Yellowstone Valley Woman Magazine

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YOU DON’T NEED me to tell you that dementia is an insidious disease that creeps in, stealing a little bit more of a person each day. I watched that this past year as it slowly enveloped a dear friend of mine.

Joyce, whom I affectionately called “Joycie,” was a woman who filled a lot of gaps in my life. When I moved to Montana from Michigan in the mid-1990s, I left my family behind. My in-laws were snowbirds, so when grandparents’ day rolled around at school, I went on the hunt for a “third grandma.” Joycie jumped in willingly after my daughter started school.

We met sometime around 2000 when our church decided to start a small group Bible study. When my husband and I arrived at our first meeting, there was this woman with an infectious laugh who loved to kid with people. I quickly learned that, despite our 26-year age difference, we shared a lot of the same hobbies. We clicked.

When my daughter was born in 2003, Joy cie was one of our first stops after leaving the hospital. I remember my husband and I carting our days-old daughter in her car seat with our 6-year-old son in tow as she and her husband welcomed us to dinner.

That first meeting was just the start of a beautiful bond between Joycie and my daughter.

She would come to watch Ellie when I had work appointments, and when Ellie was old enough, the two would have baking dates or lunches out. Sometimes, they just enjoyed feeding carrots to the wild bunnies that gathered in her back yard. What I learned early on was that Joycie was a pack rat when it came to saving memories and photos of those she knew well.

About two years ago, I got a call from her daughter, telling me that the family felt memory care would be the best option for her. We’d all noticed a change in our friend — missing appointments and getting confused about plans — but Joycie had started wandering the neighborhood, and neighbors were concerned about her wellbeing. I remember putting down the phone and just crying.

I’d go every few weeks to visit, and my mom, who has since moved to Montana, came along. My mom made sure to stuff a few Dove chocolates in her purse for Joycie. Sometimes we’d paint her nails. I later discovered while she loved to wear turquoise, she didn’t love the color on her nails. She preferred a sparkly pink. Other times, we’d just talk about absolutely nothing.

‘What are you doing this afternoon, Joycie?’ I remember asking one visit. ‘Oh, Wade is going to pick me up and we are going to go to Tijuana.” I giggled pretty hard, which started her giggling and before long we were talking about drinking margaritas. Wade is Joycie’s husband, who succumbed to dementia two years before all of this.

I never corrected her. I just engaged and let her drive the conversation. Surprisingly, up until the end, she always had, even if it was vague, some recollection of something we shared over the 20 years we’d known each other.

In June of this year, she passed away. My daughter and I were there to say goodbye. We felt she knew because as we left her care facility, a bunny was sitting just feet from my car. It was as if Joycie was there telling us all was well.

Since then, her daughter and I have had a handful of conversations reminiscing about the things we loved about her mom. During one call, she told me her mom had kept a file folder of Koerber memories and wondered if she could give it to me. At the time, I wondered what could possibly be in the folder.

When I got my hands on it, I discovered news clippings talking about my adoption awareness efforts. There was one of my son’s first soccer pictures. There was the Gazette article about my husband and brother-in-law’s wacky trend of exchanging the same fruit cake each holiday season (yes, the exact same, rock hard holiday fruit cake). There were tons of photos of my daughter’s younger years. And, tucked inside the front pocket of the folder was a handwritten note from Joycie’s daughter. It read:

“This is the end of the pictures in mom’s ‘friends/church’ folder. The Koerber photos continued, but they are now in the family albums.”

This woman I met by chance became woven into the fabric of our family.

Joycie, if you can hear me up there, the feeling is mutual, my friend. The feeling is mutual. ✻

NOTE: On Sept. 15, Billings will be hosting the Walk to End Alzheimer’s through the Alzheimer’s Association. It’s their largest event to raise money and awareness. For more, visit act.alz.org and then click on Find a Walk Near You. ✻

Julie

Saturday, September 14, 2:00 p.m.

WESTPARK VILLAGE

Ladies of all ages are invited to join us for an afternoon of elegance and delight as we celebrate the essence of royalty in the company of friends. Indulge in a selection of scones, savories, and sweets fit for a queen. Enjoy the ambiance of live music, creating a regal atmosphere that will have you feeling like royalty.

meet the STAFF

Michele Konzen Sales Executive

gayle smith Sales Executive / Writer

melanie Fabrizius Design

daniel sullivan Photography

Terry Perkins Sales Executive

trish scozzari Sales Executive / Writer

Nicole Burtell Distribution

ed kemmick Copy Editor / Writer

War Bricks War Bricks War Bricks

WHERE HISTORY AND FUN MEET

written by LAURA BAILEY

photography by DANIEL SULLIVAN

THE DRYDEN KIDS — David, Daniel and Emilie — love history, and like most kids, they also enjoy building LEGO sets. So they were thrilled to discover COBI, a European company that’s similar to LEGO. The company designs and sells building sets that have a historical twist. COBI introduced the Dryden kids to building sets for tanks, airplanes, Jeeps and World War II vehicles, as well as modern aircraft, battleships and historical architecture.

“Every single birthday and Christmas from then on they wanted kits from COBI,” their mother, Karine, says.

Those COBI sets, which bring history to life, have since sparked a thriving family business. It all started with a homeschool experiment that Karine and her husband, William, hoped would teach their children about business.

“We wanted to teach the kids the value of hard work and how to be good citizens,” Karine says.

bigger and bigger,” says Emilie, 12.

WE WANT TO HAVE A PLACE WHERE PEOPLE CAN COME AND SEE THE SETS BUILT AND HOW WELL-BUILT AND GOOD QUALITY THEY ARE.

Now, the Drydens work out of a warehouse and retail space off 80th Street West. Their hours vary, but with a phone call, the Drydens are happy to open their doors for customers. Inside the store is an impressive inventory of building sets that range from WWI’s Red Baron and Sopwith Camel to F-18 and F-22 fighter jets. Sets also include almost every battleship and tank that’s been produced since WWII, including the USS Missouri, which has 2,655 pieces, and the Tiger 131 Tank, which has more than 8,000 pieces. COBI also offers Airforce One, NASA’s space shuttle and Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner.

— Karine Dryden

In 2020, just before the Covid shutdown, the Drydens launched War Bricks, a company designed to resell COBI building sets. The first year was challenging, but every year since, the business has grown.

“We started this in a spare room in our basement then it took

“It’s not in competition with LEGO because LEGO doesn’t do any military or war-related sets,” Karine says.

David, Daniel and Emily spend their free time building sets for the store, so customers can see what the sets look like before buying them.

“People are always surprised at the quality,” Karine says.

over our whole basement and then we moved it to the garage, and it took over the garage. It just started getting

COBI bricks are compatible with LEGO bricks and are highly collectible among history buffs and brick builders alike. The price point compares to LEGO, with most sets averaging about $60$80. The larger sets, like the 8,000-piece Tiger 131 Tank, can run up to $650. The little Cessna is $20, and mini sets are about $12.

All the sets are officially licensed, and War Bricks sells more than 300 different sets.

Daniel, 15, is the IT guy and maintains the company’s computer system. David, 16, handles most of the marketing and social media promotion, and they all pitch in on shipping, which demands the most time. More than 95 percent of War Bricks sales are online.

“We really learned as we went,” Karine says. “I was completely clueless about retail, but it’s been good and it’s growing.”

The Drydens learned the ins and outs of business together as they went.

“There’s a lot more to running a business than buying and selling,” David says.

Rapid growth has been their greatest challenge to date, but Karine says it turned out to be a blessing when her husband left his job.

“This hobby business became our bread and butter and is putting food on the table and paying the bills,” Karine says.

In addition to online sales and their retail space, the Drydens also set up pop-up shops at airshows, homeschool fairs and other conventions that fit with their business plan.

“We also want to reach locals here in Billings,” Karine says. “We want to have a place where people can come and see the sets built and how well-built and good quality they are.”

In the past, they’ve held “Bricks and Coffee” meetups to get COBI fans together to talk bricks and history. They hope to start regular gatherings since they have a comfy space and their store is ready for War Bricks fans.

“We love hospitality, and we enjoy it when people come here and

COBI BRICKS ARE COMPATIBLE WITH LEGO BRICKS & ARE HIGHLY

COLLECTIBLE AMONG HISTORY BUFFS & BRICK BUILDERS ALIKE.

enjoy the place,” Karine says.

What started out as a homeschool experiment certainly provided a learning experience for David, Daniel and Emilie. David is taking classes at MSU-Billings and plans on a career in the military or law enforcement.

“I’ve learned business skills from this and that’s always going to be an option for me in the future,” David says.

Daniel and Emily say they’ve learned the value of teamwork, organization and good customer service.

“We wanted to teach our kids to work, and they got it. It’s truly a family business and we all work hard at it,” Karine says.

While the Dryden kids do work at War Bricks, their focus, at their parents’ insistence, is still their education. School comes first, War Bricks is second.

“I don’t have to keep them busy,” Karine says. “They keep themselves busy, and they have time for school and pursuing the things they love.” ✻

CHECK IT OUT: www.warbricks.com

LAURA BAILEY, writer

Remembering Remembering Remembering Shari Shari

GROUP FUNDRAISING TO GIVE CLEVENGER PARK A FACELIFT AND HONOR THE WOMAN BEHIND IT

written by JULIE KOERBER photography by DANIEL SULLIVAN

ONE SUNNY EVENING in the first week of June, Clevenger Park in the Heights was abuzz with activity. Parents set up camp chairs all over the field to cheer on their girls as the Little League softball season drew to a close. It was the Tournament of Champions, a chance for teams to punch their tickets to the state championship.

Off to the corner of one of the fields, former umpire Mike Toth watched the action. As a member of the Heights National Little League board, he’s on a mission to, first, revamp and bring new life to these softball fields and, second, make sure the community knows who this field is named after — Shari Clevenger, a mom who fought to bring girls fast pitch softball to Billings in the 1970s.

“Little League International at the time had no organized league for girls,” Mike says. “So, Shari took it upon herself to get sponsors, to approach the school to supply the fields, to get coaches and then get girls to join a team. It was all volunteer and it was crazy. She did it all on her own.”

In the words of Shari’s daughter, Conni Zoellner, “She stood up for the girls so that they could have a team. I think that’s pretty cool. It helped put us on the map in Billings."

Shari named the league the Heights Softball Association, and while games started solely in the Heights in 1971, eventually teams started forming citywide. It wasn’t until 1974, however, that Little League International would add softball to the mix.

“In essence, she was ahead of her time,” Mike says.

Growing up in the Heights, Mike had played baseball at Clevenger. It wasn’t until he started umping, however, that he wondered how the park got its name.

“I knew there was a reason that it was named Clevenger, but I didn’t know the whole story,” he says. Being a private investigator, his natural curiosity got the best of him.

SHE STOOD UP FOR THE GIRLS SO THAT THEY COULD HAVE A TEAM. I THINK THAT’S PRETTY COOL. IT HELPED PUT US ON THE MAP IN BILLINGS.

“I pulled all the old news articles and saw the pictures of Shari. I started doing research and thought, ‘wow.’

— Conni Zoellner

Shari Clevenger

teacher, a Boy Scout leader, the vice president of the PTA and an involved member of her church. She was 35 years old in 1975 when a drunk driver plowed head-on into the family vehicle on US 87 on the Fourth of July. Shari was killed in the crash.

Jeannine, Rene & Cynthia

SHARI CLEVENGER'S FORMER PLAYERS

Mike Toth

I was shocked. Even the city didn’t have a clue about the name,” Mike says.

Shari was the mother of four kids, and by all accounts she was a go-getter. Besides coaching two softball teams, she was a dance

Within days of her death, the players on her team approached the school district, which owned the softball fields. They wanted the fields dedicated in Shari’s honor, and it was officially named Clevenger Park.

“It was a very traumatic time in our lives,” says Shari’s daughter, Lori Christianson. “My dad was just coming home from the hospital. My brother was still recovering. We were all a little bit numb at that point. It wasn’t long after she passed that they did all of this.”

On July 19, 2025, Clevenger Park will celebrate 50 years in the community.

“We should be honoring her memory,” Mike says.

A few months ago, Mike hit the ground running, trying to make community connections as he fashioned a plan to give the fields a major facelift. It was evident to him the park needed it.

“They are very small and unsafe,” Mike says as he points to the aging wooden bleachers. The renovation plan calls for metal bleachers with additional seating and safety rails.

“There’s no shade, so it would be our dream to create shade with some awnings.” There are also plans for a new backstop. “The backstop now is too short and the welding is coming apart,” Mike says, adding that people who sit in the bleachers are in danger of being hit by foul balls because of the fence’s low height. The new plan calls for netting to be installed to protect spectators. Valley Federal Credit Union has already agreed to pitch in to improve the dugouts.

“They will have a helmet and cubby hole for them to hang their bags and jackets on,” Mike says. “And, they will have a nice bench instead of a couple of boards set on cinder blocks.”

Heights National Little League

good playing spaces,” says Rene Beyl, who played on one of Shari’s softball teams. “My daughter played on those fields and now she’s in her late 30s. Through that, I paid it forward by coaching soft ball,” Rene says. “I played for 30-some years. It was exciting to look back now and say, ‘Wow, this is what Shari created.’”

HELP US REJUVENATE CLEVENGER

PARK FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS

Jeannine Brant echos Rene’s thoughts. She says softball brings memories of Shari and her team, “Hager Brother’s Eggs,” and of riding across town on her bike to get to practice every day, and even a state championship title.

CELEBRATE SHARI CLEVENGER'S LEGACY!

