| “Cory’s
parents
came and talked to us at graduation and they said, ‘do
something you wouldn’t usually do.’” |
|
|
UM
student aids homeless
man in friend's memory
On a blistering
June day, rumbles of hunger in Zach Betz’s stomach urged him
to pull off Interstate 90 into the town of Sturgis, S.D.
Betz, a 19-year-old from DeWitt, Iowa, was on his way to attend freshman
orientation at UM. When Betz pulled off the road, he noticed a homeless
man holding a sign reading “Will work for food and God bless,”
so he decided to take the man out to lunch with him at a nearby Dairy
Queen.
It was an act of charity by Betz that was inspired by former classmate
Cory Selby, who died of a heart ailment the summer before his sophomore
year. His parents, Mike and Jill Selby, decided to give each graduate
of the 2004 class $10 to spend on others. They urged the graduates
to donate the money to a charity of choice or use it to help another.
“Cory’s parents came and talked to us at graduation and
they said, ‘do something you wouldn’t usually do,’”
Betz said.
In a small town like DeWitt everybody knew everybody, including Selby,
Betz said. He remembers Selby as a good person with a spirit for helping
others — someone who would mow people’s lawns as an act
of kindness. “Cory was a real nice kid, and he always helped
everybody out,” Betz said.
Betz decided to use his $10 to feed lunch to the homeless man in Sturgis.
“It was a really, really hot day. The least I could do is get
him some water and something to eat,” Betz said. “He seemed
like a nice guy.”
In the half hour the two were at Dairy Queen, Betz found out much
about the man he had picked up. In his early-to-mid 30s and from Memphis,
Tenn., the man had been wandering for 15 years since his discharge
from the U.S. Army, Betz said. The man told Betz he would eventually
find a job, but wanted to see the West first.
At the conclusion of the meal Betz asked the man if he wanted anything
else, but the man said no. Betz said he is sure the man will pay the
act forward and do something nice for someone else.
“I felt pretty good. At first I didn’t even think of the
money Cory’s parents gave us, and afterward I thought that’s
a great way to use Cory’s money,” Betz said. And his story
about paying Selby’s memory forward was picked up by the Associated
Press.
Betz said the project Selby’s parents started has inspired him
to do little things to help others out. When he was in Iowa he worked
behind the scenes in the Mississippi River clean-up effort by driving
collected garbage to the dump. He’s looking for volunteer opportunities
at UM.
Others have paid forward Selby’s memory as well. One friend
of Betz’s spent two weeks fixing a farm for an elderly woman
whose husband had passed away. Some bought flowers for people in the
local nursing home, and others combined their money to plant a tree
in Selby’s name. Not everyone has such a warm heart, Betz said.
He is frustrated by reports that some students took the money and
immediately went to a fast-food restaurant.
However, he wasn’t discouraged because “some people wanted
to make the money go farther” than just using it one time to
help another, he said.
Betz is at UM on a track and cross-country scholarship. He said he
plans to major in pharmacy and hopes Selby’s story inspires
others to do nice things for someone else.
—By Brianne Burrowes
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