COLUMBIA FALLS — The old elementary school in Columbia Falls is being transformed to house nonprofits that help kids.
“Well, it's a wonderful opportunity for our community to come together and provide a clean, safe spot for the youth in our community. So, in my heart, I want to try and help young people in our community get a good start in life,” said Columbia Falls Kids Foundation President Don Bennett.
And Bennet is doing that through starting the nonprofit, Columbia Falls Kids Foundation.
The foundation will run a shared space in the old Glacier Gateway school building that houses the Boys and Girls Club of Glacier Country, Land to Hand and Gateway to Early Learning Daycare.
“It is important that we give our youth the best opportunities that we can. And I just feel like every child that we provide some mentorship and support for is just another brick in the foundation of our community. And I just, I'm excited about it,” said Bennett.
The Glacier Gateway School building has been donated to the foundation by Mick Ruis of Ruis Construction. The building is about 40,000 square feet and has two gyms and an outdoor area allowing the nonprofits that occupy it the extra space they desperately need.
“I mean, it's a huge blessing for us to have this opportunity. Like I said, we were so cramped in space over in that other building, and being here, just the ability to spread out, the ability to maintain and have more kids per day, the ability to not have a waiting list,” said Boys and Girls Club of Glacier Country Director of Operations Steven Crews.
Land to Hand helps provide kids with food insecurity with healthy nutritious food as well as education on gardening and food. They hope to use this additional space for a food pantry and an opportunity to work with kids in the building.
“Really partnering with other nonprofits is our jam. It's what we love to do. We have a commercial kitchen that we're working on, so we are excited to teach cooking classes with both Boys and Girls Club and the Gateway to Early Learning Center. So we're just so excited about all the opportunities that we're going to have,” said Gretchen Boyer, Executive Director of Land to Hand.
From infants to teenagers, the new building and Columbia Falls Kids Foundation will offer opportunities for hundreds of more kids in the valley including the Glacier Gateway Communities.
“It's been a blessing, over the top, blessing we before, we're just in two little bitty classrooms, we were making it work. Since we've been here, we've been able to open our doors to the entire community, all the way to Kalispell, Whitefish, Hungry Horse, Coram and Martin City. And that's just been amazing, because before we were very limited to who we could serve,” said Gateway to Early Learning Daycare Co-Director Samantha Cheetham.
The foundation and the building are still in the very early stages of creation. The Boys and Girls Club and Gateway to Early Learning are currently operating out of the building but there is a lot of construction and fundraising to be done to complete the project.
“And I'm excited for next year because by then, we'll have things we'll be rocking and rolling here, this place will be filled with laughter and kids running around and, you know, teachers helping them. It's really an exciting opportunity for the whole community,” said Bennett.
If you would like to donate you can contact Don Bennett at (406)892-6622. Or you can send a check made out to Columbia Falls Kids Foundation to Freedom Bank in Columbia Falls, Attention Don Bennett. Bennett is working on creating a way to donate on the Columbia Falls Kids Foundation website.