In 1975, Clevenger Park was named to honor Shari Clevenger, a true pillar of our community whose untimely death left a void in our hearts Shari, a visionary leader and advocate for youth sports, especially girls' softball, founded the first Heights Softball Association, championing equal opportunities for all

Next year, 2025, marks the 50th anniversary of Clevenger Park, named in memory of Shari Clevenger

“It was really exciting because it was just the beginning of girl’s fast pitch softball,” Jeannine says, adding that for her it was a family affair. Her dad helped out with the team and her mom was often the scorekeeper at games. “What Shari started we are still enjoying today.”

“It’s just time to freshen it up,” Rene says, “and do better for the league and for the girls.” ✻

We are dedicating this year to raising funds to ensure the park is rejuvenated by July 2025 for its 50th-year celebration However, time has taken its toll, and now we need your help to restore it to its former glory and safety Our goals include upgrading the dangerously short backstop, providing shade for the bleachers, and renovating the outdated dugouts

Join us in ensuring that Shari’s spirit lives on by making Clevenger Park a safe, fun, and engaging community space

Support the legacy of Clevenger Park

SCAN THE QR CODE TO DONATE DONATE NOW

Scan the QR code to donate and become a part of this noble cause! Nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization.

Thank you for supporting Clevenger Park's legacy of joy, safety, and community spirit!

Delivery Delivery DeliverySpecial Special

DOLLY PARTON’S IMAGINATION LIBRARY IS GIFTING BOOKS TO YOUNGSTERS UP TO 5

written by LAURA BAILEY

IN MAILBOXES ACROSS MONTANA, from the most distant outposts to city centers, something special waits for the state’s littlest residents. Books! Thanks to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, thousands of children across the state are receiving one free book a month until their fifth birthday.

The Dolly Parton Imagination Library is a nationwide initiative funded, in part, by Dolly’s Dollywood Foundation. Its goal is to inspire a love of reading in early childhood. Signing up is easy. Parents of children from birth to age 5 can enroll online to receive the books for free.

“This program is allowing families to get their books where they are at, even in the most rural places in Montana,” says Teal Whitaker, the statewide outreach coordinator for the Imagination Library.

All the books are carefully chosen by early childhood literacy experts and include such classics as “The Little Engine that Could,” “Corduroy” and “The Very Hungry Caterpillar,” as well as “Coat of Many Colors,” penned by Dolly Parton. The last book each child receives is “Look Out Kindergarten, Here I Come!” Several books, at least two a year, are bilingual, and new titles are added annually.

homes, and others don’t have the means to purchase children’s books. Parton, who grew in a home where money was scarce, was one of those children. Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library aims to change that. If a baby is enrolled at birth, by the time the child turns 5, he or she will have a library of 60 books, all their own.

A year ago in June, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library expanded to include all of Montana’s 56 counties. The initiative was spearheaded by Susan Gianforte, Montana’s first lady, and funded, in part, by the Treasure State Foundation.

“There’s been a lot of research into the ways children’s brains are developing in these early years and the role that books play in that development,” Teal says. “This is creating a foundation for future literary success.”

Research suggests that many families don’t have books in their

“It is exciting to see how Imagination Library continues to spread across Montana and inspire a love of reading in our state’s youngest readers,” Susan Gianforte says. “Our local partners have done a fantastic job helping families get enrolled and spreading the word that this program is available to all Montana children up to age 5.”

Prior to Gianforte’s initiative, approximately 9,500 of the state’s 24,000 eligible children were enrolled. That number has grown significantly in the last year. More than 63 local partners have stepped up statewide to sponsor Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in their communities.

“We just want to get books into the hands of kids,” Teal says.

Local sponsors are key, she adds. They help fund the program and also promote it in their community. To be a community sponsor, the funder needs to be a 501(c)3 nonprofit. In a good number of communities, Friends of the Library groups are the local partners. Civic groups like Rotary, Lions Club, Elks Club and Knights

of Columbus also provide funding in some areas. Nonprofits like United Way and Boys and Girls Clubs have also taken up the cause. Each book costs about $2.30, and local partners share the cost 50/50 with the Dollywood Foundation.

Currently, Yellowstone County needs a local partner to support the program financially and promote it. Until that partner is found, the Treasure State Foundation is supporting the program in Yellowstone County.

Carbon County was one of the first communities to adopt the Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in 2017. It’s now funded by the Red Lodge Carnegie Library’s Friends of the Library, as well as Friends of the Library groups from Bridger and Joliet. Over the years, Rotary has helped, and so has the Red Lodge Elks Club. Red Lodge Carnegie Library Director Jodie Moore has been the program’s administrator since

the start. She estimates that about 200 Carbon County children are benefiting with books from Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.

Moore noted that in Carbon County, not all families are able to visit their local library as often as they would like. Because the books arrive in the mail, no child is left out no matter where they live. Perhaps best of all, the books are addressed to each child.

“When they’re old enough to recognize that it’s their name on the book, it’s incredibly special,” Moore says. ✻

ENROLL

A CHILD TODAY!

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library provides free books for all children under age 5.

Enroll your child or grandchild online at imaginationlibrary.com

scholarship winner 2024 Bonding Bonding

Over Books Over Books Over Books

FORMER SKYVIEW HIGH STUDENT SPARKED A PASSION IN OTHERS FOR READING

written by JULIE KOERBER

photography by DANIEL SULLIVAN

Editor’s Note: Reese Pfeifle is the winner of YVW’s Empowered Women Scholarship. The scholarship sought out a student who shines scholastically, has character, leadership and community spirit. Reese received a $1,000 scholarship to start her freshman year at Montana State University Billings.

ONE OF REESE PFEIFLE’S favorite things to do is get lost in the pages of a good book. She’s got a knack for picking fantasy fiction novels with rich storylines and plots that draw readers in.

“I’ve always loved to read,” she says with a huge smile. Her love for books came into clearer focus after she decided to step back from playing both basketball and soccer for Skyview High School.

“Junior year, I actually had a pretty draining soccer season and I kind of lost myself,” Reese says. “I remember sitting in my college intro to public speaking class talking to my friend and I said, ‘Maybe we should start a book club?’” Her teacher overheard and not only encouraged Reese but helped her go through the channels to make the club a reality.

“I had to get it passed by student council,” she says. By senior year, Reese was named president of the club and was looking forward to bonding with her classmates over their favorite reads during the club’s inaugural year.

“She was the president, but she didn’t want to be called the president,” says Karen Mayhall, Skyview’s librarian, who was also the club’s adviser. “She wanted to be called monarch. It sounded a little fancier than just president. I thought that was super cute.”

One of Reese’s missions was to draw kids from all walks of life together.

“I wanted the club to empower students to speak out a little bit about what they are passionate about,” Reese says. “Because you have the athletes, you have the smart kids, you have your animé kids. The people who like to read were just considered nerds. We’re not nerds. We’re just people who are passionate about books. It's not weird, it's cool, just like sports are cool, you know?”

Once the club started rolling, it became clear to Karen Mayhall that Reese wanted a little something more.

“Her character is helping people. She feels a strong pull to do that,” Karen says.

Reese ended up pitching the idea to have the club visit young readers — students in first and second grade — to read to them and get them excited about cracking open a good book. The club ended up doing just that at both Beartooth and Sandstone Elementary Schools.

“It was just so empowering to walk in and see all of their little faces light up,” Reese says. “They all knew us by name and were so excited to read their books to us or have us read to them.”

February is “I Love to Read” month, and Karen says Reese took

the time to try to make it fun for her elementary kids.

“She had all these activities set up. She made a QR code and then broke the teachers into groups and with that QR code (and some clues), the kids could try to guess what their teacher’s favorite book was,” Karen says.

As Reese now looks to college, she’s thinking of studying to be a mental health counselor.

“I just like being able to talk about things and find the root problem,” she says. “Junior year was pretty draining and put me in a difficult spot, somewhere I wasn’t used to being. I wish someone could have tried to help me through it, talk to me and help me validate those feelings. I want to be that kind of person for someone else.”

Reese credits her mom for giving her strength during that time.

“She taught me how to stand up for myself and do it with grace,” Reese says. “I’m very grateful for that.”

Knowing that all of her club members were freshman and sophomore girls, one thing Reese doesn’t have to worry about is whether or not her club will continue.

“She was an amazing monarch and has left a legacy that will continue at Skyview with her girls,” Karen says.

Reese is now looking forward to a new chapter, one that can sharpen her desire to help others.

“I hope that I can find something that motivates me and makes me feel like I am making a difference,” she says. “Even if it is just one person, I want to make a difference.” ✻

School Children School Children

IT WAS WHILE VISITING with a friend who was packing snacks for her kids that Jenny Stovall first began thinking about all the area school children who don’t have access to healthy snacks.

“What do they eat when they’re hungry?” she asked herself. “Where are they getting their nourishment?”

That question would bother her until she began to think about solutions. With the cost of groceries skyrocketing and many families resorting to cheap, unhealthy snacks, Jenny knew she could provide something better.

Her life experience — growing up in eastern Montana, operating a cattle ranch and a feedlot with her husband, Turk, and raising her own children — prepared her for what she believes is something that God laid on her heart.

With her agricultural background, her experience working with ConAgra Foods and her dual degrees in marketing and animal science, Jenny’s solution was to develop a protein-packed flavorful beef stick.

“God provided me with an opportunity to make a difference,” she says. “I knew I could develop a sustainable, flavorful, healthy snack for children that isn’t filled with sugar and starch.”

Jenny reached out to Kelly McCandless, the executive director of the Education Foundation for Billings Public Schools, who introduced her to BackPack Meals, a program that provides meals to food-insecure elementary students, and the Teen Pantry Program, which serves middle- and high-school students.

Billings, dozens of boxes of beef sticks sit ready to be distributed.

“The beauty is they don’t need to be refrigerated,” Jenny says. “We don’t have to worry if it sits in a backpack for a few days.”

Since launching in December 2023, BeefFit has continually provided 1,000 sticks a month for Billings SD2 students. Jenny’s goal is 3,000 a week. When that’s met, she’d like to reach out to schools beyond Billings.

“I know we can provide more,” she says. “I just need more help.”

Between the cattle donated by Stovall Ranches, connections with several other feedlot, and donations from other ranchers, the cattle are being provided. Currently BeefFit has a standing order with Stillwater Packers to process four to five animals every month, and they are prepared to accommodate larger orders. The big concentration right now is getting assistance with the processing fees.

“That’s the biggest cost I have,” she explains.

Mission:

Mission:

“TO PROVIDE PROTEIN-PACKED BEEF STICKS TO KIDS THAT NEED A NUTRIENT-DENSE HEALTHY SNACK.”

BackPack Meals provides four meals and two snacks for more than 500 elementary school children in Billings, every Friday afternoon, to eat over the weekend. The Teen Pantry Program offers basic meal items to another 500 students. BeefFit sticks are given to both.

“There’s no reason why we can’t provide for our kids,” Jenny says passionately. “There are hungry children in every school in Billings and every school beyond. We have to do better!”

The Stovalls started donating beef for processing, zeroing in on cattle that don’t make the expected weight and won’t grade out choice — which are perfect for beef sticks because the meat is lean — and Stillwater Packing in Columbus came up with a recipe for the beef sticks. Soon, Jenny’s idea was being made and packaged.

With the inspiration from her good friends, Kerry and Yurii Hanson, who own CrossFit, she came up with the idea of BeefFit. The play on words and the logo, which is an image of an animated bull posing as a CrossFit athlete, symbolize the healthiness of her snack.

“It’s playful and eye-catching,” Jenny says. “We love it!”

In the corner of the family room at the Stovall home south of

Jenny sells the sticks to SD2 at her cost, using the retail side of her business to help defer costs. For every four sticks she sells retail, she donates one to the school district.

“I’d love to pick up more quantity orders from companies, or sponsorships,” she says. “It would be amazing to use the sources in our valley to feed the children in our valley.”

Each stick is individually shrinkwrapped and offers 8 grams of protein in a one-ounce size. They retail for $1.15.

“The difference between our sticks and others is that we use the entire beef carcass. Most beef sticks are made from the trim, so our quality and flavor are much better,” Jenny adds.

Offering her sticks to the school programs at cost, along with selling them retail, has her program breaking even. To get more beef sticks in the hands of more children, she hopes to attract more bulk retail sales or donations.

“I’m just a Montana girl feeding Montana kids the best Montana product we have,” Jenny says. “And I’d like more kids to have that.”

TO DONATE towards the cost of BeefFit sticks to area school children, email Jenny at: beeffitsticks@gmail.com

CYDNEY HOEFLE, writer

A fourth generation Montanan, Cydney was raised on a ranch on the banks of the Yellowstone River where an appreciation of the outdoors was fostered. She and her husband raised three children in Billings and are now the proud grandparents of three. The best part of any of her days is time spent with Jesus, family, friends, a good book or capturing someone’s story in words.

Feeding the Feeding the Feeding the Medical Pipeline Medical Pipeline Medical Pipeline

INSTRUCTOR COMBINES LOVE FOR MEDICINE, EDUCATION

written by LINDA HALSTEAD-ACHARYA photography by DANIEL SULLIVAN

KATIE MEIER was on track to become a physician when a detour to Africa altered her plans. Though she’s not practicing medicine, she’s impacting the future of Montana’s medical community. As the instructor of Medical Careers and EMT courses at Billings Career Center, she has inspired countless young Montanans to pursue careers in the medical field.

Katie — “Ms. Meier” to her class — loves to see her former students succeed in their chosen fields. She’s got a wall full of their photos, reflecting the lives she’s touched and the careers she’s nurtured. She also works with a broader goal in mind: to strengthen and sustain Montana’s health care community.

“I don’t know if people realize how dire our health care industry is,” she says. “Fifty-two of 56 of Montana’s counties are medically underserved. And 48 percent of Montana’s nurses plan to retire or leave nursing in the next five years.”

