Meghan Swanlund has spent her short life trying to make her community a better place. She has spent the better half of the past 5 years an active participant of Pierce County’s Daffodil Festival. In 2004, as a senior at Emerald Ridge High School, she was selected to represent the school as their Princess. Since then, she has continued to support and back the festival, which has recently been crippled by financial woes. Last August, she organized a fundraiser which raised over $1000 for the festival’s royalty. For the past two years, she has worked as Mt. Tahoma High School’s Daffodil Coronation Coordinator – which ensures that this high school will be able to have a princess in the upcoming festival. Her biggest fear is seeing this 76 year old tradition, which provided her with a college scholarship and a lifetime of memories and community connections, fade away into Pierce County’s history.
Meghan is also a champion for cancer awareness and research. Her grandmother succumbed to breast cancer shortly before she was born, and her other grandmother was diagnosed with stomach cancer just one month ago. In September, Meghan will be walking in the Breast Cancer 3-day in Seattle. In order to raise the necessary money, she has been fundraising tirelessly. In June she organized a Masquerade Ball, in which the proceeds benefited the 3-Day Walk. That night she raised over $2400. As soon as she had cleaned up the ballroom from that event, she was back at the drawing board, figuring out how to make next year’s Masquerade Ball a bigger success, and organizing her next fundraiser. I can always tell when Meghan is passionate about something, because it consumes her. It is mesmerizing watching her plans from the brainstorming stage, all the way until the final touch has been placed.
Meghan is a recent graduate of Washington State University. She works as a paralegal for a Tacoma law firm. As if she is not busy enough, she has decided to pursue her dream of becoming a teacher and at night, she is attending college courses, prepping for graduate school.
Though she seems to always be on the move, she always makes time for the important people in her life. Her brother, who is also her best friend, has been deployed to Iraq for the past 11 months, and when she talks about him, you can see the sincerity and the worry sweep over her. At least once a month, her youngest brother, who is 11, will come stay with us for the weekend and they will be off on sibling adventures together until it is time for him to go home again. Meghan comes from a giant extended family, and she is careful not to miss family events because she knows how blessed she is to have a tight-knit family. This is a lesson that I think we could all learn from Meghan. I know that I have learned a lot from her in the few years that I have known her. She is my best friend, and my role model. Meghan is truly deserving of this nomination, this recognition, and this award.