As Nancy and Leo Hesting began planning for the future, they knew one thing for certain: they wanted their generosity to continue strengthening the place they call home. Through their planned gift to the Community Foundation for Mason County, they are investing in future generations while supporting the community that has shaped their own lives.

Nancy and Leo Hesting met online in the summer of 2019. Leo’s opening line was simple and sincere: “I like your smile, and I like you.”

Both singles were ready to give up on online dating. Nancy’s subscription to “Plenty of Fish” was about to expire, and Leo had just expanded his geographic search to include Pentwater, making their connection possible.

Their first in-person meeting started as a picnic at Stearns Park and turned into a five-hour walk at Ludington State Park. Afterward, Nancy went home and told her girlfriend, “I met the most fantastic man.” Seven months later, they married at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Weare Township, just east of Pentwater.

Nancy grew up with four sisters in Chicago, where her mother took her and her siblings to the library every Saturday. That weekend tradition sparked Nancy’s lifelong love of reading. Her career included office management and finance, beginning with fourteen years at Chicago Read Mental Health Center, then the largest psychiatric hospital in Illinois, where she witnessed the transformation of mental health care in the 1960s. She later became finance director for the Alford Group, a management consulting firm working with major nonprofits including the Museum of Science and Industry, the Joffrey Ballet, and the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation.

Nancy’s experience with fundraising and nonprofits later blossomed into volunteer work in Mason and Oceana Counties. She and her late first husband built their Pentwater home in 1976 as a weekend retreat, eventually retiring there in 2006.

For Leo, Mason County has always been home. Born at the Paulina Stearns Hospital in Ludington, he grew up in the Fourth Ward on “Polack Hill” and attended St. Stanislaus Catholic School. Leo recalls living in a neighborhood where there were little grocery stores within walking distance; one of his earliest memories was when his mother sent six-year-old Leo next door to buy a bottle of soy sauce.

After graduating from Ludington High School and attending Michigan State University, Leo earned degrees in math education and educational technology. He spent 40 years in the computer industry, ultimately as a big data architect and senior systems designer. Leo returned to the area full-time in 2015, settling at his parents’ property in Branch, which they’d purchased when he was three.

Nancy and Leo will tell you that a shared love for adventure brought them together, but their volunteer resumes suggest it was also a shared desire to serve others. Both are past Rotarians, and they continue to serve as Hunter Safety Instructors for the DNR and work 16-hour days as election inspectors, which Leo describes as “American democracy at its purest.”

Nancy served as museum director of the Pentwater Historical Society and as treasurer for both the Pentwater Yacht Club and the Friends of Ludington State Park. She also volunteered at Sandcastles Children’s Museum and helped provide free tax preparation services at the Ludington Senior Center.

Leo has devoted much of his life to mentoring young people. He homeschooled his son, led a homeschool teen literature group, and facilitated philosophy discussion groups for 7–9-year-olds. He is now dedicated to developing the Association for Smarter Youth, a 501(c)(3) focused on supporting gifted children and teaching all young people to think more strategically about life decisions.

For the Hestings, Mason County represents something they believe is increasingly rare: a place where Midwestern sensibility still thrives.

“These are my folks,” Leo says, using the German word Volk to describe the community’s down-to-earth character. “People don’t just adopt the next new thing. They think about it for a while,” he explains, praising the area’s thoughtful, hardworking stability.

Nancy’s favorite things about the area include outdoor nature, rowing on their private lake, kayaking, hiking, and staying through all four seasons.

“We make sure we’re here for the entire month of February,” Leo says. “That’s when you can call yourself a true Michigander.”

Both Nancy and Leo are passionate about children and education, reflecting their own experiences. Nancy traces her love of literacy back to the Saturday mornings her mother spent taking her and her sisters to the library. She will never forget a tender moment just before her mom passed in 2016. Nancy said to her mother, “Thank you for taking me to the library. That was so important to me.” Today, Nancy supports Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library and the PoWeR! Book Bags program because she believes books have the power to change a child’s future.

Leo’s commitment to education, particularly that of gifted students, comes from his own childhood. As “a smart kid” in Ludington’s schools, he remembers often feeling like “a weird outcast” until teachers and mentors recognized his potential and helped him connect with other students like himself.

The couple also supports Lakeshore Children’s Advocacy Center, an organization Leo praises: “There are so many ways they could do that wrong. And they don’t.”

The Hestings’ approach to philanthropy is guided by their desire to support the place they call home. Nancy first established a fund with the Community Foundation for Oceana County chapter when director Tammy Carey gave a presentation at the Pentwater Yacht Club. Nancy recalls, “I was an independent-minded woman, and I wanted to put down roots in Pentwater at the time.” When she moved to Mason County, she transferred the fund, wanting to help the community where she lived.

After Nancy and Leo married, combining their philanthropy felt natural. “We are aligned,” Leo says. “There’s little that we disagree on.” Leo added his name and contributions to Nancy’s fund, and together they’ve maintained an active relationship with the Foundation while also stepping back from board commitments to pursue their love of travel.

When the conversation turned to estate planning, Nancy and Leo already knew what mattered most to them. Leo’s son was doing well, Nancy’s nieces and nephews were on their own paths, and they wanted what they had built over the years to continue helping people.

“It’s going to go somewhere,” Leo says. They decided to keep their giving close to home. “The farther afield you get,” he says, “the less competence you have in knowing the needs.”

For Nancy, the decision was about personal impact. “I certainly don’t want my name on a building, but if I can make a difference in one person’s life, that’s important to me.”

Nancy chose the Community Foundation because it gives her confidence that the giving she has planned will be carried out as intended. “I don’t have to worry about anything else,” she says. “They’ll take care of it.” Leo shares that confidence, pointing to the people behind the work and the Foundation’s “honesty, integrity, and clarity.”

Through their planned gift, Nancy and Leo hope to continue supporting the causes that matter most to them: children, literacy, education, and advocacy. They also hope Mason County remains a place where people of all income levels can build a life and where future generations can enjoy the outdoor spaces and active lifestyle they value so much.

When asked what legacy he hopes to leave, Leo is humble. He refers to a book about Marine Corps boot camp in which the ideal recruit is described as someone “the sergeant never knows your name.”

“I hope that nobody ever knows my name,” he says. “Did the good. And didn’t stand out. The good rolled on, and I had a small part of it.”