He extended his hand.
“So I want to say I’m sorry they treated you that way.”
Dale slowly accepted the penny.
He stared at it.
Then he sat down and covered his face with his hands.
The school used our $915 to clear the second-grade lunch debt, with the remaining $6.60 set aside to help another student.
Dale’s $4,300 paid off outstanding balances throughout the other grades.
For the first time in years, Washington Elementary had no negative lunch balances.
But Dale wasn’t finished.
A week later, he called me.
“Becky, I’ve got an idea.”
He explained that an old jar at his repair shop contained thousands of pennies collected over decades.
He wanted to donate them too.
Then he asked a question I never expected.
“Would you and the kids teach me how to roll them?”
I laughed.
“Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
He explained that the middle school and high school also had students with unpaid lunch accounts.
