She didn’t expect it.

She didn’t even take it.

But Pat Schena was left to take money for school supplies she was purchasing for this school year when a couple left it in her shopping cart.

“I tried to refuse the money,” Schena explained. “He put it in the cart and there I was, standing with the money. … I was really kind of mortified because I did not expect anyone to even do that.”

The husband in the couple did it after his wife told Schena, a Delta South Elementary School kindergarten teacher, that as a former teacher in Oklahoma, she had to spend money out of her own pocket as well, but that she spent it on her own supplies. Schena, however, needing to buy markers and notebooks, was doing so in early August at the Payson Walmart.

“She said the supply budget can cover those sorts of things (in Oklahoma),” Schena recounted to the Millard County Chronicle Progress.

“There’s kind people who understand the battles to educate our kids,” said Schena’s husband Jeffrey Schena, also the vice president of the Millard School District Board of Education.

Schena told one of her colleagues about being given $40 – “it was a heartwarming story for me,” she said – and then somebody gave another teacher $5.

Schena is in her 35th year of teaching, including 28th in kindergarten.

It was actually after Schena and Jeffrey Schena ran into the couple again when the money was given. When they first met earlier in the store, the former teacher, seeing the items in Schena’s cart, said “you must be a teacher,” Schena said. (It also turned out that the former Oklahoman is someone’s aunt in Oak City.)

“We talked about small-town Utah,” Schena reported. “She said ‘how many kids are in your class?’ and whatnot, and then she said something about teachers having to buy their own supplies. So then we left it at that.”

“As chance would have it,” they met again, Schena said.

“’That’s coming out of your pocket?’” Schena reported the former teacher asking.

Schena replied that since she spends $500 to $1,000 for school supplies out of her own pocket every year, while the answer was yes, it was “not a big deal.”

After her husband offered to hand the money, the former teacher said “we understand what educators do,” Schena said.

“It was even above and beyond and it was a nice gesture,” Schena remarked.

The money Schena spends goes beyond the about $250 legislative stipend, she said.

“We just buy (items) with our own funds and we do it because we want to enrich the kids’ education and we know that the supply budget is limited,” she said.

While saying she does not want to “harp on the state of Utah,” Schena said “Utah needs to spend more money on their kids,” claiming that Utah teacher salaries are “not comparable to other places.”

“When people think teachers are greedy,” Schena added, “we want the basic things for our students. We want the right things for our kids.”

“At least in kindergarten, it’s the hands-on things the kids need,” Schena said. “We’re thankful for the money that the legislature gives us – we really appreciate it – but my $250 is always spent before the first day of school.”

Schena also noted that while parents have to buy items for their kids on the first day of school, at Delta South Elementary, teachers can’t send a list home.

“You need crayons; you need pencils,” Schena said. “Basic school supplies are not something we require parents to provide.”

It’s why another teacher buys things “of her own free will and choice,” Schena added. Because at least with items like tissues and markers, “a lot of people support teachers … and realize what I do and I think they appreciate it.”

While saying again that “funding is hard” and people talk about health care costs and perception of the profession, “nobody goes into teaching to get rich,” Schena said.

“We do it because we love the kids,” Schena said. “We do it because that’s where our passion lies: seeing students reach success.”

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