Charitable Giving

     Have you ever walked into your local grocery store and seen a donation can near the cash register to collect funds for the hapless victim of some calamity or another? Have you seen the same thing in your local pub?
     Indeed, is your local tavern ever not involved in some kind of charity campaign, or itself donating substantially to local worthy causes, especially those targeting youth?
     It has been said that, in Montana, our locally owned taverns are the social centers of our communities, especially our hundreds of small towns dotting the rural landscape. As such, they've also become the vanguard of many if not most of our charitable campaigns.
     Whenever someone is sick or has suffered an accident, whenever the Little League team needs new uniforms, whenever the city park needs sprucing up, members of the community inevitably first approach the local taverns. And, inevitably, the owners of these small businesses do what they are able.
     They do so quietly with personal contributions of $20 here, $50 there and $100 more over there. They may allow this or that group to use their dance hall for a fund-raiser spaghetti feed, or contribute a bottle or several of spirits for a liquor basket raffle prize. They may head up the drive to build a new soccer field. You name the cause, and no doubt your local tavern has contributed.
     Beyond that, they work through local tavern associations to sponsor major fund raisers that feed numerous community causes year round.
    The Yellowstone County Tavern Association once raised $10,000 in one day to fund the city's fireworks show. The same association raised the money for a $20,000 thermal imager to help the local fire department locate potential victims in the midst of an inferno.
     The Butte-Silver Bow Tavern Association spearheaded a drive to raise $40,000 for two thermal imagers for its local fire department.
     The Missoula County Tavern Association has been raising money and donating for years (they just topped the $500,000 mark), as does the Cascade County Tavern Association. The South West Tavern Association (Beaverhead and Madison Counties) donates thousands of dollars every year for local rodeos, fireworks, fire departments, festivals, alcohol-free graduation parties and on and on.
     One group of southwest Montana gaming machine operators has put together a philanthropic organization known as G.I.F.T.S. (Gaming Industry Friends To Society) that has collected and distributed nearly $200,000 to needy people to help make the rent and put food on the table, to sending local athletic teams to distant competitions.
     Often, the public is unaware of the magnitude of the generous charitable giving of the locally-owned taverns. While they may be unsurpassed when it comes to charitable contributions, they are less diligent about seeking publicity and recognition. Most of this activity takes place beyond the klieg lights of the local TV news team.
     But it is very real. Certainly millions of dollars are raised and donated through taverns and their associations year in and year out. It has always been thus and, as long as our taverns operate in the black, it will likely continue thus.