Margaret Schmierer Told Her Son, David, to be Positive, Work Hard, Practice Thrift, and …
People who know David Schmierer describe him as steadfast, persistent, determined.
He comes by those qualities honestly, having learned from his mother, Margaret Schmierer, that you get out of life what you put into it.
She died last fall, but her words are still with him on four 4-inch square plaques he keeps on a bookshelf, each inscribed with an inspirational saying:
- “It doesn’t matter where you’re from, it’s where you’re going.”
- “The road to success is always under construction.”
- “If your ship doesn’t come in, swim out to it.”
- “Never, never, never give up.”
The last one, Schmierer said in a recent interview in his living room, “is my favorite.”
That shouldn’t surprise anyone.
“Dave is a living example of steadfast determination in the face of adversity,” said Kelly Wiseman, general manager of Community Food Co-op in Bozeman, where David works.
“He has never allowed any disability to hold him back and has gone far beyond most folks’ expectations, becoming a person who owns his own house. He was fearless in the face of very scary medical procedures (major surgery in 1998) and refused to back off his goal of not just owning a house, but being a functional and contributing member of our community.”
The oldest of three children of Harold and Margaret Schmierer, he arrived in Bozeman in September 1986, three years after graduating from Dawson County High School in Glendive.
He was moved to western Montana at the suggestion of a state agency for people with developmental disabilities and was placed in a group home operated by Reach Inc. on 15th Avenue. He lived there for nine months, then moved into an apartment on Black Avenue, where he lived with a roommate for nearly three years. Over the next 10 years or so, Schmierer lived in various other houses and apartments, always hoping some day to have a home of his own.
In 2004, that dream started to take shape after he attended a talk by AWARE Inc. Montana Home Choice Coalition Director Michael O’Neil, who was at the time working on a pilot program to help people with disabilities buy homes, including through the federal Housing Choice Voucher Program, or Section 8, which provides assistance to low-income renters and homebuyers.
Section 8 helps make mortgage payments for qualified first-time homebuyers. Schmierer inquired about how he might participate, and O’Neil encouraged him to put his name on the Section 8 waiting list.
Home ownership classes
To qualify a person must be a first-time home buyer, have a household income of at least $10,300, been continuously employed for one year (except for elderly or disabled people), attend a home ownership counseling course and meet any other restrictions imposed by the local housing authority.
If the person is disabled or elderly, the household income is equal to the annual SSI amount. The employment requirement is also waived. People with disabilities and the elderly have the advantage that they can receive assistance through the full term of their loan.
“I told David, ‘Just keep working at it,’” O’Neil said.
Schmierer, 45, persisted. He filled out forms, answered questions and followed the steps outlined by Section 8, including attending home buyer education classes offered by the Human Resources Development Council in Bozeman.
Three years later, he had moved far enough up the list to start thinking seriously about buying a home.
“In the meantime, he’s saving money for a down payment and he’s lined up to have his savings matched,” O’Neil said.
Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle Home Start Savings Program provides a match of up to $3 for every dollar a person saves up to a certain amount.
Schmierer was able to take advantage of that opportunity through his primary lender, Stockman Bank of Bozeman.
In addition to meeting home assistance requirements, Schmierer also had to contend with a tough market for home buyers.
“Bozeman is one of the hardest places to buy a home in Montana because of rising housing prices,” O’Neil said.
Still, when the time came, Schmierer was ready. Two years after putting in an offer, he became one of the first Section 8 homeowners in the Bozeman area.
“David put himself on a strict budget for years, preparing for home ownership,” said Tracy Menuez, a Housing and Urban Development counselor with HRDC. “He’d stop in and update us on how he was doing.”
Schmierer received loan assistance through HRDC’s “Road to Home” and then critical final support with a loan through the AWARE Montana Home Choice Coalition Home ownership Initiative.
He’s obligated to repay the loans when he sells his home, plus a share of the appreciated value of the property – a one-bedroom condo he shares with his cat Delilah on Durston Road, near Bozeman’s bustling new business district on 19th Avenue.
Corvettes and jazz
The décor reflects his range of tastes and interests: a pair of posters of jazz musicians, a collection of plates with paintings of Corvettes, framed vintage album covers of Buddy Holly and Nat King Cole, photographs of family and friends, a television (he gets six local channels) and an XM radio receiver for music and talk radio.
“I love talk news,” he says. “I’m a talk news junkie. That’s also where I get my jazz music.”
Above the door to his bedroom he has hung another important memento — a metal plate with a photograph of the Community Food Co-op at 908 W. Main. The plate was his invitation to the Co-op’s 23rd General Membership Meeting on the occasion of the completion of a major expansion in 2002.
Schmierer has been with the Co-op at almost every milestone. He was there in the early 1990s when the enterprise was run mostly by volunteers on College Street near the Montana State University campus. In 2007, the Co-op reported total sales of more than $12 million.
When he started at the Co-op in April 1991, he was among the store’s first non-management paid employees.
“We knew that Dave rode a bike everywhere, and were told by the Reach representative that he was very detail oriented and would follow instructions closely,” store manager Wiseman recalls.
‘The job fell through’
Schmierer was working at Safeway in Bozeman at the time and had lined up a job as a janitor at St. Mary Catholic School in Livingston, “but the job fell through.”
It didn’t seem so at the time, but that may have been the best thing that could have happened since he landed permanently at the Co-op shortly thereafter.
He took over doing the stuff the volunteers didn’t want to do — washing dishes in the back and other cleaning chores.
Now he spends more time working outside.
“He bales cardboard for us, cleans and mops our entryway and warehouse, patrols and cleans up the grounds outside the co-op, and helps with recycling and trash duties in three of our four buildings,” Wiseman said.
After nearly 20 years on the job, Schmierer is identified with the Co-op.
“Dave is famous with our membership,” Wiseman said. “He is known for his downto-earth modesty, his great sense of humor and his fine, friendly attitude.”
“Staffers love Dave as he is sort of a fixture around here, and one who never shirks a task and never complains,” he added. “As for me: He is as dependable as the sunrise. Also, I think heis very brave.”
Schmierer also gets high marks from his supervisor, Chris Berman, operations manager at the co-op.
“David is one of our most cheerful and pleasant employees to work with,” Berman said. “He always has a smile on his face even while baling cardboard in sub-zero weather. I think we all have something to learn from David’s positive attitude.”
Berman described Schmierer as “a problem solver.”
“He doesn’t let a challenge stand in his way.”
Asked what he would tell a prospective employer if Schmierer were to seek a recommendation for another job, Wiseman had a simple answer: “‘You can’t have him’ is what I would say.”
Schmierer, himself, is modest about his work.
“I keep the place clean,” he said. “I get my work done. I try to get there right smack at 10.”
“I like the people there,” he added. “That’s why I’ve been there for nearly 20 years.”
He rides the mile or so to work on a high-end Kona, one of two mountain bikes he uses for transportation in and around Bozeman. He also stays in shape by skiing, hitting the slopes as often as he can with Eagle Mount, which provides therapeutic recreation opportunities for people of all ages and disabilities.
His active social life includes membership in People First of Bozeman, where he serves as vice president and represents the local chapter in the People First Senate.
Still, the accomplishment he’s most proud of is his home.
“It took me nearly 20 years to get it,” he said, relaxing in an easy chair in his living room.
“I told David, ‘If you prepare, opportunities come your way,’” O’Neil said. “He focused on going about what he needed to do to buy the condo and he got it. It took him a while, but he did it.”
Margaret Schmierer would have appreciated that.
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