Friday, December 21, 2012

We have Paypal for donations! Thank you Council!

Terry Borning and Stefanie Harrington of Girl Scouts of Montana and Wyoming sent us the links to our paypal account. They even sent me html code for the blog (yay!), so consider this post, 1) an invitation to donate via paypal, 2) an invitation to test the link, and 3) an invitation to comment with any problems or to post your success.  Problems can also be communicated to Becky at campwestana@yahoo.com.




Please view the Donations tab/page above to read our donor letter.  If this is a gift of giving, also view that tab and call or email Becky your message request RIGHT AWAY (include in your email that you paid via paypal).

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Bake Sale ~ Saturday Dec. 22 ~ Whitefish Mall

There will be a Save Westana Bake Sale this Saturday at the Whitefish Mall from 10 am to 5 pm to raise money for Save Westana.  Girlscouts, leaders, and volunteers can assist with baked goods by Friday night (see below) and/or helping to man the booth (contact Becky).

Supporters can come down and buy goodies!  Especially if you are already headed there to see Santa!

Becky's facebook post:
We are having a bake sale at Whitefish Mountain Mall from 10am-5pm, Saturday (December 22nd). If you want to bring baked goods to my house, call me at 892-1518 (Me- being Becky Johnson-Opalka). You can drop them off at my house Friday night. We are needing girl scouts (and leaders) to help man the table, and hold up signs too.

*You can also coordinate with Becky or find out more via campwestana@yahoo.com

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Things keep taking shape, another news story today

Becky was on the news again today, so take a look:

NBC news story synopsis for December 18, 2012


And then, consider this a timely opportunity to

DONATE or EDUCATE !

We've now surpassed 2,000 views to this blog and 125 "likes" on facebook, but we can bump those numbers and bump awareness....put your social media addictions to work for your community....every bit helps.

Friday, December 14, 2012

KPAX Story Link

Most of what active leaders hoped to have lined up is now lined up or very close to lined up (see Monday's HH News article and our blog post from spring that said what needed to happen), but time is short and financial needs are huge.  Please watch the clip and tell us what you think about how it came across (that there is still hope?).

Flathead Girl Scouts trying to save camping tradition | KPAX.com | Missoula, Montana


A couple of statements warrant clarification, PLEASE NOTE at least these two points---


1. It is not true that Girl Scouts would have to pay $25,000 for this year's lease (DNRC will freeze the $5,000 rate while we complete the steps required for purchasing the easement, so we are hoping Girl Scouts will wait to terminate the lease)

2.  It is not clear that we should have to raise the full 1/2 million dollars by January 15 (we need to raise as much as possible as soon as possible but DNRC is working with us, so we need to convince any partnering entity and our council land board to give us time as well, but we need to raise a substantial amount fast to keep all parties at the table)


Since the public meetings in spring, the following obstacles have been resolved:

1. Received DNRC's assistance in solution finding (many thanks to Bill Beck for his assistance in those discussions), which includes:
    a.  Assistance with the reappraisal process
    b.  Solution finding steps that have led to permanent easement options and exclusive use
    c.  More time to raise the money and more time for exploring options
    b.  Frozen lease rate during fund raising and/or easement application process (no increase would
         occur at this time, as also reported in Monday's Hungry Horse News article) if we are
         allowed to move forward
2. Paperwork, bank account, and council approval is now in place for fundraising
3. Council support for fundraising and easement coordination was granted

And the primary obstacle that remains:

1.  The cost of the easement is an enormous challenge that local leaders and girlscouts are willing (and were approved by council) to attempt (with the burden falling entirely on local troops to raise in order to maintain the last and only remaining Girl Scout resource available locally)

Stay tuned.....

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Watch the news tonight ~ KPAX at 10pm

At least I think it will be tonight.....KPAX is interviewing girls and leaders for the news at Westana today so watch for it and we'll try to post it here if they put it on-line.

Update: 10 pm news (channel 8 for most of us)