EAST MILLINOCKET – The Board of Selectmen voted 5-0 Monday night to accept a $10,000 endowment funded by the Violette family that will pay a $500 annual scholarship for a graduating Schenck High School senior.

Richard and Dorothy Violette of East Millinocket created the endowment fund for many reasons. One was to set a precedent of investments, such as endowments, which can add to their communities’ quality of life, town officials said Tuesday.

As part of the program, town officials have created an endowment committee and a scholarship committee that will manage the funds’ investments and annually select a senior to win the scholarship, said Mark Scally, chairman of the Board of Selectmen.

“Investing it wisely, they are hoping it can grow beyond” a $500 scholarship to something larger, town Administrative Assistant Shirley Tapley said.

Both expressed gratitude for the Violettes’ community spirit and dedication to the town.

“I hope that people follow suit,” Scally said Tuesday. “The idea behind it is that Dicky Violette wanted a system in place for getting money to the town for anybody who wanted to give money to it.”

When reached Tuesday, Dick Violette said of the donation: “All our children and grandchildren graduated Schenck, so why not? We have done it in different places over the years. I did it to hopefully help further the education of students coming from East Millinocket, Medway and Woodville.”

The scholarship will be offered at Schenck in perpetuity, or at the high school that serves those three towns if consolidation or other forces force Schenck’s closure or replacement, Violette said.

With endowments, even tiny amounts of money can gain interest while benefiting municipal efforts such as the town library, schools or the recreation department, among other things. With the Violette’s program, the scholarship will be funded by the interest earned on the $10,000 and on any other contributions made to the endowment.

It’s rare but not unheard of in the Katahdin or Lincoln Lakes regions for residents to give large amounts of money or land to municipalities for specific aims.

In November 2006, local lawyer Patricia Locke donated $285,000 toward the effort to build a recreation center in Lincoln. Locke’s donation came about after a close friend, Mary P. Grindell, died a year before and left Locke bank stocks and property.

In July 2006, Locke donated $72,944 from the settlement of Grindell’s estate to the town, explaining that she was motivated by Grindell’s also having left some Enfield land and $5,000 to the town of Lincoln. The November donation occurred after the sale of Grindell’s property.

On April 16, 2002, Vincent Rush and his wife, Janet, sold to the town for $45,000 a house at 17 Main St. off Mattanawcook Lake that had been owned by their late son Lee Rush. The town razed the house and dedicated a gazebo on the spot to Rush as part of an agreement for that sale price.

Towns also regularly do fundraisers or solicit contributions for such things as community pools or firefighting equipment.