Focus on Giving: Donor’s love of
learning lives on
across generations

While sorting through her late sister’s belongings, Darlene Garland found an incredible treasure: a brittle, water-stained journal from 1965 titled, “My Own Poems.”

The collection contained poetry that her sister, Clarita Mays, had started writing in elementary school. Growing up in Detroit, as her siblings raced around outside on their bikes, Mays would be inside writing poetry or devouring books that took her on adventures around the world.

“Clarita would read books and put herself in the story,” Garland says. “So, as she got older, if she read something about the Great Wall of China, she’d go to China to experience what she read. She’s been in pyramids and hot air balloons, to the Taj Mahal and Brazil — you name it. That’s why she always gave my kids books, because she said it helps to broaden your horizons and maybe one day you can go see those places that you read about.”

Sharing her love of learning was a lifelong quest for Mays. She earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and a master’s degree in social work from the University of Michigan, where she worked in the School of Social Work and as an assistant dean in the Office of Student Services. She was known for always having an open door and a kind word for students. After her retirement in 1999, she continued to participate in her prayer group and enjoyed taking classes, traveling, reading and learning new things.

She also began to think about leaving a legacy — not just for herself, but for someone close to her, too.

Donor’s love of learning lives on across generations

Obie Hunt Harbin, who was Garland and Mays’ aunt, was more like a grandmother to them. She and her husband, Tom, had no children of their own, so they doted on their nieces and nephews. In turn, Mays cared for her aunt as she grew older. Hunt Harbin lived to be 106 years old and always hoped to leave something behind that would benefit children in the future. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to realize that dream.

“So, when Clarita set up her living trust, she wanted to incorporate a vision that her and my aunt had together, because her and my aunt were the same way — well, my parents were the same way, too,” Garland says with an affectionate laugh. “We love to reach back and reach forward to those who are in need to help if we can.”

In 2018, shortly before she passed, Mays established the Clarita Mays and Obie Hunt Harbin Intergenerational Fund at the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, where she once worked as a program officer with responsibility for youth grantmaking programs. Now, her endowed field of interest fund supports opportunities for youth and adults in our region to come together across multiple generations for growth, learning and community improvement.

“What Clarita believed in, she supported wholeheartedly with her time, with her money, with her love, with her encouragement,” Garland says. “So, for her to choose the Community Foundation for her fund, you know she loved them. She knew it would impact future generations.”

Fund keeps donor’s dreams alive

Today, Garland lives out the principles of the Clarita Mays and Obie Hunt Harbin Intergenerational Fund with her daughter, Natashia Smith.

Together, they’ve compiled a collection of poems they found in Mays’ childhood journal in a book they’ve called “Because Kids Like Poetry Too.” In addition to poetry, the book features several blank pages where young readers can write their own poems. It also includes a special dedication to the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan that explains how to give to the fund Clarita established.

“Sometimes we think that their dreams die with our loved ones,” Smith says. “But Clarita inspired my mom to continue to honor her and to love her well enough that she just didn’t let her dreams go dormant. Even now, kids and people that Clarita hasn’t even met are getting a sense of who she was.”