Under the guidance of its new director of annual giving, the University of the Virgin Islands is embarking on a drive to educate the public about options and advantages in making donations as part of their estate planning.
Among the topics to be addressed in seminars planned for St. Croix and St. Thomas are wills and bequests and the benefits of planned giving.
Deborah S. Hamilton, UVI's first director of annual giving, says she believes most Virgin Islands residents, like most people everywhere, "want an opportunity to leave a better world for their children and grandchildren. They would like to preserve their values for future generations. They would like to exit with grace, being remembered for what they gave, not what they got."
And, she adds, "They would like to leave a legacy so the fact that they lived on this planet will continue to make a difference."
People who have worked hard throughout life to become successful and prosper don't want to their worth to die when they die, Hamilton says: "We want to be significant as well as successful."
That makes it all the more ironic, she adds, that "roughly half of Americans die without wills or trusts."
UVI is embarking on a community outreach effort in hopes of changing that situation locally. "As a beginning, we have asked attorneys Linda Baxter and Marjorie Roberts to conduct free public seminars to give the Virgin Islands community some basic information regarding wills, bequests and the benefits of making planned gifts," Hamilton said.
Baxter will conduct the first seminar, to be held on the UVI St. Croix campus at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 21, in Room 133 of the Research and Extension Services Center. Roberts will lead the second, a repeat of the first, which will take place on the St. Thomas campus at 6 p.m. Monday, Feb. 26, in the second-floor meeting room of the new Sports and Fitness Center.
As seating is limited at both venues, those wishing to take part are asked to reserve space by Thursday, Feb. 15. This may be done by telephoning Hamilton on St. Thomas at 693-1042 or Stella Saunders on St. Croix at 692-4023. Reservations may also be requested via e-mail to Hamilton at dhamilton!uvi.edu. If you e-mail, be sure to specify which seminar you wish to attend.
"Whether a person's estate is large or small, here is an opportunity many will not want to miss to learn how to transform their success into lasting significance," Hamilton says. "We hope that many will take steps today to leave a legacy for tomorrow."

Under the guidance of its new director of annual giving, the University of the Virgin Islands is embarking on a drive to educate the public about options and advantages in giving as part of their estate planning.
Among the topics to be addressed in seminars planned for St. Croix and St. Thomas are wills and bequests and the benefits of planned giving.
Deborah S. Hamilton, UVI's first director of annual giving, says she believes most Virgin Islands residents, like most people everywhere, "want an opportunity to leave a better world for their children and grandchildren. They would like to preserve their values for future generations. They would like to exit with grace, being remembered for what they gave, not what they got."
And, she adds, "They would like to leave a legacy so the fact that they lived on this planet will continue to make a difference."
People who have worked hard throughout life to become successful and prosper don't want to their worth to die when they die, Hamilton says: "We want to be significant as well as successful."
That makes it all the more ironic, she adds, that "roughly half of Americans die without wills or trusts."
UVI is embarking on a community outreach effort in hopes of changing that situation locally. "As a beginning, we have asked attorneys Linda Baxter and Marjorie Roberts to conduct free public seminars to give the Virgin Islands community some basic information regarding wills, bequests and the benefits of making planned gifts," Hamilton said.
Baxter will conduct the first seminar, to be held on the UVI St. Croix campus at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 21, in Room 133 of the Research and Extension Services Center. Roberts will lead the second, a repeat of the first, which will take place on the St. Thomas campus at 6 p.m. Monday, Feb. 26, in the second-floor meeting room of the new Sports and Fitness Center.
As seating is limited at both venues, those wishing to take part are asked to reserve space by Thursday, Feb. 15. This may be done by telephoning Hamilton on St. Thomas at 693-1042 or Stella Saunders on St. Croix at 692-4023. Reservations may also be requested via e-mail to Hamilton at dhamilt@uvi.edu. If you e-mail, be sure to specify which seminar you wish to attend.
"Whether a person's estate is large or small, here is an opportunity many will not want to miss to learn how to transform their success into lasting significance," Hamilton says. "We hope that many will take steps today to leave a legacy for tomorrow."

The first traffic fatality in more than a year on St. John occurred sometime early Thursday when a man driving a red Chevy Blazer apparently lost control of the vehicle on Route 107 south of Coral Bay. The Blazer careened off the road and plummeted some 60 feet down a steep hill before striking a tree, police said.
The victim, 41-year-old Edward R. Hearne of Gifft Hill, was pronounced dead on arrival, according to Police Lt. Rene Garcia. Police said he died of massive head injuries.
Garcia said the man's body was discovered alongside the vehicle, raising the possibility that he was not wearing a seatbelt.
Garcia said a firefighter called to report the accident at 8:10 a.m. Thursday. Early reports indicated the accident occurred near Saunders Bay. Garcia said the vehicle had been traveling north and that 30 feet of skid marks ended at the side of the road. Garcia said there is no guard rail on that section of the road.
The last traffic death on the island occurred in December 1999, when a 19-year-old St. John resident was killed on the North Shore Road.

