A QCD Challenge
Bernie Wiseman '69 has spent a lifetime bringing voices together. An accomplished choir director from tiny Edinburg, Illinois, Bernie has directed and performed all around the country - all the way to Carnegie Hall.
"My day job was working for the state. My passion was choral music," Bernie said.
Bernie's journey to Illinois Wesleyan wasn't the usual straightforward path. There was a stop at Western Illinois University first, and then a junior college. Eventually, he found his way to IWU for his last two years of college, and he met his lifelong friends and an inspirational voice teacher in Dr. Sammy Scifres.
The collegiate choir, under the direction of David Nott, traveled all around the country - from Texas and Oklahoma all the way up to Wisconsin and Minnesota. After graduating, Bernie directed several church choirs in central Illinois and performed in the St. Louis Symphony Chorus, giving him the opportunity to sing in Carnegie Hall.
"It set me up for a lifetime of musical experiences," he said. "For a kid from Edinburg, wow!"
Through it all, he pitched in to his alma mater - $100 here, or $250 there.
"Frankly, I wasn't always in a position to make a contribution," Bernie said. "As I got older, I just felt the impact of being a Wesleyan grad, and I contributed what I could. Five hundred bucks - that's not going to go a long way, but you're participating. If everyone would give $500, that's a lot of money, and a lot of impact."
Which brings us to 2023 and All In for Wesleyan. Bernie had seen literature about Qualified Charitable Distributions - an option that allowed him to use the required distribution from his IRA as a tax-free gift to Illinois Wesleyan - and he decided to issue a challenge: If many alums used this tax-advantaged way to give to IWU, that's a lot of money, and a lot of impact.
"The required distribution has no impact on my lifestyle. This is a way to pay it forward." Bernie said. "This is about supporting Wesleyan and the students, and that's the fun part." As it turns out, Bernie's small challenge made a huge impact, raising more than $200,000 in just one day.
"It knocked my socks off. I thought we'd be lucky if three or four people took the challenge," Bernie said of his QCD challenge during All In. "I'm so happy and so proud of Illinois Wesleyan and what it has done for me in my life. If I had a whole truckload of money, I would send it, but this is a way I can do something. I have to take it out of the IRA anyway, and IWU is a great place to send it."
