Graduation had originally been slated to be held at Marcus Pavilion at Saint Martin’s University as it was a more inexpensive option, but donations from the community have funded a return to the Dome.

“We know that quality schools need quality communities, and that means a lot to us as a local business,” Betz told the board.

OlyFed started its Pride of the Prairie Campaign in the fall and paid the district what it would have paid in levy taxes. The company also set up a “two-cent program” where two cents from every customer’s use of a debit card supports the initiative. Betz said this initiative raised nearly $3,000 in the month of September alone.

The bank also pledged to contribute $25 to the district for every time a customer opened a new checking account with OlyFed.

“Our whole purpose with this campaign was knowing that resources would be useful for programs or activities outside of school that maybe weren’t going to be available,” Betz said. “We really wanted to develop more of a long-term approach, not just this one time where we’d be supporting the community.”

Additionally, OlyFed introduced a student debit card concept that Betz said will likely come out within the next month. The “affinity” card program would support the “two-cent program” in that each time a student uses their Yelm-themed debit card, two cents would support the district.

Kilborn said Yelm was the first district that OlyFed wanted to partner with in this initiative.

“We’ve been in Yelm for a decade now, and we’re super excited to grow our presence in here. We think these really cool debit cards will help that,” Kilborn said. “Because we know it will take some time to get up and running to get the volume going, the first three years we will take one month of all of our customer debit card swipes and donate them to the district, as well.”

YCS Superintendent Chris Woods praised OlyFed for its help in supporting local youth in need.

“The thing about these two is they don’t care what district it is. They don’t care as long as it benefits kids,” he said. “They approached me with this idea and said, ‘We want to be part of a solution in Yelm, and we want to help kids.’ They didn’t have to do this. I appreciate both of them and how much they’ve poured into our community.”

Woods said that an additional community member also donated $1,000 for graduation costs before the meeting.