The Fairmont Dollars for Scholars Chapter recently was willed $500,000 from the estates of two Fairmont High School graduates.  The earnings from the investments of this money will be used by the chapter to fund college scholarships for Fairmont High School graduates.  The first scholarships will be awarded at the chapter’s annual award’s night in May 2009.

The bulk of this money, $475,000, is from the Marjorie L. (Jorgensen) McClain estate, a 1937 Fairmont High School graduate and U. of MN, Minneapolis graduate, who in her will stipulated that the scholarships be named the Minnie Jorgensen Scholarships in memory of her mother.   McClain had lived in Ceylon and Fairmont in her youth.  After graduating from college she worked for many years in Minneapolis for Northwest Airlines.  She died August 2007, in Wisconsin.

The Florence (Flo) Swanstrom estate willed the chapter $25,000 with directions that the scholarships are to be given to students pursuing a business career.  Swanstrom attended Mankato Business College for one year after graduating from Fairmont High School in 1927.   She was a long time resident of the Fairmont  community who for most her years of employment worked for Flo Photography Studio (10 years) and for Martin County Human Services (13 years).  She died August 21, 2008, in Fairmont.

The  Marjorie L. McClain contribution is the largest donation the chapter has ever received. 

Community based scholarship organizations like Dollars for Scholars chapters are more than ever helping many college students pay for the ever increasing tuition fees.   In 2008, the chapter awarded 132 scholarships totaling $134,000 to Fairmont High School graduates.  Since the chapter’s inception in 1974, the chapter has awarded 2,412 scholarships totaling $1,458,679.

Scholarship America, St. Peter, MN, is the parent organization for over 120 Dollars for Scholars chapters in Minnesota and over 1,200 chapters in the US.