COLUMN: Community has a heart for HEART program
The Kalispell Schools HEART program’s logo is a heart enclosed in a home connected by a lifeline to a heart with no home.
The mission of this grassroots, nonprofit program is to connect children and teens who are homeless or in need to resources like food and clothing and provide them with a sense of security.
HEART, or Homeless Education And Resources Together, opened its HEART Locker in April 2014 to provide a place for students to select free clothing, shoes, bedding and personal hygiene products.
Glacier Bank representatives Laurie Smith, community reinvestment coordinator, Dave Hanson and Lauren Quien met with Nichole Heyer, homeless education liaison for School District 5, this past June to learn more about the HEART program.
“In the first 10 minutes together, I could tell that Laurie is a woman that knows how to get it done,” Heyer said.
Smith organized an employee gently-used clothing drive and turned it into a competition between departments at the bank for a chance to win lunch. Employees collected more than 4,500 items — many purchased new — so that students could start off the new school year well-prepared.
All the donations were delivered to the HEART Locker facility located in the school district’s Auxiliary Services Building at 514 E. Washington St. The bank department that won the drive decided to donate the money that would have been budgeted for their free lunch to HEART to purchase $10 Subway gift cards for the kids.
“These good deeds and acts of kindness are truly selfless and prove just how wonderful it is to live in this place we call home,” Heyer said. “You did not simply donate to the HEART Locker, but rather you have become an important piece of it. I only wish that you all could be here to see the students that will take pleasure in coming in and selecting the things they need with the excitement that a new school year brings.”
The program’s HEART Market supplements students with something to eat in the evenings and weekends when school breakfast and lunch programs aren’t accessible. Donations of grab-and-go foods such as granola and protein bars, ramen noodles and macaroni and cheese are always appreciated. The market is supplemented with wraps, sandwiches and soup from the school kitchen. Flathead Food Bank also contributes to the market. Donations can be brought to either Flathead or Glacier High schools or the Linderman Learning Center.
The HEART Fund is reserved for situations of dire need or emergency. Many families in the Flathead live paycheck to paycheck and so money to fix a bike or do laundry can make all the difference. No cash is ever handed out and no salaries are ever paid with cash donations — the program pays directly for such services.
The HEART program’s No. 1 priority is assuring students in these families stay in their school of origin and continue to attend by helping to coordinate transportation.
Glacier Bank’s get-it-done attitude has helped to fill the HEART Locker and Heyer says she will be opening it up to other local school district students in need after the first week of school.
Donations may be sent to HEART Fund, School District 5, 233 First Ave. E., Kalispell, MT 59901. Donations to the Heart Locker may be brought to the Auxiliary Building from 8 to 10 a.m. Mondays and Tuesdays, and 3 to 6 p.m. Wednesdays.
For more information about HEART, visit www.kalispellheartprogram.org
Community editor Carol Marino may be reached at 758-4440 or by email at community@dailyinterlake.com.