Clara Mears-LaChappelle waits all year for screaming good deals on pasta and cases of canned vegetables at the grocery store, then fills her shopping cart and donates it all to the Northwest Montana Veterans Food Pantry and Flathead Food Bank.

Feeding the hungry is one of the ways she gives back to the community, and it’s indicative of the passion she has for what she believes in.

Mears-LaChappelle is a wear-your-heart-on-your-sleeve kind of gal.

The West Valley resident is passionate about preserving the Flathead Valley as a special place, and believes serving as county commissioner can help her achieve that goal.

“I want to fight for the people in this valley,” she said. “I feel the valley is going in a direction that won’t benefit our children and grandchildren. We’ll lose our open spaces. We need to maintain our unique look and values.”

Mears-LaChappelle said her 60 years of life experience — and a constant quest for information — would serve her well as a county commissioner.

Mears-LaChappelle is running as a Democrat against Republican Gary Krueger in the Nov. 6 general election for the District 3 commissioner post being vacated by Commissioner Dale Lauman. Early voting begins Oct. 9.

The Indianapolis native and “die-hard Colts fan” moved around a good bit in her younger years as her father served in the U.S. Navy. From Indianapolis the family moved to Chicago, then to Fort Myers, Fla., where she graduated from high school and attended a community college.

“I was into learning,” she said, recalling her favorite activities in school. She played baseball and loved volleyball, but always “felt a need for my brain to absorb information.

“A brain dies if you don’t search for knowledge,” she added.

Mears-LaChappelle went to beauty school and got a degree in cosmetology, but has spent much of her professional life as a bookkeeper, executive secretary and business owner.

She traveled cross-country and ended up in Libby 25 years ago. She worked for the city of Troy for a time in the utilities department, then moved to Kalispell in 1990 and settled in the West Valley.

“With all of my background, I feel I can be instrumental in helping the valley grow,” she said.

Mears-LaChappelle acknowledges that filing for bankruptcy in April was “very hard to have to do.”

She was helping pay huge medical bills for her handicapped grandson two years ago when she was forced out of an executive secretary job that paid $2,400 a month.

“I felt as a parent I needed to help my daughter, who was struggling,” she said. “Losing that income, I’ve never been able to recoup that kind of job opportunity.”

Mears-LaChappelle’s plight has been similar to many who found themselves without jobs when the national recession hit the Flathead Valley economy especially hard. That’s what makes her quest for the commissioner post all the more important.

“I’m fighting for this [election] so this doesn’t have to happen to anybody else,” she said. “I don’t want anybody to have to go through what I did. This can happen to anybody, because many people have children and grandchildren living with parents and grandparents because they can’t make it on their own.”

Mears-LaChappelle initially tried to run for commissioner as an independent but didn’t get enough signatures to qualify.

“I need to bring the average people back, and let them know I’ve fought their battles and I’ll continue to fight for them,” she said. “I feel the average person in this valley has lost a say-so in what’s going on. So many are afraid to get up and talk.”

Mears-LaChappelle isn’t all work and no play, though. The locals around town know how much she loves kicking up her heels at Eagles’ dances.

And in her down time she relishes time at home, working in the yard and caring for a menagerie of pets.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.