Pay It Forward Stories 2023

I gave my gift card to the Stevensville FFA chapter to use to help fund 12 of their members attending WLC. WLC, or Washington Leadership Conference, is an opportunity for students to travel to Washington D.C. and develop leadership skills to help better their community.

When I first thought of the pay it forward cause this year, several worthy causes came to mind. My first thought was to donate it to the local humane society. Then I thought about the Ukrainian people who share the same beliefs I do. Then a very a young family I've known for more than 14 years suffered a loss that guided my decision. The father passed away leaving the mother and three sons with literally nothing. As it was the wife was a stay-at-home wife, so the loss of the father left them with unpaid rent, lacking food, and the boys with no warm clothes for this extremely cold California winter. While my pay if forward card was not able to help with everything the family needed it did help with a portion of the housing as well as being able to supply the boys with warm coats so they could continue to attend school. My wife and I continue to help with other needs, but the pay it forward card helped lift their spirits and allow them some relief during their economic struggles.

Thank you, Dennis and Phyllis. It makes me extremely happy to be able to help someone who really needs and appreciates that help.

Curtis O. Peebles GSP, CHST, STS-C
Envirocon Inc.

This year I donated the card to the Little Guy Butte Wrestling Club. I am a volunteer for the club and this year we have over 200 kids that are wrestling. There are a lot of kids on our team who can not afford shoes or singlets. So I got with the head coach and decided what sizes shoes and singlets would work best. we were able to supply a lot of kids with singlets and shoes and will be able to use those for kids next year.

Outside of work, I have a twice-monthly food column I write that appears in five major newspapers around the state. In an effort to update Montana's food heritage to incorporate the cuisine of more newly arrived Montanans, I reached out to Soft Landing of Missoula. The organization gives assistance to refugees that are placed in the state to help them acclimate, find work, and share their talents with the community. This organization put me in touch with two families who shared a dish from their home country that I will feature in my column. I gave the $500 gift card from the Foundation to Soft Landing so they can continue their important work, and I matched it with a donation of my own of $500.

I chose to provide my Pay It Forward gift card to a family, Nick & Sarah, and 4 children, who are serving as pastor and family at a rural church in Coram, MT.
Nick serves with Village Missions, which provides pastors to small, rural churches across the USA and Canada.
The church provided home they were living in was contaminated with mold and the contamination was substantial enough that it required them to move out and have a new home built. The funds will assist them in furnishing their new home, as most everything that was not a hard surface needed to be replaced.
Nick and his wife were very appreciative of the gift.

We gave it to an individual in our community that has cancer. She has to have surgery in Texas and it is a hardship on her family. She is going to use this money for travel expenses.

I decided to give my card to the Lovell American Legion Baseball team who is supported only through charitable giving and local sponsorships. I have always supported this organization in the past and thought this was the best use of the money. I played for the Lovell team and did not realize the effort it took on local volunteers to make this program work. Lovell is not only the area I grew up in, but it is also my sales territory so it is nice to give back to this community that has given me a lot.

I gave my card to Missoula Aging Services and specifically to Meals on Wheels. My wife is on the board of directors, and I can’t thank you enough for the opportunity to help with their mission.
Copied from their website:

Meals on Wheels empowers homebound adults in Missoula County to continue living independently by providing home-delivered meals and regular safety checks, delivering the food and care that our most isolated neighbors need.

This program is a critical lifeline for older adults in Missoula County. Hunger and isolation have become more common problems in recent years, and the program now serves 50% more people than before the pandemic. Missoula Aging Services expects to deliver 140,000 meals to homebound individuals this year and will serve almost 40,000 community lunches at locations throughout the county. The Missoula Aging Services Meals on Wheels program serves an average of 2,388 home-delivered meals per week within Missoula County, which includes Lolo, Bonner, Clinton, Frenchtown, and Seeley Lake.

Hello and thanks again for the opportunities this wonderful program has offered. I once again donated to my family member battling pancreatic cancer. She is now three years undergoing countless surgeries and treatments. As you can imagine medical expenses and lost time at work add up fast. Her face lit up when I gave her the card. She said this will help with my husband taking a little time for himself, and smiled.
Thanks again for putting a smile on someone’s face. It made my day as well.

This year I chose to give my card to Help for Homeless Pets. They are a non kill establishment and I know they need the donation.

I donated my giving card to Evergreen Christian School who actively offer after-school sports programs, chapel services and give to the less fortunate. They are extremely active in our community and provide safe outlets and alternatives for today's youth with their various after school care, sports programs, computer science and reading programs.

I received my first pay it forward gift and decided to give the money to my niece who is a struggling college student. She has no support from her parents and that is why I chose to gift the pay it forward to her.

I decided to give the card to my sister. She is a dance teacher in Deer Lodge, Montana. Her studio recently flooded and caused a bunch of damage so I gave her the card to help with damages. She does a lot for the young boys and girls in the community so I couldn't think of a better way to help. Thank you.

There is a family at my church that needed some extra help. So I gave them the card. They just moved to Lolo Montana, and really needed a blessing. So thanks to the D&P Washington Foundation I was able to offer a little bit of help.

I want to say that I thought long and hard about who I was going to choose to help, and the list kept coming back to this young mother and her new born child Paisley Marie. Below is a short note written by Shelby Melton, young Paisley's mommy.

