Fassnacht brings pennies to veterans
The Hampton Auditorium was alive with festivities as friends and family of Ramer Fassnacht came together to celebrate the Hampton native’s 100th birthday on Sunday. Adding to the celebration was Fassnacht’s success in reaching his goal of collecting a penny for each day of his 100 years of life.
“I didn’t think I would ever make my goal,” Fassnacht said.
The veteran began collecting pennies last April and by January had collected over $364 worth of the coins. According to his daughter, Teresa Elder-Smith, that’s not including the pennies the veteran has been receiving since then.
“Somebody else’s brought some more so it’s probably close to about $375 right now,” Elder-Smith commented.
The next morning when Fassnacht took the pennies to the bank, the total amounted to $475.28.
By the time the party began on Sunday more than 200 people had arrived from all over Nebraska to give their birthday wishes to Fassnacht.
“We’ve had family and friends that we haven’t seen for quite some time stopping by and a lot of people from the community, too,” Elder-Smith stated.
Fassnacht himself was surprised by how many people had shown up to celebrate with him.
“I didn’t think I would have a lot of people here” Fassnacht commented.
Having exceeded his goal long before his birthday, the veteran is now ready to pass the pennies along. “I didn’t want the pennies really,” he explained. “I don’t want to keep them because I got enough money the way that it is. I said, ‘I’ll donate them to somebody,’ and I didn’t know whether to donate them to the veterans or Habitat for Humanity.”
According to Elder-Smith, the $475.28 will be donated towards a new memorial in Hampton in honor of Hampton veteran Roger Bamesberger, who originally wanted to build a memorial to honor every veteran from Hampton.
Fassnacht said he feels positive about reaching his 100th year milestone and looks forward to continuing to enjoy his time at East Park Villa in Aurora.
“I’m feeling pretty good,” Fassnacht said. “Can’t complain. Well, I do complain, of course, but they treat me well up there (at East Park Villa) and I don’t think I could be in a better place. Time just keeps going on.”