Gary Richter has been a Minnesota Zoo volunteer for the past 11 years and doesn't plan to stop anytime soon. He began volunteering shortly after his retirement from research and product development at Novartis Nutrition. His background in biology provided a great connection to his volunteer work. Over the years he has shared his passion for animals and nature with thousands of guests of all ages. In addition to his regular duties as a Zoo volunteer, Gary has helped prepare diets for Zoomobile animals, observed animal behavior for keepers, served on the Zoo volunteer board and represented the Zoo at national docent/volunteer conferences.
Gary's wife, Marcia, is also a Zoo enthusiast and has a strong interest in connecting children to the natural world. "I feel it's so important to encourage children to experience nature. We instilled that in our children and we see it being passed on to our grandchildren as well," she says.
Gary and Marcia enjoy giving back to the organizations they feel passionately about by investing their time and by making donations when they can.
As their children grew up and started having families of their own, Gary and Marcia have periodically reevaluated their financial situation. They recently decided that a life insurance policy of Gary's no longer needed to be in their future plans. It was an easy decision to gift the policy to the Minnesota Zoo Foundation. After a few conversations with Brenda Teats, a gift officer in the Zoo Foundation, Gary determined the gift could be used at the Zoo to further support the work he is passionate about.
The life insurance policy became an opportunity to make a larger gift to the Zoo than might have otherwise been possible. And this gift qualifies Gary and Marcia as members of the Circle of Life Society, which recognizes and honors those who have given a gift through their estate. We are honored to welcome the Richters to this growing body of dedicated supporters!
Gifting a life insurance policy or naming the Minnesota Zoo Foundation as a beneficiary of your policy is a simple way to make the gift of a lifetime to support the work of the Zoo to connect people, animals and the natural world to save wildlife.
For more information about how you can make the gift of a lifetime, please contact Amalie Frankel at 651.539.6518 or Amalie.Frankel@mnzoo.org.