Some of Katie’s alumni are on trajectories to become doctors, dentists and veterinarians. Others save lives as EMTs, pursue research in the lab and care for the elderly in our local nursing homes. Not only have so many found success in the medical field, but countless among them have adopted her philosophy of “paying it forward.”

This August marks Katie’s 10th year at the Career Center. During that time, roughly 800 young Montanans have taken her courses. She teaches biology and anatomy, all the while emphasizing relevance by setting up rotations and opportunities in real-world situations. She also models professionalism and exemplifies the value of networking.

Glancing around Katie’s classroom, you’ll see mannequins lying prone on stretchers, waiting for students to practice their hands-on skills. If you look up, you might also notice a female mannequin’s head peering down from the ceiling. The oddity is the remnant of a practical joke, evidence that Katie’s class is not only rigorous but fun.

As Katie talks, she speaks directly and at rapid-fire speed, as if wanting to pack in as much information as limited time allows. She pours boundless energy into her students — whether they choose paths that require years of higher education or skills they can learn on the job.

“They might come in with pre-conceived ideas,” she says. “It’s fun to see their reflections after (a rotation).”

Knowing that Montana’s needs extend far beyond Billings, she has broadened her reach as the statewide leader of HOSA, an international organization somewhat similar to 4-H or FFA, that targets students interested in medicine. In that role, she shares her passions with hundreds more high school students each year, many of whom gather for the organization’s annual spring competition.

“It really blends with what we are doing in the classroom,” she says.

Katie, a Great Falls native and outdoors enthusiast, changed her career path after graduating from Gonzaga University with a degree in exercise physiology. Rather than apply immediately to

medical school, she decided to take a gap year to follow Gonzaga’s philosophy of giving back to the community.

She signed up for the Peace Corps and soon found herself stationed in Zambia, living with a host family in a mud hut that had no running water. It was an eight-hour bike ride to the nearest fellow Peace Corps volunteer.

“It was pretty wild,” she says. “I had never even been on a com-

mercial airplane at that point.”

It was in Zambia — between teaching and working with adults on a sustainable aqua-culture project — that she discovered her love for teaching.

“That’s where I learned how empowering education could be,” she says.

It was also there, as she collaborated with other Peace Corps volunteers, that she came to fully appreciate the value of networking.

“You learned to tap into other people who knew more than you,” she says. “It taught me to be resourceful.”

The life lessons she learned at Gonzaga and Africa prepared her well when she returned to Montana and took a teaching position in Augusta.

“I thought I’d be there one year,” she says. “It sucked me in for six years.”

“I didn’t really expect to find that in Billings,” she says. “But I did.”

The move launched a new chapter for Katie. Not only does her job meld her passions for medicine and education, but her experience in the Magic City has strengthened her resolve to give back. During board meetings or over a cup of coffee, she’s become an expert at fostering connections with the entire healthcare community.

“You don’t have to do it all alone,” she says. “I’m able to provide not only my expertise but access to so many other people.”

I DON’T KNOW IF PEOPLE

REALIZE

HOW DIRE OUR HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY IS. FIFTY-TWO OF 56 OF MONTANA’S COUNTIES ARE MEDICALLY UNDERSERVED. AND 48 PERCENT OF MONTANA’S NURSES PLAN TO RETIRE OR LEAVE NURSING IN THE NEXT FIVE YEARS.

— Katie Meier

Though she loved her time there, she sought new horizons and left Augusta to work for GEAR UP, a program aimed at assisting struggling schools. Yet, the position was too far removed from the classroom. So, when the medical careers position opened up at Billings Career Center, she applied with a bit of trepidation. She wasn’t sure Montana’s biggest city would offer the sense of community she had come to crave.

Katie relies on those connections — from the hospitals to fire departments to the Montana Bioscience Alliance and even Big Sky Economic Development — to link students with a wide variety of opportunities and to update herself on local trends and needs.

She’s constantly impressed to witness so many parties collaborating for the good of Montana’s medical field. She’s also been overwhelmed by the support she’s received, whether it be to place a student in a rotation or to request a letter of recommendation.

“There’s just this bank of people,” she says. “I’ve never not had a request met with an enthusiastic ‘yes.’”

Such connections cement Katie’s belief in the power of mentorship. She stresses the far-reaching impacts of even a brief job

shadow or a 20-minute talk by a professional.

“That one person doesn’t just influence the lives of the ones right in front of them, but that investment gets paid forward and compounded as those students go on to influence others,” she says.

Lauren Larson, one of Katie’s — “Ms. Meier’s,” she clarifies — former students is one of those who perpetuate that cycle. Lauren took Katie’s class as a senior at West High, went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from Rocky Mountain College and topped it off by graduating from the school’s physician assistant program in 2023. Today she works as a PA with the gynecologic oncology group at Intermountain Health. Taking Katie’s philosophy to heart, she has already mentored medical career students in the operating room.

Lauren describes her former teacher as passionate, driven and “oh, so kind.”

“She’s a friend to all of her students and she loves to celebrate her alumni as they go off into the world and accomplish great things,” Lauren says.

Energized by her current role, Katie hopes her efforts make a difference in her students’ lives as well as for the future

of Montana’s medical community. She loves to follow updates on her classes’ Instagram group and she feels especially rewarded to see so many of them — like Lauren — deciding to stay in Montana.

“They say, ‘This place has invested in me. I see myself as working and developing a career here’,” Katie says.

As Katie reflects, she mentions how her core objectives align so well with the Career Center’s motto: rigor, relevance and relationships.

“It’s a privilege getting to be a part of it all” she says, referring to her students, her partnerships and the unwritten future. “Seeing the fruits of that, of staying in touch — that’s my reward.” ✻

LINDA HALSTEADACHARYA, writer

A long-time resident of the Columbus area, Linda Halstead-Acharya enjoys spending time and learning from her rural neighbors. She has a degree in wildlife biology but for the past 25 years has pursued a career sharing other people's stories in print. She loves riding, writing and traveling.

Figure It Out Figure It Out Figure It Out

INNOVATIVE TEAM BUILDING HELPS STUDENTS TACKLE TOUGH ISSUES AT SCHOOL

WITH PAINT SPATTERED smocks and vibrant canvases covered in color, it’s easy to see how high school students were having fun, but as it turns out, there’s more to the messy scene than meets the eye. The teens are sparking positive change in their schools through a program called Figure It Out, developed by Karen Grosz, founder of Canvas Creek Team Building and YVW Contributor. She believes that when students lead the charge for change, the results stick.

“The reason I started Figure It Out is because everybody comes into our schools to tell students what not to do instead of what to do,” Karen says.

Figure It Out is for student leaders. Adults who join the mix include educators and administrators as well as leaders in the community, who volunteer to join the fun.

“I knew if I could get these three groups together, we could have big conversations,” Karen says.

They start the session with a fun but challenging exercise: To create a painting in teams of four in total silence.

“They are like cave men. There’s a lot of grunting and pointing,” Karen says.

In the process, students build a strong connection with one another. They become a clan, as Karen puts it.

Karen Grosz

“If we can form that powerful of a connection in just a few hours, that’s going to empower these kids to have those difficult conversations,” she says.

After the painting session, students are ready to go deeper and identify the challenges in their schools, and they aren’t shy about what’s going on. Drug use, poor attendance, drop-out rates, bullying and suicide readily come up in these conversations.

“Everybody just throws it out there and is incredibly honest,” Karen says.

Then, the adults take a back seat, and the teens decide on a challenge they want to tackle during the rest of the session. Their goal is to come up with a rock-solid solution before the end of the second day. Then, they approach the adults in the room and ask for support. In every instance, the adults have said, “Yes! Absolutely!” Karen says.

Next, Karen and the school staff identify an expert to discuss the problem and potential solutions with the students. The students take it from there to formulate the solution they believe will work best for their school. Then, they run their idea by school staff for the final OK and further fine tuning.

“It’s up to the kids. We let them carry this out,” Karen says. “I’m just a gray-haired old lady. They’re not going to listen to me. They’re going to listen to one another. The project is completely student-driven. The staff just comes behind to support it.”

Figure It Out summits were held last spring in nine high schools

throughout the state, including all three Billings public high schools plus the Billings Career Center.

THE REASON I STARTED FIGURE IT OUT IS BECAUSE EVERYBODY COMES INTO OUR SCHOOLS TO TELL STUDENTS WHAT NOT TO DO INSTEAD OF WHAT TO DO.

— Karen Grosz

At Senior High, Keatin Hertz, now 19, and his fellow Figure It Out participants identified student-teacher relationships as a point of concern. Working with the school staff, they came up with the “Thank a Bronc” project — basically a good old-fashioned thank you note — and implemented it immediately.

“The idea was to provide everyone with the ability to say how much you appreciate them,” Keatin says. “Teachers could give them to students, and students could give them to teachers. After receiving them from teachers and sending them to teachers, it absolutely improved my relationship with them.”

Keatin says that for him, the best part of Figure It Out was watching his fellow students blossom throughout the day.

“There were students who walked in and didn’t want to share a lot about themselves. By the end of the day, they were sharing and leading the discussion,” Keatin says. “Watching these quiet kids turn into leaders was definitely a cool thing. Just this one day

can change kids, and they go on to want to be a part of change in their school.”

Sofia Rieger, 16, was just as Keatin described. When she joined student council at Billings Skyview High, she didn’t know what to expect and was a little unsure of her place in the group. After a Figure it Out workshop last spring, she’s all smiles and high-fives in the hallway with her student council pals, but that’s not all. With her help, the group tackled some heavy issues at the school and came up with a plan to implement solutions to those problems this fall.

“It really brought the group together,” Sofia says.

At Skyview, Sofia and her fellow student council members identified two problems. The first was that they saw a pattern of

students not caring for the school. Students threw trash in the hallways and parking lot, and there were reports of vandalism in the bathrooms. Students just didn’t seem to care about the school building and grounds. They were also concerned about students who had increasingly let their grades slide. Again, the students just didn’t seem to care.

To solve those problems, they came with a plan to start a student-to-student tutoring program when school starts and a plan to raise awareness about the trash and vandalism and provide opportunities to engage students in cleanup efforts. Sofia and her student council are excited to see how their initiatives work out this fall.

“It was not only beneficial for student council, it turned out to

By Karen Grosz

QUIET LEADERSHIP

will help you discover your capacity to operate as a Quiet Leader for yourself, your team and your community. www.quietleadership.group

Order your copy today on Amazon!

I’VE KNOWN FOR A WHILE THAT THIS NEEDED TO BE IN SCHOOLS BECAUSE I TRULY BELIEVE THAT CONNECTION IS PREVENTION.

— Karen Grosz

be good for the whole school too,” Sofia says.

Karen says that what happened at Senior High and Skyview High are just two of the success stories. At high schools across the state, many student-led mentor programs have come out of Figure It Out workshops, and one group came up with the idea of “happy hallways” to boost student morale. One day a week, music is played in the hallways, students do high-fives as they pass, and the staff hands out candy. A student said, “If every day was like this, I’d come to school early.”

All these ideas have come to life thanks to the strong bonds made between students in the Figure It Out sessions.

“I’ve known for a while that this needed to be in schools because I truly believe that connection is prevention,” Karen says.

When students have a connection with one another, they find common ground and they are able to have open conversations about serious topics because they are all equals, and they support one another to make good choices. It is, in a way, positive peer pressure, Karen says. Students with strong connections with their peers are less likely to drop out, abuse drugs and alcohol, engage in risky behaviors or attempt suicide.

Figure It Out had been in the works for a while. Karen has been involved with the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards Camp for 15

years. At the once-a-year camp, Karen provides a team-building workshop similar to Figure It Out. That experience led to her decision to take the program to high schools.

When the program was ready, Karen thought, why not go to the top? As a result, she paid a visit to Elsie Arntzen, the Montana superintendent of schools. She oversees public K-12 school districts across the state, influencing policy and programs. Elsie jumped behind Figure It Out and provided funding for nine events at high schools statewide.

“She and her team have been incredibly supportive,” Karen says. “They identified schools that would be open to it and schools that needed it.”

Additional funding to expand Figure It Out has come from foundations, civic groups and businesses. School districts can also use professional development funds for Figure It Out as well. With this success behind her, Karen is planning more student summits in the 2024-25 school year.

When it comes to the future, Karen eschews the idea that youth are disengaged. From her point of view, we’ll all soon be in good hands.

“These kids are not tuning us out like we think,” she says. “They are intelligent and seeking to be a solution in this world. Every time I’ve looked at the youth in the world I’ve had hope, but when I look at these kids, I have even more.” ✻

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN A FIGURE IT OUT SESSION AT YOUR SCHOOL, or would like to sponsor a Figure It Out even in your community, contact Karen at Karen@canvascreekteams.com.

Nina Hernandez Nina Hernandez

HELPING KIDS FOR 12 YEARS, ‘NO MATTER WHAT’

written by ED KEMMICK photography by DANIEL SULLIVAN

Other kids were still with their biological families but were simi larly adrift, dealing with various traumas by receiving help from one agency after another, or becoming entangled in the juvenile justice system.

“I kept wondering to myself: there has to be something more. There has to be something more innova tive,” Nina says.

That something came along a cou ple of years ago, when multiple friends began reaching out to her about a new organization that was coming to Billings and was look ing for an executive director. Nina started reading up on Friends of the Children, a nonprofit that was founded in Portland, Oregon, in 1993 and has since opened 32 chap ters around the country.

dren. They work with the children one-on-one, as well as with their families and caregivers and in the schools.

THE MOST STRIKING FINDING CAME FROM A HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL ASSOCIATION STUDY, WHICH ESTIMATED THAT FOR EVERY $1 INVESTED IN FRIENDS OF THE CHILDREN, THE COMMUNITY SAVES $7 IN SOCIAL COSTS. HELPING ONE CHILD SAVES THE COMMUNITY MORE THAN $900,000, OVER THE LIFE OF THE CHILD.

“It just completely spoke to me,” Nina says. “It was something completely different.” Better yet, she says, Friends of the Children seemed to have developed a model that was potentially system-changing. She was hired as executive director in the fall of 2022, and Friends of the Children-Eastern Montana began offering its services in the spring of 2023.

Friends of the Children works by identifying pre-kindergarten children who would most benefit from the program, then offering them one-on-one mentoring for three to four hours a week, all year long, until they graduate from high school.

That’s what was missing in other child-welfare agencies and organizations, Nina says. Most organizations, especially those

Another crucial aspect of the organization is that it constantly subjects itself to internal and external research and evaluation. Friends work with the children four days a week and spend most of their Fridays inputting data. They record every interaction with children and their caregivers, tracking the progress of their young charges toward a wide variety of goals and “core assets,” including problem-solving, perseverance, hope and self-management.

Externally, Friends of the Children has been the focus of academic researchers from Stanford, the University of Washington and the Harvard Business School Associa-

In long-term studies of people who had been with Friends of the Children through high school graduation, researchers found that 92 percent of them enrolled in post-secondary education, served their country or entered the workforce. Eighty-three percent of them graduated from high school, 93 percent avoided involvement in the juvenile justice system, and 98 percent avoided becoming parents during their teens.

And when looking at those last three metrics, consider that researchers also found that among the parents of these graduates, 50 percent didn’t make it through high school, 60 percent had

HER PERSONALITY, HER DRIVE, WHERE SHE WORKED BEFORE, AND REALLY, SHE SEEMED LIKE SHE REALLY CARED ABOUT KIDS. — Bill Underriner

been involved in the criminal justice system, and 98 percent started parenting during their teens.

The most striking finding came from a Harvard Business School Association study, which estimated that for every $1 invested in Friends of the Children, the community saves $7 in social costs. Helping one child saves the community more than $900,000, over the life of the child.

The push to open a Friends of the Children chapter in Billings was driven by Bill Underriner, president and CEO of Underriner Motors who now chairs the chapter’s board of directors. He used to own another car dealership in Klamath Falls, Oregon, he says, and about five years ago he was approached by the head of the Friends of the Children there to learn more about the program.

Underriner liked what he saw, and the dealership began working on fundraisers for the group. In time, he says, as he learned more about the success of the organization, “I got the idea that we ought to bring it to Billings, and that’s how that happened.”

With the help of an expansion team from

the national Friends of the Children, Underriner set up some informational meetings, identifying potential partners and donors. The donors were key, because to open a new chapter in a city or a region, local sponsors are required to come up with $1 million in start-up funding.

They met that goal with the help of early supporters that included Bill and Mary Underriner, Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, Scheels, and Kim and Pat Lewis. With that funding in place, the newly formed board of directors hired Nina as its director. What made her stand out?

“Her personality,” Bill says, “her drive, where she worked before, and really, she seemed like she really cared about kids.”

Nina, a native of Billings who earned a degree in English from the University of North Texas, entered the nonprofit world by working as a volunteer fundraiser for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in Dallas, from which she transitioned into being the foundation’s full-time event coordinator.

After she and her husband, Ryan Duffy — they met in a youth group at Billings First Church — adopted their first child,

BILL UNDERRINER AND NINA

Billings Clinic is proud to have earned these prestigious

they decided to move back to Billings to be closer to their families. Nina worked for the American Heart Association, eventually becoming director of the statewide organization.

In 2013 she got an offer from Youth Dynamics, a children’s behavioral health organization, which she joined as its development director. Nina says she “absolutely loved working with them,” and the job opened her eyes to the magnitude of the difficulties families and children faced in Montana.

The state has some of the highest rates of children with multiple ACEs, or adverse childhood experiences, and one of the highest suicide rates. The kids helped by Friends of the Children often have incarcerated parents, Nina says, or parents with substance abuse. They come from families affected by domestic violence, or are related to murdered or missing indigenous persons.

Another aspect of Friends that appealed to Nina was that it is “equity-based,” meaning it “calls out, in really courageous ways, structural racism, and we call out generational poverty.” Because of those systemic obstacles, the kids they were serving, even before reaching kindergarten age, faced unimaginable challenges through no fault of their own. So often, Nina says, there is an appeal to the old idea of “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps.”

“Well,” she says, “and I’ve been saying this for a long time, what if we don’t have bootstraps?”

Nina applied the same values to the hiring process.

“I knew I wanted to be equity-minded when I hired, and I knew who we were going to be serving because of the disparities here in Billings,” Nina says. “I knew we were going to be serving a lot

of Indigenous kids.” Although only 9 percent of kids under the age of 19 identify as Indigenous in Yellowstone County, they make up half the youth in foster care.

The first friend Nina hired was Walter Runsabove, an enrolled member of the Northern Cheyenne tribe and an affiliate of the Oglala Lakota and Hudesana Nakoda. The second friend was Rian St. Pierre, an enrolled member of the Crow Tribe with lots of Chippewa-Cree family. They have since hired two other friends, RayQuan Evans and Jessie Wilson.

Rian has been working as a mentor with Friends of the Children-Eastern Montana since May 2023, and she has developed strong relationships with the eight young girls she’s responsible for.

“I’m so close to all of them at this point,” she says. “I am just fully invested in them. Not just because it’s my job, but for no other reason than to just be there when they need somebody.”

She has also grown close to their families and caregivers. “With a lot of my parents or caregivers, it’s like I’m an auntie or a big sister,” she says. “I think that just being Native in the community, too, I can relate a lot to my kids. About half of mine are Natives, or mixed of some kind.”

When she considers that she might be with her girls for the next 10 or 11 years, Rian says, “I think sometimes it’s overwhelming, but not in a bad way. In a way of, like: ‘We’re doing this!’ And it’s working. What we’re doing is working.”

When Bill Underriner was introducing the concept of Friends to the community, two early, enthusiastic partners were Orchard

RIAN ST. PIERRE, NINA HERNANDEZ, KIRSTI BROCKSCHMITD & WALTER RUNSABOVE

Elementary, part of Billings Public Schools, and Lockwood Schools. Among the original cohort of 16 children, eight attended Lockwood and eight were at Orchard.

More public schools are now partners, since some of the children moved and started attending new schools, but Lockwood and Orchard are still key partners. “Lockwood and Orchard were awesomely innovative and grabbed this before anyone else did,” Nina says.

Friends of the Children works with the schools, and with Child and Family Services, to identify children in foster care or at highest risk of entering foster care, and who would most benefit from intervention.

in the hallways, find a quiet space to read a book together or just relax and talk.

The Eastern Montana chapter of Friends is located in an old sorority house on Virginia Lane, which the organization rents from MSU Billings at a reduced rate. The “clubhouse” as it is known, houses offices, but it also has a family room, a big dining room, a playroom downstairs and a backyard for outdoor activities.

WE CAN SERVE THE CHILDREN UNTIL WE’RE BLUE IN THE FACE, BUT WE CAN’T DO THAT UNTIL WE MAKE SURE THAT THEIR FAMILIES ARE ALSO SUCCESSFUL.

— Nina Hernandez

Once the friends started working with their children in the classroom, Nina says, it was quickly obvious that their presence benefited the whole classroom, not just the students assigned to the mentors.

“Our friends have really close relationships with the teachers in our schools and end up being a huge help in the classrooms,” she says. As Rian puts it, they tell the teachers, “We’re here for whatever capacity you need us to be.”

Friends can help their children directly with their schoolwork, but they’re also there to recognize when the kids, often overwhelmed with life’s challenges, need a break. Rian says they’ll “go for laps”

The children often visit there for tutoring or just to hang out with their friends, especially in the summer. Friends of the Children also partners with multiple community groups for outings to places like the YMCA, the Billings Public Library and city parks.

Other members of the local Friends team are Dawn Wilson, operations manager, and Myra Deavel, program director. In mid-summer, Nina was still looking for a development director.

Nina says their goal is to obtain most of their funding from individual donors, but also to continue relying on foundations and grants. Within five years, she says, they would like 30 percent of their income to come from public funding. Nina says a potential donor recently told her, “’You are doing a public service. You have got to look at public funding.’ That was really good for me to hear.”

NINA & PROGRAM DIRECTOR, MYRA DEAVEL

All the children served by the Billings chapter have moved on to the next grade, something unlikely to have happened otherwise, and nobody hired by Nina has left the group, which is rare in the health and human services field, where burnout and turnover are high.

Like other members of Friends of the Children, the local chapter is also working hard on a new 2Gen, or two-generation initiative, aimed at building family well-being by working simultaneously with the children and the adults in their lives. “We can serve the children until we’re blue in the face,” Nina says. “But we can’t do that until we make sure that their families are also successful.”

Zoo Lights

As for the future, Nina says, it will probably be necessary to open another clubhouse someday, and they would like to open satellites on the Crow and Northern Cheyenne reservations, both of which have expressed great interest in the concept. The Western Mon-

Take time out of the holiday shopping frenzy, pack up the family in the car and enjoy a magical holiday light display during ZooMontana’s Zoo Lights.The display will be open in December - the 7th-8th, 14th15th, and 20th-24th from 5pm to 9pm each night. zoomontana.org

Chase h awks Rodeo

Touted as one of the best rough stock rodeos in America, the Chase Hawks Rodeo takes place in the Rimrock Auto Arena on December 22nd.Top cowboys and stock come straight from the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas to compete right here in Billings, Montana. And best of all, it’s for a great cause. The Chase Hawks Memorial Association works to bring comfort and assistance to families during

tana chapter, located in Missoula, opened in 2021 and already has a satellite clubhouse in Polson, serving the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes on the Flathead Indian Reservation.

Nina, who with her husband eventually adopted another child and now have a 15-year-old son and a 12-year-old daughter, said she gravitated toward working with youths because of her own children, “because they are my world.”

Now, with 32 kids being served by the local Friends and more on the horizon, she, like Rian, is looking toward the future, toward a particular high school graduation.

Beauty & the Beast

“I was to see this first cohort walk down the aisle,” she says. Then she laughs and adds, “Not the wedding aisle. I mean, that would be cool too, but walk down the aisles of the Metra.” ✻

Billings Studio Theatre presents “Disney’s Beauty and the Beast Junior,” January 10th-13th. Brainy and beautiful Belle yearns to escape her narrow and restricted life including her brute of a suitor, Gaston. Belle gets adventurous and as a result becomes a captive in the Beast’s enchanted castle! Dancing flatware, menacing wolves and singing

Billings Symphony presents its Family Concert on January 26th at the Alberta Bair Theater. Four time Grammy nominees, “Trout Fishing in America,” will perform along with the Billings Symphony. Trout Fishing in America is a musical duo which performs folk rock and billingssymphony.com

Silence

Breaking Her Breaking HerSilence

SURVIVOR ENDURES A HEALING JOURNEY TO EDUCATE OTHERS ON CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE

DANIEL SULLIVAN

LOOKING AT PICTURES of Donna Bulatowicz as a young girl, you see pure joy. There’s the photo of her on her 11th birthday, all smiles, ready to blow out the candles on her cake. Another photo shows her and her brother riding horseback together in a rugged Montana field, and in yet another, the two of them are holding the cherished family dogs.

It wouldn’t be long after, Donna says, that she’d meet the woman who would snatch that idyllic childhood away from her.

“It was devastating,” she says, as she starts to tell the story of that period of her life.

Just a few days before the first day of school, Donna remembers going up to Newman School to check out the class list for the upcoming school year. Her brother was with her, and they were on the playground when a woman who was going to be a new teacher that year walked up to meet them. She had her hands full of cardboard boxes and asked Donna to help her take them to the trash.

“As we were walking over, I noticed her eyes looking my body up and down. I had never seen an adult do that before and it made me really uncomfortable,” Donna says. She was reaching over to dump the boxes, she says, and “when I looked over at her, she was licking her lips and said, ‘You are the most beautiful little girl I’ve ever seen.’”

Donna dismissed it and remembers her brother later telling her, “Your teacher is weird.”

That day foreshadowed a year of sexual abuse at the hands of her teacher. Donna says it started with the teacher rubbing her back or pulling her onto her lap, and quickly escalated from there. Before long, Donna was missing recess or physical education class to “help” her teacher. Her desk was moved to the back of the room behind a bookcase, to hide the abuse from view, Donna says.

“The first day after school when my parents asked what I thought of her, I said she was too pushy. Well, they didn’t understand what I meant,” Donna says. “If a child says something that seems a little off, ask them to tell you more. If that happened, I might have been able to describe a little more about what was going on.”

says the woman threatened to kill her pets multiple times. She also threatened to kidnap on several occasions.

“I believed her,” Donna says.

Years later, in counseling, Donna’s therapist would classify the abuse as one of the most extreme cases she’d heard. Every bit of it happened inside the school’s walls.

“After the first time she stripped me, stole my childhood and shattered me into a million pieces, she told me that if I told, no one would believe me,” Donna says. “She said my parents would abandon me and not love me anymore. No one in my family would love me anymore because of what I did with her. She said I seduced her. I didn’t even know what that word meant.” Donna

The next school year, she says, a fear washed over her. It started to sink in that her former teacher might choose another little girl to target.

“She wasn’t my teacher anymore, so she lost some of that power that she had over me,” Donna says. She went to her school counselor and broke out in tears as she started to relay the details of the past school year. “I was so scared that everything this person threatened would come crashing down on me.” The counselor called not only her parents, but the police.

