We've Got The County Covered
We've Got The County Covered
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Malcolm Obresley, a twenty-eight-year-old resident of Havre and a conductor for Burlington Northern, shared his experience as a cancer survivor at the May gathering of Chinook's Cancer Support Group. What started as a simple "lost my glasses when I fell off a paddle board at a family gathering" turned into a series of diagnoses and treatments that lasted for half a year. Happily, Obresley's prognosis is great, he's back to work and doing things he always did before his bout with cancer. He's the...
Meadowlark Elementary Principal Jon Martin gave the signal for the assembled students to quiet down, but there was still a thrum of excitement on the last day of school. It was Awards Day and students would be recognized for superior school attendance, completing an online course to learn about managing money, being good citizens and reading achievements. Sixth graders, who would be moving on to junior high next fall, got a sendoff from their fellow students with a song, cheers and high-fives....
Last year the Chinook High Future Farmers (FFA) chapter completed their community garden project just in time for the summer gardening season. CHS Vo-ag teacher Robin Allen said the garden spot, across Illinois Street to the east of the high school, has 10 raised beds. There are still six 12 feet by 12 feet raised beds and one 12 feet by six feet bed available for the 2018 garden season. Half beds are also available for renting. This year the garden plots can be rented for the season running...
Twenty-eight fourth graders at Meadowlark Elementary had their final state projects on display for inspection by fellow classmates and visitors to the school. The tabletop presentations are the culmination of five weeks of work in social studies. Fourth graders learn about each geographical region in the U.S. then draw a state for their final 'state project' which they complete the last quarter of the school year. During each of the five weeks they are assigned specific topics-state economy, fam...
A celebration of Mental Health Month is set for the afternoon and evening of Wednesday, May 30. Organizers say the event will be staged “much like a health fair with information tables available all in one location. The fair will be followed by a movie and then a barbeque dinner.” Jana McPherson-Hauer, Blaine County Public Health Nurse, said, “We often hear about how ‘resource poor’ our area is for mental health services. Part of the purpose of this celebration is to emphasize and showcase what we’re doing well for mental health awareness a...
The eighth summer edition of Loaves and Fishes, the ecumenical summer feeding program in Chinook, will meet at noon time, Monday through Thursday, beginning June 4 and ending on August 9. The ecumenical program, sponsored by five local congregations, was created to assure local children get a nutritious meal during the summer months. When it was discovered that the local school system would not qualify for a feeding program grant, the five churches stepped up to operate the program. Five...
Sorry I wasn't able to alert readers beforehand about this big news item. I only was aware of it when my wife shared a recent post from Microsoft sharing the good news. For those of you who may have spent the last thirty years on another planet or do not regularly use a computer or smart phone, this new national day honors solitaire played on a variety of electronic device. It was 28 years ago that Microsoft first added solitaire to 3.0 Windows. When I read the announcement about yet another...
The Chinook Area Chamber of Commerce hosted an ice cream social last week to celebrate Public Service Recognition Week (PSRW). The annual week to salute employees in the public sector began in 1985 to "honor the men and women who serve our nation as federal, state, county and local government employees." The kickoff to Public Service Recognition Week this year included a Presidential Proclamation and bipartisan resolutions from both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives recognizing th...
Blaine County Undersheriff Frank Billmayer was a recent presenter at the Chinook Senior Center. His topic was “Identity Theft, SCAMS and Identity Protection and Recovery.” Center Director Kristi Norby said, “We only planned for a short presentation before we served lunch. Our seniors were so interested in the topic they insisted the undersheriff keep talking while lunch was served. It was amazing how many of our seniors shared instances of being targeted with a scam or attempted identity theft.” Countermeasures to avoid scams and identit...
The Blaine County Fair Board was notified recently of a $10,000 grant award to buy and wire 50 LED lights for the new indoor event center to be erected at the county fairgrounds. Laura Kleinjan, who has already written several successful grants for the project, said, "I heard about this Montana-based foundation from a friend. The foundation funds "brick and mortar" projects, perfect for what we are trying to do." The indoor center can host a number of events ranging from car and gun shows to...
The Blaine County 4-H Teen Leaders hosted a carnival and spaghetti supper in the Chinook High gymnasium recently. The carnival and feed was both a fun time for kids and a fundraiser for the 13-18 year old 4-H members who make up the leadership group. Any 4-H student in the age group can chose to do the "leadership" project to qualify for the leadership team. To become a 4-H Ambassador, 4-H Teen Leaders submit an application and are selected by interview. Kendra Seilstad, MSU/Blaine County...
Reporter's note: In the April 4 issue of the "Journal" I wrote about the conjoined Hilton Sisters and their one performance in Chinook in 1940 in the old Orpheum Theatre. In the story I commented that I never could verify if there really was a stage in the old theatre that sat in the northwest corner of what is now the parking lot for Finley's Food Farm. I received a letter from reader Calvin Blatter who wrote he now lived in Great Falls but grew up in Chinook. He hand wrote a four page letter...
