The 19th annual Can the Griz food drive, an off-field competition between Montana State University and the University of Montana to see which school can collect the most donations for its local county food bank, begins Saturday, Nov. 3.

The competition ends Nov. 17 at the end of the first quarter of the annual Brawl of the Wild football game between MSU and UM, which will be held this year in Missoula. The winner of the competition will be announced during the second half of the football game.

“All of the food collected at Can the Griz remains in the Gallatin Valley, and we’re proud that it is used to support our friends, neighbors, children and MSU students”, said Randi Maiers, community engagement program coordinator with the MSU Office of Student Engagement. “Every year, we beat the previous year’s collection record, and I’m continually in awe of the generosity of our community.”

Organizers of the drive ask that nonperishable food donations be taken to collection locations throughout Bozeman to support those in need in Gallatin County. A list of participating locations can be found at www.canthegriz.com/.

Bobcat supporters can designate their contribution to MSU by telling the Gallatin Valley Food Bank or collection location host that their donation is for the Can the Griz food drive.

Those wishing to donate are also invited to bring cans to the MSU football game on Nov. 3 versus Cal Poly and to the Nov. 10 football game versus Northern Colorado. Collection bins will be located at the Ressler and the XL Country tailgates. Donations will also be collected at the men’s basketball game on Nov. 6. Admission to that game will be only $5 with a donation to the food drive.

Monetary donations may be made directly to the Gallatin Valley Food Bank by visiting canthegriz.com/donate. Each dollar donated counts as 1 pound of food.

Can the Griz will have numerous food-raising events, and many area businesses – including grocery stories and breweries – will be collecting donations and running Can the Griz specials during the two-week competition. Visit canthegriz.com and click “events” to learn more.

Individuals who participate in the drive are invited to take a photo or video of themselves donating and post it on social media with the hashtag #canthegriz.

Maiers urged Can the Griz supporters to get their donations in to the food bank by 5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 16, in order for them to count toward the competition.

Last year, MSU and the Bozeman community donated a record 257,336 pounds of food plus $131,757 to the Gallatin Valley Food Bank. The University of Montana and Missoula community also raised a record amount for the Missoula community's local food bank and won last year’s competition. Donations from UM and the Missoula community totaled 255,070 pounds of food plus $139,008.

Can the Griz proceeds go to the Gallatin Valley Food Bank.

For more information, or to host a collection box, please contact the MSU Office of Student Engagement at 406-994-2933 or email canthegriz@montana.edu.

Can the Griz is coordinated by the MSU Office of Student Engagement and the Gallatin Valley Food Bank.

Between July and October, 2018 Bozeman Police Officers responded to four separate incidents of indecent exposure in Bozeman businesses.  In all occasions, an unidentified male exposed his genitals while partially covering himself with various items from the store he was in.  The suspect ran from each store on foot when confronted.  Luckily, two stores were equipped with surveillance cameras which captured the suspect on video.  We ask the public’s assistance in identifying the suspect.  The public is urged to contact the Bozeman Police at 582-2242, Crimestoppers (406-586-1131), or policcetips@bozeman.net  with information leading to the identity and apprehension of the suspect.  Any person with information that helps to solve this crime may remain anonymous and could be eligible for a cash reward.

Fork & Spoon Homestyle Kitchen, formerly known as the Community Café, is inviting area businesses to treat friends and neighbors to dinner by Picking Up the Tab.

At Fork & Spoon, we believe that sharing a good meal with others makes everyone’s day better. We want to make it easy for businesses to share that feeling, which is why we have launched our Pick Up the Tab fundraising campaign. The idea is simple: a business, service club, church, family or friends can commit to picking up the dinner tab for one night or one week each month. Cost is $500 for one night or $3,000 for one week. That pays for meals for 100 people per night. In return, participants benefit from knowing they have helped feed hungry children, families and individuals in our community. They also receive shoutouts on Fork & Spoon social media channels, website, restaurant table tents and more. We’ve chosen a superhero theme for this campaign to emphasize that being a local superhero is as easy as buying dinner for a friend or neighbor in need.

