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On Thursday, June 6th, I ordered the 500,000th burger at the Roadhouse Diner in Great Falls. For being the customer who ordered the landmark sandwich, I received a trophy commemorating the occasion, free meals for a year, and a "Half-A-Million Burgs and Counting" tote full of Roadhouse merchandise. The event was covered by KRTV and a segment appeared on the evening news that day. I am genuinely humbled that I got to be a part of the milestone day for the Roadhouse. A lot of people have...
Big Sandy Activity Center has received a new van three years after starting the grant application with the Montana Department of Transportation. The delivery of the van was delayed by various issues related to the pandemic and supply chain problems. The agency has also acquired a new van for running clients to appointments. The newly arrived vehicles are a much needed addition to the Activity Center transportation fleet. Heather Pleninger, who is the director of the agency, explained why the agency needed the new vehicles: "There were times...
Several decades ago, officials at Kruger National Park in South Africa encountered a problem. Their efforts to bring their elephant population back from the brink of extinction had been so successful that they began to experience problems with overpopulation. Their solution was simple: they relocated elephants from their herds to other preserves. The transplanted pachyderms were primarily young males and adult females, due to the fact that the adult male bull elephants were simply too large to transport easily. However, rangers in the reserves...
The Montana Army National Guard performed drills in the Big Sandy area over the last week and into the weekend. Their presence in the fields on the edge of the Big Sandy Airport is part of their annual field exercises, which typically account for 5 or 6 days of their two weeks of total trainings every year. Locals couldn't help but notice the camp set up on Judith Landing Road or hear the helicopter flying in the area throughout the day and into the night. Captain Kyle Sampson. who I spoke with...
The Montana 6-Man All-Star Football Game took place Friday, May 31st in Custer, Montana. The annual game draws together 18 standout athletes from across the state. This year, Big Sandy High School Senior Samuel Cox represented our community in the competition. Cox was all conference this year, and was invited to play along with Cooper Taylor, who was unable to play due to an ACL injury that he is recovering from. Samuel described his experience at the game: "It was tons of fun. I had never met...
Eighteen residents of the Big Sandy and Box Elder communities participated in a “Crosswalk” prayer event on Saturday, May 18th. The group carried a large cross and walked the ten mile stretch of highway between the Big Sandy Rest Area to Box Elder, stopping at each mile marker to pray for the Box Elder/Rocky Boy Community. The prayer meeting was organized by Rich Jesperson, who has felt a calling to organize a prayer meeting for some time. “Several years ago, I was having my daily devotions and just started to get a very strong picture in my...
Long time FE Miley teacher, Demrece Keller, will be retiring at the end of this school year after 20 years in the Big Sandy classroom and many additional years as a title one employee at the beginning of her career. Several parents have asked Mrs. Keller to stay a few more years so their kids will have her as their teacher, but she explained that the time for retirement has come. She explained that she didn’t start teaching as a 22-year old. She started at FE Miley in her 40s. Talking about her 23 years at FE Miley, Demrece shared that she has...
Two weeks ago, I got a message from a high school friend, who I occasionally interact with on Facebook: “Hi Erik. Steve Kille passed. I’m not sure when you last talked to him, but I thought I’d let you know.” I was shocked and continue to be saddened whenever I think about my friend. Though we haven’t spoken or seen each other in nearly 30 years, apart from trading a few emails once I managed to hunt down my friend through the band he played for and some interviews in rock magazines, it seems odd that his passing would loom so heavy in my hea...
F.E. Miley Elementary School's kindergarten and 1st grade class were treated to an educational ride on the commuter train on Thursday, April 18. The outing was part of a longer unit on transportation, which the students had been covering in class. Twenty-seven students and six chaperones from Big Sandy boarded the Amtrak commuter train in Shelby for their journey to the station in Havre. Mrs. Weaver, who teaches the kindergarten class, explained that the trip itself was the brainchild of Mrs....
For the last several years, I have participated in a cycling fundraiser to raise money to fight children’s cancer. I’ve learned an important lesson along the way: Preparing ahead of time makes a huge difference. Preparation for the cycle challenge involves exactly what you’d expect: cycling daily to improve my cardio vascular health. In recent years, I have tried to take on what is called a zone training strategy. I train at different heart rate intensities to improve different aspects of my heart and lung health. In the long term, those impro...
On April 11th, violin virtuoso Jack Glatzer visited the Big Sandy School Music Program. Glatzer performed various pieces and taught the students about performance, music history, and the violin. The guest teacher/performer is a world class violinist, who has played in prestigious venues like the Sydney Opera House with the world famous conductor Saint Neville Marriner and the Academy of Saint Martin's in the Fields, the National Arts Centre, the Hong Kong Arts Centre, and the Jubilee of the...
Big Sandy FFA attended the 94th annual Montana State convention the week of April 2nd through 6th in Billings. Our Ag program took 20 students to participate in the event and compete in various categories. Mr. Taylor, who teaches Ag in Big Sandy, explained a little about the convention. In addition to the competitions, students took advantage of learning opportunities and ag related experiences at the convention. "We brought 20 kids down, and they all enjoyed a great week. It was a week full of...
