Capstone gift completes Intermountain facility
<p>Mike and Janna Taylor stand by the sign at Intermountain's new campus in Somers. The couple donated a sizable, but undisclosed amount of money to complete the new facility. The education center has been named after them in honor of their contribution. (Photo courtesy of Intermountain)</p>
Intermountain on Tuesday dedicated a new education center in Somers that has been named after a Montana couple who donated the largest single gift in the nonprofit organization’s 107-year history.
Mike and Janna Taylor met with Intermountain’s Chief Development Officer, Terry Chaney, nearly a year ago to talk about the gift they were preparing to give to Intermountain, the Montana nonprofit that provides healing for children with emotional health issues.
Chaney knew it would be significant to the agency and suggested the Taylors would have the opportunity to associate their name with Intermountain’s new facilities in the Flathead. That’s how the Mike and Janna Taylor Education Center at Intermountain’s new campus in Somers came to be.
The Taylors’ six-figure gift — generated by the recent sale of their Twin Creek Ranch — caps a five-year comprehensive campaign that concluded last year and saw the completion of the new Providence Home on the campus at 905 Somers Road in Somers, as well as expansion of community-based services in the Flathead Valley and Helena area.
The Taylors both have served in the state Legislature and various other political and business leadership positions.
Mike was born in Lewistown and raised in the Hobson/Judith Basin area. As a youngster, he got paying jobs helping area ranchers and has fond memories of his youth in Montana.
He attended high school in Stanford before moving with his father to Ohio for his final school years. From there he got into the beauty business, owning beauty salons and founding a beauty school and eventually beauty supply and manufacturing businesses.
Janna is a graduate of the University of Minnesota with an education degree and worked for TWA before marrying Mike. The couple moved to Montana in 1981 and bought a place in Proctor. They ran a sheep business and sold genetics in 43 states.
In the early 1990s the Taylors bought the Twin Creek Ranch southeast of Winnett. They built the ranch into a world-class game farm with 20,000 acres of production and conservation.
The couple also has a home in the Flathead Valley. Mike was elected to the Montana Senate in 1996 and served until 2004. Janna was elected to the House of Representatives in 2004 and served as speaker pro tempore in the 2011-12 session. She was then elected to the Montana Senate in 2012 and served as majority whip in the 2013-14 session.
The couple said the recent sale of their Twin Creek Ranch allowed them to share their good fortune in the state they both love.
In addition to the generous gift to Intermountain, they have made significant gifts to the Hobson Endowment, the Petroleum County Endowment and funded a soccer field in a new sports complex in Polson.
The Mike and Janna Taylor Education Center will serve children struggling with emotional and behavioral issues who are being treated at Intermountain’s therapeutic group home, known as Providence Home.