Fork & Spoon strives to become a self-sustainable and profitable restaurant. Then, our profits will be put back into the community to provide help through a broader range of services.

As Montana’s only pay-what-you can social enterprise restaurant, Fork & Spoon makes it possible for everyone in our community to receive a fresh, healthy dinner at a price they can afford. While a price is suggested for each night’s dinner, guests can choose to pay less, more or nothing at all. Because of this structure, Fork & Spoon depends on community support to be able to provide dinner for our friends and neighbors in need. Members of the community can support Fork & Spoon by coming in to eat dinner or being a part of Pick Up the Tab.

Fork & Spoon serves dinner from 5 to 7 p.m. Sunday through Friday. The kitchen is led by Chef Rick Hilles who sources local ingredients whenever possible for his from-scratch recipes. Fork & Spoon, a program of the HRDC, is located at 302 N. 7th Ave. in Bozeman. For more information on Pick Up the Tab, please contact Fork & Spoon General Manager Chelsea Eddy at 406-587-4225.

A poll of Montana voters conducted jointly by Montana State University political scientists and the Montana Television Network indicates that the 2018 U.S. Senate race for Montana is a dead heat.

The poll showed incumbent Democrat Jon Tester holds a 3-point lead over GOP challenger Matt Rosendale – with 46. 2 percent of respondents favoring Tester, 43.1 percent supporting Rosendale, 2.6 preferring Libertarian candidate Rick Breckenridge and 6.5 percent respondents still undecided. Another 1.6 percent opted for an “other” category.

Those undecided voters could be key to the outcome of the highly contested race, said David Parker, associate professor of political science. Parker led a team of four MSU political scientists who mailed out ballots to 10,400 registered Montana voters in mid-September. About 20 percent of those who received the questionnaire — 2,057 respondents — sent it back by Oct. 6, which is considered a very good response rate, Parker said

“The key is how the independent vote will break,” said Parker, who added that the results are “a snapshot in time.”  He said that about 44 percent of the undecided voters identify as Republican, 27 percent as independent and 26 percent as another party. “Those voters could decide the election, as will turnout.”

Parker said there are three key takeaways from the data, which was weighted with U.S. Census Bureau statistics to reflect the key Montana demographics of age, education, gender by marital status and media markets. Results were also weighted to the 2016 presidential vote in Montana to reflect the state’s partisan dynamics, he said.

First, Democrats are nearly united in their support for Tester, with only 1 percent of the Democratic respondents reporting that they are undecided at this point. For Tester to win, Democratic voters will need to turn out at a rate similar to the 2006 or 2012 Senate elections, Parker said.

The second factor is undecided voters. Undecided voters are largely Republican -- 44 percent – and Parker said, given historical patterns, those voters could move to Rosendale’s column by Election Day, which could tighten the race if Democrats don’t turn out.

Parker said another related issue is whether undecided Republicans will vote with Tester, who is famously likeable, or remain loyal to President Donald Trump, who has made three personal visits to Montana to campaign against Tester.

“Rosendale has not established his personality in this race,” Parker said.  “Tester, on the other hand, is eminently likeable, even his opponents say that. Rosendale has focused his campaign on one thing: his loyalty to Trump. He has embraced that. The question is: Will Republicans vote for Rosendale not knowing him that well, or will they back him to support the president?”

The third factor involves independent voters. Independent voters favor Tester by nearly 30 points -- some 57.3 percent of independent voters support Tester, compared to 29.5 for Rosendale. Again, that makes turnout even more essential, Parker said. For Tester to win, his Democratic supporters and independents favoring him have to show up and vote, Parker said.

Other findings in the data include that women favor Tester by about 13 percentage points (51.7 percent to 38.6 percent) while men favor Rosendale by 6 points (47.5 percent to 41.6 percent). Rosendale’s support is concentrated among middle-aged voters, particularly between the ages of 40 and 49, while Tester has a clear lead among the youngest and oldest voters.

Parker said that several events linked to the election occurred during the time that the questionnaire was out, including the contentious hearings for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh as well as a visit by Trump to Billings.

“But (election) events don’t have a long-term effect,” Parker said. “After a few days of a bump following the event, voting preferences return to their baseline condition.”

