Page 38 - Flathead Beacon // 11.26.14

38 | NOVEMBER 26, 2014 BUSINESS MONTHLY PEOPLE IN BUSINESS
FLATHEADBEACON.COM
Banquet in 2013.
Michelle resides in Columbia Falls,
with her husband, Jim, and their three Golden Retrievers. They have two grown children, Megan and Michael, who reside on the East Coast. They en- joy serving on boards, volunteering in the community, spending time with visiting family and friends, raising field champion golden retrievers, and explor- ing Northwest Montana.
CHS KALISPELL AWARDS 4H WINNERS
CHS Kalispell honored three Flat- head area 4-H youths who won awards at the 2014 Northwest Montana Fair on behalf of Payback, a feed formulated by CHS.
The awards were given to Nate Tut- vedt, Grand Champion Market Steer, Garrett Tutvedt, Reserve Champion Market Steer, and McKenzie Williams, Grand Champion Rabbit.
Payback partners with CHS to pro- vide discount cards and awards for 4-H and FFA members who sign up for the Payback feeding program. Discount cards are available at the Country Store, and the CHS Feed Center, next to the grain elevators on Center Street.
Payback is a livestock feed formu- lated by CHS for beef, dairy, swine, poul- try, equine, sheep, rabbits and goats. Or- ganic feeds and specialty feeds are also available.
CHS Kalispell is a local satellite op- eration of CHS, Inc. a Fortune 500 com- pany. CHS is a world leader in farming and energy.
PLUM CREEK GRANT HELPS WHITEFISH HIGH REACH FUNDRAISING GOAL
The 500 students who attend White- fish High School started school this year in a brand-new building, and a soon-to- be-completed arts and sciences wing will enhance their learning and offer ex- panded opportunities to prepare for jobs of the future.
Plum Creek’s donation of $10,000 to- ward the construction of the Whitefish High School Center for Applied Media, Arts & Sciences will move the school closer to raising the $2.89 million cost of the project. When the center opens its doors, students will be able to learn skills in the arts, media, science and technology in a state-of-the-art facility.
“We are thrilled about building a facility that will fuse arts, sciences and technologies into a learning space that will offer students the opportunity to acquire skills for the future workplace in our community,” said Dr. Kate Oro- zco, Whitefish School District superin- tendent.
Plum Creel is among the largesy and geographically diverse private landown- ers in the nation with approximately 6.8 million acres of timberlands in the for- est ecosystem across the northern and southeastern United States.
LOCAL REALTORS GIVE BACK TO COMMUNITY
The Northwest Montana Associa- tion of Realtors Charitable Foundation recently donated at total of $4,000 to food pantries across Northwest Mon- tana. The Foundation donated $400 to the Polson Loaves & Fish Pantry, $400 to the Ronan Breadbasket pantry, $200 to the Mission Valley Food Pantry in St. Ignatius, $2,000 to the Flathead Food Bank (serving Kalispell, Bigfork, Mari- on, Evergreen, Martin City), and $400 to the food pantries in Whitefish and Lakeside, and $200 to the food pantry in Eureka.
Additionally, in an effort to help the St. Ignatius School District meet the goal of raising the final $4,000 needed to reach the $25,000 fundraising goal for the Mission Possible Playground, the NMAR Charitable Foundation do- nated $750. The School District is rais- ing funds through their GoFundMe.com website page which notes, “At this time, the playground facilities in our commu- nity are almost nonexistent; the funds will be used to contribute to the total cost of selected equipment and its imple- mentation. The equipment is compliant with disability laws for access. In addi- tion, a number of children in our com- munity use the current playground dur- ing non-school hours.”
“The Realtors from across North- west Montana and our Realtor affili- ate members and friends, donate to our Charitable Foundation throughout the year and hold fundraising events,” said Tia Robbin, executive officer of the as- sociation. “The Foundation regular sup- ports certain causes which align with the Foundation’s mission, such as the food pantries, and this year the Founda- tion’s Board of Directors identified the Mission Possible Playground in St. Ig- natius as a cause which will improve the quality of life in that community.”
For more than 10 years the Realtors of Northwest Montana have purchased Christmas toys and warm clothing for children served by the Child Develop- ment Center across Western Montana. This year the Realtor Christmas for Kids program will purchase toys for more than 130 CDC children, and will be pro- viding Christmas gifts and necessities to 12 families served by the Baby Steps Program of the Flathead Health Depart- ment.
GLACIER BANCORP, INC. ANNOUNCES ACQUISITION OF COMMUNITY BANK, INC. IN RONAN
Glacier Bancorp, Inc. announced the signing of a definitive agreement to ac- quire Community Bank, Inc., a commu- nity bank based in
Ronan. The acquisition marks Gla- cier’s 16th acquisition since 2000 and its fourth announced transaction in the past 20 months.
