200 community volunteers unite to build a new playground at Bozeman Sports Park Volunteers from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana, the City of Bozeman Parks and Recreation Department and the community will join KaBOOM! on Saturday, August 18 to transform an empty site into a kid-designed, state-of-the-art playground in just six hours at Bozeman Sports Park.

The new playground will help make play the easy choice for kids and families in Bozeman.  Play is essential to physical, creative, cognitive, social and emotional development. The Bozeman Sports Park master plan includes a site for an all-inclusive play area for children of all ages and abilities. The play area will be utilized for the city’s day camps as well as by visiting families participating in soccer, lacrosse, and other field sport tournaments.

Through this playground project, the City of Bozeman Parks and Recreation Department, together with the Bozeman Sports Parks Foundation, will work with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana and KaBOOM! to make a difference in their community and address the most urgent needs of kids. In June, kids from throughout Bozeman came together to draw their dream playground.

The 2,500 square-foot playground is based off their drawings and will provide thousands of kids in Bozeman and beyond with an accessible, safe and fun place to play. Future features to be built in the Sports Park will include picnic pavilions, trails, open play areas, and a splash pad. This playground is part of a broader effort led by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana and KaBOOM! to ensure communities have great PLAYces for kids and families. It will be the fifth build by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana. Through this partnership, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana is creating an oasis where kids feel valued and loved, and where their potential is supported, nurtured and celebrated.  

WHEN: Saturday, August 18 8:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.   
Kick-off ceremony 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Congregation Beth Shalom invites all Jews, their families, and those seeking a Jewish spiritual path to High Holiday services this September.

• 9 September, 6 PM, Rosh Hashanah Evening Service
• 10 September, 10 AM, Rosh Hashanah Morning Service
• 18 September, 7 PM, Yom Kippur Evening Service
• 10 September, 10 AM, Yom Kippur Morning Service

The Bozeman Beautification Advisory Board is now accepting nominations for beautification projects of note within city limits in the past year. The board will be accepting nominations from the general public now through Friday, September 21st . Nominations can be submitted online at www.bozeman.net/beautificationawards. Winners will be honored at the 2018 Bozeman Beauitifcation Award Ceremony on Wednesday November 7th in the Baxter Hotel Ballroom. 

Nominations can include a variety of beautification projects that have been completed within the Bozeman city limits.  These projects can include but are not limited to exciting residential design, neighborhood revitalization, new or improved commercial design, exceptional landscape, public art and much more. There are many categories listed on the online nomination form as a reference but new categories are always welcome. Past winners include Wilson Residences, Larkspur Commons, and a unique “Little Library” designed and created by a local resident for their backyard.  

The Bozeman Beautification Advisory Board  has been recognizing outstanding beautification efforts undertaken by individuals, businesses, organizations, and service groups since 1997. Chair of the Board, Terry Quatraro says, “One of the goals of this board is to identify, investigate, and recommend community beautification projects to the City Commission.  The response to these annual awards over the years has had a tremendously positive effect for our community.  By recognizing meritorious efforts of groups and individuals within our city it helps us all have a sense of pride and respect for the beauty that surrounds us.” Community members are encouraged to submit nominations for projects big and small at www.bozeman.net/beautificationawards.

Access to mental health care services is available to more individuals in the Gallatin Valley thanks to a grant from the Montana Healthcare Foundation and a partnership between Montana State University and the Gallatin City County Health Department.

With the grant, which is worth nearly $70,000, MSU counseling professors Anna Elliott and Rebecca Koltz from the MSU Department of Health and Human Development in the College of Education, Health and Human Development have partnered with the Gallatin City County Health Department’s Healthy Gallatin Home Visiting program. Through the collaboration, health department home visitors with the program may refer individuals and families to an MSU clinic for counseling services.

