August is national Make-a-Will Month, a time to create or update your will, ensuring loved ones are protected as desired and the causes you care about live on beyond your lifetime. Dr. Carolida Steiner of New Paltz, N.Y., is passionate about MAGEN DAVID ADOM. In addition to her annual contributions to AFMDA, she plans to leave a significant legacy in her will.

“The advantage of making a bequest in my will? It does not increase the anxiety of outliving my assets,” Dr. Steiner explained. “I also ensure my legacy will protect the people of Israel.”

Carolida took her first trip to Israel in 1967 after the Six Day War as a teenager. She remembers it as a time of much joy: The country had survived another war and Jews were again able to pray at the Wailing Wall. It was also a time of much grief for the loss of loved ones.

She lost a cousin, who was killed in the battle for Jerusalem. Prior to the war, he had been a member of the kibbutz where she was a volunteer. On that and later trips, she saw MAGEN DAVID ADOM ambulances donated by Americans that were inscribed “with love and gratitude to the people of Israel.” Though young and jobless, she knew she wanted to do the same.

Back home in the U.S., Carolida became a clinical psychologist and had a satisfying career helping others. When she retired, she put AFMDA in her will. “I am so thankful I can contribute to the lifesaving work of MDA by donating an ambulance through my will.”

Carolida is a passionate advocate for MAGEN DAVID ADOM, who speaks with friends and people she’s just met about its mission of protecting, saving, and giving life. To help people now, she donates on a yearly basis and shares copies of the organization’s bi-annual magazine, The Pulse, with people she knows.

“I believe strongly that by contributing to AFMDA I am fulfilling the mitzvah ‘to save a life, it as though you saved the entire world.’” And by leaving a bequest, she is not only ensuring MAGEN DAVID ADOM will always be there for the people of Israel, but in a meaningful way, so will she.

To learn more about legacy giving, you can also reach out to Marilyn Stern Emas, director of estate and planned giving, at 646.388.7518 or msternemas@afmda.org.