SWAP awards the Sarah Eppenbach Scholarship of $500.00 towards higher education to a graduating high school senior. Applicants need to practice an active interest in caring for the environment. Because of the generous donations to the scholarship, SWAP awarded three scholarships to members of the 2020 graduating class. Hazel Arden, Ty Greacen, and Quinn Steckler have each demonstrated a care for the planet, leadership and an understanding of team.
The scholarship is given in honor of Sarah Eppenbach, founder of SWAP. Sarah Eppenbach was a force of nature, albeit in a quiet/determined way. Lopez was very blessed with Sarah’s commitment and involvement in the Community, bringing her experience and wisdom to each situation she encountered with gentle diplomacy and grace. With each Community activity Sarah chose to embrace, she demonstrated two critical skills that all should learn to master. The first skill is 'leadership'. For Sarah, leadership was an art. She knew when to lead, and when to follow; when to speak and when to listen. She was always thoughtful and fair. Most importantly, she understood that a strong leader encourages others, which leads to the second skill, team player. All successful enterprises, of which SWAP’s support of the Lopez dump is one and our library is another, are comprised of teams that include both good leadership and complementary skills. Sarah understood how necessary teamwork is, and surrounded herself with people that worked well together. Assembling and maintaining great teams is also an art that Sarah understood. Realistically, Sarah stands as an example to us all, as one who knew few limits as to what could be accomplished with good leadership, a great team, and of course, a fair amount of effort.