Teen speaker shares message of hope with local students
December 21, 2022
Luc Swensson, a 17-year-old high school senior, is already a renowned public speaker, a CEO, and founder of multiple organizations. He visited Fort Benton on Wednesday, Dec. 14 to share his “I Love This Life” assembly with Chouteau County middle and high school students at the elementary school auditorium, focusing on self-esteem, bullying issues, and mental health. Fort Benton, Geraldine and Highwood students attended the program.
Swensson gave a 45-minute presentation about his life and personal stories with the goal to connect with his audience and offer encouragement. Swensson currently resides in Idaho, but previously lived in Great Falls and has many local connections.
“I’m 17, but mentally I feel 40!” Swensson said.
When his parents divorced when he was young, he faced the first big challenge in his life. It became easy to get lost between their two houses and the cycle of going back and forth, he said.
Swensson found a home in the world of racing. He began racing quarter midget cars when he was 9 years old and found a family unit he could call his own. With support from his father and grandfather, Swensson began to race and raise funds for St. Jude Children’s Hospital. Swensson also started a sticker business with cancer ribbons to increase the funds.
He later lost his grandfather to cancer and was back to square one, trying to find another coping mechanism to process the loss.
He ended up connecting with his favorite band, LoCash, and later had the opportunity to perform on stage with them – forever changing his life and perspective.
Swensson’s assemblies and the foundation he created are called “I Love This Life” after the title of his favorite LoCash song with the same name.
At one point, the band considered splitting up, but they pushed through their challenges and stayed united.
“Hang on for one more day,” the lead singer of LoCash told Swensson. “I promise the next day will be the best day of your life.”
As the band succeeded in gaining more fans, Swensson took the opportunity to begin making t-shirts for the band with “I Love This Life” as the focal design. His success allowed him to create the I Love This Life Foundation (ilovethislife.org).
And most importantly, his success gained the attention of the mayor of Boise, who met with Swensson and gave him a challenge to keep up the fundraising for cancer treatments, but to also discuss the issues of bullying, suicide, and mental health.
Swensson eagerly accepted the challenge and at 12 years old began to tour schools and speak to students his age. Throughout the years, he’s spoken to more than 27,000 students.
Swensson has had his own personal encounters with bullying. His father used to wear pink shoes to show support for a co- worker battling breast cancer and Swensson did the same at his school, but was bullied by his peers.
His dad consoled him about wearing “girly-pink shoes” and redirected Swensson’s attention back to the bigger picture.
Swensson was not going to let the bullies control him, he said.
For every assembly he would have going forth, he always wears pink shoes.
A concerned mother from Boise called Swensson about her young daughter who tried to commit suicide due to bullies in her fifth grade classes. Swensson and his father drove to Boise to greet the daughter as soon as she was released from the hospital.
“Everyone has a limit before cracking,” Swensson said. “At the end of the day, we only focus on the negatives and never on the positives.”
As a result, Swensson created “Create Your Great,” a 52-week journal for kids to write and reflect about the positives of their day.
With the funds raised from his journal sales, Swensson created Community Project HOPE, an acronym for Help One Person Everyday.
While Swensson spread HOPE to his audience at schools, his racing family brought HOPE to every racetrack they visited via chalk drawings and posters. Project HOPE began to spread like wildfire.
AliveShoes, an Italian custom shoe design and distribution company, attended one of his presentations and approached Swensson afterwards with a business deal he couldn’t refuse: producing his own international shoe line.
Through chalk artwork and designer shoes, Swensson’s message was spreading tenfold and he felt like king of the world. However with every high Swensson experienced, a drastic life-changing low was awaiting him.
On Jan. 15, 2020, Swensson’s mother disappeared into the -17° night with no jacket and nothing on her person.
He struggled to move on after his mother’s unexplained abandonment. With help from his dad, Swensson created The Forgiveness Workshop to teach himself and other struggling youth how to forgive those who wronged them.
“Now I can live with the fact that I can forgive her,” Swensson said.
A few months later, the Covid-19 pandemic swept over the world and everything changed. Children couldn’t go out and play anymore and sitting in front of a computer screen became the new normal.
As a result, Swensson developed Camp HOLO, an abbreviation for
hope and love. Camp HOLO taught kids to make something great out of the worst times – much like Swensson’s role models LoCash had taught him many years before.
At Camp HOLO, campers used their artistic abilities and creativity to create shoes.
Swensson is partnered with MSU Bobcats’ quarterback #4 Tommy Mellott to further spread HOLO and start Project 988, promoting the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.
“Having the opportunity to partner up with Luc and the HOLO Brand was a no-brainer for me,” said Mellott, as quoted on the HOLO brand website. “I remember struggling through high school as well, but I was lucky enough to have such supportive people in my life.”
Sales of HOLO merchandise allow them to offer grants to send children to camps and offer $1,000 college scholarships.
“We’re so proud that we’re changing conversations and stigmas about mental health,” Swensson said. “Everyone struggles. ...We’re all just people who struggle.”
Swensson concluded his presentation with a challenge to the audience: give someone a compliment or send someone a check-in text message. A challenge chip was handed out as a reminder to keep changing conversations about mental health and to be amazing humans.
“We, as a group, need to change the conversation about mental health,” Swensson said.
Community sponsorships also allowed them to provide the audience with bracelets and his “Create your Great’’ journal. Students also signed a banner to accept Swensson’s challenge.
“His presentation was great! Nine students reached out to Luc after the assembly ended or through text message,” Fort Benton Schools superintendent Jory Thompson said. “What’s important is that it resonated with the students, and with him being 17, he was able to do just that and able to relate to the students.”
Swensson’s future goals include continuing touring and sharing his school assembly presentations, improving his public speaking skills, and bettering his companies and foundations. He plans to return to Fort Benton next spring to continue encouraging local students.