“I was very lucky because both of my parents immediately be-

lieved me and apologized for not having known what was going on the year before,” she says.

Renee Bulatowicz, Donna’s mom, admits she saw a change in her daughter’s behavior that year but chalked it up to those moody pre-teen years.

“Everything fell into place for them and started to make sense,” Donna says.

What’s surprising is, Donna’s father George was a social worker who handled child abuse and neglect cases. In the mid-1980s, he helped start the Sexual Abuse Response Team in Yellowstone County. It joined law enforcement, social workers, psychologists and physicians together for child sexual assault investigations.

After George got the news, he took his daughter to the police station.

“The officer told me a woman wouldn’t molest a girl, especially her,” Donna says. “She was a pillar in the community who had a husband and sons. I was just stunned.” She says they had a stereotype of what an abuser looked like and her former teacher didn’t fit it.

teach in School District 2 for at least 10 more years.

“I was told that she left School District 2 because some little girls girl complained about her being inappropriate,” Donna says.

“They also didn’t ask me the basic question you ask a child. Does the abuser have any identifying marks?” Donna says. “If they did, I could have described them and it would have been clear I had seen her without any clothes on.”

Police closed the investigation, and the woman would go on to

During that time, Donna says, the abuse took a different twist with retaliation.

“It started with her telling each one of my teachers that I was crazy and a liar and that they better watch out for me because I made up crazy claims when I got mad at people,” Donna says. “She had a paper that she passed to all of my teachers at the beginning of each school year.” Donna says that continued all the way through high school and through the woman’s connections, even reached some of her college professors at MSU Billings.

“She was a socially skilled child molester,” Donna says. “Socially skilled child molesters are often seen as the pillars of the community because they make sure they are. They volunteer everywhere. They get to know people in power.”

When you ask about specific details of her abuse timeline, Donna refuses to share.

“I don’t want people trying to figure out who my abuser was,” she says. The woman died unexpectedly a little more than 10 years ago, and she says, “I don’t want her family to get any backlash because they are not responsible for what she did.”

The whole experience forced Donna, many times, to reconsider her dream of being a teacher. When she got to college, however, that changed.

“I didn’t want her to take anything else from me,” she says. “I realized through therapy that I had let myself be silenced again.” Donna ended up teaching elementary school for 12 years and spent close to 10 years teaching at the collegiate level at both Montana State University and MSU Billings.

It was in the classroom that she started to realize how ill-prepared a lot of teachers were in spotting potential abuse.

“Teachers are considered mandatory reporters,” Donna says, which made her shake her head at the lack of training.

She dove into the research and found that female predators make up to 20 percent of all sex abuse cases. She looked at her own experiences to identify grooming behaviors and started to compile information she could share. She ultimately used her research to create training for pre-service teachers, those studying to be educators.

dren but on the effects of trauma on the brain.

Since beginning her healing journey two years ago, she’s been a guest on several podcasts, written articles for survivor publications, even appeared on radio talk shows. The next step, she says, is a big one — trying to lobby lawmakers to make sexual abuse training mandatory for teachers.

“If teachers aren’t sure what to look for, that makes it hard,” she says. She’d also like teachers to help create plans to reduce opportunities for abuse.

SOCIALLY SKILLED CHILD MOLESTERS ARE OFTEN SEEN AS THE PILLARS OF THE COMMUNITY BECAUSE THEY MAKE SURE THEY ARE. THEY VOLUNTEER EVERYWHERE. THEY GET TO KNOW PEOPLE IN POWER.

— Donna Bulatowicz

“I was scared because it was the first time I had shared my story publicly,” Donna says.

But with each opportunity, she became more emboldened. Last October, she presented her training at the Montana Teachers Conference put on by the Montana Federation of Public Employees. Her in-person class was near standing room only. Her streaming class had so many people trying to log in, it crashed the system.

“I was told by one of the organizers that they never had that many people try to get into a session before,” Donna says. “That proved to me there is a need for it.” This year, she was invited back and will not only talk about ways to identify those who prey on chil-

“For a lot of elementary schools, teachers use the bathroom with kids. Because of what my teacher did to me in the bathroom, I have a huge problem with that,” she says.

At 46 years old, it’s taken more than 30 years to get to this point in her life and her career. Her mother, who was by her side in all of it, is amazed at the woman who has emerged.

“I think as she got older and didn’t see improvements in training and requirements, it started to really impact her more,” Renee says. “A lot of people might want to hide what took place because there is a shame that comes with it. Hers has been a remarkable journey of courage.”

Surprisingly, Donna finds purpose in the pain.

“If I could go back in time and save little me, I wouldn’t because I wouldn’t have done this work,” Donna says. “I can save children this way.” ✻

FOR MORE ON CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE & EDUCATION, visit enoughabuse.org for suggestions on conversations to have with your kids as well as a parent’s guide on prevention.

HONORING their wishes2

TWO WOMEN, TWO HOSPITALS OFFER HOPE DURING DEPTHS OF DESPAIR

PennyClifton ChristyBaxter

written by LINDA HALSTEAD-ACHARYA photography by DANIEL SULLIVAN

THERE’S A HALL in Intermountain Health St. Vincent Regional Hospital that bears witness to a profound sadness and yet seems to breathe a fragile sense of hope.

The sobering “Gift of Life Hall” is lined with the portraits and accompanying stories of an eclectic mix of people — from a young Crow girl to an older gentleman -— that have one thing in common: all have donated organs so that others might live.

The evocative portraits were the brainchild of Penny Clifton, who has chaired St. V’s Donate Life Council for the past 18 years. Besides bringing comfort to the families left behind, the images spark conversations for those who pause to take them all in.

“It’s generated conversations and an awareness for families who have someone in the ICU,” Penny says. “The pictures catch the attention. The families tell the stories.”

Awareness is key for anyone involved in the process of organ donation. Christy Baxter fills a similar role for Billings Clinic, where she co-chairs the organ donation council with Dr. Nathan Allen.

At Billings Clinic, organ donors and their families are venerated with a solemn Honor Walk that takes place as the donor is taken from the ICU to surgery for organ retrieval.

“There’s a line of people along the halls, honoring that loved one,” Christy says.

Penny and Christy both serve as liaisons between the hospital staff, the families and Life Center Northwest, the organ procurement organization that covers donations throughout the northwestern United States. Both women started as nurses in trauma care and both have carved out their roles as organ donation liaisons from their full-time positions at their respective hospitals. Penny is coordinator for the stroke and bariatric surgery programs at St. V’s and Christy is the director of critical care at Billings Clinic.

While the women exude different personalities — Penny is direct and forthright; Christy’s emotions seem closer to the surface

— both have been deeply moved by their experiences.

“I think the most difficult situations are likely with the children and younger adults, because it just makes so little sense to be dying at that young age,” Penny says. Christy echoes that sentiment. “It’s so typically young, sudden and tragic,” she says.

Christy and Penny also share stories of hope. Although it’s rare for either to come in contact with organ recipients — organs that are donated in Billings are sent out to save lives across the continent — they both find solace in offering comfort to the surviving families.

“Knowing that you can help them find some peace,” Christy says, “that they can help someone else through their tragedy. …”

Penny tells of one young man named Esley who had registered as an organ donor but had never informed his family.

“They were so grateful to hear his ‘voice’ within his registration, directing them at the end,” she says. “I think that knowledge that you can help someone fulfill a wish, that’s what drives me.”

While both women offer their personal approaches, they touch on common themes. Both stress the gravity of checking the organ donor box on a driver’s license. In Montana, that checkmark is legally binding, regardless of the family’s wishes.

“Where else does a 16-year-old make a legally binding decision?” Christy asks. For that reason, it’s vital that even the youngest family members express their desires before tragedy strikes, they say. To leave wishes unsaid can result in needless strife and pit family members against one another.

Christy faced the most distressing event of her career when an individual who was declared brain dead had checked the box to donate, but later changed his mind without making the change official.

There’s a simple and legal means for adding or removing oneself from the registry (go to RegisterMe.org), she says, but it’s so

important to do that and to relay your change of heart to family members.

As liaisons in the process, both women are tasked with alerting the organ procurement agency to potential donor situations. They also train hospital staff on dealing with organ donations. Neither of them arranges the surgeries for retrieving organs, and they do not coordinate the arrival of transplant teams. Restrictions even prevent them from mentioning “organ donation” to potential donor families. Those responsibilities are all reserved for the organ procurement agency.

Instead, Christy and Penny play critical roles in smoothing out the donor process once it has been initiated.

“To help the family go from one place to the next, to go softly and easily, that’s our job,” Penny says.

They find rewards in witnessing how the decision to donate eases the grief process for the survivors.

“I know from personal experience and from nearly two decades of stories that when a loved one donates an organ, tissue or cornea, it is a balm to the grief of those left behind,” Penny says.

The two women are also instrumental in heightening awareness about organ donation, just as they strive to dispel myths. They want everyone to know that the first step in the process never takes place until an individual is declared brain dead or after cardiac death, when there is no hope of survival. In order to preserve organs, the heart is kept beating as the patient remains on a ventilator, but that person could neither live nor breathe on her own.

Both Christy and Penny emphatically assure the public that before donation is even considered, every means possible is taken

to preserve the life of anyone in the ICU.

“We never move forward until everything is exhausted,” Christy says.

“No care is shortchanged in order to promote donation,” Penny added. “Ever.”

Penny also speaks to the mistaken belief that age or illness would preclude a person from being an organ donor. “You’d be surprised,” she says. There are criteria that may prevent organ donation, she says, but every death in the hospital is assessed for the potential to donate. And while thousands of people nationwide desperately await kidneys, hearts and livers, there are many more whose lives are improved through donations of tissues, corneas, tendons and bone. Tissues help burn victims and corneas bring sight to the blind, just as tendons and bone fragments are frequently used during surgeries.

“Between 150 and 200 people benefit from each tissue donor,” Penny says.

She also reminds the public that donated organs are removed in such a way that the family can have an open casket, she adds.

In mid-July, Christy had just wrapped up an emotionally draining week. There’d been a surge in tragic deaths that left three families not only reeling from their losses but forcing them to agonize over whether to donate their loved one’s organs in the midst of their grief.

Christy wishes the discussions had taken place before the crisis. “It’s sometimes the one piece of hope they can hold onto,” she says. ✻

100,000

100,000 NUMBER OF PEOPLE NATIONALLY WHO ARE WAITING FOR ORGANS.

59% 59% OF MONTANANS LAST YEAR WHO REGISTERED AS ORGAN DONORS ON THEIR DRIVERS’ LICENSES, ABOVE THE NATIONAL AVERAGE. 38 149 149 149

NUMBER OF MONTANANS CURRENTLY AWAITING A LIFE-SAVING ORGAN TRANSPLANT. 113 113 38

NUMBER OF MONTANANS WHO DONATED ORGANS IN 2023.

THOSE 38 DONORS PROVIDED LIFE-SAVING ORGANS TO 113 PEOPLE.

As a Level I Trauma Center, St. Vincent Regional Hospital offers the highest level of care in the region. Whether you’re having a heart attack, stroke, or you’ve had a sudden traumatic injury, we’re prepared to handle it.

It is always our goal to stay at the forefront of research and medical advancements in trauma care; with the resources, training, and technologies to treat every type of injury or critical health event. Serving our communities throughout Montana and Wyoming, we provide the life-saving care you and your loved ones need, when you need it most, right here close to home. Learn more at

AND TO RECEIVE to give2

LOVED ONES LIVE ON THROUGH ORGAN DONATION

written by LINDA HALSTEAD-ACHARYA photography by DANIEL SULLIVAN

WILLIAM HUNT was game for just about any outdoor challenge, but his summer job as a whitewater guide in Colorado had rattled him. He’d seen too many injuries, even deaths. So, he quit and started the long drive home to Calgary.

The 21-year-old would never make it.

It was the summer of 2023 when he flipped his car south of Billings and suffered a major brain injury. He would never regain consciousness.

William’s sister Sydney Hunt remembers the devastating phone call and the frantic drive from Calgary to St. Vincent Hospital in Billings.

“We had always assumed we’d get a call that he had fallen off the side of the mountain or gotten eaten by a bear,” she says.

She remembers both she and her brother checking the organ donor box when they’d earned their licenses.

“But you never think it’ll be you,” she says.

She can chuckle now that, after William’s death, they discovered more than one fake ID in his wallet. Even those had the organ donor box checked, she says.

When Sydney, her parents and grandfather arrived at St. V’s, they were stunned to see William. He’d broken an arm and punctured a lung but “he looked totally normal,” she says.

What they couldn’t see was the major trauma to his brain.

Not a word was spoken to the family about organ donation until he was declared brain dead. At that point, the family chose to honor their son’s wishes.

“We knew there was no coming back,” Sydney says.

William’s heart was kept beating for five days as the organ procurement agency located recipients across the country. Ultimately, William’s body provided major organs that saved five lives. The Hunts, who have been in contact with three of those recipients, are inspired and comforted by their stories and William’s far-reaching impacts.

“When you’re having the worst day of your life, the thing that brought comfort was that there will be five families having the best day of their lives,” Sydney says.

Deanna Wittak of Billings never imagined her newborn son Jake would only survive by the grace of a liver donor. Born on Oct. 30, 2000, Jake was frail and sick early on. Several months later, blood tests revealed that he suffered from biliary atresia — a condition that necessitated a new liver. Deanna remembers struggling then, knowing that to keep her son alive meant someone else would lose a child.

“It was the worst feeling in the world,” she says. “A chaplain at the hospital talked with me at great length about that.”

