Livingston Women in Business (LWIB) is kicking off the 1st Annual Spread the Warmth Winter Clothing Drive. Donations of new or gently used winter clothing will be collected October 28-November 18 at various locations throughout Park County. We are in need of coats, hats, mittens, gloves, snowpants, boots, socks and scarves for men, women and children.

All donations collected will be distributed November 21-22 to those in need in our community to help Spread the Warmth as winter approaches.

DONATION DROP SITES

Livingston: Ace Hardware, Albertsons, Katabatic Brewing Co., Markouture, Printing For Less (8-5, M-F), The Shane Center, Town & Country Foods

Clyde Park: Drinking Horse Coffee Cabin

Wilsall: Ace Roofing (9-2, M-F)

Donation site collection hours are regular business hours for each location unless otherwise noted.

CLOTHING DISTRIBUTION

The Community Closet Motor Home will be loading up all of the donations and heading out to distribute them to the community.

November 21st
Food Resource Center - 10am-12pm
Loaves and Fishes - 2-4pm

November 22nd
Community Closet's Alley Annex 10am-1pm

More information can be found online at www.livwib.com or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/lwibspreadthewarmth

Thirty books were selected as finalists in ten categories for the ninth annual High Plains Book Awards. Twenty-four different publishers from Canada and the US were represented in this year’s competition. Of the 34 finalists, 13 were from Montana, and eight are from Canada.
 
Winners in each category received a $500 cash prize at the Awards Banquet on Saturday, October 3, 2015 at the Yellowstone Art Museum in Billings, Montana. The Awards Banquet is a signature event of the Billings Public Library. More information and reviews of the books can be found at highplainsbookawards.org.

 
The 2015 winners are:
 
Fiction – Laura Pritchett, Bellvue, CO.,  Stars Go Blue, Counterpoint
Nonfiction – Bryce Andrews, Missoula, MT, Badluck Way: A Year on the Ragged Edge of the West, Atria Books
First Book – Bryce Andrews,  Badluck Way: A Year on the Ragged Edge of the West
Woman Writer – Carrie La Seur, Billings, MT., The Home Place, HarperCollins
Poetry – Shann Ray, Spokane, WA., Balefire, Lost Horse Press
Art & Photography – Larry Len Peterson, Sisters, Oregon, Charles M. Russell: Photographing the Legend, University of Oklahoma Press
Short Stories –Jamie Lisa Forbes, Greensboro, North Carolina, The Widow Smalls and Other Stories, Pronghorn Press
Young Adult Book –  Brenda Baker, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, Camp Outlook,  Second Story Press
Children’s Book – the late Cheryl Chad, Stittsville, Ontario, Canada,  Back to Batoche, Your Nickel's Worth Publishing
Culinary –  Seabring Davis, Livingston, MT.,  A Taste of Montana: Favorite Recipes from Big Sky Country, Farcountry Press
 
204 books were nominated for the 2015 High Plains Book Awards. All the nominated books were read and evaluated by community volunteers in the first round of the selection process. The finalist books in each category were judged by writers who have significant connections to the High Plains region, many who have won in the particular category he or she judged.

 
Nominations for the 2016 High Plains Book Awards, honoring books first published in 2015, will open January 8, 2016
 
Award Sponsors: Billings Public Library Board of Trustees, The Billings Clinic Foundation, Billings Public Library Foundation, Stella Fong & Joe Dillard, Friends of the Billings Public Library, Sharon Ilie, Robert & Susan Lubbers, MSU-Billings, The Ucross Foundation, The Writer's Voice, Yellowstone Art Museum, and the Zonta Club of Billings.

 
About the High Plains Book Awards: The Billings Public Library Board has established the High Plains Book Awards to recognize regional authors and/or literary works which examine and reflect life on the High Plains including the states of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, Colorado, and Kansas, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan.

The Emerson Center for the Arts and Culture is seeking exhibit proposals for our Weaver Room and Lobby Galleries. Art works must be wall hung and original by local and regional artists. We are taking submissions now with availability starting this winter. For more information and proposal guidelines please check our website or contact Alissa, education@theemerson.org.

