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Meet our Donors: Dann and Susan Boeschen

NVCF donors Dann and Susan Boeschen stand in their garden in St. Helena. Dann is wearing a blue checked button-down shirt and is smiling gently. He is a tall, white man with silver hair. Susan is wearing a black top and a beautiful beaded necklace. She is a white woman with red hair.

When Dann and Susan Boeschen moved to St. Helena in 1999 from their home in Issaquah, Washington, they planned to retire.

“We really flunked retirement big time,” shares Susan. A few years into their idyllic Napa lifestyle, they went from dreams of planting a rose garden to building a winery — eventually opening Boeschen Vineyards.

Today, Dann is feeling “more and more retired every day.” And they love spending time with their children and five grandchildren.

Working in Napa Valley exposed Susan and Dann to a community they hadn’t deeply connected with during their early retirement days. “We loved it initially. But in the first couple of years, we were retired, and without any regular interactions with the community,” says Dann. “It felt a little shallow, and it was much more engaging when we got hooked up with the working world around us.”

Dann and Susan have been passionate about philanthropy and speak humbly about their impact.

They believe in paying it forward. “Somehow, it rings a little better to me than ‘giving back’ to the community,” adds Dann. “The notion is great, but paying it forward feels a little better.”

One way they pay it forward is by giving to NVCF. “We make a practice of giving to the Community Foundation annually,” shares Susan. “One simple way is to assign our annual distribution from our IRAs, either for a specific need, or unrestricted, and let the professionals run with it.”

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