Pay it Forward Stories 2021

I chose to donate my Pay It Forward card to the Veterans Advocacy Clinic at the University of Montana School of Law. This organization is dear to me, and they are serving a region that typically does not get adequate support.

The Veterans Advocacy Clinic provides free legal services to veterans across Montana. The Clinic fulfills its mission of accounting for the long-term impacts of military service on disabled or improperly discharged veterans through direct legal representation, legal consultation, and outreach. The Clinic works to ensure that veterans receive proper care and compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs and works to resolve improper and inequitable discharges by the Department of Defense.

Since 2017, the Clinic has represented over 50 veterans before the VA and the DoD and counseled many more.

Also, the Veterans Advocacy Clinic, as part of the Clinical Program at the Alexander Blewett III Law School, supervises students as they handle veterans’ claims. The Clinic trains students in professionalism and administrative law while instilling the spirit of volunteerism in the next generation of attorneys.

The Clinic plans to use my Pay It Forward donation to assist with travel costs in representing veterans at board hearings and outreach in rural communities.

We purchased a few different gift cards & groceries and gave them to a mother of a 5 year old child that has bone cancer. We wanted her to be able to buy the necessities she needs at home as well as gas cards for her vehicle to get around to Dr. Appt's.
Not long after we helped her with the Pay It Forward card, someone began a GoFundMe as well. Hopefully, this will help ease her stress while dealing with her child's healthcare.

Hello! We had a wonderful experience considering and deciding who to pay this gift card forward to. My wife is a public school teacher-librarian and has worked closely with a woman named Kimberly Blosser for the past four years. Three years ago Kim was diagnosed with breast cancer, which she fought and overcome early last year. Shortly after her cancer was in remission she learned that her beloved husband had stage-3 pancreatic cancer. For the last year she has worked full-time as an hourly employee while also serving as her husband's full-time caregiver. He is now unable to drive and she drives him to/from appointments and treatments, converses with doctors and supports him completely. As their bills continue to pile up after both of them battling advanced stages of cancer, Kim has always remained the most positive and upbeat person. She truly feels like nothing is too much for her to handle and she approaches each day anew with gratitude. We were absolutely thrilled to share this gift with them and they were beyond appreciative of the company's generosity.

Eden, Dustin, and Dennis & Phyllis Washington Foundation,

Thank you so much for the generous donation To Carey it Forward from the Pay It Forward, Dennis & Phyllis Washington Foundation.

Carey it Forward Inc. is a non- profit created to help people in our community suffering from financial struggles due to, but not limited to, health and medical issues by providing financial support for expenses incurred such as travel, food or other cost that my occur. We really want to be able to assist those who need help with expenses that come up that are not budgeted for. We have all had those surprises happen and they can be a big struggle for some families. These funds will allow us to alleviate financial stress for someone who needs assistance.

Thank you so very much, you are officially our first donation and we appreciate you helping our cause! We will be sure to keep you updated on what we use the funds for and will do so by May.

I donated my card to the Silver Linings Foundation in Missoula. Silver Linings is a Breast Cancer survivor group. This group is not a typical support group. It is a bad ass group of women who now Dragon Boat as a passion and a way of staying active.
As a breast cancer survivor this group of women was huge in my journey and I continue to love them all! Recently a peer and friend from another Washington Company was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. She is young! Her journey brings back a lot of memories and I was thrilled to hand off my card to a group of inspiring women who will do amazing work with the funds!

We chose to donate our Pay It Forward card to the Gallatin Ice Foundation. The Gallatin Ice Foundation is raising money to Finish the Ice Barn which will provide year round ice arenas in Bozeman MT. Year round ice will allow Gallatin Ice to expand operations into the summer months which will ease the limitations of available ice time for figure skating, hockey and curling programs.

I gave my giving card to the Missoula Family YMCA, specifically to be used for their afterschool/day camp programs. During the past year our family has relied on the Y for quality childcare. They remained open throughout the pandemic, summer break and school year when there was only a couple of days of school per week. Their staff is excellent. We are so lucky to have the Y in our community and I was pleased to be able to share my card with them.

I have watched my neighbor struggle while working two jobs. She has 3 young children. She appears to be working endlessly to provide for her family.

I admired her ambition and her priorities to keeping her family healthy, worm and a full belly. I felt she was the perfect recipient of this program.

Her Appreciation was very emotional. It definitely went to a Deserving family.

I was excited to have the opportunity to give a Pay it Forward card to Mountain Home Montana. Mount Home is an organization that provides a safe place to live for young mothers and their children. They have been operating for 20 years and is a great example of an organization truly helping vulnerable people in our community.

We gave our pay it forward card to a family that recently lost their father to Covid-19. The unexpected death of a family member is enough of a burden and now their youngest daughter is moving off to college in Utah. Hopefully they can use the card to visit each other or relief some of the financial stress during these hard times.