On Sept. 11, 2001 — the day the World Trade Centers fell — Jake was checked into Denver Children’s Hospital. He had become so malnourished that his doctors wondered if he’d even survive a transplant. He was nearly a year old when a donor was found. The donor, Michael Arey, was 17 years old when he died. His liv-

two sections – the smaller going to save Jake, the larger going to save an adult.

Today, Jake is a thriving 23-yearold who loves to camp, hike, hunt and go four-wheeling. Not to mention, he’s worked at Home Depot since he was 15. He takes an anti-rejection medication daily and must stay on top of his health.

“But to look at him today,” Deanna says, “you would never know all that he has gone through.”

When Jake was 3 years old, the Wittaks contacted Michael’s family. Michael’s mother responded with gratitude and told them a bit about her son — about his smile, his interest in video games and cars and his affinity for goofy movies.

“Jake is all of those things,” Deanna says. Now, as a young adult, Jake keeps in touch with Michael’s sister, Megan.

“They have become very close,” Deanna says.

Both Sydney and Deanna have been so moved through their experiences with organ donation — by both giving and receiving — that they struggle to express the depth of their emotions.

“To all of the families that have lost a loved one and have unselfishly given the greatest gift, the gift of life, I want them to know that their loved ones live on,” Deanna says.

“When you’re choosing to be an organ donor, you’re not choosing to be a hero,” Sydney says. “It is the most selfless choice, a choice you will never see the results of. You are making a choice to leave your family with hope.” ✻

WILLIAM & SYDNEY

CHANGING THE FACE OF LEADERSHIP Lori Cote Miller Lori Cote Miller

written by ALLYN HULTENG photography by DANIEL SULLIVAN

THIS IS LORI. She’s our new accountant. Do anything she tells you to do.

By any measure, Lori Cote Miller’s introduction to her new colleagues in the accounting department at Yellowstone Electric was awkward.

ENTERPRISING

WOMAN

“I still remember that uncomfortable moment — with all five staff members staring back wondering, ‘Who is this?’” Lori says.

The year was 1994. Lori, though relatively young, had an impressive resume. Several years earlier she had earned an accounting degree from Montana State University. Afterward, Lori moved to Menlo Park, California, to gain experience at a public accounting firm — one of the requirements for becoming a certified public accountant.

She went on to work at a private energy company before making the decision to return to Montana. By this time, not only did Lori have extensive experience in accounting, but she also brought leading-edge knowledge about computers and software — a technology then in its infancy.

Lori smiled back at the accounting staff. As she did, she noticed the department’s lone computer sitting atop a credenza in the corner, unplugged. She would later learn that the office manager “did not like computers,” and felt the current accounting process was working just fine.

But Yellowstone had hired Lori to computerize the entire accounting system.

“I had my work cut out,” Lori says.

UP FOR THE CHALLENGE

A native of Glasgow, Lori, along with her two sisters and two

brothers, was raised in a traditional family. Her father worked for the railroad and often traveled out of town. Her mother was a homemaker during Lori’s formative years. From a young age all four siblings were taught the importance of tenacity and hard work.

In school Lori excelled. She was a member of the Honor Society, served on the student council and participated in Keywanettes — a 1970s version of Key Club but for young women.

As a young teenager, Lori cleaned guest rooms for a local hotel one summer. When she turned 15, she got a job at the Glasgow Bakery. Her hard work set the foundation for success in college.

“Growing up my father was somewhat chauvinistic, but that backfired,” Lori says. All three Cote sisters emerged as very strong women who aren’t easily deterred.

IF IT’S NOT BROKEN, WHY FIX IT?

“You have to remember what things were like 30 years ago,” Lori says.

Excel as a spreadsheet tool was relatively new. Accounting software was in its infancy. In the field, project managers still used paper and pencil to track materials, deliveries, and progress. It took a lot of manual entries to gather numbers on the ground and roll them up into financial reporting.

While the system was functional, Lori saw a huge opportunity to streamline the finance department, moving from “reporting the past” to “directing the future.” But migrating the company from pencil and pad to a mainframe would take more than a kickoff meeting, especially for a smart, attractive, educated woman working in the trades.

COMMUNICATING ORGANIZATIONAL GOALS AND SHOWING HOW EACH INDIVIDUAL’S JOB DIRECTLY CONTRIBUTES SUCCESS MAKES PEOPLE FEEL GOOD ABOUT WHAT THEY DO EVERY DAY.

— Lori Cote Miller

Lori needed to prove herself.

Moving past her initial introduction, Lori began by slowly getting to know her new colleagues, learning each person’s role and how the roles interfaced. At the same time, she noted that the owners didn’t share a lot of information with staff. Lori saw that as a misstep.

“Communicating organizational goals and showing how each individual’s job directly contributes success makes people feel good about what they do every day,” she says. “Celebrating success becomes more meaningful.”

GOALS VS. GUT FEELINGS

One of the first changes Lori implemented was the use of a digitized project management worksheet so that managers could see how their projects were performing financially in real time.

“This was a game changer,” Lori says.

Prior to having this tool, managers would base their assessment of whether a project was on track by a gut feeling. While their experience was laudable, numbers tell the truth.

Having instant access to actual project costs across multiple sites created accountability and tighter financial management. Every project fed directly into the company’s overall profitability or loss, meaning leadership had reliable metrics against which to measure planned performance.

But it wasn’t just accounting that needed to make adjustments.

CULTURAL CHANGEMAKER

“I remember walking over to the warehouse manager to ask him something about inventory numbers. He looked at me and said, ‘How old are you anyway?’ I chuckled and asked him, ‘Does that matter?’”

The 1990s was considered a decade of great progress for working women. This was the first generation who had been told they could choose to work outside the home. By 1991, two-thirds of married women with children worked, providing 41 percent of a family’s income.

Despite the mass entry of women into the workplace, certain male-dominated cultural norms that had existed for generations continued in the day-to-day environment. This was especially true in the trades, where the ratio of men to women remained high.

“When I started it was common for the men to call us, ‘the girls.’ That drove me crazy,” says Lori.

Out in the back warehouse, a meeting room had wall calendars featuring photos of women in flirty poses.

“Nothing truly obscene, but daringly close. Those came down.”

And then there was the colorful language.

“I don’t want to come across snobbish — believe me, I can swear as good as anyone. But it was about creating a respectful environment for all,” Lori says.

We know that coming together and helping one another is how we get through stressful times.

As your Morgan Stanley Financial Advisors, we will help you create a plan that makes sense for you and your goals. With our knowledge and resources we will help you manage risk and keep your plan on track, so you can focus on all that’s happening in life.

Contact us to see how we can help you or provide a second opinion.

401 North 31st Street, Suite 900 | Billings, MT 59101

Wesley: 406-238-8911 / Kyle: 406-896-4402 advisor.morganstanley.com/the-fangsrud-stone-group

Senior Vice President Financial Advisor

Kayla Powell Client Service Associate

President Financial Advisor

The Fangsrud Stone Group at Morgan Stanle y

Wesley A. Fangsrud

Kyle R. Stone Associate Vice

Overtime, Lori helped decommission the outdated behaviors. She also competently led the company through a major transformation to become a computer-based, high-functioning, strategic enterprise.

In 2016, Lori became CEO.

BUILDING A SUSTAINABLE POWERHOUSE

Today, Yellowstone Electric, with its iconic ketchup-red and mustard-yellow fleet, performs every type of electrical contracting service — commercial, healthcare, airport, industrial, manufacturing, and DOT — even repairing a broken outlet in your home.

Lesser known is the impressive sustainability work the company does with major hydroelectric power plants across the country. Dams are essential for providing electricity to millions of customers. They also require periodic transformer replacements. One such project was recently completed at Glen Canyon Dam in Page, Arizona.

The project, according to an article published by the Bureau of Reclamation, “is a testament to collective efforts towards environmental sustainability, incorporating eco-friendly practices and technologies in managing, delivering and protecting water rights in the American West.”

ALL IN A DAY’S WORK

Lori is content to remain quietly behind the scenes. For her, the important part is doing the job.

“When my husband and I go to community events, he often wears a Yellowstone Electric cap. People ask him how long he’s worked at the company,” she says, smiling. Occasionally, people ask Lori if Yellowstone Electric had been her family’s business.

“It goes with the territory,” Lori says. ✻

ALLYN HULTENG, writer

Allyn Hulteng is a founding partner and principal with Rebel River Creative. She has also written articles for regional and national publications with a focus on western artists, intriguing people, and contemporary mountain living.

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STANDING STRONG ON TWO FEET STANDING STRONG ON TWO FEET STANDING STRONG ON TWO FEET

KAT PORCO CREATES UNIQUE CUISINE & COMMUNITY IN THE HEART OF RED LODGE

written by STELLA FONG photography by DANIEL SULLIVAN

KAT PORCO is sitting on one of the front couches of her restaurant, One Legged Magpie, on the main drag in Red Lodge. Sunlight streams in behind her, giving her an angelic appearance. While she speaks, the brightness continually energizes and inspires her. She talks fast, trying to keep up with her rapid thoughts. Her words are filled with reflection and introspection.

These days, Kat is standing solidly on her two feet. With her husband, Mike, the venture into their restaurant, bar, and event space named after an injured bird proved to be a journey of renewal and revival. The couple purchased the iconic Bull ‘n Bear Saloon, Casino, Restaurant and Ballroom in 2021, hoping to refurbish and reinvent the old watering hole.

The name One Legged Magpie came during the Covid pandemic when the Porcos gathered with friends at Pride Park for “happy hour” with a list of potential names for their new restaurant. Just after meeting up with their friends, an unkempt and disheveled bird with one leg swooped down upon them. Its determination to move about with one missing leg, navigating in the world with “such sinew, grit and persistence,” inspired the Porcos.

At the beginning of each day, Kat seeks balance for her mind,

body and soul. “I do yoga first thing in the morning, the most grounded time of the day,” followed by a walk. “After the walk I am motivated and ready to take on the day,” she says.

“She’s probably one of the most thoughtful people I know,” Mike says. “She really cares about people. She genuinely wants to help people, and that drives her. She sees the best in people.”

For her part, Kat says it’s important to “create all the tools for supporting my nervous system.” She says it’s only in creating inner peace and balance that she gains strength to help others, especially when challenges arise.

Over the years, her attention has focused on her oldest daughter, Quinn, who was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis (CF), a genetic disorder that results in a faulty protein that affects the body’s cells, tissues and glands that make mucus and sweat. With the biggest cystic fibrosis center in the state of Montana in Billings, the Porcos knew they needed the institution’s medical support, so they moved from New York to Red Lodge to be near care in 2011.

While making sure her daughter received the proper treatment, Kat started her own advocacy efforts. She put her bachelor’s de-

WE WANTED TO CREATE A COMMUNITY FIRST, A PLACE TO MAKE EVERYONE FEEL INVITED, A PLACE TO FEEL LIKE IT WAS AN EXTENSION OF HOME.

WE WANTED TO CREATE A COMMUNITY FIRST, A PLACE TO MAKE EVERYONE FEEL INVITED, A PLACE TO FEEL LIKE IT WAS AN EXTENSION OF HOME.

— Kat Porco

— Kat Porco

gree in social work and her master’s in health communications to work while also seeking more education. She completed training, receiving certifications as an integrative health coach, health and wellness coach, and diabetes educator. She and Mike, who has a pulmonary rehabilitation background, founded the Attain Health Foundation, established to create a sense of community among those affected by CF.

The couple offered a 12-week program that educated and empowered individuals with cystic fibrosis-related diabetes (CFRD) to understand their blood sugars and how to manage them.

Although helping others gave Kat satisfaction and peace, she was tormented. Seeking help for her daughter often meant treatment that was traumatic or uncomfortable. “I was the bad guy,” she says. “I felt like I was one of the people causing trauma.”

She turned to alcohol. “I was using alcohol to cover up the pain and fear of living with a child that was constantly dying,” Kat says. The drinking was hindering her from living a balanced life. “Yoga is my life blood. I was too drunk or hungover to do yoga.”

When the Bull ‘n Bear came up for sale, Kat says, the process of buying the bar “brought me to that place where owning a bar offered a mirror into my own life.” She knew she had to stop drinking.

The Porcos wanted to start a restaurant, Kay says, because “we loved what Joanie Swords did at Harper and Madison in Billings and we wanted to figure out if there was a way to create a similar ambiance in Red Lodge as a bar, restaurant and a community space.”

“We wanted to create a community first, a place to make everyone feel invited, a place to feel like it was an extension of home,” she says. The Porcos wanted to pursue their passion for food along with establishing a place where people could find safe harbor and connect with others.

With her own personal struggles, she says, “I wondered how I could walk into this place. I was terrified of being a promoter of that lifestyle. We had always dreamed of having a healing place, not a bar.” Already people are gathering for book clubs and celebrations.

In her journey to stay sober, Kat became a certified health, wellness and sobriety coach. She began counseling healthcare pro-

KAT AND MIKE

fessionals, helping them to better negotiate the demands in their lives to achieve a more balanced life with less stress and more personal fulfillment. She concentrates on “gray area drinking” that encompasses problematic drinking behaviors that fall between social drinking and alcoholism. Gray area drinking may be harder to treat since it may be not obvious to those around the drinker.

At One Legged Magpie, a Soberbird, a zero-proof drink menu offers cocktails made with non-alcoholic botanicals, bitters and other flavorings combined with alcohol-free spirits, along with alcohol-free beers and wines. The option is provided “because evening community should be inclusive to all, no matter what is

in your cup,” she says.

Recently hired executive chef Charles Vincent cooks up food using local ingredients of the season. The menu rotates often, and on occasion diners can experience flavors from Vincent’s childhood home in Mandeville, near New Orleans, and his experiences cooking in the kitchens of Emeril Lagasse, Donald Link and Mike Lata.

