Call for Action team helps grandparents pay off late grandson's student loan

BELLEVILLE, Mich. (WXYZ) - Inside a barn in Belleville, Michigan, Bill Hall cuts worthless chunks of dried paint and then shapes and polishes them into beautiful pieces of jewelry.

Bill’s pastor at church says that’s what God does.

Five years ago, Bill and his wife Sarah say their 19-year old grandson Dan was aiming to shape himself into a commercial artist, so he enrolled at the Art Institute of Tennessee.

But to get a student loan, Dan told his grandmother  he needed her help.

”He said, 'I hate to bother you with this grandma, but I really need your help to get into art school.  They say I need a student loan, and I can’t get one without a co-signer.  Would you co-sign for me on that loan?'”, Sarah remembers Dan asking her.

Dan made good on his promise to enter art school, but just 3 months later, Dan was tragically killed while playing with some friends on a bridge over the Cumberland River in Clarksville, Tennessee.

 Five years later that horrific moment still haunts Bill and Sarah everyday.

But on top of all that pain,  Bill and Sarah have been forced to pay the Sallie Mae Student Loan Program $93.92 every single month to pay off their late grandson’s $8,849 student loan.

Not knowing what else to do, Bill and Sarah just continued to pay off their grandson's student loan every month.

Finally, Bill Hall told his wife to call me and the Call For Action Team.

Right away, we contacted officials at the Art Institute of Tennessee and the Sallie Mae loan program.

Officials at The Art Institute told us art institute told us they had nothing to do with collecting payment of Dan Hall Junior’s student loan.

So we contacted officials at Sallie Mae.

After hearing Bill and Sarah’s tragic story, Sallie Mae agreed to wipe out the entire remainder of that loan, more than $6,500 off their books, removing the burden from Bill and Sarah’s sturdy shoulders.