GREAT FALLS — Montana Grit Outdoors is a nonprofit organization created by and designed specifically for women who are military veterans and/or first responders.
Founded in 2021, the program includes a six-month emotional recovery coaching program, which teaches the participants to evaluate and regain control over their emotions in order to cope with some of the trauma that comes along with being in the veteran and first responders communities.
The program ends with a guided hunting trip — 24 miles on horseback into grizzly bear country.
From the website:
We serve female veterans and first responders. We serve women in Gold Star families, and in families that have lost a first responder while on duty. We serve women who've experienced the loss of a family member to PTSD.
“The purpose of the program is to help equip women to be who they were meant to be and lay down any of the emotional baggage and the things that they are that might be carrying them, that prevents them from being who they want to be," Megan Brummel, the lead of the emotional recovery coaching program says. "All of this builds up to this point where they will kind of be tested a little bit in these areas so they can overcome the challenges that come naturally with hunting going into the backcountry.”
The organization provides the women the guns, the gear, and the survival training, with each hunt tailored to the experience and skill set of the participants.
“I knew that we needed to have some sort of emotional support program because really you look at the world today, everybody does. It doesn't matter who you are. It's just an honor to be able to come up with something that will provide them freedom," Breane Lindvall, director and founder of the organization, explains. "We take donations for gear, we take, you know, anything that's going to help support what we do. We're very appreciative of it. And, the women that get to receive them are more than deserving of it.”
The two women currently participating in the program, U.S. Army veteran Meghan Malloy and U.S. Army firefighter EMT Kari Hirschberger, were both presented with donated hunting rifles Friday afternoon.
“Nature is a place for me that is a huge portion of how I defuse and is a huge healing mechanism for me. I have struggled to try to find a female community that enjoys the same and especially a female community within the veterans and first responder community," Hirschberger says. "They understand and have been through similar things. It was something that I was very much seeking out.”
Members of the organization noted the lack of programs tailored specifically to service women, and how the camaraderie and connection they form with each other through these programs leads to healing.
“Leaving the service proved to be a lot tougher than I thought it was going to be. Getting an opportunity to do something like this with these fellow women that are in this community as well is just beyond anything I could have ever asked for or hoped for," Malloy explains. "Whether for those people that are still in service or like me, have just recently left it, it's just such a great healing opportunity and a way for us to kind of move on from some of those things that we've been through.”
To learn more about Montana Grit Outdoors, click here.
