Serteen Celebrates 25 Years

Serteen Celebrates 25 Years

Having a student show up late to a Serteen meeting rarely distracts adviser Jim Swanson, but when dozens of Maple River staff members crash the meeting, even Swanson took note. With the school year coming to a close, Maple River’s Serteen club honored its members who’d gone above and beyond the call of duty, but this year, on the 25th anniversary of the club’s creation, senior officers Olivia Anderson and Wyatt Birr paused the meeting promptly at 7:30. The gym doors opened and dozens of staff members filed in while Anderson and Birr presented Mr. Swanson with a plaque and signed card.

For Olivia Anderson, who’d put in hundreds of hours with the organization, it was an opportunity to honor the man who’d led it for generations. Unfortunately, his humility almost let the moment slip under the radar. “A few months ago,” Anderson explained, “Mr. Swanson mentioned it at a meeting, and we were like, ‘Wait, it's 25 years?’ And we had no idea, but during the year through  talking to people we wanted to make it a bigger deal since Mr. Swanson’s a  bigger deal in the community. He and Arleen have put so much into this, we figured ‘Well, we got to do something,’ so we figured the award and then the sign from the students too. So we had them sign it.” Later in the meeting, when Birr was giving his goodbyes to his younger peers, he said to Swanson, “You’re a really great role model. We need a lot more people like Mr. Swanson.”

For the past twenty-five years, Serteen has been run by student officers who help select various projects for the communities and schools. At Friday’s awards ceremony, several individual students were recognized for putting in hundreds of hours during the year. For Superintendent Dan Anderson, who’s seen a majority of those years, he offers a testament of what Serteen means for the community. “Serteen has been around for a long time and has allowed kids to explore service opportunities in our community, anywhere from picking up trash, parking cars, to helping fall care of lawn service and those kinds of things, just gives kids the opportunity to give back.”

Back in 2000, Maple River’s energizer-rabbit found himself with a few spare minutes of time between his role as mayor, coach, and teacher, so when the opportunity presented itself, Swanson couldn’t say no. “Lee Ek, who was one of the leaders of Sertoma at the time, came to me and said, ‘Jim, they have this new program called Serteen. It would be the teen version of Sertoma. You think you'd consider starting that here?’ I enjoy kids, and I had given up the FCA thing, so I thought, ‘Well, maybe we could give it a try.’ So I said,’ Yes,’ and I then had to come to the reality of ‘How do I get this going?’ And I just basically went to an old coaching philosophy, and that is where you choose captains of your team, people that you know have stood out by either performance or what they say. And so I picked a couple of strong student body girls, and our first meeting was myself and two others.”

Swanson remembers Rachel Massop and Gretchen Maurer as two of those early leaders. He credits both of their strong personalities and leadership skills for helping get the organization up and running. Gretchen (Maurer) Gosch remembers those early days “I remember Mr. Swanson got a few of us together. I can't remember every single person, but I think Maria Caven, Hannah Carey, and myself are some that I remember right off the group. I know I was elected to be sergeant of arms, but I had no clue what that meant.  I remember being at the meetings early in the morning and enjoying our time together and just figuring out what Serteens meant.”

For Swanson, he knew the goals and philosophies he wanted Serteen to represent. “I always mention their parents. And I said, ‘Your parents, if you look at them, many of them might be volunteers, local fire department, Mom gets a call and someone has passed away at church–would you make a casserole for that? You have a lot of great examples right in your home.’ And with Serteen, you'll get to practice some of those skills and develop a compassion for helping people in need. It's ringing bells for the Salvation Army, a cancer benefit being held at your church, raking leaves for an older resident in town, whatever it might be.  I'm hoping they develop this sense of community responsibility to always try to do your part for the school, the church, and other good things going on in your community.”

Through the years, students have given their time to the community, but Superintendent Anderson feels that Serteen is equally important to the development of students. “I really think the biggest impact for Serteen is to allow our kids to give back. I think kids by nature are very egocentric. I think having a program that allows them to see that there’s others around who might need some help is a good thing. I also think there's a community that's driven in there. they meet every once a week, or once every couple weeks that they meet in the morning, and there's fifty kids that pile into the gym at 7:15 AM in in the morning. They have a great mission together,  and you really don't have to battle  kids to get in there: they show up early and are happy to be there.”

Decades after it began, a new generation of young people are stepping up to keep Serteen going. Zach Trio and Madison Ward were recently named as next year’s officers and are excited to continue what was started a quarter-century ago. “I think the main thing is to spread a positive impact to the community with all of our projects,” Trio began, and Ward added, “I would say keeping the attendance high. We had 30 new freshmen last year and hope to have more this year.” Freshman Sophia Stencel is one of those new volunteers, and because of the rich tradition, she really had no hesitations about joining. “I kind of knew about Serteen from my brothers. They really encouraged me to join it, and I'm so glad I did.  It's been an amazing experience. And just to be together in the community and the people has been amazing. 

Serteen has been a very impactful experience. I got to be together with my  community and volunteer and serve the community. And I think that's all thanks to Mr. Swanson. He’s been a great leader and mentor in Serteen, and it's just been a wonderful place to be in”

Superintendent Anderson echoes these feelings toward Mr. Swanson. “Well, Jim is certainly a very valuable member to the staff.  He was here when I was principal for a while, and I transitioned to Superintendent right before he retired. He was at everything; he's still at everything. He's willing and game to help with anything–a tremendous asset to the school and community.”