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LEADING THE WAY
BUILDING A LEGACY
The Viking Legacy Foundation was created as a commitment to investing in future leaders from the Holmen community.
Homespun Roots
Founded by Karissa Bjornstad and Ryan Chapman in 2019, the Viking Legacy Foundation got its start as a Scholarship. What began as an anonymous and small sentimental gift to a deserving and dedicated graduating Holmen High School senior, became the Viking Legacy. The inaugural scholars, who were chosen by the Holmen High School Scholarship Committee, collectively represented the scholarship as leaders committed to making a difference in Holmen. The Legacy Scholars themselves embodied the School District's vision and shaped the need for connecting Holmen alumni after graduation. The now prestigious Viking Legacy Scholarship developed the blueprint for the Viking Legacy Foundation - a commitment to uniting Holmen graduates and providing students diverse opportunities to find their passion and contribution to the Holmen community and world.
Building upon a Legacy
From early weekdays to weekend evenings, drives on the streets of Holmen sketch the outlines of our community canvas, constantly being reshaped and expanded. Holmen Drive is always fast, filled with flourishing businesses and avenues on the left and right that lead to our village’s restaurants, supermarkets, residential streets, and outlying neighborhoods and developments. Main Street’s energy buzzes of Holmen-rooted storefronts, where day after day, intersections fuse the schools, parks, residential neighborhoods, and outskirt edges of our community.
Every glimpse brings something new to this village—something often unsung. A panoramic amble brings alive Holmen’s summer Kornfest weekend, its spirited Friday night lights, its holiday season giving, and, with every sight, in schools, farms, small businesses, and curbsides, men and women at work: inspiring students, providing agricultural lifeblood, fostering a strong local economy, and building the foundations for future development.
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With time, those faces at work in our community will change. Today’s students will be tomorrow’s entrepreneurs, butchers, construction workers, firefighters, electricians, doctors, truckers, bankers, and teachers. They will also be tomorrow’s mothers and fathers, and eventually grandmothers and grandfathers. Together, they will inherit and eventually pass on the Holmen we call home. There is no question that our greatest equity is in our students: in their gifts, their goals, and their efforts. They are our best asset and greatest investment. And collectively and incrementally, we will together make for a better Holmen before passing it on and sharing it with generations to follow. The Viking Legacy is our commitment to Holmen.