Hungry Horse's facelift

A mere few months ago, Jennilee Burke and Jamie Foster were volunteers at the Canyon Cleanup in Hungry Horse.

They were among several other volunteers who spent a Saturday picking up trash to improve their community.

That's when they got to talking and decided the cleanup shouldn't happen just one day a year. They wanted to do something more.

So the pair has lead the charge on their own efforts to improve Hungry Horse. They've constructed and filled six flower boxes that line the grass parkway along U.S. Highway 2 through Hungry Horse. Last week, along with many helpers, they painted the former Veterans of Foreign Wars building.

"We're trying to let other people know there is a lot of good things happening in the Canyon," said Burke, who has spent her entire life in Hungry Horse.

Foster has lived in Hungry Horse for the past five years. The pair both have children who attend Canyon Elementary and have worked on projects together before.

To fund their projects, they knew they needed to be creative.

"We're unincorporated up here and so we knew we had to raise our own money," Burke said.

They've started hauling away junk cars and using the money for their project. So far six cars have been donated to the cause.

"Flathead County will haul away the cars, but we said let's make some money by doing it ourselves," Burke said. "We've gone knocking on doors asking for cars."

The effort has raised about $600. They've also received material donations and the Flathead County Parks department helped with materials for the flower boxes.

"We've had a lot of positive feedback," Foster said. "We'd like to thank everybody that has helped."

When the flower boxes were completed, they moved on to the VFW building, as its known in Hungry Horse although it's no longer a VFW post. The Hungry Horse Fire Department owns the building, but lacks the funds to fix it.

"It's really the only building the community has to use," Burke said. "It was an eyesore that needed to be taken care of."

So they began collecting paint for the outside of the building and last week volunteers assembled to paint the building green and brown. Next Burke and Foster would like to improve the inside and see more use of it.

Burke and Foster have a wish list of items they'd like to accomplish. They'd like to hang welcome banners on the streetlights along U.S. 2 and get playground equipment and picnic tables for the parkway.

They eventually plan to apply for grants and this Friday and Saturday they'll hold a garage sale to help raise funds.

Some people may ask, why go to so much effort in an area known for vandalism?.

"We're not going to let a few incidents of vandalism stop us," Foster said. "We'll go fix it. Why should we let them (the vandals' decide we can't have flower boxes?"