What the Marescos Chose to Carry Forward
Rescue Village recently received an extraordinary estate gift from the late Tom and Kathy Maresco, the largest legacy gift in our history and one that will shape what is possible for animals in our care for many years to come.
Tom and Kathy had known Rescue Village for years. They adopted cats from us, followed our work, and made animals an important part of their life together. Long before their estate ultimately came to Rescue Village, Kathy had also made a remarkable decision: she named Rescue Village as the ultimate beneficiary of her trust.
It was a decision rooted in a lifetime of caring for animals and in confidence that Rescue Village would continue that work long after she and Tom were gone.
Kathy spent more than 30 years as a medical technologist at Cleveland Clinic. A lifelong animal lover, she was known by family and friends as the quintessential cat enthusiast. Cats appeared everywhere in her life, from her home décor and jewelry to, most importantly, the beloved companions she and Tom shared.
Tom, a decorated Vietnam veteran who received honors including the Purple Heart, Bronze Star, and Combat Infantry Badge, did not initially consider himself a cat person. That changed. Over the years he became every bit as devoted to the cats who joined their household, and he took responsibility for naming them. His choices reflected his military background: Gunner, Claymore, Thunderbolt, Panzer, Dinky Dao, and Recon among them.
Tom and Kathy met through a ski club and married in 1988. They built their life together first in Shaker Heights and later in Bainbridge, where they lived for more than three decades. They traveled, shared adventures, and created a home in which animals were deeply loved.
Kathy’s estate plan reflected both care and foresight. The trust provided for her and, after her death, for Tom. Rescue Village was named as the ultimate beneficiary, ensuring that when neither of them needed those resources any longer, they would continue supporting an organization whose work mattered deeply to Kathy.
Tom and Kathy never asked Rescue Village to make them the center of attention because of what would someday come to the organization. Their relationship with Rescue Village remained rooted in the same thing that first brought them here: animals. Their estate plan simply extended that relationship beyond their own lifetimes.
Even the property that ultimately came to Rescue Village carried histories of its own. Among Kathy’s inherited assets were family farms in Iowa and South Dakota. In both places, neighboring farming families who had long worked the land were ultimately able to purchase it from Rescue Village.
There is something especially fitting in that outcome. The farms continued in the hands of people already connected to them, while their value became part of the Marescos’ extraordinary gift to Rescue Village and the work Kathy had chosen to sustain.
That is the larger story of this legacy.
It is about stewardship passing from one set of hands to another.
Kathy inherited property and resources that had come through her family. She made sure Tom would be cared for. She chose Rescue Village to receive what remained. Rescue Village, in turn, was entrusted with transforming those resources into medical care, shelter, protection, adoption, and second chances for animals Tom and Kathy would never meet.
A gift of this scale gives Rescue Village something especially important: the ability to withstand uncertainty.
No organization can know exactly what the future will bring. Costs rise. Needs change. Emergencies happen. New challenges emerge that no one could have anticipated. Financial strength gives Rescue Village the ability to keep doing the mission work through all of it, come what may.
That strength was not created by one gift. It has been built over generations by people who believed the work should continue beyond their own lifetimes. Estate gifts have long been part of that story, helping ensure that Rescue Village can keep caring for animals through whatever the future brings.
The Marescos now join that long tradition. Their gift is extraordinary in its size, but its deepest meaning is shared with every legacy gift that came before it: a belief that this work matters, that Rescue Village can be trusted to carry it forward, and that the mission should endure.
Tom and Kathy knew Rescue Village because they had been part of its community. They had adopted here. They had seen the work. And Kathy made a deliberate choice that some of what had been entrusted to her should eventually be entrusted to Rescue Village.
We are deeply grateful for that confidence and mindful of the responsibility that comes with it.
Tom and Kathy cared for animals throughout their lives. Through this extraordinary gift to Rescue Village, that care continues, not as a monument to them, but as work carried forward in their name.
