The Salvation Army and the Renton Community Foundation have each received $500,000 from the estate of a Renton woman who wanted the community to know she was a good person.

The $1 million is part of the $3 million estate of Helen Dyrdal, who died March 18. She was in her early 90s, said her “best friend” and neighbor, Goldie Ericson, who is acting as Dyrdal’s personal representative.

Ericson described her friend as a “very private person.” She asked her friend why she chose these particular beneficiaries, which also included Children’s Hospital and Hospice of Seattle.

“I just really want people to understand I am a really good person,” Ericson said, retelling Dyrdal’s answer.

Because Dyrdal was so private, people really didn’t know about her, Ericson said.

“She wanted to be helpful in the Renton community,” Ericson said. “She was a lady without a family. She is doing the best she can for everyone else.”

Drydal’s husband Norman died several years ago.

The $500,000 bequest for the Renton Community Foundation includes about $50,000 for the foundation’s Bukdis Fund, which helps the low-income elderly pay for their pet’s veterinarian care. The bulk of the money will go to pay for education scholarships from the new Helen Dyrdal Fund within the foundation

Lynn Bohart, the foundation’s executive director, announced the foundation’s largest-ever private bequest in a press release this week.

Capt. Terry Masango of the Salvation Army Renton Corps learned Friday of the donation in a call from the Renton Reporter. Obviously excited, he still needed official confirmation.

“It would certainly be an answer to our prayers,” Masango said. He already had in mind how he could spend the money.

Ericson offered an explanation why the Renton Reporter call caught Masango by surprise.

Earlier, she had received a receipt that the letter containing the check had been received by the Salvation Army. But, then Thursday night the check for $500,000 showed up in her mailbox. It was marked unclaimed.

“I didn’t realize it would be so difficult to give so much money away,” Ericson said.

Ericson got Masango’s cell-phone number from the Renton Reporter and gave him a call with the good news.

“This is wonderful. We are very happy,” said Masango in an interview. A Salvation Army staff member picked up the check from Ericson’s home this afternoon (Friday).

“This is great timing,” Masango said. Just this week, he met with an architect about plans to enlarge the Salvation Army church and corps headquarters on Tobin Street to accommodate a larger after-school program for kids and expand the Renton Community Supper.

He estimated the cost at between $300,000 and $400,000.

He was doing the planning “by faith, hoping people would help us along,” he said.

The community supper began in early June on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The first dinner drew 22 attendees. Now, it serves about 65 people. Masango expects the number to reach about 100 by the end of the year.

An expansion, which could start early next year, could mean additional times and days for a dinner, he said.

The Renton Community Foundation’s $500,000 is the largest individual bequest in the charitable foundation’s 10 years, although it’s not the largest gift, Bohart said. The foundation as 44 funds.

The Dyrdal bequest comes with no restrictions, other than to use the money for a scholarship fund. It’s not an endowment, which would mean the foundation could only use the interest paid on the original $500,000 principal.

That makes the Dyrdal fund unique for the foundation.

“It’s not often we get the flexibility to create the fund from scratch,” said Bob McBeth, the foundation’s scholarship chairman. “We’ll be able to develop parameters for the Helen Drydal Fund in a way that meets the real needs in the community.”

He and Bohart point to the potential of helping people changing careers, returning to the workforce or struggling to pay for the second or third year of their education.

The foundation trustees will meet to establish the guidelines for the scholarships, which Bohart said will be available early next year.

The $50,000 now pushes the Budkis Fund to more than $100,000, Bohart said. The Budkis Fund is one that drew Bohart to the foundation job in the first place.

The donation, she said, “provides some real longevity to this fund.”

Mij Charbonneau of Renton, adviser to the Budkis Fund, cried when she received the news.

“It’s amazing that people can be so generous,” she said. “I didn’t know Ms. Dyrdal, but in my book, she’s a great lady. This will go a long ways towards helping people who desperately want to save their animal companions.”

The Dyrdal bequest puts the foundation’s assets at about $5.5 million.