Emanuele Triggiano, superintendent for Dumont Public Schools, thought it was a joke when retired special education teacher Genevieve Via Cava said she was going to donate $1 million to the district.
Then he got the paperwork.
Via Cava, who started with the district in 1945, lived frugally and amassed a small fortune, donating $1 million to fund a scholarship to help special needs students when she died in 2011, according to the Bergen Record.
The money will be used to fund a $25,000 scholarship for one special needs student who wants to attend post-high school education, including college or a trade school, according to the Record.
The $1 million will be into a fund that generates interest so the district will be able to give out the scholarship for many years.
“She’s leaving behind a lasting legacy,” said Richard Jablonski, Via Cava’s close friend and the executor of her will.
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