Cascade County Tavern Association
Pub Date: 1/1/2003
Ask executive secretary John Hayes to list some of the more notable charity activities of the Cascade County Tavern Association and he'll give you the telephone equivalent of a blank stare.
"There's so many of them, It's difficult to pick out individual causes," he says after a long pause. "Our general philosophy is to try to gear most of our giving towards youth. We figure if we do good by youth, we do good by the community."
"But, of course," he adds "the giving never stops there."
The list of Cascade County Tavern Association beneficiaries is, like most of the local chapters of Montana Tavern Association, long and diverse.
In an Oct. 15, 2004 conversation with Hayes, he said currently the association is "helping with the receptions for the Smuin Ballet, a four-city fund raiser for the McLaughlin Research Center in Great Falls. Our fellow county associations Tri County (Lewis and Clark/Jefferson/Broadwater) and Gallatin County are helping us. We are taking care of the performance in Missoula County as well.
"And the Pacific Northwest Shrine Association is holding their 2006 convention in Great Falls, catering to 17 Shrine organizations throughout Alaska, Northwest Canada, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming," Hayes adds. "The Cascade County Tavern Association will be hosting hospitality rooms and providing expense money to help bring this event to the city. It is expected some 1,000 Shriners will be showing up in August of 2006. I imagine they will drop a couple of bucks in our town!" Hayes says.
"One thing we did that was important to our community, was to take over the Great Falls fireworks program a few years ago," Hayes offers. "The association held a few fund-raisers, generating $16,000 or $17,000, and we were able to get it going again. It was strange feeling all that money gone in about 30 minutes but it was an amazing show and it brought people to town." The association raised money for the next year's program as well, then the City of Great Falls felt the event was important enough to the community, and took it over themselves.
Hayes says Great Falls, like a lot of Montana's mid-sized cities, is suffering from economic stagnancy, so bringing people to town for fireworks, tournaments or anything else is important to the tavern association from both a social and economic standpoint.
Therefore, some of the association's more hefty donations were made to what it hopes will be big draws: the Lewis and Clark interpretive Center ($10,000), the Great Falls Historical Society ($5,000) as well as the newly-formed Great Falls Economic Development Authority ($5,000).
The Tavern Association annually co-sponsors the Four Seasons Sports Foundation Mixer along with Devine Bros. Distributing, Gusto Distributing, Pepsi, and a large number of local restaurants. The event raises some $8,000 to $9,000 annually. The dollars are directed by the foundation to promote athletic events in Great Falls.
The association holds an annual raffle for a number of youth organizations, providing tickets for kids to sell and prize money.
"It's a neat little deal," Hayes says modestly of the event, which generated $16,000 recently. "With most fund-raisers, kids have to give back a portion of the money for the cost of the product they sell. With us, they sell a raffle ticket, and get to keep it all. The association puts up the prize money for the raffle.
"A lot of organizations participated boys wrestling, Great Falls Electrics, the Stallions, Youth Hockey, Great Falls Figure Skating, and the BMX group, to name a few. A couple of years ago, a local high school thespian group wanted to attend a nationally renowned theatre program back east, and raised $8,000 through the raffle tickets."
On pretty much an annual basis, the Cascade County Tavern Association donates to the East West Shrine Football Game, Boys and Girls Club, the Benefis Foundation Mayfair Event, the University of Great Falls Athletic programs, the YWCA, the Great Falls Foodbank, St. Vincent DePaul's, Muscular Dystrophy, Montana Hope Project, Police Officers Protective Association, Eagle Mount, and the list goes on," Hayes says.
Though Hayes handles finances for the association, he says It's an "absolute fact" that the activities of the group represent only a fraction of the overall charitable output of hospitality operators in Great Falls and the state as a whole.
"We're trying to get a better handle on it," he says. "Every bar in town supports something basketball, hockey, baseball. If it wasn't for bars and casinos, a lot of these activities simply wouldn't exist."
"I think most tavern owners want to give something back to the community," he continues. "they'll have their favorites. Some people are fanatical about baseball so they'll give to all the baseball teams. Other's like hockey, so the skaters see their benevolence."
"But in general," he concludes, "these are just business owners who like where they live and work and want to give something back. There's a lot of causes out there, but we do what we can."
Source: Special Reports, Jan. 2002, updated Oct., 2004, published by Continental Communications, 125 W. Granite, Suite 102, Butte, MT 59701, and an October 15, 2004 personal interview.: