Working with the SRCCF, the Esler’s created a Donor Advised Fund and a Donor Designated Fund to make charitable gifts now and in perpetuity.
Your donation to the Donor Designated Fund will add to the financial support Debbi and Kevin will make annually to Reddick Library in Ottawa; Pet Project, a no-kill shelter in Marseilles; the Ottawa YMCA; the Veterans’ Home at LaSalle; and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis.
With the Donor Advised Fund, the Eslers can make gifts anytime to qualified nonprofits. “At the recommendation of their attorney Robert Eschbach, Debbi and Kevin approached us to help facilitate their philanthropy,” said Fran Brolley, Starved Rock Country Community Foundation President. Kevin and Debbi are kind and friendly individuals who have worked hard all their lives and are now able to help others. Our Foundation will magnify the impact of their giving and make it stress-free,” Brolley said.
It was 2002 when the couple took that fateful boat tour down the Illinois River. When a riverfront home came up for sale on Ottawa’s beautiful Birchlawn Place, they purchased it as a weekend home (it is now their fulltime home).
Kevin, a carpenter by trade, ran his own carpentry business for years. He is an avid skier across the nation and world. For 20-plus years, Debbi worked for McDonald’s Corporation at their former headquarters in Oak Brook and worked in downtown Chicago for another 20.
They are members of the Starved Rock Yacht Club and are in a bowling league at The Alley.
Both are active members of the Ottawa YMCA and contributed to its building campaign.
