Sylvia knew what she wanted her money to do.
"Aunt Sylvia, who earned her college degree at night school, always valued education."
— Jane Lockshin
She wanted her estate to help people with limited educational opportunities. And she trusted her niece to choose where it should go.
Lockshin chose the Henry Street Settlement, a charity on Manhattan's Lower East Side that has helped New Yorkers for more than a century.
It received $6.24 million. The largest single estate gift in its history.
Its executive director, David Garza, could hardly take it in.
"I was speechless."
— David Garza, Henry Street Settlement
The money created the Bloom-Margolies Scholarship Fund, carrying her name and her husband's. It helps students from ninth grade all the way through college, with free tutoring, test prep and college counseling.
"We are talking dozens of scholarships every year in perpetuity," Garza said.
Another $2 million went to Hunter College, the school she had attended at night, and to another scholarship fund.