Good mail call for Opportunity Village: Check for nearly $1 million delivered Friday

By Jackie Valley

Sunday, April 1, 2012 | 6 p.m.

The arrival of the mail Friday created a happier-than-normal day at Opportunity Village.

The mail contained a check for $928,000 — a donation from a remainder trust, said Linda Smith, the nonprofit’s associate executive director and chief development officer.

“It’s like manna from heaven,” she said. “It’s so unexpected, particularly in the toughest of times.”

The check itself wasn’t entirely unexpected. Opportunity Village officials learned more than a year ago that it was listed in this trust, but the donation amount was never revealed.

Smith declined to identify the donor family just yet, but she said Opportunity Village was one of seven charities that benefited.

“When you get a gift from someone who believes in you and felt you were worthy of their gift, that’s pretty big,” Smith said.

Opportunity Village serves about 1,750 people with intellectual disabilities by teaching them vocational skills and placing them in jobs throughout the community. The nonprofit is largely self-funded and operates on a $25 million budget, Smith said.

This gift — one of the five biggest Opportunity Village has ever received — will help the nonprofit continue to stay afloat and serve more people, Smith said.

“Those big gifts like that are few and far between,” she said.