I decided to give my $500 gift card to Polson Loaves and Fish Pantry. They provide food to the needy for families around the south end of Flathead Lake. This area is on the Flathead Indian reservation. On the day I delivered the card, the office doors were locked but when I knocked they came out and greeted me. Inside was a hub of activity. Pre-COVID, people were allowed to come inside and "shop" for what they needed most. However on this day their volunteers were packaging up different sized boxes based on family size. Everyone had a smile on their face. The Polson location does get donations from the Missoula Food bank but there is plenty of low income families on the reservations so I thought a direct donation to them would really be appreciated, and it was! I talked to Lynda Kittle who was in charge that day.

Thanks for giving us the opportunity to help spread around the Foundation's generosity!

I gave my card to the Butte Community Ice Center. They are a non-profit ice rink in Butte, MT. They support all things related to ice sports including curling. Their number one sport being hockey. There are many costs involved with running a volunteer ice rink and this card helps many kids.

Dear Members of Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation,

Thank you for your donation to Zootown 406 Non Profit Youth Club! The funds will go towards our 5 To Come Alive Summer Campaign to incorporate a wholeness program for our local youth to include Sports, Nutrition, Breathing, Stretching and Mind Resiliency. We have reached out to local experts in our community to put a booklet together specifically for Montana kids for tools and techniques! The funds from the donation will be used to print as many booklets as we can and distribute them to the youth who participate in our program as well and make free digital copies available online.

Thank you for supporting our community!

Zootown 406 Youth Club
Jen Kivela - Director

I chose Meals on Wheels - Missoula Aging Services

Due to COVID-19, client numbers rose by 40%. Within the last ten months, 96,000 meals have been delivered to Missoula's most vulnerable.

Thank you to the Dennis & Phyllis Washington Foundation

I chose to donate my Pay It Forward card to the Ronald McDonald House in Missoula. Ronald McDonald Charities of Western Montana provides a safe comfortable place to stay for families of children who are receiving medical care at a Missoula area hospital or healthcare facility. Families who utilize the Ronald McDonald House are recommended by either the social work department or medical staff at the hospital where their child is receiving care. This wonderful facility provides some peace of mind and comfort for families who may struggle to pay for lodging in order to remain close to their child during a very difficult and stressful time. This enables parents to focus 100% on their child's care and treatment.

I'd like to thank the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation for affording me the opportunity to donate to this very worthy cause. The Pay It Forward program has helped so many people over the years and I am proud to work for an organization that offers such a unique way for their employees to help others in their communities.

I donated some of the money for a family that could use it for groceries, also used some to pay charlo senior citizens bill at grocery store, and the rest to a local pre school in charlo, to be used for odd and ends that they may need.
Thanks for the opportunity.

I chose to donate the card to Jen's Little Rugrats Daycare and Playschool. There, they used the donation for classroom accessories. They included animal life cycle models, magnifying glasses, tadpole growing kits, chicks, ant farms, and National Geographic reading material. All of this material will help young children interact with animals instead of just reading about them. This is a great opportunity for them to have hands on training on the developmental process of life.

Thank you Dennis & Phyllis Washington Foundation!

We recently started a non-profit foundation for our daughter Rawkee Hunt so that she can start paying forward all the kindness that has been done for her during her last year of burn recovery from her burn accident. Our foundation is called RAW Foundation (real.authentic.warriors). This specific card for $500 was donated to this foundation and the $ will then be used to complete our most recent project called "A Dance for Charity" . Charity is a little girl who recently passed away from a burn accident. After spending 3 months in ICU Burn Trauma unit she didn't make it out of her last surgery. My daughter Rawkee had become very close with Charity as we had spent many hours coloring pictures, writing letters and sending gifts to her and her family. My little girl was so very excited to finally have a "burn friend" just like her. They had made big plans for when Charity would be released from the hospital. Sadly that day never came. When we told out little Rawkee her friend had passed away she immediately wanted to do something special for Charity and her family. So the idea was born and the project unfolded. While my own daughter underwent 2.5 months in the same Burn ICU unit as Charity, dance was her motivating factor that has helped her the most on her road to recovery. So she decided she wanted to dance for Charity. With the help of the most incredible individuals (Dance teachers, fellow dancers from her studio, videographers, camera men, photographers, ATV rentals, amazing parent and so many more....) we spent a bitter cold day in a very remote location (the warriors walk) is its name. Filming our daughter performing her memorial dance for her friend Charity and her amazing family! The video will be completed in the next 2 weeks and a copy will be sent to the Burn ICU team and Charity's family for first viewing. We will then post the project on our YouTube channel to share with the world. Our hope with this specific project is to help bring healing and closure to everyone who was apart of Charity's amazing journey. We also hope that random viewers will be touched and inspired to push on in their on trauma and trials and find hope that no matter what life throws your way you can choose to get up and keep going.
Because of incredible people like you and Scott we hope this project will be the first of many many more to come. These donations as you well know make it possible to touch lives and hearts in special and specific ways. We so appreciate you help and support in our cause. We hope you will view this special video when it goes live and accept our deepest gratitude in making this project a reality for my daughter and her sweet friend Charity!

This year, I split my Pay it Forward card between two causes especially important to me: Herd of Wyoming and The Southwest Montana Mountain Bike Association. Based in Sheridan, WY, Herd of Wyoming is a herding dog rescue organization that helps place unwanted dogs and puppies with owners across North America. My wife and I adopted our dog Violet through the organization a few years ago. She has meant a lot to our family and provides us with an activity partner during the day and a cuddle buddy at night.

The Southwest Montana Mountain Bike Association (SWMMBA) is a mountain bike trail advocacy organization that helps better the mountain bike experience for riders of all ages and abilities. As more and more people discover the therapeutic benefits of exercising outdoors, SWMMBA has worked to increase trail access. Through mountain biking, people can engage in a healthy lifestyle and further their desire to protect the natural environment that makes Montana such a special place to live.

I'm thankful for the generosity of the Washington family. Because their philanthropic spirit, I was able to give meaningfully to organizations that do a lot of good things for people in Montana and Wyoming.

I gave the giving card to a very dear friend of mine who lives in Billings. Melissa has been enduring the effects of Ehlers-Danos Syndrome since she was a teenager. This disease is extremely rare, and because of that it is misdiagnosed in most cases. Melissa recently underwent her 15th surgery to help correct some of the results of having this life changing disease.

Through all of this, Melissa has maintained her role as mother of two wonderful girls, wife to a great man, business owner/operator, and friend, caregiver, and support system for countless others including myself. Melissa has focused her talents and time on becoming an advocate for E-DS, so that others who are dealing with this terrible disease can be properly diagnosed and treated.

Melissa and her family are the first ones to step up to help others, even if that means giving up what they themselves may need. I couldn’t think of a more deserving person for this generous gift from the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation. Thank you to the Foundation for sponsoring this unique opportunity to let your employees distribute your kindness and good will to those in our communities who need it.

In addition, I would like to personally thank The Washington Foundation and Montana Resources employees for providing me with their giving cards to offset the costs of my treatment for cancer. Not only is the financial help appreciated, but the thoughts, and family treatment and support from all levels of the company have been amazing.

The Washington Group / Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation are leaders amongst their many peers in providing a great and rewarding career for their employees and an unsurpassed willingness to give back to their employees and communities.

THANK YOU!!!
Dustin Schillinger
Montana Resources
Butte, America!

The family that I donated the card to used it for gas and travel to Salt Lake City for treatment of their daughter. Their 5 year old was diagnosed with high-grade glioma, stage 4 glioblastoma. It is a the most aggressive and hardest tumor to treat and does not have a very good long-term diagnosis. The family lives here in Missoula, both parents have served in the marines, and have an additional 5 kids to care for. The entire situation for has been extremely hard on the family mentally and financially.

Recently, the 5 year olds treatment has been oral chemo, and required them to spent two weeks in Salt Lake to ensure there were no adverse reactions to the new medicines. She will be on a six week cycles of chemo for at least the year, maybe two. She will have MRI's every three months, plus bloodwork and physical exams every six weeks, for which will require more travel to Salt Lake.

Thank you for allowing me to help this family in their time of need, they were very grateful.

We used the Pay It Forward Charity to help a friend of my wife's coworker. He is in his 50s and was diagnosed with Covid in February and was subsequently put on ventilator. He was in ICU for a few weeks and his family was concerned if he was going to pull through. He is in recovery and was in need for money for family, medical expenses and food. He is greatly loved and had also received additional donations from his coworkers. The Pay It Forward Charity was a great inspiration. This gift card came at a perfect time for his family . Thank you!

I donated my card this year to a single mother with 4 kids. With all the problems with Covid this year it was very hard to make ends meet. With this gift they were able to buy some food and pay some overdue bills. She would like to thank you so much for this gift.

I have my giving card to some friends of mine who are expecting their first child, and upcoming wedding!

My Pay It Foward gift card went to a student that attends Beartooth Elementary School in Billings. The students did a "Chuck Your Change" fundraiser for Chloe and raised over $3,500.

Since Chloe was three years old she has had growing rods to help with her severe kyphosis and scoliosis.

Chloe and her family will head to Seattle for a spinal fusion. She will first be in a halo traction for two months before she receives her posterior/anterior spinal fusion.

For the past nine years Chloe and her family have traveled back and forth to Seattle to have her rods adjusted every six months. This time they will stay there for about three months for this procedure. The gift card and money raised by her peers will help with expenses while in Seattle.