2024 graduating class of Swanville High – credit, Dollars for Scholars

For the last 30 years a tiny Minnesota town has played a huge role in the lives of its graduating students.

Despite the population of Swanville sitting at a comfortable 328, what is essentially one big family comes together every year to send off their seniors with a scholarship.

Through bake sales, chili cookoffs, bingo, raffles, and more, the town has sold everything and anything to ensure this 30-year tradition continues.

When it first got started, the average scholarship was just $166. By the turn of the millennium, it was $500, but this year, Zack Gapanski stepped off the stage with a diploma and five large.

Featured in Boyd Huppert’s “Land of 10,000 Stories,” Swanville’s long-stranding tradition is about making sure their students have the best possible start in life’s journey, and ensuring they know that no matter where that journey takes them or when it ends, there’s always a home for them in town.

“To me, it’s just this community saying, go be great,” Gapinski told Huppert and KARE 11. “Go do something cool and make a difference in the world.”

The tradition started when Chris Dunshee, a former Swanville school principal, and Royal Loven, who owned the local gas station, began to worry that they might lose students to the larger neighboring school districts. They thought they might put a billboard up that would read “We give every student who graduates a scholarship.”

The idea stuck, even if the billboard didn’t, and this year Swanville High School’s Dollars for Scholars program awarded its one-millionth dollar.

Program president Teresa Giese said that the goal is to support any path for the kids.

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“If you’re taking a break year and you apply, we’ll still allocate money to you,” Teresa said. “If you go into the military, when you’re done with that, we’ll give you your money then.”

During the ceremony, none of the scholars know exactly how much they’ll receive—the total is based on a variety of participatory factors, such as grades, attendance, work history, stated goals, and school activities.

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Regardless, it’s what we would call ‘Minnesota Nice’.

WATCH the story below from KARE-11 TV… 

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