The questionnaire for the poll and data analysis was conducted by Parker and fellow MSU political scientists Eric D. Raile, Sara Guenther and Elizabeth Shanahan who also analyzed the data. The political scientists opted for a mail-in poll, which has a better response rate than telephone polls.

The MSU/MTN poll was divided into four sections. The Montana race for U.S. House will be announced tomorrow. Referendums will follow the next day. The week will conclude on issues and approval ratings. The team will also conduct a post-election poll in Montana.

For more information about the survey results, go to http://helpslab.montana.edu/

Current Principal Trumpet for the Dallas Symphony and former Principal Trumpet for the world famous Canadian Brass, Ryan Anthony, is scheduled to join the Bozeman Symphony presenting Concerto for Hope on October 27th and 28th, 2018. However, former Canadian Brass member and internationally celebrated trumpeter Jens Lindemann will appear in his place.

Ryan Anthony brings a unique aspect to his music-making and performances as he was diagnosed in 2012 with an incurable form of cancer called Multiple Myeloma - a cancer of the blood and bone marrow.  A favorite guest artist of the Bozeman Symphony, audiences have come to know Ryan over the years and his battle with Multiple Myeloma. Thanks to a stem-cell transplant soon after his diagnosis, Ryan has been successful at keeping the cancer at bay. Determined to beat it, Ryan has been on a mission to raise awareness through “Cancer Blows” concerts and establishing the Ryan Anthony Foundation, and telling his story to anyone who will listen. All of this while maintaining an active schedule of performances, clinics, travel, regular treatments, and as a husband and father of two young children.

 
Ryan’s heroic fight has been ongoing as 2018 brought tandem stem cell transplants this September and October as life-saving treatment of his multiple myeloma. In the first transplant, Ryan received his own stem cells and in the second, he received stem cells from a matched donor located through the Be The Match registry. Maestro Matthew Savery, Music Director and Conductor of the Bozeman Symphony shares “so far, he’s made great progress and is home recovering from the procedure. While he is doing very well, he still has some recovering to do, so traveling to Bozeman for our performances was out of the question. Ryan sends his deepest regrets and hopes to return to Bozeman soon.” Maestro Savery also shares “we’ll have a place on our stage for him when he is ready.”

 
Trumpeter Jens Lindemann will join the orchestra on October 27th and 28th. Jens and Ryan go way back, and they are incredibly close friends. Maestro Savery shares: “I had the pleasure of getting to know Jens two years ago when we both appeared on Ryan’s Cancer Blows: The Legends Return concerts with the Dallas Symphony. We had a fantastic time working together and there is no one I would rather have to fill in for Ryan than Jens. In essence, we are replacing one living legend with another, and all of us at the Bozeman Symphony are grateful.”

About the performance, Jens says “we’re doing this concert for Ryan, for music, and for Bozeman. On Ryan’s behalf, we’re going to give Bozeman an amazing performance.”
 
As stated in the program notes about the Concerto for Hope: “Concerto for Hope is completely and entirely dedicated to Ryan. Just three years before the creation of this concerto, Ryan received his diagnosis. At Ryan’s request, this concerto would be about his story: a concerto that would evoke the events that have shaped forever his view on life, the world, and relationships. To quote Ryan:

‘emotionally powerful, beauty and heartache but ending with hope; fun and full of rejoicing. My recent life: hearing the news and crying out ‘why’ and realizing ‘what’s going on?’ Then accepting it and dealing with the reality and possible future. Then surviving and enjoying life.’
 
I therefore essentially set Ryan’s descriptive paragraph to music. The first movement is full of beauty and fun, with a slight undertone of foreboding. This leads directly (without stoppage) into the second movement, where disbelief, pain and sadness are most prevalent. At one point, the soloist almost literally screams ‘why me?’ to the audience, as the orchestra reaches its most climactic point. This is followed by off-stage musicians who carry on seemingly with a joyous life, leaving the soloist temporarily feeling almost indescribably alone. The instrumentation for the off-stage players, and for other key moments in the work, involves violin, cello and French horn (and brass), all of which have played a significant role in Ryan’s family and musical life.