On Friday November 18th, we found out that we are going to be having a little girl, Paisley Marie, we also received some pretty heavy news. I have cervical insufficiency, my cervix was dilated to 3 cm and Paisley's amniotic sac was bulging out. After several tests to be sure there were no signs of infection and weighing all the risks, we decided to move forward with a surgery to attempt to close my cervix, I was 21 weeks pregnant. I was on bedrest at home for 2 weeks and at the hospital for 5 weeks until Paisley finally made her arrival into the world via emergency C-section, due to placental abruption, on 01/10/2023 weighing 2 lb 5.6 oz and 15.5 inches long, at 28 weeks and 3 days gestation. We have been in the NICU for 50 days and still have a few more weeks to go, and though it was touch and go in the beginning (she had to be resuscitated at birth and required 2 blood transfusions on her first day of life) Paisley is doing great today. She is on CPAP for respiratory support and now weighs 6.5 lb! I am very thankful for this donation as I have not been able to work since November of 2022. This is a huge help and will be used to finish purchasing items for her nursery and to help with groceries and gas. Her father drives 100 miles a day in order to remain at work and still see his baby in the NICU every evening.

At this time, I am proud to say that they are all home safe, and she continues to improve each and every day. Thank you for empowering us to be able to help people in need. This was a true blessing for myself as well as the recipients. I would be HONORED to do this again for someone in years to come. Thank you for the gift of giving. GOD BLESS YOU ALL!

I donated my card to a local lacrosse team, Billings Scorpions lacrosse.

Many thanks to everyone involved with the Dennis and Phillis Washington Foundation Pay it Forward program.
I chose the Garnet Preservation Association (GPA) as my 2023 card recipient. Garnet is one of the local ghost towns in our area, and in order to protect and preserve the lands, buildings, and historic value, funding can be somewhat challenging. The GPA also hosts Garnet Day each year, with live music, food, children's games, gold panning and historic speakers. Each project performed helps to keep a huge part of our Montana history alive for generations to enjoy.

Thank you so much to the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation for allowing me the opportunity to represent Modern Machinery in my hometown community of Cottage Grove, Oregon – near our Eugene branch.
This year I chose to donate to South Valley Athletics, a non-profit youth sports organization for Cottage Grove, Oregon and surrounding areas. South Valley Athletics provides youth sports programs in our community for young kids to participate in basketball, cheer, soccer, volleyball, and various camps throughout the year. Tom Perkins, Program Director, was originally hoping the funds could be used to directly sponsor kids in the programs. However, the nature of our program made it much easier for him to purchase gear and free up those funds for scholarships for low income children in our community.
Cottage Grove has an overall poverty level of 22.48% in 2023 (worldpopulationrevew.com). According to Stacker.com statistics; Cottage Grove ranks #9 in the state for people living in poverty (based on 2019 statistics of 19.42%). To compare; the national average was 11.6 percent in 2021 according to the Census.
Thank you again for allowing me the opportunity to pour into our future by helping our youth flourish. I am forever grateful.

As a child I grew up in a house of addiction, let it be drugs or alcohol, so I am familiar first hand the impact addiction can have not only on the individual struggling but also on those around them. My brother and I were fortunate enough to be able to break the cycle of addiction that ran generations in our family but so many are not so lucky, so any time I can help someone, someone that TRULY wants break the cycle of addiction I am all in. That is why I chose to donate to Pacific Northwest Adult & Teen Challenge Portland Metro campus, formerly located off 92nd Avenue in SE Portland, is now located in peaceful Estacada, Oregon, a 28 mile drive southeast of downtown Portland. Their Portland Metro Campus is a residential, long term recovery and discipleship program for people suffering from drug and alcohol addiction, and has capacity for 40 students. Students at this campus take part in vocational training and participate in Life Renewal outpatient treatment programming, including group therapy and other evidence-based recovery techniques.

This year I gave the pay-it-forward card to new parents that just had their 1st child. I remember the financial struggles of being a new parent and worrying about how we would have to come up with all the supplies for our newborn. Being able to pay it forward so that they didn't have to worry about diapers, clothes, and other essentials for a couple of months. I'm sure this program will be a true blessing to them.

Thank you D&P Washington Foundation for allowing employees to help pay it forward in a choice of their own.
I used the giving card for two nonprofit organizations. First MADD(MT Div)-$250 they do great work to spread awareness of underage drinking and support for the victims of some poor choices by others.

Second Animeals-$250 they also do great work for rescue and healing of someone else's neglect as pet owners. Spay and neuter you pets to prevent unwanted circumstances.

I chose to give my Pay It Forward card to Darina Grabovski and her family. They are a refugee family from Ukraine. We all know what is going on in Ukraine. One year ago, war was started in this country and has taken the lives of so many innocent men, women and children. Thanks to United States for taking many refugees from this country. They still need some help to stand on their feet and enjoy a life in this country. My good friends took Darina and her family and let them stay in their house for a few months and bought them clothes and food. I have chosen to give this money to Darina and her family to help them with rent. I hope it can bring them some joy living in this country.
Thanks to the Dennis & Phillis Washington Foundation and the Washington family for allowing me to support this family.

Gave it to the Charlo youth baseball program this time.

Thanks for the opportunity to pay it forward.

I have given my card to a family member that has cancer. She has been put on hospice care at home and has had a lot of family, friends and people stopping in to help her out. So the card has been used to purchase things that are needed for her and her families needs while there helping her. She truly has appreciated the help and has asked me to thank you for your generosity. I also would like to personally thank you once again for letting us help people out in a time of need. Very much appreciated!

Brian Rambo gave our church this card for the second time. We were able to use your generous gift to help a young family with necessities. The young couple has a new baby, many expenses and their rent increased again. We were able to use the card to buy them much needed food and supplies for their baby. Thanks so much for your gift.