Teacher Gets Surprise Thank You From Former Student

Growing up a lot of us probably had a teacher that was influential in our lives, but how many of us actually let them know it? Well, one man from Kansas has been going out of his way to make sure his former teachers know just what they meant to him, and he’s doing it in quite a spectacular way.

Kevin Perz, a 1977 graduate of Missouri’s Parkway Central High School, has spent years showing his appreciation for the teachers that influenced his life, and this year that teacher was Marilyn Mecham. In her first year of teaching, Mecham had Perz in her co-ed food class (similar to home economics), and apparently she made quite an impression.

In January, after years of trying, Perz tracked down Mecham’s phone number and gave her a call. And while she was “appreciative” that he reached out, she had no idea that Perz wasn’t quiet finished. Two days later Mecham was shocked to receive a handwritten note from her former student with a check for $10,000.

"Everybody in their life can always think back to someone in their life who had an impact, if it's a teacher or a Boy Scout leader or anyone," said Perz about his motivation behind his gift. Seems he started sending checks to former teachers in 1992. First he sent $5K to a calculus teacher, and then 20 years later he sent $10K to his business teacher. Perz has only one requirement for the money, as his note reads, it must be “100% used on your and your personal life.”

And Mecham plans to abide by Perz’s wishes and hopes to use the money to travel to her ancestral homelands of Norway and Sweden. "Gratitude is something in this society today that we just don't do enough of," Mecham told ABC. "It's made me stop and think who do I want to thank.”

And apparently a lot of people have started thinking about that as well. After sharing the story on social media, Mecham has received an onslaught of emails and Facebook messages from others sharing memories of their favorite teachers. Yeah, but how many of them are opening up their checkbooks.

Do you have any teachers that were influential in your life growing up? What made them so great?