“Currently in the Gallatin Valley, there is a shortage of services for low-income residents to receive counseling services, so our grant aims to help attend to this gap,” Koltz said. “We hope that we can increase our ability to provide meaningful mental health services to an underserved population in the Gallatin Valley.” 

Montana State University counseling professors Anna Elliott, left, and Rebecca Koltz are pictured outside the Human Development Clinic near MSU's Bozeman campus. MSU photo by Kelly Gorham

The counseling services will be offered for a low cost through the Human Development Clinic, a community mental health agency that is affiliated with MSU's graduate counseling program. Counseling sessions offered through the clinic are staffed by MSU graduate counseling students who are supervised by licensed mental health professionals.

"Each year the graduate counseling students (at MSU) provide approximately 14,000 hours of free or low-cost counseling to the community,” Elliott said. “We want to increase our ability to offer mental health care to clients who may not be able to access services from other sources.”

There is no restriction to the number of counseling sessions participants may receive, said Koltz, who added that the client and counselor will collaboratively determine the number of sessions to best meet the client’s treatment plan goals. 

Elliott said even though the sessions are offered at a low cost, individuals sometimes face logistical barriers to counseling. To try to help reduce those barriers, the Human Development Clinic will offer transportation to the clinic – which is located on South Third Avenue near the MSU campus – as well as child programming on site while the child’s or children’s caregiver/s are engaged in counseling sessions.

“Additionally, we are providing a range of services to tailor what each participant in this program would benefit from - individual, couples counseling, family counseling, and/or parent/child relationship counseling,” Elliott said.

According to Koltz, five to six interns work at the clinic, and in addition, she and Elliott are hoping to hire a post-master's intern who could also provide addictions counseling at the clinic. 

Koltz and Elliott hope the grant and collaboration with the Gallatin City County Health Department will provide benefits for both the clients and the MSU graduate counseling students.

“We hope that we can increase our ability to provide meaningful mental health services to an underserved population in the Gallatin Valley,” Elliott said. “We also hope that this collaboration will provide an intensive training opportunity for our counseling interns, increasing their exposure to working with higher-need clients so that they can serve a range of clients in our community upon graduation.” 

“The College of Education, Health and Human Development is committed to integrating community services with our teaching and research missions, consistent with being a land-grant university,” said Alison Harmon, dean of the college. “This new project is a great example of serving the community while also serving our students and adding to the country’s knowledge base.”

In additional to the new referral program, the Human Development Clinic offers counseling services upon request on a sliding fee scale for individuals and families in the Gallatin Valley. To receive a free, confidential beginning session, individuals are invited to call the Human Development Clinic at 406-994-4113.

A huge welcome to Evan Weiss, BSF's new executive director, who started on July 9. Evan has been spending his first days at BSF meeting with BSF's program directors, board, and staff, and learning the ins and outs of the club's programs. 

Rebekah Bunting, president of the BSF board, noted, “Evan is a bright, energetic and well-qualified individual. I look forward to seeing him infuse those qualities in BSF as our new Executive Director.”

Most recently, Evan was the head coach for the Snow Summit Race Team at Big Bear Mountain in California. A former U.S. Ski Team member, he has more than a decade of experience in athletic program management and brings a diverse skillset to the table, from managing financial operations to raising money and developing programs.

Evan skied on the U.S. Alpine Ski Team from 1999 to 2006 and was a three-time NCAA All American at Dartmouth College. As the head alpine coach at Western State College and then University of Nevada, Reno, he led recruiting efforts and managed student athletes. During a five-year tenure as the program director and head coach at Alpental Snoqualmie Ski Education Foundation in Washington, he managed a successful youth alpine program, boosting membership and athlete retention and developing a scholarship program. 

Evan and his wife, Lauren Summers, recently relocated to Bozeman.  Lauren also grew up alpine racing and currently works in  cancer research. They plan to take full advantage of Bozeman’s beautiful mountains and rivers. “Bozeman has a great tradition of winter sport with outstanding venues and a community that is engaged in skiing,” Evan noted. “I’m looking forward to helping the BSF programs continue to succeed and to bring new energy into the fundraising and capital projects that will take this team to the next levels.”

