An Iowa carpenter did something for strangers that one’s own relative would not do it.
His selfless deed would definitely be remembered forever.
The 67-year-old man named Dale Schroeder saved more than $3 million and he had no children of his own, the old man decided to set up a scholarship to put struggling Iowan teens through college.
Schroeder lived a simple life and never got the opportunity to attend college himself, he didn’t want other students to face a similar situation.
It has been fourteen years of his death and the last cohort of what is now called “Dale’s Kids” has graduated college debt-free.
Before his death, Schroeder called his friend Steve Nielsen who was a lawyer to start the fund. His friend said he was shocked after knowing the saving amount.
He told KWWL: “I nearly fell out of my chair.”
Nielson described him as a “blue-collar, lunch pail kind of guy,” Nielsen, told. KCCI.
“He went to work every day, worked really hard, was frugal like a lot of Iowans.”
“He wanted to help kids that were like him that probably wouldn’t have an opportunity to go to college but for his gift,”
Kira Conrad was one of the last beneficiaries of Schroeder’s scholarship said, “I grew up in a single-parent household, and I had three older sisters, so paying for all four of us was never an option,”
Conrad wanted to become a therapist and she had good grades too but it was impossible for her to pay the costs of college. She had no hopes and decided to give up on her dreams but one day she received a phone call from an older man who was Schroeder telling her that he would cover over $80,000 worth of her college costs.
“For a man that would never meet me, to give me basically a full-ride to college, that’s incredible. That doesn’t happen.”
A week ago, all 33 of Dale’s Kids reunited to pay their respects to the man who made it possible for them to achieve their goals.
“All we ask is that you pay it forward,” Schroeder’s friend Nielsen said,
“You can’t pay it back, because Dale’s gone. But you can remember him and you can emulate him.”