Good News: Kansas Farmer Who Sent N95 Mask to NY Gov. Cuomo Awarded Bachelor’s Degree
The Kansas farmer who sent a spare N95 mask to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has received a long-awaited bachelor’s degree from Kansas State University due to his act of kindness amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Dennis Ruhnke chose to drop out of the same university in 1971, to care for his mother when his father passed away. But, after hearing of his kind gesture, Kansas State University President Richard Myers and Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly decided to award him with a degree.
“I’ve waited half a century to receive my college degree and had pretty much resolved any chance of getting it,” Ruhnke said after he presented with the degree. “It would not have happened had I not mailed in that one N95 mask to Governor Cuomo for a first responder in March. I guess they call it karma.”
Ruhnke then encouraged anyone looking for ways to help amid the pandemic to simply do what they can to honor those who have lost their lives or to help those who continue to fight every day.
“We are a nation in crisis, of that there is no doubt. I’m a retired farmer hunkered down in northeast Kansas with my wife, who has but one lung and occasional problems with remaining lung. She also has diabetes,” Runke wrote in his letter. “Enclosed find a solitary n95 mask leftover from my farming days. It has never been used. If you could, would you please give this mask to a nurse or doctor in your state. I have kept four masks for my immediate family. Please keep on doing what you do so well which is to lead.”
Cuomo posted the letter on Twitter and described the gesture as “humanity as its best.”
I received this letter from a farmer in northeast Kansas. His wife is ill and he is aging.
He sent me 1 of 5 N95 masks he has from farming to pass on to a doctor or nurse in New York.
This is humanity at its best. I share his letter as inspiration. pic.twitter.com/Fa4h5LH9rL
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) April 24, 2020
With the deluge of headlines blaring the latest crisis sparked by the spread of the coronavirus, Mediaite has decided to dedicate at least one story per day to good news coming in from around the world.