Again, the second movement passes almost seamlessly onto the third; as we move from sadness and despair to hope and a rebirth of the joy of life. The music struggles constantly between uplifted spirited music and music with a certain darkness. This is musically represented by a battle between G and Eb Major. G Major finally triumphs in the end, and the piccolo trumpet of the soloist awards the listener with the undeniable belief that life is to be lived to the fullest, and that nothing can stop the human spirit.” – James Stephenson

Performances will be held Saturday, October 27th at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, October 28th at 2:30 p.m.  Both performances held at Willson Auditorium (404 West Main Street), Downtown Bozeman. Tickets can be purchased online at bozemansymphony.org, at the Bozeman Symphony offices located at 1001 West Oak Street, Suite 110, by phone at (406) 585-9774, or at the door based on availability. Adult tickets range from $27.00-$67.00. Student discounts are available. Please contact the Bozeman Symphony at (406) 585-9774 or info@bozemansymphony.org with questions you have regarding performance, ticket sales, venue, and seating information. This concert season is generously sponsored by David and Risi Ross. Thank you to Eve Art, Andy, and Jackie, in honor of Mike Art, for sponsoring these performances.

The skills can’t be gleaned online or from a phone. Some of the classes don’t have a textbook. Students may get a little dirty in the lab, which happens to be a shop in one of Montana State University’s equipment facilities. The final grade depends on lessons learned by way of one’s hands.
 
For the MSU students who enroll in Dustin Perry’s classes, and for a modern economy desperate for a skilled labor workforce, honing agricultural mechanics talents are old, albeit, new skills for MSU’s next-generation agricultural educators and agriculturists.
 
Perry, assistant professor in the Division of Agricultural Education, housed in MSU’s College of Agriculture, joined MSU in 2014. Since then, he has revamped the university’s agricultural mechanics classes to promote what he calls “experiential learning” so that students can garner “skills required not just for a job, but for life.” Those skills involve learning to frame, build sub-floors, correctly wire a switchboard and safely use power tools. Bob from InspireDesignAndCreate.com says that proper safety techniques are paramount before taking on any DIY project, especially when novices and new power tools are involved. 

 
“To be sure, there’s a generational decrease in the hard skills of even basic tool operations and safety,” Perry said. “The previous generation would have some kind of inherent knowledge. But in today’s classrooms, it’s a mix between students who know how to operate basic tools and equipment and those who haven’t been exposed to any of it.”

 
About half of Perry’s construction students are required to take his courses for an agricultural education degree. The other half, according to Perry, are students from all majors who are putting their names on wait lists for classes like electrical power and systems operations, small engines, construction and lab management.

 
“I think people are hungry to take these kinds of classes because they’re different and outside of what students are traditionally used to,” he said. 
 
In one of his classes, construction technology, students spend the semester planning and executing a small-scale construction project. Students take on projects from organizations and the public, who are responsible for purchasing the project’s materials. Students present a formal design and budget for the project.  Under Perry’s supervision, they’re responsible for procuring the materials and its entire construction.

 
Former projects include a storage shed at the MSU Child Development Center preschool, an informational kiosk for the Gallatin Valley chapter of Pheasants’ Forever located at MSU’s Lutz Farm, multiple greenhouses and a chicken coop.
 
Last fall, his students built a homecoming float for the College of Agriculture that included the college’s original 1907 seal in honor of MSU’s 125th anniversary year. The float features a center pivot irrigation system powered by 250 gallons of water, which cooled crowds during Bozeman’s Sweet Pea Festival in August. Students constructed hexagonal wooden planters for holding wheat varieties grown on MSU’s Horticulture Farm, as well as the frame for the collegiate seal.

 
Perry, who has a doctorate in agricultural education, grew up in Texas “following his dad around fixing things.” He helps build decks for a local construction company in the summer - what he calls professional development -- so that he doesn’t become disconnected from the industry.
 
Focused on agricultural education recruitment and retention at MSU, he works closely with FFA chapters across the state and is a board member of the Montana FFA. Perry was presented a Teaching Award of Merit by the North American Colleges of Teachers of Agriculture in 2016. Last year at the Western Region Agricultural Education Conference he was awarded a first runner up for distinguished impact in research involving the career decisions of agricultural education teaching graduates. 

