Zanes Law, The Bill Holmes Legacy Fund, and Up With People!

Zanes Law, The Bill Holmes Legacy Fund, and Up With People!

The Top 3 Ways That We Were Able To Change Lives By Partnering With Up With People

My wife, Claudia, and I lost a wonderful friend named Bill Holmes on July 18, 2016.  We were fortunate to have known Bill because he was a fantastic person who seemed to move through life with pure appreciation and gratitude.  He was truly interested in having a positive impact on his world.

So in his honor we began to create a legacy for Bill by partnering with an organization named Up With People.  Our goal was to create The Bill Holmes Legacy Fund, and as the presenting sponsor Zanes Law brought Up With People to Tucson as the foundation to raise almost $240,000 in scholarship monies in Honor of our friend.

This was an amazing experience for Claudia, myself, and our Zanes Law team.  Below are the top three ways partnering with Up With People helped us to change lives.

1. The Bill Holmes Legacy Fund. Establishing this has to be #1.  We raised almost $240,000 that will be used to provide Up With People scholarships to deserving young people over the next fifteen years.  That’s amazing!  Our role in this is something that Claudia and I will always be proud of.  This fund will provide opportunity to its recipients and will change their lives, and they will, in turn, have a positive impact on the world.  Simply put, Claudia and I are grateful.  Grateful to have been able to honor our friend.  Grateful to have been a driving force behind a fundraiser that will have a positive impact on young people for years to come.  Grateful to have been part of an amazing group who worked so hard and raised so much money.
2. The community service. Community service has always been part of what Claudia and I and Zanes Law are about.  That’s just how it’s always been.  So this was a wonderful opportunity for our Zanes Law team to impact our Tucson community.  As a team we enjoyed volunteering and helping at the Tucson Children’s Museum, at TMM Family Services, and at GAP Ministries.
3. The Up With People team. Being part of this with Up With People’s young performers changed the lives of some our Zanes Law team members.  We loved getting to know the “Uppies” while doing community service and had a great time with them.  We had two people in the firm act as host families.  Below is what they had to say:
   • Jeanne Cote – What words would describe being a host family for UWP would be; “Life Altering for the entire family.”  Our cast member was so appreciative of what we had to offer. Being a first time host, we almost backed out because we didn’t think we could handle the task. We decided at the last moment to continue and the experience has now given us an extended member of our family. We had been able to show her our neighborhood, church and go on some nature hikes. Our 9 year old knew our cast member as her host sister and misses her dearly. Our cast member helped our daughter with a school project and they spent time doing each other’s hair.  We look forward to being a host family in the future.
   • Richard Edelman – We were hosts for Denis Maurer, a cast member for Up with People during mid-March 2017. Denis has been on several tours with Up with People and comes from a small town close to Zurich, Switzerland.  In the evening we shared history and customs as well as perspectives of world events and values.  It was amazing to learn just how much we had in common despite the distance between Switzerland and the United States.  As a student musician, Denis was a talented instrumentalist who could play several instruments and gave us guitar lessons one evening during the week.  We were very impressed with Denis as well as all others that were associated with the Up with People program.  Everyone we met was respectful, quick to establish a positive relationship and eager to assist others. For us, “Hosting” was a very positive experience and an association that we would like to continue.

This opportunity to give back to the world was an amazing experience for our Zanes Law team.  Claudia and I believe that experiences are what life is all about, and this experience certainly has made our lives better.