Discovering the Heart of a Giver: Lori Heims

The Community Foundation serves rural Iowa through eight affiliate foundations in Allamakee, Clayton, Clinton, Delaware, Jackson and Jones Counties and the Dyersville area. This occasional feature is a look inside the people who are inspired to build stronger small towns.

Lori Heims became an important Community Foundation partner this spring when an anonymous donor made a challenge grant to begin a new endowment fund for Green Hill Cemetery located near Edgewood.

Lori was the cemetery sexton, a stewardship role she inherited when her father Duane Weyant died. On a windy afternoon in March, Lori met with Community Foundation Director of Affiliates M.J. Smith at Green Hill and together they inspected the fallen stones and overgrown brush. M.J. explained that the cemetery endowment would pay out annually for summer mowing and fence repair and winter snow removal. It would be a permanent source of support for the beautification of the graves on Memorial Day. And she asked Lori if she would be willing to reach out to neighbors and friends of Green Hill to help build the fund. 

Like many community volunteers, Lori knew little about endowments. She had never written a fundraising letter. But without hesitation, she committed to the task and, together with her daughter, Alison Robinson of Hiawatha, gathered addresses and sent letters to tell others about the challenge grant. The community responded and grew the endowment to over $14,000. During the fundraising campaign, Lori told M.J., “I am so glad Alison is involved because if something ever happens to me, she will know how this all works.”

Those words proved to be sadly prophetic. Lori died on July 3 in a fireworks accident. At her memorial service at Trinity United Methodist Church in Edgewood, she was remembered time after time as “selfless.” Her legacy as a quiet and tireless giver will live on through her daughter Alison who volunteered to take her mother’s place as the Green Hill Cemetery sexton. 

Lori’s story reminds us not to wait to make an important difference for the community we love. Who needs your help today? What cause needs a champion? The Community Foundation is honored to support community leaders like Lori Heims and we will never forget her.

This story originally appeared in the 2016 Summer Giving Matters (pdf).

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:

MAKING THE MOST OF SUMMER
Grade-Level Reading partners keep kids learning all summer long.

CFGD GRANTS
Women’s Giving Circle and YAPPERS announce grants to local nonprofits. 

VISION TO LEARN
Program expansion will serve as many as 2,000 kids in Northeast Iowa.

INCLUSIVE DUBUQUE
New report tracks progress in equity. 

AFFILIATE NEWS
CFGD welcomes two new affiliate foundations in Clinton County.  

DISCOVERING THE HEART OF A GIVER
CFGD remembers Lori Heims.