[1] During her youth her family moved numerous times as her father worked as the head gardener on estates in Walpole and Nashua, New Hampshire; Norfolk, Virginia; and York Harbor, Maine.

[1][3][4] She established a college scholarship for students in the Teen Parent School Program at the Maine Children's Home for Little Wanderers.

[6] Swain endowed several scholarships benefiting Maine students at Middlebury College in Vermont and Tufts University in Massachusetts.

[8] She endowed the Thelma C. Swain Scholarship at each of the seven colleges, which is awarded to students in the nursing, residential construction, plumbing, or heating programs;[9][10] and the Lloyd Duncan Scholarship, established in 1996 at Northern Maine Community College, benefiting seniors in electrical or electronics programs.

[1] In 2008 the Norlands Living History Center inaugurated the Thelma Swain Award for Youth Leadership in Fundraising in her honor.