WEST POINT – Holy Trinity Catholic is putting a large donation to good work teaching students how to navigate financial investments including the stock market.
According to Tom Gendron, Holy Trinity Catholic Director of Development, a $100,000 donation from Jayme Boeding prior to his accidental death Nov. 15 is now being used to fund a class that teaches students the very methods Boeding used to accumulate some of his wealth.
Boeding was killed when he was struck by a vehicle while getting mail from his West Point home on Nov. 9. After six days in critical condition, he succumbed to his injuries.
The HTC Education Foundation had put his donation, which came in the form of Apple stock, into investment portfolios with Fort Madison investment firms and the foundation was allowing the value to grow.
“He was a man of self-made wealth and he gave us this gift a few years ago. We just haven’t used any of it,” Gendron said.
“It’s just been sitting there with the idea that we were going to do something with it, but we just didn’t know what.”
Gendron said Brian Foecke, an investment manager with New York Life in Burlington, who serves as the Foundation’s secretary suggested using the money to teach students how the market works.
“Brian came up with the idea to offer a finance class and we took it one step further and will be teaching them about financial markets,” Gendron said.
“Jayme knew a ton about that so we went ahead and put the wheels in motion as a remembrance to him. So, we’re going to use the interest earned off those donated investments to pay for instruction and supplies for the class,” he said.
The class will consist of a 16-week course with 12 full weeks being spent as a theoretical year-long investment scenario where students will get to fictionally invest $100,000 in the market and then watch and report on how the investments perform.
Gendron said each week of the semester-long class will represent a month and the curriculum will allow students to react to the ups and downs of the market and learn how different factors influence investments.
Justin Pieper, the HTC Educational Foundation President, said the class will be a great way to honor Boeding’s contribution to the system.
“It was a super generous deal. And then when that tragic incident happened we thought, boy, now might be a time we recognize the donation and do something in Jayme’s memory,” Pieper said.
Gendron said the class also shows future investors that the Foundation is doing good things with donations.
“I would like to show with this that we are being good stewards of the money we receive,” he said.
“This is one of the ways we can use gifts to the school for the betterment of our students.”
Flavian Boeding, Jayme's brother, said when the school contacted the family about using the funds he thought maybe they we're going to install a bench or something.
"But when he suggested this course, the siblings kind of discussed it and we thought, yeah, this is would be okay," he said.
Flavian said his brother was a mechanical guy who ran a shop at the edge of West Point where he would repair motors and vehicles. And then, when he had money saved up, he would invest it."
"He did that quite a bit and I guess it worked out okay," his brother said.
"He used to listen to investment guys on the radio like Jim Cramer and Bob Brinker - those guys and then he would do some trading on his own."
Flavian said his brother would be happy to see the use of the investments he donated when HTC was building the new elementary school.
'Yeah. I think he would happy with that."
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