 
Jondie Rianda, a graduate student in agricultural education from Kalispell, is a former student of Perry’s and now is a graduate assistant for the construction technology class. Rianda said she enjoys observing students navigate the community aspect of planning and building.
 
“I think what’s so valuable about Dr. Perry’s classes is that he gives his students free rein to really figure things out independently,” she said. “For big projects, that’s a lot of responsibility for students who haven’t been given that learning opportunity. That’s especially true in classes where the level of hard skills really varies.”

 
Rianda said from a teaching perspective, that kind of hands-on learning allows some students to follow a natural tendency to lead.
 
“When it comes to teacher training in agriculture, a lot of rural school districts expect a higher competency in mechancis,” she said. “It’s fun to see the progression of some students take on leadership roles, which is based on the small-group nature of the class.”
 
Austin Standley, an MSU alumnus and current agricultural mechanics teacher at Sweet Grass County High School in Big Timber, said he’s modeling his own classrooms after Perry’s instruction.
 
“It’s almost identical to how I format my electricity class, especially in terms of how much I encourage students to use their hands,” Standley said. “You can go over and over what the electrical principles are in connecting a switchboard, but until you actually do it yourself, you won’t get that ‘ah-ha’ moment. Dr. Perry completely understands the learn-by-doing, which is the nature of ag ed.”

 
Standley said Perry’s classes “were absolutely instrumental” in his ability to teach and connect with students and for an appreciation “of the concepts of how and why most things work.”
 
“It’s a really exciting time to be in ag ed,” Standley said. “There’s a lot of things changing. The most important, I think, is more attention being paid to its value.”

Montana State University will receive a major portion of funding to build a state-of-the-art American Indian Hall thanks to a $12 million pledge from a private grant-making foundation with a long history of supporting conservation and community led projects in Montana, MSU President Waded Cruzado announced today.

The Kendeda Fund has committed $12 million as the lead gift for the $20 million project that will be built on the eastern edge of MSU’s Malone Centennial Mall. Cruzado made the surprise announcement before a large and emotional crowd gathered for the university’s annual Indigenous Peoples’ Day celebration on Monday.

“We deeply thank the Kendeda Fund for this generous gift that assures that a promise made to our American Indian people will be kept and a dream fulfilled,” Cruzado told the crowd before a ceremonial round dance. “This very land on which we stand today is aboriginal land, once a cherished home to several American Indian tribes. This building will honor our American Indian people and their descendants, welcoming them back to their home with a building that reflects their culture with beauty, honor and grace.”

“This is an investment in our state’s future Native leaders and they deserve a place like this where they can not only learn but thrive,” added Tim Stevens, Montana adviser for the Kendeda Fund.

The Kendeda Fund  is a private grantmaking foundation that invests in transformative leaders and ideas, empowering communities across the U.S. and around the globe to enhance equity, vibrancy, resourcefulness and resilience. The Kendeda Fund helps underrepresented but trusted voices build social and community capital by supporting experienced, and emerging, leaders who have the vision to see problems differently and the courage to challenge conventional thinking. It has lent support to capital construction projects on a number of university campuses across the U.S. over its 25 year history.

“Place is extremely important to American Indians,” said Walter Fleming, chairman of MSU’sDepartment of Native American Studies in the College of Letters and Science. “We appreciate that the Kendeda Fund understands that this isn’t necessarily just a building that we would like to build, but a spiritual facility that signifies a commitment to American Indians and a permanence in our campus’ history.”

Cruzado said that in addition to the Kendeda pledge, more than 60 generous donors have contributed an additional $4 million since 2005 when the project was first proposed.

Last week, the Associated Students of Montana State University Senate committed $2 million in student building fees to support the project.

“This project is not only a tribute to American Indians, it also provides opportunities for student success and collaboration in a space filled with culture. This student center will allow my peers and me to honor and learn from our fellow American Indian Bobcats, and I'm so happy ASMSU could help bring it closer to reality,” said Lizzy Thompson, vice president of the Associated Students of MSU.  