The Long Bay landscape, which has suffered many indignities over the years – by unfinished, interrupted road work, to say nothing of the unsightly shell of the former Yacht Haven Hotel – has recently experienced another aesthetic setback.
The trees lining the Lucinda Millin Home for the Aged have been "pruned." The trees are called "sleepy trees" locally because the rattle their pods make wakes you up.
According to Edward Delegarde, V. I. Housing Authority director of maintenance, the trees have been cut back to prevent them from growing into power lines, and because they obstruct the Millin residents' view.
Delegarde said Tuesday that the V.I. Water and Power Authority had asked VIHA to cut the trees out of their lines. But Patricia Blake-Simmonds, WAPA public relations officer, said that was not true. WAPA's lines near the home are underground, she said.
Upon investigating the matter, Simmonds said Delegarde told her WAPA had not requested work on these particular trees though the agency had made such requests in the past.
Edith Bryan, public relations officer for the Millin home, said that while she was no tree surgeon, they appear to be "improperly cut." Since the trees surrounding the home have been cut, including those in the back, Bryan said she didn't see how they could interfere with the residents' view.
The trees' new appearance has not gone by without public notice. It was the subject of Leona Bryan's talk show on Radio One WVWI earlier this week. Long-time island resident Margit Kanstrup was particularly upset.
"They look like sad, wooden sticks," she said. Kanstrup said she didn't understand the lack of planning in managing the trees. "It will take years for them to grow back, the way they've done this," she said. "Pruning should be done by somebody with some education. We should care for the few mature trees we have left on the island. For all we've lost and chopped down, we should have planted 10 trees for each one."
A report by the National Arbor Day Foundation on the dangers of "topping" trees lists starvation as high among the hazards. Topping removes so much of the crown that it upsets an older tree's crown-to-root ratio, and temporarily cuts off its food-making ability, the report says. Good pruning practices, the report continues, rarely remove more than 1/4 to ½ of the crown.
Shock is another factor. By suddenly removing a tree's protection, the remaining bark is so exposed that scalding may result, according to the report.
Weak limbs are another result of indiscriminate pruning. The report says that when a larger limb is truncated, a more weakly attached limb develops than would have grown normally.
The report concludes, "A topped tree is a disfigured tree."

Marvin Dominguez pleaded guilty on Wednesday to the 1999 murder of Patricia Ann Haumacher and then burying her body in the backyard of their shared rental home in Frederiksted.
During a private session in Presiding Territorial Court Judge Maria Cabret’s chambers on Wednesday, Dominguez, 26, pleaded to second-degree murder. The plea was entered in chambers because attorneys were concerned that if the government refused the offer, media coverage would have tainted potential jurors.
By entering the plea, Dominguez avoided a March 18 trial for first-degree murder and the possibility of life in prison. Instead, the New Jersey resident now faces between five and 20 years behind bars.
Dominguez admitted to killing Haumacher, 30, sometime in October 1999. He turned himself in to police a month later after telling acquaintances that Haumacher had left the island. Haumacher’s family in New Jersey reported her missing on Nov. 9, 1999, after not hearing from her for more than a month. Four days later, V.I. police interviewed Dominguez, who told investigators she was having family problems and had left the island. Acquaintances of Dominguez and Haumacher said she was last seen around Oct. 8, 1999.
Dominguez turned himself in on Nov. 29, soon after authorities queried him about Haumacher’s whereabouts. The next day officials exhumed Haumacher’s body, bound and gagged inside a duffel bag, from a shallow grave in the yard of the house the two had shared in Estate Two Brothers. An autopsy concluded that the victim was killed by manual strangulation and had been dead for one to two months.
According to court transcripts, Dominguez and Haumacher had a loud fight on Oct. 12, that culminated in her death.
Sentencing is scheduled for April 11.

