ELMWOOD — Heather Logelin, president and CEO of the St. Croix Valley Foundation, said receiving a gift of $1.7 million is not something that happens to them every week.
But Patrick McKernon was always remembered as uncommonly kind, caring and generous. When the Elmwood High School alum passed away in September of 2023, he left behind a testamentary gift to the community foundation which would ensure that his seven-figure gift would go towards students graduating from his former school.
“This was a delightful surprise,” said Logelin. “No one currently working on our team had ever met Pat. So when we had received word from the estate that he had left this amazing legacy and had entrusted us with the stewardship of that gift to take care of the things he cared about most — education and his hometown of Elmwood — we were both delighted and excited.”
McKernon would go on to attend the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, settling in that city and pursuing a job in IT at the company 3M.
As the gift will help SCVF to establish an endowed scholarship fund, Logelin said part of the excitement with the McKernon Scholarship Fund is how it will make a continual impact for many years on students who wish to pursue a post-secondary education like McKernon.
“School has gotten to be so expensive that it’s often a barrier for students…” said Logelin. “To have a significant gift like this fueling every year scholarships that will help kids feel like, ‘You know what? I can make this work — financially I can make this work.’”
Additionally, the wishes of his gift will also go towards serving the efforts of adults in Pierce County who wish to return to school.
“There isn’t a lot out there to support full adults who maybe have finished high school, didn’t decide to go to school right out of high school and now are thinking about going back to school. But now, they might have a mortgage or they might have a kid or two; the financial barriers can be significant. So if we can make available a scholarship like this a source of support to help those students get over that hump and decide, ‘I can make this work,’ that is pretty transformational,” said Logelin.
She said they now work with family members of McKernon to help figure out how to launch the scholarship program in a way that impacts Elmwood and Pierce County students while honoring Patrick’s legacy.
With a generous gift giving their community foundation an opportunity to serve students in the area, Logelin said she hopes that others see this gift as a way that a beloved community member takes care of and gives back to his hometown.
Logelin said supporting people in their pursuit of opportunities is what they do as a community foundation, and the generosity of Pat McKernon will allow them to continue that for many years.
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