After three years running One Legged Magpie, the Porcos have hit their stride. Mike arrives at the restaurant early each day and works until 10. Kat helps at the restaurant but prioritizes playing mom to her daughters — Quinn, 18, and Elle, 16 — and supporting those around her.

One Legged Magpie is a space where she can do that.

“People seek her out,” Mike says. “These people may not even know her, but are drawn to her, asking her for help. She is that beacon that people are drawn to.” ✻

STELLA FONG, writer

Stella divides her time between Billings and Seattle and is the author of two Billings-centric books, Historic Restaurants of Billings and Billings Food. Her writings have appeared in Big Sky Journal, Western Art and Architecture, the Washington Post as well as online at lastbestplates.com.

DISTRIBUTED BY THE PEPSI-COLA BOTTLING CO. | BILLINGS, MT

SEPTEMBER & OCTOBER EVENTS

Sept. 14

Sept. 14

Sept. 21

Adventures in Music! Day Billings Public Library

Rocky Mountain Jazz Collective Babcock Theatre

Sibelius 5

Alberta Bair Theater

Sept. 26 Bach & Brews Henry’s Garage

Oct. 18 Canadian Brass Babcock Theatre

Oct. 26 Beethoven 5

Alberta Bair Theater

RANDY TRACY

TYLER MENZALES

All up Popped Popped Popped up up All All

TAKE A NEW TWIST ON ONE OF OUR FAVORITE TREATS

IT’S

THAT PLEASING AROMA

that greets us as we enter a movie theater. It’s a key ingredient in Cracker Jack. It’s popcorn.

And it’s a healthy snack — minus the oil, butter and caramel — that’s high in fiber. It is one of six types of corn. All corn is a cereal grain that originates from wild grass, but popcorn is the only one that pops.

The pop comes from water trapped inside the kernel. Heat the kernel to a high enough temperature and the water transforms into steam. The hard and mostly nonporous outside shell gives the steam nowhere to go, resulting in a buildup of pressure. The hull bursts when the pressure is too much, and the kernel is turned inside out. Interestingly, the popping sound isn’t from the cracking of the hull but the vapor release after the kernel has cracked.

Popcorn as we know it is credited to Charles Cretors of Chicago, who in 1885, invented the mobile popcorn cart, selling the treat outside his shop. In 1893, he’d use that cart to sell to people attending the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago (which also gave us the Ferris Wheel and the brownie).

It was during the Depression in the 1930s that popcorn became a movie theater staple. It was affordable, easy to mass

produce and transportable.

Over the years, I have made popcorn on the stovetop, in the microwave, with an air popper and who could forget, Jiffy Pop, with its tinfoil top that expands when those kernels start to do their thing. One of my favorites — homemade caramel corn — can be cooked both in the microwave or in the oven.

One popcorn use I hadn’t thought of until scanning the 1952 Household Searchlight Recipe Book is in fudge. Who knew? So, grab the ingredients and give Chocolate Popcorn Fudge a try. With these recipes, you’ll soon understand that this handheld treat can be enjoyed in more ways than just with your favorite movie.

Enjoy! ✻

KAY ERICKSON, writer

Kay has spent her professional career in public relations and broadcast news, currently at Yellowstone Public Radio. Her journalism degree is from Northern Illinois University. Her passions include her family, sports and food. Her mom and an aunt taught her the finer points of cooking and instilled a love of good food and family mealtime.

chocolate popcorn fudge

2 c. sugar

2 squares unsweetened chocolate (2 oz.)

¼ c. sweetened condensed milk

¾ c. water

1½ c. popped popcorn, chopped

1 T. butter

1 t. vanilla

⅛ t. salt

popping popcorn

STOVETOP:

2 t. canola oil (it has a high smoke point)

½ c. popcorn kernels

Butter

Salt

DIRECTIONS: Heat two teaspoons of vegetable oil over medium high heat in a skillet with a cover. Add a few kernels of popcorn, cover and wait for them to pop. When they pop, the oil is hot enough to proceed. Remove the skillet from the heat and add ½ cup of kernels, cover tightly and return to the stovetop. Once the kernels start to pop, shake the pan occasionally so the kernels pop evenly. Melt the butter and pour over the popcorn, sprinkle on salt to taste, toss well and serve.

MICROWAVE:

⅓ c. popcorn kernels

Microwave safe bowl and plate

DIRECTIONS: Add kernels to a microwave-safe bowl and cover with a microwave safe plate. Cook on high for two to three minutes or until popping slows. Uncover and season with melted butter and salt.

DIRECTIONS: Melt chocolate in saucepan. Add sugar, milk, water, butter and salt. Boil to soft ball stage (234 – 238 degrees). Remove from heat. Add chopped popcorn and vanilla. Cool to room temperature. Stir until creamy and pour into a well-buttered shallow pan. Cut into squares.

microwave caramel corn

4 quarts popped corn

1 c. brown sugar

1 stick butter

¼ c. corn syrup

½ t. salt

½ t. baking soda

DIRECTIONS: Place the popped corn in a large paper bag. Combine the sugar, butter, corn syrup and salt in a two-quart microwave-safe bowl. Microwave for three minutes, stir until well blended. Microwave for another 90 seconds. Remove mixture from the microwave and add the baking soda. Pour over the popcorn in the bag. Fold the top edge of the bag over twice to close and shake to coat. Microwave the bag for 90 seconds. Shake the bag and microwave for another 90 seconds. Pour onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and allow to cool.

oven caramel corn

4 quarts popped corn

1 c. brown sugar

1 stick butter

¼ c. corn syrup

½ t. salt

½ t. baking soda

DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 200 degrees. In a large pot add sugar, butter, syrup and salt. Mix well. Bring to a boil and boil for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and add the baking soda. Pour over the popped corn and mix well. Place on a large pan in the 200-de gree oven for one hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

ENTERTAINMENT & RELAXATION, THIS ‘BARNDO’ HAS IT ALL

written

by GAYLE SMITH photography by DANIEL SULLIVAN

NESTLED

BENEATH THE MOUNTAINS of Red Lodge sits a brand-new home that is as unique as it is colossal. If you’ve never heard the term barndominium, this exemplifies it — a barn combined with a condominium, or “barndo” for short. This 6,000-square-foot, exterior steel-sided home includes a sprinkling of reclaimed lumber and cultured stone veneer, with an attached 3,000-square-foot shop/barn taking the term barndo to entirely new heights.

When new owners Keith and Karrie commissioned Kevin Wood, project manager and owner of Yellowstone Basin Construction, and Luke Kuhr, superintendent, it all began as a sketch on a napkin. The owner is a former Montanan who returned with his wife to Red Lodge after many years spent working an out-of-state career.

“The design of the interior, both the main floor and upstairs, is so compelling,” says Kevin. “Before our build, there was an old red barn on-site that existed for many years, right where the barndominium sits now. We incorporated a lot of the wood, reclaiming it from that barn and using it on both the interior and exterior.” Kevin says doing so gives the home a rustic yet elegant vibe.

At first glance, you are presented with the “barn” portion of the home. Dual 14-by-16-foot garage doors open to the epoxy-floored shop with 20-foot ceilings with both forced air and heated floors. Plenty of space is available to house a hobby car-collection, a dog wash station and much more. Two sets of sliding glass doors give entry into the house. Looking toward the shop from inside the house, two sets of custom-built barn-style doors cover the sliding glass doors, adding to the home’s charm.

The main floor features an open design perfect for gathering and entertaining Montana-style. The focal point of the enormous space is a free-standing, wood-burning fire pit. The 6-by-11-foot fire pit sits near the kitchen and looks as though it belongs on a Western movie set. At the top of the fire-pit is a custom-built steel hood with an automated flue that draws in air, creating its own updraft, ensuring that wood smoke rises up and out the chimney. The fire-pit’s sandstone was brought in from Lavina. The gorgeous wooden mantles that deck out the fire pit are 250-year-old oak.

THE STUNNING KITCHEN ISLAND IS MADE OF QUARTZITE

6,000 SQ FT WITH AN ATTACHED 3,000 SQ FT SHOP

Not to be outdone by the fire pit, the kitchen quartzite island, designed in a leatherwood finish, will seat 17 guests comfortably. The island is situated between the fire pit and the kitchen, where rustic hickory cabinets are backed by granite, along with some faux brick, tying into the brick wall next to the kitchen. It gives the space an established and warm feel.

This center of entertainment is as functional as it is beautiful, boasting a 50-bottle wine chiller, a separate ice maker, and two dishwashers. Toe kick lighting, plenty of built-in storage, a farm-style sink, a Sub-Zero refrigerator and freezer, a Sub-Zero Wolf gas range and two ovens complete this unique and spacious area. Directly off the kitchen sits a separate room with a builtin coffee bar, designed using the same reclaimed barnwood.

“The home has an abundance of distinct and reclaimed wood,” Luke says. “In the first floor alone, you’ll see circular saw marks, a long-forgotten craftsmen's method of cutting the engineered maple hardwood floor panels, making up the unique floor pattern. Nowadays, a band saw is used, which gives it a different look to the wood.” He added that some of the walls were

tana Reclaimed Lumber out of Boze man. Mushrooms, at one time, actually grew on these pieces of wood, leaving behind a unique look.

The home’s theme is brought upstairs by using custom steel for the stair way. “The free-floating stairs leading to the 3,000-square-foot second floor are unique as well,” says Kevin. “The steps that Luke designed are Douglas fir, sanded and lightly burned with a torch, giving the stairway a lighter touch and feel.” He went on to say, “All of the details, such as faucets that have a rustic look, solid core knotty elder doors, and the reclaimed wood bring everything together to create this Montana feeling.”

Upstairs you’ll find a great room with an open living area, a wood-burning fireplace made of cultured stone, a wet bar, a refrigerator, ice maker and wine and beer cooler. This space looks out onto the shop with half walls fea turing wainscotting made from the reclaimed barnwood and corrugated rustic steel, again, designed by Luke. In addition, four bedrooms, including the master and three baths, complete the home where you can look out onto the stunning views of nature.

Tracy W. Hawbaker AWMA®, CTFA

• Team approach with over 75 years of combined experience in the financial services industry

• Fee-Only Financial Planning & Fiduciary Investment Management

• Client relationships are a priority

Sam Van Dyke Home

Cara Blaylock

Because there is so much wood in the house, and because wood expands and contracts due to humidity, floor moisture sensors were installed. Luke explains, “If for any reason there was a leak, a signal would be sent to your phone letting you know to adjust the humidifier.”

Since the owners are all about family and entertaining, the beautiful backdrop of this property lends itself to using outdoor spaces to do just that.

The exterior features a large driveway that can fit two RVs with accommodating sewer, water and power hookups, a lower covered patio, an upper covered patio, plus a sizable deck made of made of Trex and bordered with a heavy gauge steel railing to

DUAL 14-BY-16-FOOT GARAGE DOORS OPEN TO THE EPOXY-FLOORED SHOP WITH 20-FOOT CEILINGS WITH BOTH FORCED AIR AND HEATED FLOORS

better withstand Montana winters. Of course there is a barbecue grill, a hot tub and plenty of outdoor heaters for those chilly Montana nights. “When the grandkids visit, they get to enjoy both a fireman's pole and a slide as a means to get to the lower level of the home,” Kevin says.

It's all in the details of this barndominium, making it a fabulous place to call home and a breathtaking place for entertainment and relaxation. The finishing touch? A babbling creek and a spring-fed pond with a pristine backdrop of peaceful meadows, mountains and wildlife. ✻

COMMAND CENTRAL COMMAND CENTRAL

FASHION YOUR OWN BOARD TO KEEP YOUR SCHOOL DAYS ORGANIZED WITH EASE

WITH THE NEW SCHOOL YEAR here, how would you like a way to make your busy mornings flow a little smoother? A communication board can help track library day, days your child needs to remember their sports gear or their musical instruments. Just jot down your notes and everyone will be on the same page with no surprises as you start your day. Here is a quick, easy and fun way to make your own that can be modified to fit any space. ✻

What you will need...

• Unwanted framed art

• Magnetic paint

• Chalkboard paint

• Masking tape

• Small foam paint brushes and rollers

• Magnets

• Chalk

Here’s How To Make It

The beauty of this project is the perfect start is finding a frame you no longer use. I wanted something large enough to hold several pictures and a few announcements. And, as always, I didn’t want to spend a lot of money. I looked at home and didn’t find anything, so I hit up local thrift stores. The price point there, however, was still too high.

As I was gathering other materials from a local craft store, I decided to check out the clearance aisle. That’s where I found a piece of art that was on sale for 90 percent off. I didn't care about the image, I was looking more for size. Not only was the frame in good condition, but it also already had mounting hardware on the back. You can look anywhere for supplies but, as I discovered, if you’re lucky enough, brand new can be the cheapest option.

To begin, I masked off the frame using painter’s tape to protect it as I brushed paint over my image. I made sure to paint on a level surface to get the smoothest finish possible. I started with magnetic paint, adding a thin layer, and letting each coat dry for 24 hours before adding another coat. Keep in mind, magnetic paint is very thick, and unlike any paint I’ve used before. I ended up applying six coats, making sure I had thick coverage with a good magnetic hold. Foam brushes helped prevent brush strokes and keep a smooth finish.

I used the chalkboard paint next, making sure to give the can a good shake before each one of my six coats. Again, I let each coat dry for about 24 hours before adding the next coat.

After applying all my paint, it was the moment of truth. I placed a magnet on my magnetic surface to see if it worked and … Hooray! It did, just as the directions said it would.

