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Funding organization reps visit Glendive, Montana

Representatives from four regional and national funding organizations visited Glendive Tuesday, Aug. 4.

Gary Cunningham from the Northwest Area Foundation, Curtis Holloman from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Dana Miller from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust and Bill Vesneski from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, accompanied by Montana representatives Kelly Bruggeman from the First Interstate Foundation and Lynda Bourque Moss from the Foundation for Community Vitality, spent the day in Glendive, visiting with community leaders and local foundation representatives.

By Cindy Mullet
Ranger-Review Staff Writer

The Montana Connections Tour 2009 also included visits to the Crow and Northern Cheyenne reservations, Missoula, Helena and Red Lodge. Billings served as the hub for the community site visits which gave grant makers the chance to learn and experience Montana’s cultural, economic and geographic landscapes.

Tour members began their day in Glendive with a visit to the Prairie Development Center where they were given an introduction to the community and to the local Farm-to-Table project.

Glendive Alliance Church Youth Pastor Paule Patterson served as chauffeur for the group, picking them up at the airport in the church bus, taking them from the PDC to visit the community garden, Dawson County Fairgrounds, the garden at the Dawson County Corrections Facility, Action for Eastern Montana, Glendive Medical Center and Dawson Community College.

During a two-hour lunch at Hungry Joe Center, tour members were given the opportunity to meet with a wide variety of local community leaders and foundation representatives. The networking that took place during that time was very valuable, Iba noted.

In a welcome from Mayor Jerry Jimison at the beginning of the lunch, the visitors were given a “Glendive promise.” Jimison assured them that Glendive would do more good with less money and more hard work than any other community in the nation, Pete Bruno, a member of the local organizing committee, reported.

“For every quarter you give us, we will turn it into 75 cents or a dollar,” he told them.

Following the lunch, which was prepared by Dawson County Sheriff Craig Anderson and GMC Chief Executive Officer Scott Duke with the assistance of Farm-to-Table VISTA Jessica Gerencser, the tour members took to the streets again, stopping at the Boys and Girls Club of Dawson County, Lloyd Square Park and the Dawson County High School auditorium.

At the end of the tour the four foundation representatives were given cottonwood gift boxes made by Smith and filled with local products: chokecherry wine, wine glasses from the Boys and Girls Club, a caviar container filled with polished agates and Western Trails soup mixes.

In an e-mail to local organizers, Ann Kooistra-Manning, program associate with the Montana and Wyoming Communications Initiative of the Foundation for Community Vitality, wrote, “Kudos to you all for a wonderful day in Glendive. The visiting funders were quite impressed by the community vision, collaboration, energy and innovation they saw in Glendive.”

Being given the opportunity to introduce Glendive to representatives of regional and national funding organizations was a real tribute to the community, Iba noted, adding that organizers have received many positive responses concerning the event.

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