Good news in the mail for troops

Donna Chase of Lakeside is a testament to the difference one person can make. She is the driving force behind the nonprofit Magazines for Troops organization she founded to supply shipments of donated reading material to deployed soldiers stationed in Iraq, Afghanistan and other places overseas.

What began as a small effort serving a few units of one brigade has mushroomed into a distribution to more than 70 units that receive shipments monthly.

It has become a seven-day-a-week undertaking and Chase could use more volunteers to gather magazines for the very grateful troops.

Postage for the shipments is adding up, too, so if you can help in any way, go to www.magazinesfortroops.com or send tax-deductible donations to: Magazines for Troops, P.O. Box 909, Lakeside, MT 59922.

Efforts such as Chase’s are a great way to support our soldiers far away.

Only in Montana would you have a workers’ compensation case where you find:

n The workplace injury was inflicted by a grizzly bear.

n The worker’s mental status at the time of the mauling was affected by marijuana.

n The employer who paid the worker insisted he wasn’t really an employee.

n The case ended up before Montana’s highest court.

These diverse elements added up to make a small Flathead Valley work-comp case into a national story recently.

Brock Hopkins’ case began in 2007 when he was severely injured by a captive grizzly at a drive-through bear park in the Canyon. It finally was resolved after years of litigation by a ruling this month from the Montana Supreme Court that Hopkins did indeed qualify for workers’ compensation benefits for his bear encounter.

Only in Montana.

We bid farewell today to the voice of Glacier National Park.

Today is the last day on the job for Amy Vanderbilt, who has been the public liaison for Glacier for the past 22 years.

Vanderbilt is retiring as the park’s spokeswoman after a long tenure in Glacier that spanned the terms of six different superintendents.

Along the way she was the go-to person for news about big events — floods, wildfires, grizzly bear encounters, avalanches and search-and-rescue missions — and small ones such as road closures or weather information.

This year, for the first time in decades, Vanderbilt won’t be sharing the signature seasonal news about when Going-to-the-Sun Road opens over Logan Pass. That often-delayed opening always came with a caveat from Vanderbilt — “weather permitting” — that she jokes should be part of her epitaph.

We have enjoyed dealing with Vanderbilt over the years and wish her well.