When I was in my early elementary school years, one of the teachers showed us a documentary about how climate destruction was going to result in another ice age. The film showed the miserable state of humanity living in perpetual winter and scraping by for their daily survival. A couple of years later, and after moving to another state and school district while I was still in elementary school, we watched a different documentary in class about how global warming would turn most of the world into a desert. The movie showed the miserable state...
When I was a kid, I remember being called a “bookworm” on more than one occasion. Last year I read an article that made me believe that the word doesn’t actually apply. Book worms burrow into books and make them their homes. While I read quite a bit and enjoy it, I think that the term “book dragon” is more apt. In stories, dragons sleep on top of vast piles of treasure they collect and hoard. I love books and collect them. I own far more books than I could reasonably read in my lifetime. When my wife and I visit a new city, we look for used...
“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.” Elie Wiesel, the Hungarian-born American author and Holocaust survivor wrote these words which offer us a unique take on the nature of the world around us. To be indifferent to anything is to negate its value completely. This quote came to mind while reading about the nature of God. According to the Bible, God has certain...
The Foot of the Cross Christian Store in Great Falls, Montana celebrated their second year in business a few weeks ago. The shop is a nonprofit shop and offers Christian books (both new and used) as well as other Christian products. They are located at 416 2nd Avenue SW in Great Falls, right next to the Greater Faith Church of the Open Door and are open weekdays from noon to four. Mark Davis, who runs Foot of the Cross, shares the story of the organization from birth to present day: “I was the last manager of the Family Christian Store here i...
The 51st annual Loma Flea Market is coming up on Saturday, April 6th from 9 AM to 4 PM at the Loma Memorial Hall. The event is the major fundraiser for the upkeep of the hall and to cover bills associated with the facility's use. This year will see the return of the gun show, excellent options for lunch or snacks, and other vendors selling a range of wares from antiques to Jewelry, to crafts, and more. There is no charge for admission to the hall for the event. Terry McKeever, who has been...
Spring has arrived in Big Sandy. The air is filled with the last snowfall before the weather warms up (hopefully) and the sound of music at the Big Sandy Schools. The Elementary and High School band and choir are gearing up for their spring concerts, recitals, and competitions. Community members looking to warm their hearts against the chill outside could choose no better way than supporting this year's student performances. The events will include a recital on April 9th, encore concerts on Apri...
Palm Sunday and Easter will be taking place the next two Sundays, prompting people all over the world to join the Christians who have been remembering/celebrating the death and resurrection of Jesus. Last week, I started a series exploring the veracity of the historical claims regarding the events we are celebrating. My primary focus in that article was whether or not there was any evidence that supports the claims that Jesus rose from the dead. My article zoomed in on the many surviving eyewitness accounts and offered some context for them in...
With Good Friday and Easter fast approaching, the matter of how to approach these holidays arises for many people in this day and age. Last year, I wrote a series of articles looking at the various easter traditions that have arisen over the last 2,000 years. This year, I will be digging into the events of Good Friday and Easter in order to ask: Is this thing real? Did it really happen? Is it just an Iron Age superstition? The answers to these questions are of huge importance in terms of how we operate as a society and conduct our personal...
The Big Sandy Girl’s Basketball team is heading to the state basketball tournament for the first time in 15 years. The girls team has spent the last week and a half resting, getting healthy, and preparing for their trip to Great Falls to face off against the top ranked teams in Montana. I spoke with Coach Travis Baumann about the team, their season, and the team’s morale going into the state tournament. Travis described the girls as confident going into some stiff competition later this week. “Right now, because of the what they were able to do...
8 years ago this week, Big Sandy residents witnessed a shoot out when two well respected locals got into an argument. One appeared to have gone for his gun, prompting the other to draw and fire. The paper described the injury as “mortal.” The article was written the day of the shooting and the paper went to press shortly thereafter, which resulted in a fairly vague retelling. The crazy thing about the story is that there was no proper follow up. Very little explanation about the shooting appeared in the paper afterward. To make the story eve...
The Big Sandy Theater will be stretching itself this year by putting on a musical comedy. Nonsense in the Northwoods will be showing March 15th and 16th. The production is the story of a run-down lodge on the backside of Moose Lake, and it accidentally draws a zany cross section of guests on the heels of a fake Bigfoot sighting and a newspaper feeding frenzy looking for the worst member of congress who is hiding out in the hotel. One director pointed out that the Saturday showing is before the...
This year, I have been preaching through the book of Genesis’ accounts of the lives of the Patriarchs of the Jewish faith. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph are considered to be the founders of the Jewish faith and the starting point for God dealing with humanity in the Bible. All of those men had something in common: they were all sojourners. Sojourners are people who live in a land that isn’t theirs amongst people who are not their own people. In the ancient world, sojourners had no rights or legal protections. In addition, they were lim...
A couple weeks ago, I received an email from a good friend in Big Sandy asking me for an urgent favor. The letter explained a series of unfortunate events involving a last minute gift, an illness, laryngitis (which made it so I couldn’t call for confirmation of the story), and a cancer patient who needed $400 in Apple gift cards from her. The favor involved me purchasing the cards and sending the information on to facilitate the gift giving process. Despite having come from my friend’s email address, it didn’t read like it had been writt...
