Heart BEAT

DAYTON - In the Dayton community, past residents have left a gift that continues to support our most crucial services -- health care and education.

Dr. William Day and his wife Jessie left an income-generating, activated in 1973, that pays out thousands of dollars each year to the Dayton hospital and school district, according to Kevin Paulson, a manager in special asset management in farming and ranching for Bank of America. The Days set the trust up through their attorney. Farmland is the centerpiece of the trust, Paulson said. The 484-acre farm is about 3 miles northwest of Dayton, 6 miles by road. It is a non-irrigated wheat farm that grows dry peas, barley and wheat.

The trust earns money through a crop-share agreement. The trust sells shares of the crop and generates income. Also, the trust includes some investments that generate income.

The money earned from both the farm and the investments is split 50/50 with the Columbia County Health System and the Dayton School District. There are no requirements as to how the entities have to use the money.

Paulson said this year, both entities received $78,500.

"They were all smiles," he said. "Gifts like these are very extraordinary."

Paulson said it's not often families have the foresight to leave this kind of estate that benefits their communities for years to come.

"It's a very honorable thing to do," Paulson said.

Steve and Phyllis Schreck have been farming the Day Estate land since 1978. Dr. Day was their personal doctor and said they were pretty well known in the community. The Schrecks applied for the job to manage the farmland in the late 70s and worked as the general managers for years. Now, the couple leases the land.

Schreck said the land is all farmland now. There used to be some pasture land on the Touchet River that was sold and contained the Days' cattle operation. The cows spent the warm weather months in that pasture and were wintered on property on Whetstone Road.

"He liked his cows," Schreck said of Dr. Day. "The farming was second."

It is believed Dr. Day acquired the land during the depression when many farmers couldn't afford to keep their acreage.

In addition to leaving this great way to generate income to the hospital and school district, Schreck said he knew children in the community had been given private scholarships by the Days.

"Being a physician he had a certain affinity for the hospital," he said. "And they were very much pro-education."

Dotty Mead was good friends with Jessie Day. She said Jessie was an elementary school teacher who "was involved in everything."

"I loved Jessie," Mead said. " She was a funloving gal, but also very serious."

Dr. Day was a general practitioner and was also Mead's family doctor. Mead said she believed the medical profession ran in his family and William's father and grandfather were also doctors. Mead said Dr. Day loved to hunt and fish. Jessie was very adventurous and was a Campfire Girls leader, part of the Association of American University Women and the PEO educator's sorority.

After William passed away, Mead said Jessie decided she wanted to travel all over Europe and asked friends to send her letters to many different cities so she would have mail to read when she arrived.

Mead actually lives in the Days' home on East Spring Street. She purchased the bungalow-style home after the Days and other owners lived there and said there are great memories in the home.

The Days have left more than great memories in Dayton - they have left a legacy. Mead said the couple had no children and she doesn't believe there's any relatives left in the area.

Gary Schroeder, the former CFO of the health district, said over the years the money from the Day Estate has benefited operations, new lighting, interior work, a new roof on the hospital and employee education. This year, the money will help fund a new roof for the Booker Annex.

For the school district, Superintendent Doug Johnson said the Day Estate funds have been simply added to the district's general fund as part of the annual revenues received by the school district.

Last year, the district began a process whereby it would set the estate funds aside from other revenue streams and determine a project or projects it could accomplish by using those funds.

The district used part of funds to participate in a study of its effectiveness. Data from the study has provided direction for professional development and goals currently begin explored for the District Strategic Plan.

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