Alumni  – Stay Connected

Having a reunion?  Looking for someone to give your class reunion a guided tour of Southwest?   Please send all reunion info and other information to info@southwestfoundation.org  or call 612-504-0479.

If you would like to act as a class contact for your class year, please let us know and we will post your contact information with your class information on our website (also linked on facebook).

Southwest High School Class of 1972

September 14, 2024

at the Brookview Event Center in Golden Valley, MN
     
     Class of 1972 website for future reunion updates
      https://www.classcreator.com/Minneapolis-Minnesota-Southwest-1972
     
      questions regarding the SW Class of 1972:
      swhsminneapolis.1972@gmail.com

Go Lakers!

Southwest Alumni Give Back: Harvey Feldman’s Story

Generous ideas can appear in unusual places! When Harvey Feldman, Southwest High class of 1961, attended a Friday night football game at Washburn High in 2011, the excitement of the whole community coming together for a game under the lights gave him an idea.  Southwest High students should also experience that same excitement and sense of community on their own home field.

“It was a no-brainer,” he says. “For guys like me, who didn’t take high school very seriously, all my education came on the athletic field, came from that experience. I was no great player, but it was an incredible experience being a football player at Southwest High School.”

He believes the lessons he learned playing sports at Southwest are what made him a successful businessman, and he offered up to $300,000 in matching funds to upgrade the stadium—starting with the lights. His generous gift made lighting the field for football and soccer games possible.

“The school deserves to have a first rate playing field for kids who want to participate in sport.  It’s right that it comes from someone like me. It’s absolutely right. I got something out of the school system and I can give something back.”

In August, Mr. Feldman was admitted to the Southwest High School Athletic Hall of Fame as a Booster of Southwest sports. In addition to his gift for the lights, Mr. Feldman also gave the school district the money to air condition the school’s auditorium—a great support to academics and the arts because of all the classes and programs that happen there. He also supports academics with gifts to the Southwest Foundation for the ACT and PSAT prep courses and with scholarship funds that provide $5,000/year for four years to each student receiving his scholarship.

Southwest is fortunate that Mr. Feldman is still thinking about more ways he can help. “I’m not done,” he says. “There is a lot more I can do for my school.”