REACHING OUT

Evan is looking forward to meeting parents, athletes and friends of BSF. He encourages BSF members to reach out. "We're working on our strategic plan and U.S. Ski & Snowboard club recertification, so I'd love to meet people before the snow flies," he said. He can be reached at evan.weiss@bridgerskifoundation.org. Or call the BSF office (406-587-2445) and set up a meeting.

Evan succeeds former Executive Director Swithin McGrath, who resigned in December 2017 for personal and family reasons. From December through July, board members Pat Flowers and Rebekah Bunting served as interim executive directors. A huge thanks to Pat and Rebekah for their hard work during the transition.

Bridger Ski Foundation is a nonprofit ski club providing educational and competitive programs in Nordic, Freestyle, Freeskiing, Snowboarding and Alpine skiing. They also groom an incredible network of Community Nordic Trails in Bozeman. www.bridgerskifoundation.org

Spark R&D, the splitboard binding manufacturer based out of Bozeman, MT, is beginning installation of a 50kW solar photovoltaic system on the roof of their 12,000 square foot building. 

“This project has been on my mind and in the works from the moment we bought our building in 2016,” says Becca Ritter, Spark R&D’s co-owner and CFO. “We manufacture everything right here, and with a shop full of CNC machines and various production systems running around the clock, it’s an energy-intensive operation. Capturing and converting the sun’s energy to make power for us just makes sense.”

 “We are adding as many panels as we’re allowed to by the state of Montana,” explains Ritter. “Right now we are bound by the 50kW law, so we cannot exceed that. We are hopeful that someday the rules will change and that we’ll be able to cover the remaining third of our roof with panels. But for now, we are excited to begin producing solar-powered splitboard bindings this summer.”  

The Historic Preservation Board of Gallatin County will host its 7th Annual Historic Tour on Saturday, August 11, 2018 from 10AM -4:30PM.

For 2018, The HPBGC invites people to spend a "Day in the Gallatin Canyon" to view the Forest Service CCC Camp in the north to the Taylor Fork area (lecture on Tie Hacks of the Gallatin) in the South.  

There will be 10 sites for participants to visit and they will provide their own transportation.

Tickets / brochures are $10.00 each with children under 12 free.  Tickets and brochures will be on sale after July 23 at the following places:  The Gallatin History Museum, Lewis and Clark Motel, Belgrade Chamber of Commerce and First Security Bank in Big Sky.   People can also buy tickets at any of the Tour sites on the day of the Tour.

Sites for the Tour will be:  "Shenango" Ranger Station and CCC Camp(squaw creek),  Transportation in the Canyon and its significant Bridges (lecture at the CCC camp site)  Rock Haven Church Camp and Chapel, The Karst Ranch,  Soldiers' Chapel and Cemetery, Lone Mountain Ranch, Ophir School, The Crail Ranch and Forest Service Ranger station at Porcupine Creek, Tie Hackers at Taylor Fork. ( lecture at the Taylor Fork turn off. )

 Lectures given will be by the HPBGC board's anthropologists:  Shane Hope and Elaine Skinner-Hale. All other sites have guides/docents to show people the areas.

The tour is a yearly fundraiser that covers preserved buildings, oral history and preserved heritage in areas of Gallatin County.  Profits from the tour are returned to the residents of Gallatin County in the form of small grants for Historic Preservation purposes.  

When the Grammy-winning band Imagine Dragons plays in Montana State University’s Bobcat Stadium on July 26, the uber-popular act will be making history in a couple of ways. Not only is it the first time that the Las Vegas group has played Bozeman, but it is also the first time in a generation that an MSU venue has hosted a non-student outdoor concert, according to Duane Morris, MSU’s director of event services.