The Bozeman Winter Farmers' Market continues in its eighth season on Saturday, October 10, 2015. Do your grocery shopping at the Bozeman Winter Farmers’ Market! Shoppers can find hot breakfast, coffee, eggs, cheese, artisan meats, soaps & salves, wool, and summer’s bounty in the cozy Emerson Cultural Center Ballroom from 9 a.m. to noon. The market dates for 2015-2016 are: October 10 & 24, November 7 & 21, December 19th, January 9, 16 & 30, February 6 & 20, March 5 & 19, and April 2 & 16. You’ll be surprised on how much Montana has to offer during the fall, winter, and spring season!

Each market will feature live music, coloring for the kids and drawings for BWFM tote bags filled with products from featured vendors. The market is pleased to continue the Farmers' Market Fan Cards program. As shoppers leave the market with purchases, volunteers will stamp their Fan Cards. Cards that are filled with six (6) stamps by noon on April 16th (the end of the eleventh market of the season) will be entered into a drawing for prizes from some of the market's sponsors.

This weekend’s market kicks off the 2015-2016 winter market season. With the fine fall weather Montana has been experiencing, there is still plenty of summer’s bounty to still enjoy!

The BWFM is sponsored by Downtown, Bozeman, Community Food Co-op, Gallatin Valley Botanical, Montana Parent, Rocky Mountain Gardening, Bozeman Magazine, and Broken Ground. Join us for another season of fine local foods!  Who’s your farmer?

For more information, visit www.bozemanwintermarket.com or contact Stephanie Archer, Market Manager, at wintermarketbozeman@gmail.com.

One of Bozeman’s most popular off-leash dog parks will be getting some much needed improvements next week. The 37-acre, fully fenced park is the largest of its kind in Bozeman. It was created in 2008 by the Gallatin Valley Land Trust (GVLT) and the City of Bozeman with an investment of over $100,000. The park now boasts over two miles of trails, a veritable paradise for dog owners and non-dog owners alike.

 
On Monday, October 5th , GVLT is beginning construction on a parking lot expansion and fencing project .  For safety reasons, Snowfill Recreation Area will be closed through Friday, October 9th.
 
Snowfill is a popular place and that often means parking overflows onto Mcllhattan Rd.  “It is one of the most highly used parks in Bozeman. Because of its popularity, demand for parking is high. We're hoping these improvements will mean a safer entry to the park for both dogs and people”, says GVLT Associate Director, Kelly Pohl. The parking lot expansion will add 10 new parking spots, a 50% increase in parking capacity.

 
During the construction and park closure, GVLT is asking all Snowfill users to plan accordingly and be understanding as improvements are made. Alternative off-leash dog parks in the area include the Gallatin County Regional Park, Burke Park, the Softball Complex, and Cooper Park. The park will be closed again later in the fall for the installation of a vault toilet, the only public restroom for miles.

 
The improvements at the park will cost over $50,000. GVLT has had tremendous support for this project from Allied Engineering, Andrea Dumke and Michael Manship, the Recreational Trails Program, and countless individual donors who gave through the Potty Trot Run and Chamwiggly events.
 
Gallatin Valley Land Trust builds, maintains, and enhances trails on the Main Street to the Mountains trail system in Bozeman, MT.  The Main Street to the Mountains trail network boasts over 80 miles of trails that connect throughout town. For more information or to find out how to purchase a trail map, visit www.gvlt.org.

September brought both ups and downs for the Montana State Bobcat football team. Fort Louis was the Cats first home game, played under the lights at Bobcat Stadium on September 3. After a rocky start the Cats came back to capitalize with an extraordinary second half of football, the Bobcats came out on top with a 45-14 win.

After two weeks of rest the Bobcats found themselves in Cheney Washington facing the University of Eastern Washington Eagles. A rocky start would be an under exaggeration to describe the Bobcats performance at the start of this game. This would be a non conference game for the Cats, but the outcome would leave the winner with bragging rights in the FCS and the Big Sky. Some questionable calls on the coaching staffs behalf left the Bobcats fighting from behind 21 points at the end of the first quarter, with the score 28-7 Eastern Washington.

The Bobcats did prove one thing in the game, that they are a second half team. Coming out in the second half, the Bobcats offense dominated for most of the second half. Biting and scratching their way back into the game, it was not enough to catch Eastern Washington’s lead. The Bobcats yielded a total of 763 offensive yards, you just don’t see that kind of offensive yardage in FCS football very often. Combined with Eastern Washington’s 656 total offense this was an offensive showdown for the record books, Bobcats falling to Eastern Washington 55-50. This is going to make an interesting matchup if the Bobcats and Eastern Washington meet in the playoffs in December.

