Stone joins Flathead Electric Co-op
Courtney Stone
By CHRIS PETERSON
Hungry Horse News
Courtney Stone is the new public affairs specialist for Flathead Electric Co-op. Stone was the longtime spokeswoman and marketer for Glacier Guides and Montana Raft Co.
Stone replaces Wendy Ostrom-Price, who retired earlier this year.
Stone has a long history in Montana. She grew up on a Virginia farm and her mother was a newspaper reporter. Stone considered following in her mother’s footsteps, but ended up majoring in English, creative writing and Native American literature at the University of Georgia.
Her family also started visiting Glacier National Park in her youth and came back every summer.
During college she worked on the east side of Glacier Park for the Black family at St. Mary and then for the Thronsons and Burns families in Babb.
She recalled chasing the cows off the airstrip in Babb in her pickup truck so customers could land their airplanes there.
Stone went on to get a law degree from Appalachian School of Law. She worked for family law attorney Evonne Wells in Missoula for a time, but then started her own practice in Cut Bank, got married and had two great kids. The couple started a honey business, but later divorced.
She moved to Columbia Falls and for the past five years she been the public face for Glacier Guides, which was a great place to work for a woman with two children who needed a flexible work schedule.
She said marketing for the Guides was an enjoyable challenge. The four raft companies in West Glacier are friendly “but fierce,” she noted.
At the Co-op, Stone is now the public face of that organization., She notes that 2022 marks the 25th anniversary on the Round up for Safety program, which gives nonprofits, governments and other groups funds for safety projects.
The Co-op, for example, will use about $25,000 in unused capital credits to help fund new sidewalks in Evergreen near the schools along Highway 2.
Capital credits are funds that are retained for longterm improvements and maintenance of Co-op equipment so the nonprofit Co-op doesn’t have to borrow funds.
When all of the credits aren’t used, they are retired and paid back to members, usually in December. This year, the Co-op had enough capital credits to also help fund the sidewalks.
Stone encourages nonprofits to apply for the Roundup program.