Oak Hill couple donate $1M to Shriners Hospital
- October 29, 2014
Chester and Ruth Schmidt are pictured (center), with their niece Charlotte Hoock (left) and local Shriner and lifelong friend Don Barlow (right) at Wednesday’s presentation.
A local couple handed over a check in the amount of $1 million to Shriners Hospitals for Children in St. Louis during a special presentation at the Oak Hill elder care facility in Waterloo on Wednesday afternoon.
Many years ago, Chester and Ruth Schmidt’s daughter, Elaine, was helped by Shriners Hospital for several years when she was young and couldn’t walk.
“We never received a bill,” Chester said at the presentation. “We are so grateful for what they did for her.”
Though Elaine died of kidney failure at 25, she was able to walk and run as a young girl after surgeries at the hospital.
Chester was an Ainad Shriner for more than 50 years after serving in World War II, and operated an office in Columbia as a State Farm insurance agent for 27 years. Chester and Ruth currently reside at Oak Hill.
Read the full story in next week’s Republic-Times newspaper.