After the unbearable beating by Eastern Washington the Bobcats returned home September 26 for the homecoming matchup against Cal Poly. The Bobcats needed to make a mark in the Big Sky Conference with a good showing against Cal Poly. Dakota Prukop and the Bobcat offense came out with all pistons firing, chalking up 21 points in the first 10 minutes of the game. That was just the start, the Cats had a commanding lead at halftime 31-21.

Coach Ash was incredibly proud of the Bobcat defense only allowing 7 points in the second half. He contributed the defense success to going back to the basics. “We just simplify things for the defense and it seemed to work well, very proud of my defense.”

#90 Taylor Sheridan defensive end said, “We had no specific play for the defense, we were to just go out and do our assignments.”

The defense had a major part in the 45-28 victory over Cal Poly. This victory placed Montana State as one of the power house teams to watch out for in the FCS this year.

The Bobcats will travel to Northern Arizona to play the Lumberjacks October 3, then return home October 10 to take on Sacramento State at Bobcat Stadium, game time 5:05pm. Games can be seen on ROOT Sports, or listen on Bobcat radio network, or tune into real game highlights at Bozeman Magazine Facebook page or Jacks kidcatchat on Facebook.

Wisetail Works, the charitable giving arm of Bozeman technology firm, Wisetail, announced a $100,000 grant to Montana Code School to support the program’s efforts to train the next generation of tech sector talent in Montana.

The Montana Code School is a community-driven initiative based in Missoula dedicated to expanding the pipeline of programming talent in Montana through a 12 week course. Montana Code School students can begin with little or no programming skills and emerge with skills necessary to enter junior level programming positions.

The Wisetail Works grant will support the Montana Code School’s development of a virtual learning environment as the core platform for students, instructors and mentors in the business and tech community to collaborate, share learning results and best practices. By powering learning at the Montana Code School, the Wisetail Works grant will allow instructors to track learning, record results, develop programming and deliver curated curriculum, allowing Montana Code School students access to the most leading edge technology on the market.

 “We know from experience, Montana is an excellent place for tech innovation and we’re thrilled to support the forward-thinking approach spearheaded by the Montana Code School,” said Justin Bigart, CEO of Wisetail. “We owe our success to the people, infrastructure and backdrop Montana has to offer and can think of no better way to pay it forward than to invest in opportunities for students to learn specific skill sets to land well-paying jobs right here in Montana’s tech community.”

The Montana Code School will welcome its inaugural class on Monday, September 28th 2015.
 
“Wisetail Works' support will give the Montana Code School an additional edge. Bringing a learning management tool into the mix with the Montana Code School will effectively augment our classroom and mentoring experience. It allows us to capture rich resources and learning pathways for current and future cohorts. It is a sincere pleasure to partner with Wisetail on this endeavor," said Montana Code School Instructor Doug Odegaard.

Director of the Blackstone LaunchPad at the University of Montana and member of the Montana Code School’s founding team, Paul Gladen calls the partnership a game-changer. “As a global leader in its field, Wisetail's commitment to the Montana Code School sends the message far and wide that not only is this training opportunity welcomed by students, but the tech community is eager to engage with individuals who complete the program. Wisetail Works' support is a major boost to the program," said Gladen.

Montana-native and UM Business School graduate, Justin Bigart bucked the Silicon Valley tech startup culture by building Wisetail without venture capital, dedicated to being an independent, profitable and self-funded company. Since its inception in 2008, Wisetail has grown 100% per year with more than 1 million users and counting. Wisetail Works launched in June 2015 as the charitable giving arm of Wisetail, actively working to benefit social, economic and environmental causes in the state.

Past Wisetail Works grant recipients include the Gallatin Valley Land Trust’s bridge project and Montana’s Crisis Intervention Team, (CIT Montana) which is an umbrella group that coordinates crisis intervention training and development across the state.

Learn more about opportunities at the Montana Code School.

Montana State University paleontologist Jack Horner was recently recognized as one of the top 24 scientists in the world by Newton Graphic Science Magazine, a respected magazine published in Japan.

