Iowa has its own "Candy Man" and his name is Bob Williams, a 93-year-old retired teacher and football coach who likes to go around town handing out Hershey's chocolate bars to anyone he encounters.
He started the tradition about a decade ago and has since given away nearly 6,000 candy bars, Inside Edition noted.
Each week Williams will visit his local Dollar General and purchase boxes of chocolate bars during the store's regular sales.
He then hands the chocolate out in hopes of brightening someone's day.
"He'd leave one and say, 'You give that to someone who you know needs a smile on their face today,'" one unidentified woman said, according to Inside Edition.
The act of kindness has earned him the title of a "legend" among community members, but Williams shrugs this off.
Neighbors described the kind-hearted "Candy Man" as a man who "doesn't like to talk about himself" but whom everyone around town loves, Fox News reported.
"He's teaching all of us how to pay it forward," an unidentified community member said.
Williams said he started out small after noticing that whenever he handed out a Hershey's bar to someone, it brought a smile to their face, the Quad City Times reported.
He tries to remember the names of everyone he hands a chocolate bar to, which is a massive task considering how many people he encounters weekly.
He regularly takes 18 chocolate bars to the doctor's office, where "there are two Lisas, a Mary Beth and a Cindy that lives in Maquoketa."
He also likes to take chocolate bars to the gas stations and along with him when he visits the bike path between Eldridge and Long Grove, where he bought a memory bench for his wife who passed away.
His neighbor, Jan Hartwig-Heeggen, told Quad City that Williams was so special because he was not stuck in the past, but looked to the future.
"He sees the big picture," she said. "He's forward looking. It's one of the reasons he's a joy to be around. He doesn't dwell on himself."
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