An Endowment Gift to SandCastles means an Enduring Legacy for One Volunteer

When Margaret Haslem Nielsen passed away in 2022 at the age of 89, she left behind a lifelong love for helping others — especially children. She was a trained OB-GYN nurse, then shifted to raising her three children and volunteering at their schools, clubs, sports teams and marching band. A deeply spiritual person committed to helping others, she continued her volunteerism throughout her life. One of her favorite volunteer positions was facilitating a grief support group for 7- to 9-year-olds.

When Henry Ford Health’s SandCastles Grief Support Program was created, Margaret joined the first volunteer training group and dedicated 10 years as a children’s grief group facilitator. Seeing her estate as a way to continue her giving legacy, Margaret established a planned gift which upon her death became an endowment to benefit SandCastles.

Now Margaret’s daughter — SandCastles Program Manager Peggy Nielsen — will carry her mother’s legacy forward by putting those donations to use. “It is such a special honor to accept the gift my mom designated 10 years ago,” Peggy said.

The endowment gift, named SandCastles Magnolia Endowment, pays homage to the family’s longtime residence in Southfield’s Magnolia subdivision, a tight-knit community where many volunteered alongside Margaret in the program and supported fundraisers. Margaret’s gift will be used to provide funding for volunteer facilitator training and support group activities, enabling others to do the work she found so meaningful and fulfilling.

Margaret’s involvement with SandCastles began as soon as her daughter Peggy — whose career was committed to supporting children and families on challenging emotional journeys — started developing the program in 1996. At the time, there weren’t a lot of programs like this for grieving children in the region or across the country.

Recognizing that a child’s journey through grief differs markedly from an adult’s, Peggy saw a need to provide every child, teen and family member with an opportunity to grieve in a supportive and understanding environment. Equipping children with emotional tools to process and deal with their loss in healthy and constructive ways contributes to good coping skills. It also avoids potential negative impacts like anxiety, depression and substance abuse, that can occur with unresolved grief.

“It takes a particular heart to be comfortable sitting down with someone in pain and in grief,” shared Peggy. “My mom was a helper in this world and felt she could hear the children’s stories and be there to support them, helping them to heal and grow.”

In addition to year-round peer support groups, both in-person and virtual, SandCastles offers many resources at no cost to participating families, including a summer bereavement camp, weekly programs, the SandCastles Family Community, newsletters and Grief Consult Calls. SandCastles serves the entire Metro Detroit area with programming in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties.

For SandCastles, philanthropic support is essential to the program, which receives no insurance or federal reimbursement and relies on their team of trained volunteers to facilitate peer support groups under professional staff leadership. Margaret, an annual donor for years, understood how important those dollars were to support the program’s budget. When she saw the opportunity to have a longer-term impact with an estate gift, she knew it was the right thing to do.

“My mom always believed in the hope for healing,“ said Peggy. “She knew how hard it was to get funding for SandCastles, so making the choice to leave an estate gift was her way to continue supporting a program that was important to her.”