A million for Melita

Donation brings scouts close to goal

With just nine days remaining until a deal-ending deadline, an anonymous donor has contributed $1 million toward purchasing Melita Island for use as a Boy Scout camp on Flathead Lake.

Doug Anderson, executive director of fund-raising for the Melita Island campaign, said the contribution came Wednesday morning from a western Montana couple who wish to remain anonymous.

The campaign now has $1.3 million in "spendable" contributions, about $200,000 shy of the $1.5 million purchase price that had been negotiated with the island's current owner. The deal, however, came with a deadline that arrives on Dec. 31.

Now Anderson says he is "very optimistic" that the fund-raising goal can be met, based on the response he got after discussing the campaign at a Missoula Rotary Club meeting Wednesday morning.

"I brought (the $1 million contribution) up at my Rotary meeting this morning, and within 10 minutes I got another $52,000 in contributions," he said. "This was from Rotary members."

Anderson, a former vice president of a Missoula bank and the general manager at Southgate Mall for 15 years, expects the $1 million contribution to generate momentum for the campaign.

"People are more willing to give when they can see light at the end of the tunnel," he said, noting that potential contributors had been reluctant when it appeared the campaign was stalled.

The Melita Island campaign was launched as a volunteer effort roughly two years ago, but it encountered a series of problems. Most notably, the Montana Council of Boy Scouts of America assumed the fund-raising mantle and hired a consulting firm that didn't raise any money. After being paid $252,000, the consulting firm's service's were terminated.

That expense added to a heavy debt load that had been incurred by the Montana Council. In August, the council's leadership voted to phase out the Melita Island campaign, in order for the council to concentrate on erasing more than $800,000 in its own debt.

But a volunteer fund-raising effort continued, led by Anderson and organized by members of the Phoenix Patrol, a group of middle-aged men who once camped on Melita Island as young Boy Scouts. The island was leased for use as a scout camp until 1975, when it was sold. Phoenix Patrol founders launched the effort to re-establish a Boy Scout camp on the island in 1998. Over the last few summers, the island's lodge and marina have reopened to host Boy Scouts for two-week camps.

Anderson said the campaign has been fueled by "hundreds" of donors whose contributions are significant.

"We had a Cub Scout pack out of Stevensville that had a cookie sale that raised $40," he said. "That contribution means so much to me."

The $1 million donors, he said, "are not in this for publicity. They're in it for the values of scouting and not wanting to see an island cut up into trophy homes."

Anderson said there are other potential contributors who had been reluctant to commit largely because of the campaign's troubled progress. He hopes those donors will now be motivated to contribute.

For more information on the Melita Island campaign, contact Anderson at his Missoula office, 406-721-7911.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com