Fifty thousand dollars. That’s the amount of money Janice Reeve Ogle left the Museum of the Aleutians.
In her time as museum director, Virginia Hatfield says they’ve never received a gift this large.
“This is the kind of donation we can do something with,” Hatfield said. “We’re still looking into what we want to do with it. We’ll probably put a good portion of it into some savings. We’re trying to create an endowment so the museum can be more self-sustaining.”
An endowment would help the museum create a new income stream. Right now, Hatfield says the Museum currently has $40,000 in an annuity and she plans to add a good part of Ogle’s donation.
Another portion of the $50,000 donation will likely go to putting on programs the museum typically cannot to fund.
Janice Reeve Ogle was the daughter of Robert Reeve, founder of Reeve Aleutian Airways. During her life, she worked closely with the museum including helping to collect and document the airline’s history serving the Aleutians. Ogle died in Oct. 2015.