Nurse Practitioner Lindsay Rucinsky spoke to the April gathering of the Cancer Support Group in Chinook. Rucinsky's topic was about diabetes and how certain cancers may be connected to conditions related to diabetes. She added, "I'm passionate about diabetes because it's affected multiple members of my family." A native of Havre, Rucinsky still lives there with her family. She joined Sweet Medical Center (SMC) fulltime in 2017. First earning a degree in criminal justice "back east" she realized...
Several members of the Future Farmers of America (FFA) chapter at Chinook High were awarded state degrees at the Montana FFA Convention held in Billings April 4-7. One CHS student also won a state proficiency award in beef production entrepreneurship. And a sophomore FFA member is already making plans to earn a state proficiency award for her work with swine production. FFA State Degrees earned The FFA State Degree is the highest FFA award at the state level. FFA chapter members who perform at...
The Harlem Library and Harlem Senior Center recently hosted the third of their Montana Humanities Conversation series. A break in the weather brought a sizeable crowd to the Senior Center dining hall for a presentation by Hal Stearns of Missoula. Stearns was born in Havre and grew up in Harlowton. He describes himself as an "historian, storyteller and guide." During introductory remarks Stearns said, "We are loosing our small towns. Not just in Montana, but across the country." In his...
The Montana Actors' Theatre (MAT) is a Havre-based community theatre group. Over the group's history many actors from Blaine County have taken parts in both plays and musicals. The upcoming production of "Charlotte's Web" is a stage play based on E.B. White's famous children's book of the same name. Director Oriah Williams described the play as "a very family friendly show." Williams wrote, "We have in all 17 kids in our show ranging from the ages of 7-15." Six of those seventeen parts for...
The area around the corner of Pennsylvania and 3rd Streets in Chinook should be hopping mid-day on Thursday. Five businesses and organizations located on and near the corner will be hosting a block party complete with lunch and door prizes. It will be a great time, hopefully, to enjoy some spring weather, have lunch and learn about the services and products of the groups hosting the mid-day event. The party will run from 11am to 2pm. The block party is hosted by the Blaine County Library, the Chinook Post Office, The Grande Villa, Bear Paw...
Lacy Schimmel and Lauren LaMonica, the Young Adult Volunteers (YAVs) who served in Chinook during the past year were given a farewell party recently. The two won't be moving on until late July, but with all the spring and summer activities coming up, the committee that supervises the YAV program decided this was the time to say a public good-bye. The event was held at the Chinook Senior Center. Both Lacy and Lauren shared some of their reactions to a year in Chinook and what the future holds...
The 2018 edition of the Medieval Feast was sixth grade teacher Janelle Downs third feast celebration-the second time as the teacher in charge, the first time was as a student. Downs said before the event, "The Medieval Feast was one of the highlights of my sixth grade experience. That's one of the reasons I wanted to teach sixth grade, to share my experience with my students." She admitted it was a bit different as the teacher in charge versus as a student a few years ago. But, she's still very...
Three weeks ago Blaine County Commissioners and county Emergency Manager Haley Velk were sharing ideas about the potential for spring flooding. Velk said, "...I don't have a crystal ball to tell if, when and where a flood might occur." A "winter briefing" from the National Weather Service (NWS) showed the worst case scenario for flooding was "rapidly warming temperatures and overnight lows above freezing." About a week ago the worst case scenario happened and so did flooding. Wednesday, April...
National Volunteer Week, always in April, is a time that many charitable groups and organizations recognize and thank their volunteers. Sweet Nursing Home and the Chinook Senior Center thanked their volunteers with special complimentary lunches and kind words of thanks. Without putting too fine a point on how these calculations were made, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and other national groups have compiled some impressive statistics about the number of volunteers in the country and their econ...
Looking for a chance to throw off some of the effects of a hard winter and tough spring? There are several events coming up the weekend of April 27- 29 that might do the trick. It's also a way to support the programs the sponsoring groups provide in the community. The Montana Actors Theatre (MAT) is a Havre-based community theatrical group. Many Blaine Countians have acted in and attended MAT productions at MSU-Northern's stage facility. Now MAT is coming to Chinook with a two night run of...
Thirty-five fifth graders from Meadowlark Elementary hosted their annual wax museum. Each student selects a character from American History which they learn about and represent for the project. This year's theme was "Heroes and Heroines." Fifth grade teachers Lesa MacLeod and Megan Hinebauch said the historical figures were "people who had an impact on the U.S. in politics, sports, entertainment or scientific endeavors." The program has been ongoing at Meadowlark since the fall of 1992. But,...
Two weeks ago a new business opened in downtown Chinook. Located in what was once the Golden Triangle Mental Health facility (236 Indiana), Chinook's Creative Collections is a 'gallery' where local artists can rent individual space to display and sell their creations. On opening day there were 11 artists with their wares on display. Brandon Nissen, who owns the building, believes there is potential for 20 artists to be involved in the new enterprise by June of this year. Purchase of building...
A couple of weeks ago Mary Pyette told me she would be wearing her special lineman's outfit on March 9 to celebrate Lineman Appreciation Day. I planned to take a photo of her but also wanted to know a little about the holiday-not that I don't appreciate linemen, but I was not aware they had a special day. When I did my checking I found the day was officially on April 18 this year. There was even an ad from Big Flat Coop in the "Journal" referring to April 18. I really thought Mary was playing a...
