Beverly Kingma, a life-long Oak Harbor resident, has supported the education of her grandchildren and wanted to help them get through college.

One grandchild, Kyle, is a sophomore at Seattle Pacific University while another, his sister Kaylea, is planning to join him at SPU next year.

One of the ways she is helping them out is by opening a tax-deferred fund that will raise money for college.

“I feel college is very important to kids and I wanted them to know I loved them and backed them,” Kingma said.

That fund will not only help out Kyle and Kaylea, but will help her nine other grandchildren who should be attending college someday.

Because of Kingma’s support for her grandchildren, she will be featured in a television program that will be broadcast, via satellite, to every Edward Jones office in the United States.

The program, “What’s Great About Growing Older,” hosted by Willard Scott, focuses on setting goals for retirement, staying active while growing older and providing for children’s education.

The half-hour program will air May 11 with Kingma’s profile lasting two to three minutes.

A freelance film crew spent approximately five hours with Kingma Monday afternoon. They spent time visiting at her home and filming her watching another granddaughter, Ashley, play varsity softball for Oak Harbor High School. Even though Ashley had a hit, the Wildcats lost to Arlington 4-1.

“What’s Great About Growing Old” is one of about 11 shows Edward Jones produces throughout the year for its clients and broadcasts to hundreds of offices on its satellite network.

Kingma was one of about 100 people considered for the profile, said Kathy Randall, creative services manager for Edward Jones, which is headquartered in St. Louis.

The tax-deffered fund, titled the 529 College Savings Plan, has been gaining popularity in recent years as higher education costs continue to escalate. It’s named after the portion of the IRS code allowing for the plan.

Darin Cook, an investment representative with Edward Jones in Oak Harbor, said 50 of the 600 households he represents have invested with the program in the past three to four years. Cook is also Kingma’s representative.

Similar to a 401k, the program allows an investor to put an unlimited amount of money into the program without having to pay any federal income taxes.

“It allows for the grandparent to contribute to a child’s education in an almost limitless way,” Cook said.

If money is withdrawn and used for higher education, the investor doesn’t have to pay any federal tax either.

“That’s the magical thing about it,” Cook said.

The plan was originally created by several states. Cook said he isn’t aware of such a program in Washington but he uses other states for the program.

Although hesitant to offer a guess, he estimated that the average return for a conservative investor would be about 9 percent a year. However, that can change depending on someone’s risk tolerance and the performance of the stock market.

Another aspect of the program that appealed to Kingma is the ability to change the beneficiary of the savings plan which she called “Grandma’s scholarships.”

That’s a good thing for Beverly Kingma. She said should one of her grandchildren complete their education and have some money left over, than the remainder would get transferred to another grandchild.

With a grandparent like her, the Kingma grandchildren have fewer money worries in college and more time for their studies. Just like grandma wants it.

You can reach News-Times reporter Nathan Whalen at nwhalen@whidbeynews

times.com or call 675-6611.