“The potential benefits to all students of this project is really exciting. This building will provide a space for students to celebrate and explore American Indian culture and heritage while also providing support to all Bobcats,” said Taylor Blossom, president of the Associated Students of MSU.

The MSU Alumni Foundation is working to secure the final $2 million from donors by the end of December, which will bring the project to $20 million, Cruzado said. The university plans to hold a ceremonial groundbreaking for the building, which Cruzado envisions as “much more than a building, a place of teaching learning and sharing where our next generation of leaders will prepare for the challenges of the future,” the last week of March with an intending opening in fall of 2021.

Cruzado said the building’s structure will be based on a feather design created by MSU architecture graduate Dennis Sun Rhodes in 2005. That is when Sun Rhodes, an enrolled member of the Northern Arapaho Tribe from Ethete, Wyoming, and his friend, well-known artist Jim Dolan, first proposed their vision for a freestanding MSU American Indian student building to former MSU President Geoff Gamble. MSU dedicated the land next to Hannon Hall for the building shortly after and a Dolan tepee sculpture has stood on the spot as a reminder of that promise as the university worked to find funds for the project. Cruzado said Sun Rhodes and his Great Horse Group of St. Paul, Minnesota, will serve as a consultant on the project, working with ThinkOne architects of Bozeman and TSP architects in Rapid City, South Dakota.

Fleming said that the planned building is sorely needed. Currently the American Indian Student Center is located in a heavily used 1,100 sq. ft. room in the basement of Wilson Hall, the same place since it’s been since Wilson Hall opened in 1974 and there were fewer than 25 students who identified as American Indian. This fall, 776 American Indian students are enrolled at MSU.

The new facility will house the offices of the MSU Department of Native American Studies, which are currently in Wilson Hall. The building will hold numerous classrooms for use by all students, as well as an auditorium for lectures. Also planned are rooms for tutoring, counseling and advising.

The American Indian Hall will also include culturally relevant elements, including a room that can be used for ceremonies and as a dance studio. While focused on the needs of MSU’s growing American Indian community, which includes students from all 12 of Montana’s tribes as well as 41 additional tribal nations from 15 states, Fleming said it would be also a place welcoming to all students and a bridge between cultures.

“We are envisioning this building will be a place that students can teach and learn about their culture,” Fleming said.  “It will also be a place designed to help our MSU Indian students succeed. A building that is culturally appropriate and is designed to help them feel at home will go a long way to increasing enrollment, retention and ultimately graduation. More than ever before, our students are pursuing degrees in nursing, education, agriculture, science, engineering, art and architecture, and are eager to return to their communities as leaders.”

Fleming said members of MSU’s American Indian community always held faith that generous donors would come forward to support the project, even when American Indian student numbers increased nearly three-fold since the building was first proposed 13 years ago while at the same time dramatically rising construction costs in Bozeman pushed up the cost of the project from its original $8 million.    

Fleming said the American Indian community redoubled its efforts in recent years. In 2016 members of MSU’s President’s Council of Elders and delegates of the Traditional Circle of Indian Elders held a sunrise ceremony to spiritually refocus efforts to find funding and the next year MSU students conducted a prayer ceremony at the site to revitalize efforts.

“It was a promise that had been made to the American Indian community,” Fleming said. “It was a solemn, sacred promise that this building would exist. We are grateful to those who stepped forward to make this promise a reality.”

Fleming said the building’s existence will enrich and elevate all of MSU’s students and the community at large.

“This building is not just for American Indian students but for the whole community,” Fleming said. “It will be a place of gathering. There will be academic and cultural activities and space for classroom instruction for all MSU students. We think of it as a gift to the state of Montana.”

What started out as a way for high school student-athletes to show their support for their coach has, over the course of more than a decade, grown into an organization that has donated more than $350,000 to breast cancer patients across Montana. This fall, Montana State University Bobcat fans will have the opportunity to support the effort during Bobcat football’s Nov. 3 home game against Cal Poly.

The effort started informally in 2003, when Vicki Heebner Carle – who had been a standout basketball player for Montana State in the 1980s and who was inducted into the Bobcat Hall of Fame in 1996 – was diagnosed with breast cancer. She was only 41.  

