Acts of Kindness
7 Years After Teacher's Death, She Leaves Students A Gift
Genevive Via Cava spent 45 years teaching special needs students in New Jersey. She always gushed about her job, even returning to visit once she had retired. Everyone knew she loved her students, but nobody knew HOW MUCH until seven years after her death— when they realized she had left them a surprise.
Britanie Leclair
06.21.18

Genevive Via Cava had always been a penny pincher.

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CNN
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CNN

The New Jersey special education teacher spent her afternoons clipping coupons. She didn’t take vacations after her husband died and she refused to buy the expensive hearing aids she required.

“She was a no nonsense, no frills woman but generous and big hearted towards kids,” Richard Jablonsky, friend of more than 30 years, told CBS News.

“She didn’t have too many people. She was a rough-exterior type of a person. But she could light up a room. She had a killer smile.”

Genevive had spent nearly 45 years teaching special needs students in the Bergen County, New Jersey.

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The job didn’t pay a ton, but her penny-pinching and budgeting had secretly helped Genevive amass an estate worth more than one million dollars.

When the senior passed away, she had no children or close family to leave her belongings— so, instead, she distributed them to the people she loved most.

The retired teacher gave her home to her friend Richard, where his son and grandchildren now live.

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But she also left a special, $1 million donation the Dumont School District— a gift they didn’t discover until 7 years later.

“She must have had a tremendous connection with the district and the students,” Emanuele Triggiano, superintendent of the Dumont School District told CBS News.

“The most we have ever seen from any group was in the tens and thousands but never something like this.”

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“Because she had no immediate family of her own, and not even many not not-so-distant relatives, it made sense for her to make this donation,” April Savoye, Genevive’s attorney, wrote in an e-mail to CNN.

“It took a while to distribute the money because it was a sizeable estate and it takes time to get the federal government and state government to approve and finalize estate returns.

Last week, when the school district received the million-dollar check, they were completely shocked.

Triggiano had known Genevive would be donating something to the school because she had mentioned it prior to her death. “The surprise was the amount of money,” he noted. In addition to Jablonsky and the school district, the retired teacher also left $100,000 each to the Salvation Army, a local hearing center, and various New Jersey animal shelters.

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KC/Google Maps
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KC/Google Maps

The school district plans invest Genevive’s donation and use the interest amount as an annual scholarship for special need students.

The first scholarship will be worth $25,000 and be available next spring.

“In the event the scholarship fund grows to the extent that two or more scholarships can be made available, we can then give it to additional students,” Triggiano told CNN.

Richard said Genevive was always talking about how much she loved her job— and now, he says, “her name will go on forever, and rightfully so.”

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CNN
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CNN

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