The Flathead Valley rose to the challenge in 2025

As the end of 2025 neared, firefighters from more than a dozen Flathead Valley communities raced toward a conflagration consuming a Helena Flats Road sawmill. Crews from as far away as Marion and Bigfork converged on the late-night conflagration on Dec. 30.  

By early afternoon the next day, the scores of emergency responders and some 20 pieces of fire apparatus had the blaze under control.  

Though a tragedy — the fire left one worker critically injured and spelled the end for the mill— it served as a fiery example of how the Flathead Valley comes together to overcome challenges and address its needs.  

And hasn’t that been the running theme of the year just behind us?  

When the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as SNAP, seemed poised to run out of money during the fall’s government shutdown, the Flathead Valley’s nonprofits sprang into action. About 4,500 households in Flathead and Lincoln counties were at risk of going hungry.  

“We’re ready for whoever needs help. We have enough food. We’re going to serve the community. We’re going to do our best,” Gretchen Boyer, the executive director of the Columbia Falls nonprofit Land to Hand, told the Daily Inter Lake in late October.  

The staff at the North Valley Food Bank in Whitefish were already gearing up for an increase in demand, anticipating that new work and reporting requirements for SNAP would see some neighbors shuffled off the program.  

“I think we’re ready,” Executive Director Sophie Albert said at the time. “As ready as we can be.” 

When it was nonprofits needing a helping hand last year, the community rallied behind them. There was no finer example than the nonprofit indoor skatepark Serious JuJu inside the Gateway Community Center in Kalispell. The organization, which gives the county's youth a safe haven to learn a new skill and grab a free meal, was facing closure in the late summer after outside funding dried up. 

But over the course of a three-week campaign to keep the doors open, hundreds of people backed the organization’s mission with their hard-earned dollars. Another 100 agreed to make a reoccurring donation to Serious JuJu.  

“The Flathead delivered, man,” said operations manager and skateboarding coach Randy Beckstrom in September. “The Flathead Valley community showed that they care about programs for kids.” 

It shouldn’t come as a surprise. If there’s one thing the people of the Flathead Valley showed in 2025, it’s that they look out for one another.  

Fresh challenges most certainly await Northwest Montana in this new year. We are sure the Flathead Valley will rise to the occasion.