Inspiring Stories

Meet Donna Feng, our newest Legacy Society member and longtime blood donor at Baystate Medical Center. Donna recently updated her estate plans to include a legacy gift to support Baystate Health’s Medical Transfusion Program. 

“To use the words of Lou Gehrig, I feel like I’m the luckiest person on Earth,” shares Paul Cohen, co-founder and chief financial officer of Planned Furniture Promotions.

Like many of us during the pandemic, Dr. Benjamin Liptzin found himself pondering his legacy and thinking about what matters most.

Nancy Sbrega spent 63 years married to the love of her life, Louis, known to those around him as “Gino.” The couple met rollerskating at the Winter Palace in Holyoke when Nancy was 15.

Former Longmeadow resident and Baystate Health Foundation Legacy Society member Dr. Ronald T. Burkman loves to share stories about fishing trips with his former colleagues at Baystate Health, or to talk about the latest University of Michigan basketball or hockey game.

For the Broder family, a life of fulfillment seems to have a common thread that weaves through each generation – healthcare. Specifically for Dr. Martin Broder and Dr. Samuel Broder, that thread led them both to Baystate Medical Center.

When Robert Collins was growing up in Three Rivers, Massachusetts during the Depression, he and his brothers would go hunting to ensure they did not go hungry.

When Robert A. Shanley set up his trust decades ago, he never envisioned anything like the coronavirus pandemic.

Barbara Zygarowski loved Baystate Health, loved medicine, and loved her career as a nurse. Her good friend Paul Grennon confesses that he bought and read medical books so he could keep up with her in conversation – she was that passionate about her chosen career.

In her final months of life, Aroxy Zacarian thought about what mattered most to her — four beautiful and accomplished children, nine wonderful grandchildren, one great-grandson, three siblings, and a dear husband of 51 years, Dr. Setrag A. Zacarian.

Barbara Clarke's husband, Arthur H. Clarke, ensured her values would be remembered by future generations by making a tribute gift to Baystate Health Foundation to establish a permanent, living legacy, the Barbara M. Clarke Memorial Fund.

In 1989, when Bob Regnault had to undergo coronary bypass surgery, he worried about his wife, Frances, sitting scared and nervous in the waiting room.

When pancreatic cancer threatened the life of Turners Falls resident Harold "Bud" Collins, he took it in stride.

To serve as leaders, volunteers and stewards of the Baystate Health mission is almost second nature to David and Evie Woods. Dedicated to Baystate for decades, the couple has now found an additional way to extend their support.

In 1996, seven-year-old Caitlin Dibble Ross was diagnosed with cancer. Caitlin's heartbroken parents, Ann and Tim, her four-year-old brother, and her extended family — including her uncle, Bulkley Richardson Attorney Francis Dibble, Jr., better known as Sandy — looked for every opportunity to bring joy to her days as the disease took its toll.

For Kevin and Sue Lawson, giving back is about the difference they can make by sharing their time, talent and resources.

In 1943, Mary Therese Dvarecka graduated from what was then the Springfield Hospital School of Nursing.