As part of the celebration of Black History Month, the Myrah Keating Smith Community Health Center will be hosting various activities that deal with medical aspects affecting people of African descent. Additionally, there will be a series of events that touch on social, cultural, and economic dynamics that are part of the African-American experience.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 12
10 a.m. Presentation on Hypertensive issues in African-American patients
6 p.m. Showing of "Amistad"-to be followed by a discussion
TUESDAY,FEBRUARY 13
10 a.m. Presentation on Diabetes care in Black patients
6 p.m Showing of "Beloved"-to be followed by a discussion
WEDNESDAY,FEBRUARY 14
10 a.m "How to Be Heart Smart" .
6 p.m Showing of "The Best Man"
THURSDAY,FEBRUARY 15
10 a.m. Women's Health Care Presentation
6 p.m. Showing of "Rosewood"-to be followed by a discussion
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16
10 a.m. Men's Health Presentation
6 p.m. Showing of "The Tuskegee Airmen"-to be followed by a discussion
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17
10 a.m. Adolescent Issues
6 p.m. Showing of "Nutty Professor I and II"
Please Note: The presentations, movies, and discussions are directed to an adult audience so please use discretion in attending. There will be other activities throughout the month of February that will cater towards children. These will be sponsored by the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity. For more information please contact Joseph De James, M.D., at 693-8900.

About two hundred housing community residents filled the Legislative Chambers Wednesday night to tell senators and Housing officials of the miseries they have endured living in public housing.
Denise Ruan-Todman, vice president of the Contant Knolls Tenant Council, had a list of complaints about the relatively new community ranging from lack of meaningful security to the absence screen doors on the units and lack of adequate play areas for children. Todman said the two Housing Police officers assigned to her area work Monday through Friday and leave at 5 p.m. She described the stress caused by routine gunfire late at night coming from a nearby nightclub coupled with a missing streetlight she has attempted to have replaced.
Ingrid Leslie described living in a trailer at Paul M. Pearson Gardens that has split in half.
The hearing was called by Sen. Celestino A. White Sr., chairman of the Housing, Parks and Recreation committee. White has long been known as a champion of public housing residents and he promised to continue the process of empowering the tenants. He also reiterated his promise to mobilize the tenants as a major voting bloc for the next gubernatorial election.
The 20 tenants testifying called for help from the senate and Housing officials for everything from relief from infestations from rats, roaches and pigeons to assistance with home ownership.
Ninety-one-year-old Elita Ford Blyden of Oswald Harris Court said after 40 years in public housing her greatest wish was to be able to buy her home.
Metrisebel Williams, also a Pollyberg resident did by her house, but said she was not told the water would be cut off after she purchased her home and now she is left to "buy water, buy water, always buying water."
Other tenants expressed concern over living with asbestos, but were assured by Conrad E. Francois, executive director of the V.I. Housing Authority, that the asbestos was not "friable," meaning broken up. Not everyone was convinced, however. Sen. Norma Pickard-Samuel asked Francois if he could guarantee no tiles were broken while tenants still resided at the Donoe project, which is being demolished. He couldn't. He also said Bovoni and Nadir housing units also contain asbestos, but that it was being "abated."
Francois, Iran Hobson, Housing Parks, and Recreation commissioner, and Housing Finance Authority Executive Director Claude V. Richards took turns citing severe lack of funds as the major cause of the problems facing their agencies and thus the tenants. Communication break-downs between lower level management and officials was also named as a problem.
Francois said he "repeatedly came before the Legislature asking for money to complete the Tutu Hi-Rise and Donoe projects."
He also said because the Federal Emergency Management Authority failed to reimburse $4.2 million for the Nazareth temporary housing built after Hurricane Marilyn, he was forced to take a commercial loan. To add to the woes, he said at any given time he is carrying up to $3 million in accounts payable to the Water and Power Authority.
Hobson maintained he has always been available to the tenants, saying every Christmas he personally visits every tenant under his purview. However, under the consolidation of the three agencies, which was part of the Omnibus Act of 2000, Hobson said his tenants would come under the auspices of the new authority pointing out this could mean a substantial increase in rents. Currently tenants in community housing pay from $75 a month for an efficiency apartment to $300 a month for a four bedroom.
The ceiling on rent for the federally subsidized housing managed by VIHA took a big hike a year ago – up to 30 percent of a residents income – under the federally mandated Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act of 1998. Richards took his turn painting a picture of an agency, charged with building and managing low- and middle-income housing in the territory, which has continued to function though it has had no meaningful appropriations from the government in years. He said lack of funds for infrastructure was holding up projects. He also painted a bleak picture of the potential for affordable housing on St. John, due to the high cost of construction on that island. He said the lowest bid received to build one home was $162,000. The federal subsidy on that would be $80,000.
Senators began to take their turns at questioning around 10:30 p.m., using most of their five minutes each to describe how they were going to solve the problems of the tenants and railing against the housing officials.
Committee members in attendance were: Sens. White, Alicia "Chucky" Hansen, Carlton Dowe, Emmett Hansen, II , David S. Jones and Samuel. Sen. Lorraine Berry, also a member of the committee was not there, which was noted verbally by White.
Sen. Donald "Ducks" Cole, who served on the Housing committee in the 23rd Legislature was also in attendance.
The hearing ended well after midnight.

