens.

When she was in grade school her mother would keep them home if the weather was too bad or if it was

really cold, but by today’s standards, they made it to school in some rough weather. They would wear long undergarments and boots when they walked to their one-room schoolhouse when it was cold.

If the roads were covered with snow, they would walk in the fields if the snow was too high. There were times

when the snow was more than five feet tall in the roads. They would take their lunch in a pail. Her mother made them clothes to wear, and the neighbors would help them sew clothing at times.

She also remembers going to the outhouse to use the restroom, and boy was it cold!

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JANUARY HAPPENINGS

UPCOMING EVENTS Monday, January 18 – MLK Jr. Social at 2 p.m. in the Chapel January 17-23 – National Activity Professionals Week Friday, January 22 – Monthly Birthday Party and Entertainment - 2 p.m. in the Chapel with Danny Beal Entertainment

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