"The Megaphone" is the newsletter of the 
MSA Museum Society, published four times a year.

Mission Statement: To be the memory of the 
community by preserving and recording its history. 

New Museum Fundraising Project:  
WALL OF MEMORY

It’s happening in the Heritage Gallery.  On the Wall of Memory, wooden plaques with engraved plates will honour pioneers who have contributed to our community and our lives.  In addition, a longer story and photos will be displayed in an adjacent book of honour.  The cost per plaque is $500.  The Wall will be moved at some future date when Abbotsford gets a Museum so that we can share the memory of honoured pioneers with visitors to it.  Please call the office at 604-853-0313 if you would like to honour a member of your family or another Abbotsford pioneer. 

They call it Planned Giving

Giving to the Museum can be a tax benefit to you.  The Museum is a registered Canadian charity and can issue income tax receipts.  It is best if you ask your own financial advisor about the most advantageous choice for your situation.

Donations don’t always have to be in cash.  Sometimes, companies make offers to their clients for $1000 free life insurance at no cost to the client.  Why not say yes!  Make the Matsqui-Sumas-Abbotsford Museum Society the beneficiary of the policy.  It is preferable to make the Museum the owner of the policy.  If you’d like to provide a more substantial amount for the Museum and you can afford a few dollars a month, take out a policy and name the Museum as beneficiary.  If at some future point, you can no longer pay the premiums, you can advise the Museum and the Museum could then decide to keep up the premiums in order to protect your intended gift. 

Estate taxes can be reduced, often to the benefit of beneficiaries, when gifts are given to a registered charity like the Museum in a will.  You do not give up any control or protection of your heirs.  Further, the Museum Society can provide brochures for giving to be distributed at funerals or memorial services.  It’s really important that we who care about the Museum take some of these steps, or who will?  What will happen to the stories of our past and those who have gone on before us?

There are many ways to save taxes and help the Museum at the same time.  Unless you prefer your money to wind up in government general revenues, ask your financial advisor for some help to direct funds, that will leave you or your heirs one way or another, to the Museum instead of the tax man.

The Museum is our source to the past and we need to see that it will be there for future generations.  They will be healthier and happier if they have a grounding, a sense of place, that the Museum can help provide.  Remember, it’s much easier to build a child than to repair an adult.  Cultural centres like museums really do help to keep kids in school, reduce crime and policing costs, and contribute to better mental and physical health.  How many of our problems are caused by stress and/or anxiety? 

The programs that the Museum manages with its embarrassingly modest annual fee-for-service from the City are really quite remarkable.  These programs would not be possible without the direct support of caring members and friends.  Let’s work together to make sure the future of the Museum is a little more secure than it is now.