Community Bank provides banking services to individuals and businesses in western Montana, with eight banking offices located in Missoula,
Polson, Ronan, and Pablo. As of Sep- tember 30, Community Bank had total assets of $180 million, gross loans of $94 million and total deposits of $154 million. Upon closing of the transac- tion, which is anticipated to take place in the first quarter of 2015, the branches of Community Bank will be merged into Glacier Bank and become part of the Glacier Bank and First Security Bank banking divisions.
“This is a tremendous opportunity for us to expand our western Montana presence with the addition of an out- standing community bank,” said Mick Blodnick, Glacier’s president and chief executive officer. “This combination al- lows us to add several new markets in western Montana.”
KALISPELL ARTIST SELECTED FOR EXHIBIT AT BOOTH WESTERN ART MUSEUM
Kalispell landscape painter Mar- shall Noice announced that his work has been selected for inclusion in the Booth Western Art Museum’s “West- ern American Art South of the Sweet Tea Line,” an extensive and diverse ex- hibition of privately held items to be on display through Jan. 25, 2015. The exhi- bition is the fourth of its kind to be held since the Museum’s inception in 2003 and this is the second time that Noice’s work has been featured. Each Sweet Tea exhibition has been unique, built upon the same fundamental premise to show- case seldom-seen Western American art from private and public collections in the South.
“It is gratifying that my work is be- ing shown with artists such as Albert Bierstadt, Edward Sherriff Curtis, Rob- ert Henri, Dorothea Lange and Georgia O’Keeffe,” Noice said. “It’s a thrill to know that my art is hanging in the same gallery as those peoples’.”
Approximately 100 works will be on display in at the Booth Western Art Museum located in Cartersville, Geor- gia. The 120,000-square-foot museum opened in August 2003 and houses the largest permanent exhibition space for Western art in the country.
Noice has been creating images of landscapes for more than four decades. He works extensively in photography, oil painting and pastel painting. Noice also works in traditional printmaking meth- ods including etching, collagraph, and monotype. For more information, please visit www.noicestudio.com or call 406- 755-5321.
NXGEN PAYMENT SERVICES RECOGNIZED BY MSU COLLEGE OF BUSINESS FAMILY BUSINESS PROGRAM
NXGEN, along with seven other Montana, family-owned businesses,
were recently honored at an awards cer- emony at the 2014 Montana State Uni- versity Jake Jabs College of Business and Entrepreneurship State Farm In- surance Family Business Day at the Best Western Plus GranTree Inn in Bozeman.
Robert “Bob” Nystuen, market presi- dent of Glacier Bank based in Kalispell, was the keynote speaker at the luncheon held prior to the award’s ceremony. Nystuen’s presentation focused on how his family values molded him and his ca- reer. Nystuen also discussed his priori- ties, as well as big and little things, that created a measure of success for him, his teammates at Glacier Bank, and for their many stakeholders.
Founded in 2002, NXGEN’s 40 per- cent year-over-year growth is the result of continually offering clients innova- tions that matter. Scale, strength and se- curity mean NXGEN merchants around the world benefit from single platform execution, a full suite of integrated products, value-added servicing, seam- less merchant experience, depth man- agement reporting, plus multi-billion dollar rate clout.
NORTH VALLEY HOSPITAL FOUNDATION NAMES NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
The North Valley Hospital Founda- tion has named Michelle Drager as the new executive director. As executive di- rector, she is responsible for supporting the mission and vision of North Valley Hospital Foundation and building com- munity and donor relationships, devel- oping and directing fundraising cam- paigns and event, overseeing endow- ment and planned giving, and directing grant sources.
Prior to joining the North Valley Hospital Foundation, Michelle served as the president and chief executive offi- cer of The Drager Group, Inc. Under the Drager Group, she provided executive counsel and interim executive support for profit and nonprofit clients world- wide in the areas of medical device man- ufacturing, healthcare, national and regional nonprofit organizations. She served as chief publicity counsel for the Philadelphia chapter of the American Heart Association in the development of Women of Heart and then the national development and launch of Go Red For Women. Under her direction during a time of merger and transition, the Phila- delphia chapter of the American Heart Association experienced record fund raising for the Heart Ball, Heart Walk, and Celebration of Research.
She is an adjunct instructor and guest lecturer on entrepreneurship, strategic planning, leadership, public re- lations and marketing at the undergrad- uate and master’s levels at colleges and universities on the east coast. She served as the program director and skill build- ing counsel for Leadership Flathead and directed the Kalispell Chamber Foun- dation and Kalispell Chamber Annual