Since 1998, Grandpa Dan has spent  many of his days inside Pine Crest Elementary School.

Dan Schremser, more commonly known as “Grandpa Dan” volunteers wherever he is needed. These days, it is usually at his work station set up just outside third-grade classrooms.

“He’s not just a grandfather to the kids, he’s a grandfather to the staff as well,” said Pine Crest Learning Specialist Roslyn Woehrman. “He is probably one of the most caring, genuine people I’ve ever met. He will spend all the time you need talking with you.”

Most days Grandpa Dan works on math exercises with students. He coaches them through the toughest of problems, including multiplication tables.

There’s also the lessons he gives in life advice.

He’s shared his Depression-era stories at school events, and he’s talked to students and staff about his days in the Coast Guard. He retired from the shipyard and he’s been volunteering ever since.

Not one to let anything hold him down, Schremser has also fought off cancer.

After he retired from the shipyard, he decided he wasn’t going to sit around, he said.

“So many of them (elderly) just retire and die. There’s so much volunteering to do,” he said. “These kids will keep your mind active. There’s no need for people to vegetate and wither away. As long as you have the ability, why not?”

Although he still has the pep to power through math problems with students, things have changed for 88-year-old Schremser since he first started volunteering.

Yet no matter how he’s feeling, his shiny attitude always stays intact, staffers said.

Nowadays, he gets around a little slower, with a motorized scooter and an oxygen tank on back.

He’ll take the elevator instead of the stairs.

Instead of roving around classrooms, the kids come to his work station that’s crowded with file folders that Schremser uses to track student progress. He even takes homework home with him so he can grade the paperwork.

And he always will run things past teachers before taking a new teaching habit upon himself, he said.

Woehrman believes part of what makes Schremser such a unique volunteer is his age. Many students are without grandparents, and it is a good lesson in how to treat the elderly, she said.

While his age and agility have changed, the one constant for the volunteer is his love of sharing learning with students.

A poem titled, “Walk with me Grandpa” is displayed on his table as a reminder of why he gets up and heads to the school at least three times a week. It was given to him by kindergarten students he once volunteered with long ago.

“How can I not be here?” asked Schremser. “I saw a need for some help. I thought if I could do it, why not?”

He’s got photos albums filled with thank you notes and photographs of students he’s helped in the past. He smiles when he looks at the gratitude scrawled by the students.

“Dear Grandpa Dan: Thank you for your time of commitment and pushing me in reading.”

“Dear Grandpa Dan: Thank you for helping and believing in us in math and reading. You are so wise. I know you expect us to succeed in a lot of things. I will.”

Each one is always signed with love.

It’s the sweet words, nice notes and lightbulb-on achievements that keep Grandpa Dan going, he said.

When he’s home grading the exercises he worked on with students, he thinks of his own struggles with math. As someone who has an eighth-grade education, he knows it’s the early years of learning that really matter, he said.

“Some of these kids are pretty sharp,” he said. “You don’t want to underestimate them.”

He’ll scrawl notes on the side of homework, and adds smiley faces for encouragement, “so they know I’m not mad at them,” he said when they may get an answer wrong.

It’s that same encouragement he wishes he would have received as a child in school, he said.

Aside from regular “thank yous” and notes, his dedicated efforts have won him a Golden Acorn Award, a statewide volunteer recognition program.

“He’s here no matter what,” said Amanda Ericson, a third-grade Pine Crest teacher. “He really wants the kids to succeed. You can always count on him being here.”

Ericson witnessed Schremser’s dedication from the start, when she was a new teacher at the school. Her students now work with him on a regular basis, something she and the students both appreciate, she said.

“They love him so much,” said Ericson. “They want to do well for him, too.”

Schremser’s efforts started from the very beginning. He lived right down the street from the school and watched as the school was being built. On move-in day, he helped the principal carry in some of the very first pieces of furniture.

His devotion to the students and the school is what keeps even the much younger staff going.

Pine Crest Librarian Steve Robinson sings songs with Schremser. The pair joke back and forth, keeping each other entertained, he said.

“He keeps me going,” said Robinson. “I’ve always had a funny banter back and forth with him.”

His admiration for Schremser’s spirit gives him hope for his own future as an elder.

“I hope at that age I’ll want to give myself to others,” he said. “He’s really one of a kind.”

While Schremser volunteers at his church as well, it is safe to say that he considers Pine Crest his second home. As long as he’s able, he’ll drive himself to the school and work with students, he said.

“As long as the good Lord has me here,” he said. “What I do is a mere drop in the bucket. But every little bit helps fill that bucket.”