The Camerons Commit to Keep Growing

Katie and Scott Cameron know a thing or two about legacy. The family business, Cameron’s, on Route 11 in Farmington, was started by Scott’s grandfather in 1924. It’s now an institution that has served generations of gardeners and contractors throughout the region. So when Scott took the reins of Cameron’s from his dad Fred in 2016, he and Katie started thinking about creating a legacy of their own.

“With the change in ownership at the business, Katie and I revisited our estate plan,” Scott explains. “We began talking about organizations we may want to include in our will.”

Wentworth-Douglass Hospital immediately came to mind. The Camerons have enjoyed positive interactions with the hospital, in good and bad times. There was Valentine’s Day 2013 when Scott slid off a roof he was shoveling, crushing his L2 vertebrae. “The ambulance brought me to Wentworth-Douglass. The care was amazing. I went home in a back brace and was bedridden for a month. But I did absolutely everything Dr. Peter Dirksmeier (the orthopedic surgeon who treated him) told me to and made a full recovery. Today you’d never know I had a back injury.”

On the happier side, Wentworth-Douglass was also where the Camerons welcomed their newest nephew Logan last August—son of Scott’s brother Steven and his wife Kate. “We were in the waiting room with my dad and were the only people there,” Scott notes. “They let us order pizza and even brought us heated blankets.”

Still, the decision to include Wentworth-Douglass Hospital in their estate plan went deeper than two recent experiences. “Cancer has ravaged my family,” Scott says. “My grandparents on both sides died from cancer. Cancer took my mom 20 years ago.”

“People in my family have had cancer too,” adds Katie. “We have friends we’ve lost to it and friends who have survived it. Cancer affects everyone.”

Ultimately, Katie and Scott decided to leave a portion of their estate to Wentworth-Douglass Hospital, directing it to the Seacoast Cancer Center. They are now members of the 1906 Heritage Society, an honorary society recognizing those who name the hospital as a beneficiary of a will, retirement plan, donor-advised fund, or life insurance policy or establish a charitable gift annuity or trust.

“When we took a tour of the Seacoast Cancer Center, it was eye-opening,” says Katie. “The growth is incredible. We were so impressed with everything they’re doing and how fast it’s all happening. And from our personal experiences with the hospital, we’re just so impressed all the way around. When I first moved here 20 years ago, everyone used to go to Boston for cancer care. Now, because of Wentworth-Douglass, you can get that same quality of care right close by. It’s really phenomenal.”

“We have a lot of trust in Wentworth-Douglass and know the Seacoast Cancer Center is a first-class facility,” Scott says. “We want to help fight cancer right here.”

The Camerons are glad their gift will do just that and encourage more people to think about including Wentworth-Douglass in their own estate plans. “People our age don’t really think about including organizations in their wills,” says Katie, “but it’s easy to do—and it’s something everyone can do. We try to make annual gifts but in the long run, by becoming members of the Heritage Society, we know we are doing something that will have an even bigger impact.”