Out of commission for five months, the Star of Life ambulance boat is once again up and running, St. John Administrator Julien Harley announced Wednesday.
In a statement with acting Health Commissioner Dr. Mavis Matthew, Harley said the craft, which transports seriously ill patients from St. John to St. Thomas and the Roy L. Schneider Hospital, underwent major repairs. Harley credited mechanic Liston Sprauve with getting the boat back in running order.

The Virgin Islands Department of Agriculture, Urban and Community Forestry Assistance Program announces the availability of approximately $70,000 in grant money to be awarded through the 2001 Challenge Cost-Share Grant Program.
Awards will be allocated on a competitive basis. All federally granted funds must be matched at least equally (dollar for dollar) with non-federal source funds.
This match may include in-kind donations, volunteer assistance, and private and public (non-federal) monetary contributions. The recommended range for proposals is $1,000 – $10,000. The maximum funding to a single applicant will be $10,000.
Applicants may submit and be funded for multiple projects. Any non-federal organization operating within the United States Virgin Islands may apply for a Challenge Cost-Share Grant, such as communities, nonprofit organizations, neighborhood associations, civic groups, educational institutions, volunteer groups, and the local government. Deadline for proposal submission is May 1, 2001.
The primary goal of the U&CF Assistance Program is to encourage citizen involvement in creating and supporting long-term and sustainable Urban and Community Forestry programs throughout the U.S. Virgin Islands. Urban forestry activities include all those practices employed to plan for and ensure the protection, establishment, and maintenance of community trees, forests, and related natural resources.
To obtain more information and a 2001 Proposal Packet and Application for Assistance, all interested and eligible persons/organizations should contact:
Belinda Esham, U&CF Coordinator
Virgin Islands Department of Agriculture
#1Estate Lower Love
Kingshill, VI 00850
(340) 778-0998 or 0997 Ext. 233 esham@viaccess.net

It's that time of year in the Virgin Islands when humans by the hundreds take to the sea in search – visually – of passing humpback whales.
"Grab your binoculars and scan the horizon; it's time for the world's largest animals to enjoy their annual Caribbean vacation," reads a release from the Environmental Association of St. Thomas-St. John, which annually organizes whale-watch excursions.
This year, there will be three such outings, on Saturday, Feb. 17; Saturday, Feb. 24; and Sunday, Feb. 25. As a special added enticement, all three trips will be aboard Grand Nellie, a historic 75-foot schooner.
For each full-day trip, an experienced ecological guide will provide commentary on marine life and seabirds in addition to helping excursion participants spot any whales in the area.
For each of the trips, the ship will depart American Yacht Harbor at 8:30 a.m. and return at 4 p.m. The daysail does not include lunch or drinks, but the boat will anchor by an offshore cay in the afternoon for swimming and snorkeling.
"Humpback whales typically make their way through Virgin Islands waters in February and March in order to mate and nurse their calves," the EAST release states. "Each year, the Environmental Association sponsors whale-watching trips where the public can get a closer view of these spectacular creatures."
Last year's whale-watch participants got glimpses of lone males as well as mothers and calves traveling in pairs. According to EAST president Carla Joseph, "This year's first reported sightings are beginning to trickle in." She expressed the opinion that "Everyone should go out at least once and see the humpbacks in their natural environment."
Joseph added that the Grand Nellie "is an attraction in itself" and that the ship's crew "is very enthusiastic about taking part in the whale watches."
The cost of each outing is $55 for those who aren't members of EAST and $45 for those who are. Tickets must be purchased in advance, and they virtually always sell out well before the day of departure. In fact, in years past EAST has been known to schedule an additional trip to accommodate demand.
Ticket outlets are St. Thomas Communications in Crown Bay Marina, the Draughting Shaft in Havensight and East End Secretarial Service in Red Hook.
Proceeds from the excursions will benefit EAST environmental education, awareness and advocacy programs. The release describes the association, which is a chapter of the V.I. Conservation Society, as "a not-for-profit, all volunteer organization that seeks to protect and improve the quality of life for all Virgin Islands residents."
More information about the association and about the whale-watch trips may be obtained by telephoning 774-8348 or 774-8816.