Dale Schroeder of Iowa never found Miss Right. So he worked 67 years as a carpenter. He never made much money, but he saved it. Friends said he only owned two pairs of pants, "work jeans and church jeans." Before he died in 2005, he asked a lawyer friend to help him do something useful with his life savings. He had saved up three million dollars. He always wished he could have gone to college, but couldn't afford it, so they used the money to set up full scholarships for other small town Iowa kids who can't afford college. He ended up paying for 33 teens he never met to attend college free.
They call themselves "Dale's Kids," and all 33 got together recently to share stories and talk about how his generosity transformed their lives. One of them is Kira Conard. As the youngest of four children in a single-parent household, she wept four years ago when told that she'd benefit from Dale's gift. Now she's graduated college debt-free, and plans to start a career as a therapist. "For a man who never met me to give me basically a full ride to college, that's incredible," she said with tears in her eye
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