Once the painting was finished, I took a razor knife to score the edge of the tape on the frame and chalkboard. I did this to protect the paint from peeling as I removed my painter’s tape. It was tedious but necessary. After I removed the tape, I needed to touch up a few spots with a small paint brush.

Keep in mind, when using chalkboard paint, you’ll need to prime your chalkboard by taking a piece of chalk, laying it on its side and rubbing the whole board down with it. Afterward, wipe off the chalk with an eraser or soft cloth. Priming helps to erase the board with future use so there’s no memory of previous messages. Now it’s time to hang your board on the wall.

In an easy few days, we transformed a piece of unwanted art into a communication board ready to jump-start organization for a new school year. It’s the perfect space for those “works of art” made at school, for any reminders from teachers or a place to make a note of special days at school. One space to make those busy school mornings run a little more smoothly. ✻

RACHEL JENNINGS, writer

Rachel is a self described "Junker," who not only loves all things old, but LOVES the challenge of trying to make something new out of each find. While she is a Hair Stylist by day, in her off time you can often find her covered in paint, trying to repurpose something she's found.

GO NATIVE GO NATIVE

CREATING A YARD WITH BEAUTY AND BENEFITS FOR WILDLIFE

written by LESLIE TRIBBLE

BLANKETFLOWER

A DEEP-GREEN CARPET of Kentucky bluegrass is a sight to behold and, for many homeowners, the perfect accessory for a beautiful yard. But did you know that a flowing grass lawn is actually a desert? A desert for pollinators, birds and wildlife, at least.

If a Kentucky bluegrass yard is a desert for wildlife and pollinators, then a yard filled with grasses and wildflowers native to a region is a smorgasbord.

Designed to thrive in our hot, dry, windy landscape, native plants do so with beauty and benefits for wildlife. They come in various colors, sizes, shade/sun tolerance, and bloom times. By carefully choosing species for your particular yard, these plants can be long-lived, require little care and are water-wise choices for a beautiful landscape.

BENEFITS OF A NATIVE LANDSCAPE

Populations of pollinators have plummeted since 2017, with some scientists at the U.S. Forest Service reporting an 80 percent decline in the number of native bees. However, native plants benefit our native pollinators by providing food sources, shelter from the elements and a place to raise the next generation.

These native plants provide a home for 15 times more caterpillar species than non-native plants. When you plant native species, you provide appropriate food sources for insects. More insects result in more birds and amphibians because you also provide more food for these species. Translation: you just created a fullfledged buffet for wildlife.

Author Doug Tallamy is on a mission to turn the roughly 40 million acres of cultivated lawns across America into a patchwork of small, personal "national parks" — small flower beds, pots on condominium patios, entire yards and even larger acreages, all with native plants instead of lawns. Bringing back natives increases the biodiversity of a region, resulting in a healthier environment for all.

"If half of American lawns were replaced with native plants,” Doug says, “we would create the equivalent of a 20-million-acre national park, nine times bigger than Yellowstone.

DITCH THE MOWER AND RECLAIM YOUR WEEKENDS

Once established, native landscapes generally require little upkeep. Ongoing maintenance might be limited to replacing dead plants, some light pruning, adding additional species or moving ones that don't seem happy in their current location. That beats all those weekends behind the lawn mower, and since you aren't mowing, you're helping clear the air of carbon pollution from gas-powered engines.

Besides spending less time mowing, you'll use less water over the summer once your plants get established. Most perennials and natives need two full summers of additional moisture, but after that, they should only need watering during the driest weeks of the summer.

Across the country, traditional grass yards use about one-third of the total amount of residential water, or about 9 billion gallons, daily. Many cities across the West are experiencing drought and are actually encouraging homeowners to remove parts or even all of their non-native grass yards. And why not? Why let one of our most precious commodities run down the drain when there's a viable and beneficial alternative?

HOW TO NATURALIZE YOUR YARD

You can transform your yard into a wonder of native plants in one summer, but you can also start with one flower bed and enlarge that in successive years.

Your first effort will be to get rid of the current grass. Solar killing is relatively simple and time-efficient: lay down layers of cardboard over your grass to deprive it of water and sun. The cardboard eventually breaks down and becomes part of the soil, and amended soil is what you're after. Most native plants don't need extra fertilizer, but starting with good soil with lots of organic matter will make it easier for your plants to grow.

After your grass is dead, you'll need to use some muscle power to remove it. Grass is amazingly resilient. With a little water, those long roots can revive. Soon, you'll have grass choking out your

YARROW

new plants. Do yourself a favor, and don't skip this step.

Now comes the fun part — planting. Do your research so you can choose your plants wisely. Does this new planter bed have lots of sun or shade? Is it on a slope where water will run off before soaking into the ground? Will this spot bear the full fury of winter winds, or is it in a more sheltered area? Contact your local nursery that specializes in native plants or even your county extension agent for plant suggestions.

Once you know which plants are best suited for your site, decide if you want to use seeds or already established plants in pots. Seeds are cheaper but take longer to establish and can be blown away or eaten by birds. Potted plants are spendy but take less time to root and fill in. Plus, they provide the visual delight of a finished project.

WHAT COULD GO WRONG?

New landscapes of native plants do take some time to fully establish — up to two years. You'll need to give them plenty of water and monitor their health for good results.

Other things to consider are your neighbors, homeowners associations and city regulations. If everyone else has bluegrass lawns, some neighbors might think your new landscaping is nothing but weeds. There are certifications you can apply for from organizations like the National Wildlife Federation, Audubon Society and Xerces Society that provide you with a small yard plaque saying your yard meets the requirements for a functional native landscape. Be sure to find out if your city or county has particular "weed" ordinances — often, the height of the plants can be the problem.

However, cities are beginning to realize the benefits of native landscaping and are allowing variances for native plants. Do your homework and be prepared to educate naysayers about the many benefits your native landscape provides. Maybe you'll be the start of something new in your neighborhood! ✻

REED GRASS KARL FOERSTER

WANT TO GIVE A NATIVE LANDSCAPE A TRY?

Check out these resources:

✿ “Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard,” by Douglas Tallamy, 2020

✿ Check out Canyon Creek Nursery’s online plant finder for inspiration, canyoncreeknursery.net

✿ Gainan’s Garden Center, 810 Bench Blvd., Billings

✿ Montana Native Plant Society, mtnativeplants.org

✿ Montana State University Extension Service, montana.edu/ extension

✿ Homegrown National Park, homegrownnationalpark.org

TRIBBLE, writer Leslie feels every day is a chance to engage with nature. Her passion is connecting people to nature and opening their hearts to the beauty all around them. With the help of her dogs, she loves to get out and explore the sagebrush steppe every chance she gets.

LESLIE

INDIAN PAINTBRUSH

HOME FOR

PERSONAL TOUCHES ABOUND IN THIS WEST END CHARMER

THE PERFECT family2

written by JULIE KOERBER photography by DANIEL SULLIVAN

family2

WHEN ZACH AND MADDIE WILSON thought about their dream home, they didn’t think they’d stumble upon it by accident. But, if you ask the couple, that’s kind of how it happened.

“My husband was actually doing work in a spec home across the street,” Maddie says, adding that Zach owns Rocky Mountain Glass. “I was with him and remember saying, ‘Gosh, I love this house!’”

So, the couple chatted with Chad Wagenhals of CDW Construction and ended up building a home with a near carbon copy layout. There have been a few unique design twists along the way, however. Just next to the pantry, you’ll find a long set of doors. You’d assume it was a large cabinet for extra storage, but open it up and it reveals a second door that leads right into Zach’s place, a speakeasy with a sports bar vibe.

“Every time someone walks in, it just blows their mind,” Zach says with a laugh. “My big thing was I wanted a space where all

our friends and family could come over and hang out. We have the pop-up window that opens to our backyard with the inground trampoline and a shed full of lawn games.”

This space is where Zach keeps his Detroit Red Wings memorabilia, giving a nod to players from days gone by like Gordie Howe and Wayne Gretzky. Just recently, he bought an old-school bubble hockey table in Missoula. It looks like foosball but instead of soccer, hockey is the sport. The room is also long enough that Zach has had the cornhole boards out a time or two, allowing friends to play without having to brave the elements.

Not up for games? Pull up a stool, sit back and relax in the dark and cozy space. Slab laminate cabinets give the room a modern edge. A hinged window on the far end opens to the backyard, allowing guests to pull up a bar stool inside to visit with those on the other side of the wall outside. The space is capped off with slate-colored counters that are both easy to keep clean and add to the contemporary feel.

WHAT APPEARS TO BE A LONG KITCHEN CABINET OPENS TO ZACH'S SPACE, A SPORTS-THEMED SPEAKEASY.

The rest of the home, Maddie says, has more of a Scandinavian feel with its neutral colors, pale wood tones, clean lines and distinct textural elements.

“I look at Pinterest a lot,” she says with a laugh, sharing that she found much of her inspiration there.

The sleek look is evident in the home’s kitchen, where Jason Loyning of JL Kitchens by Home Yellowstone helped to transform this space.

“I love the simplicity of the home,” Jason says. “It’s a transitional design. It’s not contemporary. It’s not farmhouse. It’s the perfect transitional home.”

Adding to the Scandinavian feel are the stained Maple base cabinets with accent shelving above in the same warm wood tone. Jason calls the stain color “Buckskin,” a rich light-brown with grey undertones. And just to spice things up here, the couple chose a maritime blue base cabinet to anchor the oversized 10-by 4-foot island, which features its own sink and seating for five.

The kitchen is accented by appliances that are nothing like the dated white appliances of the past. Take, for instance, the refrigerator. The flat panel door with its sleek colored glass front features recessed handles that blend into the appliance. Manufactured by Samsung, the Bespoke series even allows you to change the color or finish of the glass door front to fit your style for years to come.

Gold toned light fixtures from One Source Lighting match the kitchen’s gold knobs and pulls, adding a pop of elegance to both

While the kitchen is big on style, it’s also high on function. Jason made sure to add in a pullout spice rack, slide out trash can and even a microwave drawer to hide these things from view.

At the far end of the room was a must-have in Maddie’s mind. It’s a beverage center with additional shelving, cabinetry, a beverage refrigerator and, of course, a top-of-the-line coffee

“I’m a big coffee drinker, so I said I needed a little dedicated area,” Maddie says with a smile.

Steps away, you’ll find not only a half bath bathed in an artsy black and white wallpaper but the small but mighty laundry room. To maximize space, Jason provided floor to ceiling cabinetry dressed

I LOVE THE SIMPLICITY OF THE HOME. IT’S A TRANSITIONAL DESIGN. IT’S NOT CONTEMPORARY. IT’S NOT FARMHOUSE. IT’S THE PERFECT TRANSITIONAL HOME.

— Jason Loyning

in the same maritime blue found in the kitchen. There’s also a stackable washer and dryer. Because of the ceiling height, the family was able to have plenty of extra storage here thanks to all the cabinetry.

At the heart of the home, you’ll find the living room with its vaulted ceilings and abundant natural light thanks to the large picture windows from 406 Windows. The Maple shelves found in the kitchen carry over to this space, matching the wood found on the fireplace mantle.

Throughout the home, you notice its spacious feel. All the halls, walkways and even stairways are a few feet wider than the norm, giving an easy, breezy feel.

“We try to keep those walkways open and inviting so that the stairs don’t feel dark and gloomy,” Chad says.

Near the front of the house, you’ll not only discover a welcoming entry dressed to a tee, but also Maddie’s office. Instead of the traditional French door, she and Zach chose a frameless glass option that allows all the natural light from the entry into her space.

“I think it makes it look a little more highend,” Maddie says. “We also did a glass pantry door as well.”

Just around the corner sits Zach and Maddie’s refuge, the master bedroom, master bath and walk-in closet. Large windows frame the space and give a view to the spacious back yard.

Stepping into the master bath, you’ll find everything you need, with a his-and-hers sink separated by a vanity for Maddie to use to get ready in the morning. The rain head shower is enclosed completely with glass and was crafted by Zach himself. He also custom cut a counter-to-ceiling mirror. Instead of having accent lights anchor the space, he chose to mount them through the mirror for added light and visual interest.

Upstairs you’ll find a haven for Zach and Maddie’s two daughters, 9-year-old Avie and 15-year-old Ailey. Each has her own bedroom, a shared bath and a large area that is perfect for movie nights or sleepovers.

This ideal family home sits on the far West End of Billings in the new subdivision, Still River Estates. Chad calls it a budget-friendly development with plans that are customizable to each homeowner’s tastes.

“Zach and Maddie were able to do everything they wanted to do in their house because the lots are affordable, the cost of build is affordable and the lots are big enough to do everything that they wanted to do,” Chad says.

Meaning there was enough space for an outdoor eating area with plenty of room to entertain and even a sunken trampoline for the girls. Zach and Maddie had their hands on the design of every square inch of this home.

And to think it all started by helping provide a glass shower in one of CDW’s spec homes.

“Something about that home spoke to them,” Chad says, “They were inspired by it that day.”

With that inspiration came the perfect home for family.

“I love the location. It’s super quiet at night,” Zach says. “I love to sit out in the backyard and have a fire going and just sit. It’s the little things you don’t appreciate until you have them.” ✻

builder7 SPOTLIGHT

CDW CONSTRUCTION

CDW CONSTRUCTION is a local, family-owned construction company that specializes in new residential construction. After spending a year in real estate, owner Chad Wagenhals saw the need for a reliable home builder with attention to detail. Since its inception, CDW has prided itself on a stress-free building process, one that stays on time and on budget. Still River Estates is

the company’s newest development. Located on the West End near 64th Street West and King Avenue, this subdivision offers lots up to 18,000 square feet with seven acres of parks and green space, plus a mile of neighborhood paved walking paths throughout the development. For more, cdwconstructionmt.com ✻