Recently we asked volunteers and supporters Jay and Terry Davison to share their thoughts about why they have planned a gift to the Arboretum and Public Garden in their estate. Jay wrote:

“Terry and I are both UC Davis graduates and therefore have a long history of appreciating and enjoying the UCD Arboretum. We started attending the Arboretum plant sales together regularly in the early 1980s. We were getting interested in this new idea of native California drought-tolerant plantings and the Arboretum was already at the forefront of the movement. We continued to attend the plant sales often over the years, and more recently to work as volunteers at them.

A dozen years ago, when our grandchildren were still very young, we brought them to the Arboretum to explore and to climb the wonderful old trees. This is a tradition that continues to this day (minus the tree climbing) even though they are now teenagers.

When Terry retired from the University in 2006 and began looking for volunteer opportunities, one of the first she chose was the Arboretum. We had been members of the Friends for many years, and this seemed like another way to serve. I joined her after retiring in 2011.

Including the Arboretum in our estate planning just seemed like the natural thing to do as we started looking around for organizations that had made a difference in our lives. When we created our family trust the Arboretum was one of the chosen recipients.

Our hope is that our gifts will be used for some of the projects that are part of the exciting future the Arboretum has envisioned with its master planning efforts. We know that many of these projects are only possible with contributions from fans like us. We expect that people will be enjoying the Arboretum as we have for many years to come and we are pleased to be able to help make their experience a happy and rewarding one.”