                                                                                                                Photo Angie Ripple
The 24 scientists included individuals distinguished for their research in medicine, physics, space science and other fields. In addition to Horner, scientists recognized and interviewed by the publication included Rudolph Tanzi, who is known for his research on Alzheimer’s disease; theoretical physicist Lisa Randall of Harvard University; Barbara Natterson-Horowitz, a cardiologist and pan-zoologist; climate scientist David Vaughan; and Albert Fert, who won a Nobel Prize in physics.

Horner is Montana University System Regents Professor of Paleontology and Curator of Paleontology at MSU’s Museum of the Rockies. He is widely recognized as one of the world’s foremost paleontologists and was a leader in the now-common theory that dinosaurs were warm-blooded social creatures more like birds than cold-blooded animals like lizards. He also received a MacArthur “Genius Grant” and served as adviser for the popular Jurassic Park films directed by Steven Spielberg.

In 2013, Horner received the Romer-Simpson Medal, a lifetime achievement award and the highest honor given by the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.

The Bozeman Doc Series returns for another season of brilliant, challenging documentaries from around the world. In last year’s inaugural season, the series showcased 14 award-winning films, including 11 Montana premieres, 2 films that would later be nominated for Oscars, and 1 that would go on to win the Oscar for Best Documentary. The series presented major festival award-winners from twelve different countries and screened films in ten different languages focused on subjects ranging from the mountain gorillas of the Congo’s Virunga National Park to Edward Snowden’s revelations to the lives of nomadic fishermen of Borneo.

The second season kicks off October 8th, with the Montana premiere of the critically-acclaimed 2015 Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner, The Russian Woodpecker.

Young, eccentric Ukrainian artist Fedor Alexandrovich was just four years old when the Chernobyl disaster struck, but the event had a profound effect on him. In seeking to learn more about what happened at the nuclear plant, Fedor becomes fascinated with the Duga - a massive, Soviet-constructed radio antenna near the Chernobyl site that remains shrouded in mystery. Fedor discovers the Duga was one of the USSR’s secret Cold War weapons built to penetrate Western communications systems and, possibly, minds. He arrives at a terrifying conclusion that not only explains the radio antenna’s role in the disaster but also lays bare the cruelty inflicted on Ukraine by its Russian neighbors. Fedor must decide if he will protect his family and himself, or tell the world what he believes. In the package of a wildly inventive paranoid thriller, The Russian Woodpecker takes us on a fascinating journey through a labyrinthine conspiracy theory that becomes more shockingly plausible by the moment.

“4 stars…a rollicking ride of masterly narrative construction unlike any other documentary in Sundance.”  Charlie Phillips, The Guardian
 
“A complex documentary about Chernobyl that is surprisingly, richly enjoyable…inventive, even buoyant in its presentation of several issues that could scarcely be more sobering.” Dennis Harvey, Variety

The series will continue with one screening every other Thursday through April. Doors open at 6:30 PM, and the films begin at 7:00. Tickets are available at the door or before the show at Cactus Records and Movie Lovers. Tickets are also available online at www.bozemandocseries.org, where you can also buy Season Passes and 7-film punch cards, learn more about the series, and view trailers for upcoming films.

The Artists’ Gallery in the Emerson Cultural Center will feature the work of Tad Bradley and Anne Danahy during the month of October.  The show will include a Featured Artist Reception where you can meet the artists and share a glass of wine.

Anne Danahy studied art and literature at the University of California, Davis.  In Bozeman since 1986, her art has won awards at the Sweetpea Festival and other juried competitions.  Anne's paintings exhibit subtle intensity and drama through a deft blend of delicate nuances reminiscent of watercolor, and the bold, vibrant brush strokes unique to oil.  Her paintings have found homes with art lovers across the U.S. and abroad.

After receiving his Master's of Architecture degree from MSU, Tad Bradley has been practicing, teaching and exploring materials as artistic and architectural expressions. He explores architectural compositions within his work, currently focusing on kiln-formed glass. Ideas of transparency, structure and relationships of relativity easily scale from art to architecture. He is compelled to create using an abstract visual language, allowing the greatest breadth of interpretation by those who view the work. Tad is continually seeking to more fully understand materials, fabrication, composition, interpretation and himself through his work. Tad believes that working with one's hands offers a level of knowledge that cannot be learned through any text, no matter how eloquently written.

Come see the artwork and meet its makers at the Featured Artist Reception in The Artists’ Gallery, Friday, October 9th, from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm.