28/09: The $6 Million Secret: The Volunteer Spotlight on Gregg Gropel and Luverne Dollars for Scholars
Category: Dollars for Scholars
Posted by: matt
Luverne, Minnesota is a small town – just under 5,000 residents – but it's got a big heart. Luverne Dollars for Scholars has awarded scholarships to more than 1,200 students in the last 26 years, including more than $111,000 to 165 members of Luverne High School's Class of 2009. With a gift this year of nearly $3 million from the estate of a founding member, things are only looking brighter for Luverne and its students. Like every one of our chapters, though, it all started from the ground up.
Specifically, it began in 1983 in the basement of a local bank. A handful of community members, including Gregg Gropel, Don Klosterbuer, Harvey Ordung and Harvey Etrim, came together to discuss a common cause: their ironclad belief that strengthening their community meant investing in education. At first, the chapter had more will than dollars. Gregg, the former secretary of the chapter, recalls that they decided to raise awareness by sending letters to local businesses, only to realize that “We didn’t even have money for postage!”
A bank donation got them their stamps, though, and by the next year the chapter had given two $500 scholarships and garnered an additional $2,000 in perpetual scholarships from the American Legion, Lions Club, Rotary Club and others, but the long hours and tireless work meant chapter morale was suffering. Searching for ideas, chapter president Harvey Etrim suggested writing to the Aaneson family -- former Luverne residents who founded the snack company Old Dutch. Gregg tracked down Curtis, one of the three Aaneson brothers, and convinced him to contribute $5,000.
Gregg Gropel (standing) and Don Klosterbuer address the local press after announcing their $2.9 million bequest from Harvey Ordung. (photo via Worthington Daily Globe)
As Gregg and Don both attest, it couldn't have come at a better time. The donation, which was followed by another a few months later, was just the morale booster volunteers needed to keep their spirits alive. It also catalyzed awareness throughout the community to such a degree that another local resident, Lava Brooks, bequeathed nearly $700,000, elevating its endowment to just under $1 million – a successful chapter by any measure.
Gregg and his fellow volunteers could have sat back and admired their work, but that's not how things are done in Luverne. In fact, Gregg decided to approach Vernon Aaneson of Old Dutch to see if he'd be interested in setting up a company scholarship. Though Vernon felt Old Dutch's reach was too national to do a single-community scholarship, he did make quite a personal donation: two checks totaling $1 million. As Don Klosterbuer jokes even now, “Talk about your all time best fundraisers; we opened up the mail.” And success has only bred more success -- in July 2009, founding member Harvey Ordung left the chapter $2.9 million in his will, building their coffers to $6 million in endowed scholarship funds.
What's the secret to the chapter's success? Is it simply a series of fortunate events? Or is it something more? Don has an idea: “He’s too modest to say, but Gregg Gropel is Luverne Dollars for Scholars. ... We wouldn’t have received our recent $2.9 million endowment, or had half the success we’ve had without Gregg. It’s easy to be the president of the chapter when you have Gregg for the secretary.”
Gregg served in that position from the chapter's founding until this past year, working to cultivate donor relationships, develop a system for distributing scholarships to students, and build a tracking system for multi-year scholarship awards. In addition, in the early 1990s, he started an awareness-raising publication called Alumni News, which goes to all Luverne High School graduates. If features class reunion and alumni events, as well as plenty of information about Dollars for Scholars -- including alumni-funded scholarships and chapter happenings. Thanks in large part to this publication, several Luverne High School alumni classes have established permanent student scholarships.
Gregg also put a premium on donor recognition, both by students receiving scholarships and the community at large. To highlight their generosity, he created the Community Scholarship Awards booklet, containing the names of each year's scholarship recipients as well as the names and a short biography of the donors. This added biography allows students to know who helped provide their scholarship, and affords them the unique opportunity to personally thank their donor either in person or through a letter. (Both Gregg and Don agree that thank-you letters to donors are crucial for any Dollars for Scholars program.)
While Gregg has long served at the forefront of innovation at Luverne Dollars for Scholars, he is now letting others lead. He stepped down as secretary this year, but continues to serve as a chapter advocate and the primary liaison for those interested in setting up scholarship funds.
Over the years, Gregg has donated thousands of hours to the chapter, and he received national recognition when he made the Scholarship America National Honor Roll in 1999. He says he doesn’t know exactly what it is that motivates him to volunteer, but that the community attitude in Luverne is relentlessly positive and focused on “doing the right thing.” This attitude coupled with community loyalty and pride certainly helped get Gregg involved 26 years ago, as it does today. Though he didn't grow up in Luverne, Gregg sees it as his hometown, and Dollars for Scholars has given him and other community residents the opportunity to invest in their hometown's future – an investment with monumental payoffs.
