Retired Farmer Donates N-95 Mask to New York Governor, Gets Rewarded With a College Degree

Illustration - Teresa Otto/Shutterstock

After posting an N-95 mask to the New York governor with an explicit request that it be donated to a front line medic, a thoughtful retired Kansas farmer has been rewarded. His state decided to present him with the bachelor’s degree he missed by a whisker five long decades ago.

In the wake of the CCP virus, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo of the hardest-hit state in the United States, New York, received a handwritten letter from a retired farmer, Dennis Ruhnke. On April 24, 2020, Cuomo took to Facebook to share the farmer’s message.

“Dear Mr. Cuomo,” Ruhnke’s letter began. “I seriously doubt that you will ever read this letter as I know you are busy beyond belief with a disaster that has befallen our country. 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 her remaining lung,” Ruhnke, who lives in Troy, explained. “She also has diabetes. We are in our seventies now and frankly I am afraid for her.”

Enclosed with his letter was “a solitary N-95 mask left over from my farming days.” The mask had never been used. Ruhnke requested that the governor give the mask to a nurse or doctor in the state of New York if he was able to.

Ruhnke had five N-95 masks and kept four for his immediate family. He decided to donate the fifth one to a health care worker on the front lines of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, also known as the novel coronavirus.

Screenshot/Governor Andrew Cuomo

Cuomo not only read the retired farmer’s letter but shared a snapshot of it with the world. “This is humanity at its best,” the governor wrote on Facebook. “I share his letter as inspiration.”

Ruhnke’s gesture moved many members of the public; some left comments beneath Cuomo’s post in praise of the thoughtful farmer. “It’s people like Dennis who make America great,” wrote one social media user. “This simple selfless act is inspirational.”

“I welled up with tears and cried,” wrote another. “What a beautiful human being! Wishing that farmer and his wife stay healthy through this awful crisis.”

Kansas Governor Laura Kelly soon caught wind of Ruhnke’s selfless gesture and called to thank him for being an ambassador for kindness. Wishing to do something for Ruhnke in return, Kelly organized for the septuagenarian to finally receive his bachelor’s degree from the state of Kansas.

According to CNN, Ruhnke had been just two credits short of earning his degree back in 1971 when his father passed away. The young student sacrificed his own education in order to take care of his mother and run the family farm.

The Kansas governor, alongside Kansas State University President Richard Myers, presented Ruhnke with his degree certificate at a ceremony held on May 5. Kelly, posting on Facebook, asserted that Ruhnke’s “kindness and lifelong career in agriculture make him more than qualified to receive a degree.”

Upon receipt of his diploma, Ruhnke, who was dressed in a purple-and-white Kansas state jersey and blue overalls, addressed the room. “I’ve waited half a century to receive my college degree and had pretty much written off any chance of getting it,” Ruhnke began, in footage of the ceremony shared by Kelly on social media.

“It would not have happened had I not mailed in that one N-95 mask to Governor Cuomo for a first responder in March. I guess they call it karma,” Ruhnke reflected.

The retired farmer also shared that many people had since written to him, asking how they could help during these unprecedented times, to which he suggested, “Just pay it forward, as much as you can afford to do so.”