When Americans do charity themselves...

While Americans seem to have bought into the idea that government can fix their problems and that those mean old republicans don’t care one bit about all those impoverished school children, some regular people continue to set an example for the rest of us.

I found this article my local paper, The Morning Journal, that tells the story of two regular people who left nearly a million dollars to a local public school.

The estate of Richard and Marian Cronowalt has bequeathed $937,253.67 to endow a new scholarship fund for Vermilion schools....
During World War II, Cronowalt served in the U.S. Army in a tank squadron in Africa, Latteman said. Mrs. Cronowalt worked in a defense plant in Lorain. After his time in the service, Cronowalt worked as a crane operator unloading ore freighters at the port of Lorain. They started saving money, quietly building what would become the gift to Vermilion schools.
"They were just hard workers and savers," Latteman said. "They were hard workers and conservative, especially her. She always wanted to pay her own way, she always wanted to be sure she had enough to cover her or him in the rest home."

Here are two people that clearly lived within their means, under their means, to save money to give away. They did not have kids, Mr. Cronowalt worked a blue collar job, and yet they managed this feat.
These are the kind of people I want to be like, and I believe more people would be like, if they didn't count on the government to do their job. They gave to others out of the good that is them, not because the government confiscated their money.
Below is an image from Bowling Green State University showing what the ore yards look like.
Here it looks way more glamorous than it really is. Up close it was a nasty place. They've since torn it down, it blocked the mayor's view of Lake Erie.
This is another example of a veteran who who served his country and proceeded to serve his community. Nice.