Specifically, it began in 1983 in the basement of a local bank. A handful of community members, including Gregg Gropel, Don Klosterbuer, Harvey Ordung and Harvey Etrim, came together to discuss a common cause: their ironclad belief that strengthening their community meant investing in education. At first, the chapter had more will than dollars. Gregg, the former secretary of the chapter, recalls that they decided to raise awareness by sending letters to local businesses, only to realize that “We didn’t even have money for postage!”
A bank donation got them their stamps, though, and by the next year the chapter had given two $500 scholarships and garnered an additional $2,000 in perpetual scholarships from the American Legion, Lions Club, Rotary Club and others, but the long hours and tireless work meant chapter morale was suffering. Searching for ideas, chapter president Harvey Etrim suggested writing to the Aaneson family -- former Luverne residents who founded the snack company Old Dutch. Gregg tracked down Curtis, one of the three Aaneson brothers, and convinced him to contribute $5,000.
Gregg Gropel (standing) and Don Klosterbuer address the local press after announcing their $2.9 million bequest from Harvey Ordung. (photo via Worthington Daily Globe)
As Gregg and Don both attest, it couldn't have come at a better time. The donation, which was followed by another a few months later, was just the morale booster volunteers needed to keep their spirits alive. It also catalyzed awareness throughout the community to such a degree that another local resident, Lava Brooks, bequeathed nearly $700,000, elevating its endowment to just under $1 million – a successful chapter by any measure.
Gregg and his fellow volunteers could have sat back and admired their work, but that's not how things are done in Luverne. In fact, Gregg decided to approach Vernon Aaneson of Old Dutch to see if he'd be interested in setting up a company scholarship. Though Vernon felt Old Dutch's reach was too national to do a single-community scholarship, he did make quite a personal donation: two checks totaling $1 million. As Don Klosterbuer jokes even now, “Talk about your all time best fundraisers; we opened up the mail.” And success has only bred more success -- in July 2009, founding member Harvey Ordung left the chapter $2.9 million in his will, building their coffers to $6 million in endowed scholarship funds.
What's the secret to the chapter's success? Is it simply a series of fortunate events? Or is it something more? Don has an idea: “He’s too modest to say, but Gregg Gropel is Luverne Dollars for Scholars. ... We wouldn’t have received our recent $2.9 million endowment, or had half the success we’ve had without Gregg. It’s easy to be the president of the chapter when you have Gregg for the secretary.”
Gregg served in that position from the chapter's founding until this past year, working to cultivate donor relationships, develop a system for distributing scholarships to students, and build a tracking system for multi-year scholarship awards. In addition, in the early 1990s, he started an awareness-raising publication called Alumni News, which goes to all Luverne High School graduates. If features class reunion and alumni events, as well as plenty of information about Dollars for Scholars -- including alumni-funded scholarships and chapter happenings. Thanks in large part to this publication, several Luverne High School alumni classes have established permanent student scholarships.
Gregg also put a premium on donor recognition, both by students receiving scholarships and the community at large. To highlight their generosity, he created the Community Scholarship Awards booklet, containing the names of each year's scholarship recipients as well as the names and a short biography of the donors. This added biography allows students to know who helped provide their scholarship, and affords them the unique opportunity to personally thank their donor either in person or through a letter. (Both Gregg and Don agree that thank-you letters to donors are crucial for any Dollars for Scholars program.)
While Gregg has long served at the forefront of innovation at Luverne Dollars for Scholars, he is now letting others lead. He stepped down as secretary this year, but continues to serve as a chapter advocate and the primary liaison for those interested in setting up scholarship funds.
Over the years, Gregg has donated thousands of hours to the chapter, and he received national recognition when he made the Scholarship America National Honor Roll in 1999. He says he doesn’t know exactly what it is that motivates him to volunteer, but that the community attitude in Luverne is relentlessly positive and focused on “doing the right thing.” This attitude coupled with community loyalty and pride certainly helped get Gregg involved 26 years ago, as it does today. Though he didn't grow up in Luverne, Gregg sees it as his hometown, and Dollars for Scholars has given him and other community residents the opportunity to invest in their hometown's future – an investment with monumental payoffs.
Subscribe via RSS
