Lucien Wayne Jacobs and Phil Thacker left donations to the Kinsmen Foundation
By Diego Flammini
News Reporter
Farms.com
The legacy of a late Saskatchewan farmer will live on through a generous donation to a provincial charity.
Lucien Wayne Jacobs farmed about 5,000 acres in Trossachs, Sask. until his sudden passing in 2014 at the age of 76.
He made sure others could benefit from his farming efforts by leaving $1.2 million to the Kinsmen Foundation. The charity helps people with special needs acquire mobility and speech equipment. The charity also helps children travel to receive heart surgery.
Members of his family made the announcement during the foundation’s Telemiracle on March 3. Since the Kinsmen shared the news on Telemiracle’s Facebook page, almost 600 people, including strangers, wrote thank you notes to the Jacobs family.
Members of Lucien Wayne Jacobs's family announce a $1.2 million donation as Telemiracle host Beverly Mahood holds a photo of Lucien.
Photo: Telemiracle Facebook page
“Farmers are so special because they work hard and share what they have. It would have been a privilege to know him. God bless,” Barbara Benderski wrote on the page.
The announcement has been shared 2,000 times on Facebook.
Jacobs wasn’t the only member of the ag community to help the Telemiracle reach record-breaking levels this year.
Dr. Phil Thacker, a University of Saskatchewan swine researcher who passed away last February, left $1.5 million to the Kinsmen Foundation. By the time the telethon wrapped up on Mach. 4, the foundation had raised over $7.1 million in total.
Phil Thacker
Photo: Telemiracle Facebook page
Both bequests came as a surprise to the organizers.
“I honestly did not think we were going to make it to $7 (million),” Susan Colbow, chair of Telemiracle, told the Estevan Mercury on Wednesday. “The higher we went, to 6.8 and 6.9 million dollars, it was great.”
The donations from Thacker and Jacobs marked the two largest in Telemiracle’s history.