$50K Donation For DV Programs PDF Print E-mail
The YWCA of Niagara has received a $50,000 bequest from the estate of Ruth Downes, a Lockport city schools teacher, who passed away last year.

The funds have been invested and the proceeds will go to support the agency’s domestic violence programs, said Kathleen Granchelli, CEO of the YWCA of Niagara.

Ruth was born in Buffalo in 1910, the daughter of Ella and Charles Latsch, a railroad man. Within a short time, her father decided he wanted to be a farmer and moved the family to the Wolcottsville area. She attended Buffalo State College and met the man she would later marry, C. Gordon Downes, a dentist. The couple settled in Lockport where she taught first and second grades—although first grade was her forte– for 39 years at Emmett Belknap and Roy B. Kelley schools.

Ruth loved to travel and visited places like Hawaii, Aruba, Central America, Austria, England and Switzerland as well as many places in the United States. She loved to shop and was fashion conscious.

In 2001, Ruth moved to the Briody Health Care Facility, where she passed away March 26, 2008.

If you would like to learn more about Ruth, the YWCA of Niagara or how to set up a bequest to benefit the Y or its many programs, please contact the agency at 716-433- 6714 or contact us.