Lighthouse Harvest Festival entertains crowd
<p>The home was well decorated for the event.</p>
A stiff wind and cool temperatures didn’t stop plenty of enthusiastic folks from attending the Lighthouse Christian Home’s sixth annual Harvest Festival held Saturday, Sept. 17 in north Somers.
Attendees came from throughout the Flathead Valley, and even out of state, to attend the event organized to raise funds for the operations of the Lighthouse Christian Home. Cow-chip bingo, skits, llama and horse rides, arts and crafts and a number of concessions made for a bustling event, which was accompanied by music from several local bands.
John and Carolyn Cooke made the trip from Lake Stevens, Wash. to see their son, a resident at the home.
“We came to support the event and see our son Davey,” Carolyn Cooke said. “Davey just fits right in here. He grew up on a farm in California, and he just loves the animals and the environment.”
The Lighthouse Christian Home is an interdenominational residence that provides family-oriented living for its developmentally disabled residents with the tenants of Christian faith and devotion as the pivotal backbone. And home it is, as the residents assume chores and duties to operate a largely self-sustaining 40-acre family farm. The residents tend their garden, care for their poultry, feed and water their herd of Miniature Hereford cattle and attend to all the domestic duties necessary to keep their home functioning efficiently.
The Lighthouse Christian Home is also contracted by local businesses for labeling products and collating documents. The mini-economy generated from the farm serves as a cornerstone for life-lessons, such as responsibility, sharing, money-management and the importance and frequency of a broadband smile with a belly-busting laugh. The latter two were widespread at the festival, as visitors sampled concessions and activities, both enjoying the event and marveling at the merit of the organization.
Resident Amie Bartell just may have donned the biggest smile of all. Originally from Brazil, Amie came to the United States when she was 6 years old, where she lived with her adopted mother in Charlo. Now 26, she moved into the home some six years ago.
“We are a family, and we call each other brothers and sisters,” Amie said. “My favorite part of the Lighthouse is the staff because they’re always positive and help us when we are struggling. The most fun part of the Lighthouse is when the pigs and cow get out! That’s crazy.”
Volunteers play a critical role in the house’s operations, and the organizations are always looking for new ones. The festival itself had numerous volunteers chipping in to make the day successful. Next to the famous swing dance event, the Harvest Festival is considered the second biggest fundraiser of the year for the home.
“We raised close to what we did last year, but our definition of success is not just how much money we raise,” said Dottie Maitland, who is the Lighthouse Christian Home director of development. “This event and others is about bringing the whole community together and letting people understand our motto of, ‘Faith, Family, and Farm.’”
People were delighted to attend the event and were more than willing to open their pocketbooks to help such a worthy cause, a testament to the residents’ hard work, quality products and virtuous role in the community.
“The residents are just amazing and demonstrate so much talent and unconditional love,” Maitland said. “It makes me wonder just who really has the disability. As adults we lose that unconditional love, and they haven’t.”
As the festival came to end and the visitors slowly disappeared, the residents gleamed with the outcome of the harvest — not from the money raised by the delicious squash or potatoes, nor the pigs or cows sold, but from the smiles they tilled, cultivated and dispatched to all the visitors who attended.