The Board of Mayor and Aldermen went through an unusual experience Monday.

Someone gave the city money.

Kris Schneider, whose husband is the chief executive officer of the leather tanning company TanTec in the Ceres Industrial Park, gave the city $5,000 to help its program of repairing and renovating the homes of low-income elderly residents and a promise of volunteer help from the company’s employees.

“Mrs. Schneider was in our office last week when we were working with AmeriCorps on fixing elderly people’s homes,” city housing director Gertrude Young told the board. “The first thing she said was, ‘Gertrude I want to help. I want to help paint, I want my employees as volunteers to help you repair homes, I also want to donate some funds to the city of Vicksburg.’”

Schneider’s reason was simple.

“We love this city, and our company tries to encourage community development to merge our company, our workers, our management into the community,” she said. “We have been here for 1-1/2 years and we are rooted here.”

She said TanTec, a German-invested company which also has tanning has facilities in Vietnam and China, has similar initiatives in the countries where its plants are located.

“We ask for volunteer help; we ask for volunteers to repair school classrooms and ask our customers to plant trees,” she said.

Schneider said she traveled through the city with Young, who described the home renovation project, telling her if some homes are not kept up, the residents would have to go somewhere else.

“Then I told Gertrude we wanted to help, and it would not be the first time or the last time. We want to be a continuous contributor,” she said.

“Just is just a little part here,” she added as she presented Mayor George Flaggs Jr. a check for $5,000

“We thank you for making an investment in Warren County, and we appreciate all that you do and look forward to future development,” Flaggs said.