Imagine Dragons is one of two outdoor concerts that MSU has scheduled this summer. MSU is partnering with area organizers to bring the inaugural Wildlands Festival featuring Robert Earl Keen and Lukas Nelson and his band Promise of the Real to the Romney Oval on Aug. 10. It is the first concert in the history of the university to be held in the oval, Morris said. Concert goers are encouraged to bring blankets and low-rise chairs to the festival, which is a fundraiser for Montana’s wild and open spaces.

“We are so excited about this summer,” Morris said. “(Outdoor concerts are) something we have wanted to do for a while, and we’ve worked hard to bring two quality concerts to Bozeman.”
 
The last outdoor concert held at MSU was in the summer of 1980 featuring Ozark Mountain Daredevils, Live Wire Choir and John Colter Band with Willow, Morris said. Plenty of big name acts have performed at Montana State University in the last 38 years – Elton John, Tom Petty and Brad Paisley, just to mention a few – but all performed in the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse. And while the stadium has hosted epic football games, movies and events and has undergone several expansions over those years, concerts have been absent until this summer.

Morris said there are a couple of contributing factors for the expanse of time between concerts. He explained that the Bozeman climate creates a fairly short window for an outdoor concert. An act that appeals to the local demographic and will be touring in the vicinity during that window that wants to perform outdoors is also necessary, he said. Morris thinks Imagine Dragons checks all the boxes.

“Imagine Dragons is a family show that appeals to people from 6 years old to more than 60 years old,” Morris said. “It’s music that crosses every demographic.”
 
The stadium in a concert configuration holds about 20,000, he said, and nearly all of the tickets already sold. Morris said MSU’s proven track record for filling Brick Breeden Fieldhouse for big acts also helped in attracting the band, which is known for such songs as “Believer” and the Grammy-winning single “Radioactive.” Fourteen-year-old Grace Vanderwaal, who won the 11th season of “America’s Got Talent” will open the concert.

A pre-concert event for ticket holders featuring the popular Livingston band “Little Jane and the Pistol Whips” will be held on the plaza east of Bobcat Stadium near Gate 8 beginning at 3:30 p.m. Food, drink and merchandise will be available for purchase.
 
For more information about the Imagine Dragons event, including when doors open, parking and other details go to: http://brickbreeden.com/events/imagine_dragons/.
 
Morris said the Wildlands Festival organizers, who include Big Sky’s Outlaw Partners as well as a number of local businesses and the Gallatin Valley Land Trust, the Montana Land Reliance and Yellowstone Forever, approached MSU about a more informal outdoor concert benefitting open spaces in the area.

“We’d been talking about how we’d like to see Romney Oval more utilized because it’s such a great space, when the Wildland Festival people approached us,” Morris said.
 
Both Keen and Nelson, son of the legend Willie Nelson but fast becoming a star in his own right, are singers and songwriters known for writing and performing music best described as Americana, which Morris said will be a good fit for an informal festival. Nelson’s band Promise of the Real has backed another iconic singer, Neil Young, since 2015. In addition to performing with his father and brother, Micah, Nelson co-produced the music for upcoming remake of “A Star is Born” film writing songs with Lady Gaga, who stars in the movie. Nelson and his band also appear in the film, which will be released in October, as co-star Bradley Cooper's band.

"The team at Outlaw Partners is excited about this opportunity to partner with Montana State University on the inaugural Wildlands Festival,” said EJ Daws of the Outlaw Partners. “The intimate outdoor venue of Romney Oval will be an outstanding place to spend a Montana summer evening, enjoying live music from two iconic artists and celebrating community and the amazing places that make Montana special and inviting."

Morris said local food trucks will be parked at the venue and beer and wine will be sold.
 
“We think it will be just a great way to spend a Bozeman Friday summer evening with dollars going to support local wildlands,” he said.
 
To learn more about the Wildlands festival, including ticket prices, go to http://www.wildlandsfestival.com/.