We all know college can be expensive. One of the best ways to pay for college is with scholarships. But unfortunately not every student is qualified to earn one, except in the town of Mitchell.
Megan Farnham will be going to SDSU next fall. She doesn't know yet what she'll study, but Farnham knows she's getting at least one scholarship and so is Mitchell Christian senior Leah Berg.
"Lots of scholarships have to have ACT scores or certain GPA's or maybe a sports one, it takes a lot of stress to fill out scholarship forms, but this is easy for everyone and you don't feel left out," Berg said.
That's because for the past 10 years, the Mitchell community raises money to give a scholarship to any senior from both Mitchell Public and Mitchell Christian who goes to college.
The money comes from private donations, businesses and organizations, but it all happens in one day.
"We have a radio-a-thon in which we host with KMIT and KOOL 98 radio and we have people call in pledges and donations and we've had great success with this," Mitchell Community Scholarship board member Julie Brookbank said.
And these seniors bank on the success of the radio-a-thon.
"Actually the deadline is this Friday, so everyone is like, get your community scholarship in because it's free money," Farnham said.
And it's important to these students because it's money they wouldn't have otherwise.
"I definitely think it's really important that our community members and our businesses back us, our hometown students, so it's something the kids can look forward to and really appreciate," Farnham said.
That's why community members are so willing to give year after year.
"Because they know they are investing in young people and maybe some day these young people will come back and make their home in Mitchell someday," Brookbank said.
This week the Mitchell Community Scholarship radio-a-thon raised $60,000, meaning about 170 students will get scholarships worth $500.
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