Carle was – and still is – a physical education teacher and volleyball coach at Billings Skyview. After her diagnosis the student-athletes on the team decided to start wearing pink ribbons on their shoes during their games as a way of honoring and supporting Carle and others facing breast cancer, she said.

The team eventually decided to raise money for the Susan G. Komen organization as part of their efforts. The mother-in-law of one of Carle’s coaches made a quilt to raffle off at a special Breast Cancer Awareness Month game, and Carle also ordered 100 pink shirts, with the hope that each athlete would purchase one of those shirts for herself and a second one for her mother.

That was in 2007. This year, the group – which became a formal nonprofit called Pack the Place in Pink in 2013 – ordered more than 9,000 shirts for the Breast Cancer Awareness Month volleyball game at Billings’ Skyview alone.

The growth is a result of students and communities that care, Carle said. She added that Pack the Place in Pink has hosted T-shirt fundraisers at other events, as well. Those include at an MSU women’s basketball game in Bozeman annually, and at an annual golf tournament, hockey game and fashion show in Billings. In addition, each year about 12 to 20 other high schools around the state host Pack the Place in Pink volleyball games and send their proceeds to the nonprofit.

As Pack the Place in Pink has grown, so has its ability to make donations to breast cancer patients. The first year, all proceeds went directly to Susan G. Komen, Carle said. But during the fourth year, things changed. The organization learned of a woman in Three Forks who was battling breast cancer, and it opted to give $1,000 directly to her. Since then, funds the organization raises go directly to breast cancer patients in Montana, Carle said.

Carle said she’s proud that 95 cents of every dollar raised through Pack the Place in Pink is given to a breast cancer patient in the state (the remaining 5 cents of every dollar covers the organization’s overhead costs, such as accounting fees). A volunteer board runs the nonprofit.

Carle is also proud that the organization honors breast cancer survivors. One of those survivors is her aunt Ruth Heebner Sheller, also a Montana State alumna, who was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 86. Now 97, Sheller is one of Carle’s inspirations, Carle said.

“She has always been vital and full of life,” Carle said.

As for Carle’s own battle with breast cancer, which reoccurred in 2008, Carle said it is now in remission.

“Both times surgery removed it,” she said. “I almost feel like I cheated it compared to many women.”

She added that, as a coach, she views her experience with cancer and cancer treatment as a teaching opportunity.

“I take my health very seriously and try to teach these girls to take care of their health and be ahead of the game,” she said.

To participate in the first annual Pack the Place in Pink promotion at Bobcat Stadium, individuals are invited to purchase a limited edition shirt and wear it to the Nov. 3 game versus Cal Poly. Three shirt styles are available: a pink short-sleeve shirt, a navy long-sleeve performance shirt and a navy hoodie. The shirts retail for $15, $20 and $30. Shirts are now on sale and are available at the MSU Bookstore (both its SUB and Bobcat Stadium locations) and online at http://www.msubookstore.org and at Universal Athletic locations in Bozeman, Billings, Butte, Helena, Great Falls and Kalispell and online at https://www.universalathletic.com.

In addition, local businesses are encouraged to decorate their windows in pink the week leading up to the football game to show support and help raise breast cancer awareness.

“Montana State University and Bobcat Athletics are proud to partner with Pack the Place in Pink to help raise awareness about breast cancer and show support to breast cancer survivors,” said MSU Athletics Director Leon Costello. “Vicki is an inspiration to all, and we encourage all of our fans attending the Nov. 3 game to participate in a great cause that supports Montanans.”

Costello noted that in addition to the Nov. 3 football game, Bobcat Athletics will host Pack the Place in Pink promotions at a number of other sporting events this fall, including at the Nov. 3 volleyball game. Pack the Place in Pink promotions will also take place at a track meet, women’s basketball game and men’s basketball game this year. The dates of those events will be announced.

More information about Pack the Place in Pink is available at the nonprofit’s website: packtheplaceinpink.org. To learn more about participating in the Nov. 3 promotion at the Bobcat game, visit montana.edu/news/18040/.