Cultivating Awe, Leaving A Legacy: Nancy Leone

Nancy's father fostered her love of nature.

As a teenager, Nancy Leone traveled with her family throughout the United States. On these trips they visited many national parks. The dreamy, snow-capped peaks of the Rocky Mountains and the wide, rolling hills of Northern New Mexico and Arizona were particular favorites. Because they were so unlike the flat, suburban landscape of her Long Island home, they inspired in her a powerful sense of awe.

Nancy carried this awe into adulthood, only to discover a drastically altered landscape once she made it back. "When I returned to many of those same areas 15-20 years later,” she says, “I was dismayed by the changes I saw. The deep blue sky of the Denver of my youth was replaced by gray smog. The view from the mountains out across the plains was full of tract housing developments. The simplicity and openness of Taos and Santa Fe were displaced by big box stores and fast food chains. This made me aware of the same thing happening in Western New York.

"During the Land Conservancy's early days in the 1990s, Nancy attended a few events then quickly became a donor. In the midst of a sweeping life change, she found solace and healing in the solitude of the forest at her home near Hamburg. "Nature," she says, "helped me learn to be within myself and be happy."

Since her values align so closely with the Land Conservancy's mission and vision, she stayed involved. In recent years, she even joined the Legacy Society, a group of community members who believe so strongly in land protection that they've included us in their will. The cross-country trips she took as a teenager inspired Nancy’s passion in the natural world. Through her gifts to the Land Conservancy, she hopes to inspire future generations to feel this same passion the next time they visit one of our preserves.

Did you know that August is National Make-A-Will Month? It's a perfect time to think about the legacy you’ll leave behind. You, too, can protect the places you love for future generations. To learn how, contact Andrew Gaerte at agaerte@wnylc.org or 716-687-1225 ext. 120.