If you’ve seen the Special Friends Advocacy Program folks selling fry bread at the Tuesday night Picnic in the Park gatherings in Kalispell or at any number of other summertime festivals, chances are you’ve seen Gay Moddrell somewhere in the midst.

As the longtime director of Special Friends, Moddrell is involved in every aspect of the organization that advocates for people with developmental disabilities — even if it means making fry bread to raise money for the group.

“It’s a lot of work,” she said about the weekly fry-bread duty, “but it’s a good chance to integrate our folks into the community.

“My experience is working with people with different challenges makes me appreciate the value of diversity,” Moddrell reflected.

Special Friends is a member agency of United Way, and in addition to United Way funding, the organization gets by with donations and a variety of fundraising activities such as the fry-bread stand. Last year the advocacy program helped 217 people with its direct services. Special Friends helps with a variety of issues people with developmental disabilities may have, such as money management, housing, medical and transportation needs.

Volunteers contributed 8,910 hours of service to the Special Friends program in 2012.

Moddrell, 73, works in a volunteer capacity as director. She has tried to cut back her hours in recent years, but finds it difficult to downsize a job that remains a labor of love for her.

Her heart for the disabled was shaped early on in life.

In 1977 Moddrell moved from her hometown of Reno, Nev., to Kalispell with three of her four children plus two foster children with Down Syndrome in tow. Her foster kids, Jimmy and Diana, have both died, and she remembers them fondly as part of the family.

“Reno was a lot like Kalispell back then,” she recalled. “Flathead Lake was a lot like Lake Tahoe. We packed up the U-Haul truck and arrived in a snowstorm. It was a harrowing trip.”

Moddrell credits her neighbors on Foothill Road with getting her through that first winter. They brought her firewood and pulled her out of the ditch quite a few times.

She laughs as she remembers calling Mountain Brook School to register her son Tim. The school administrator’s first question about his son wasn’t about his academic prowess, but rather about his athletic ability.

“‘How tall is he?’” she recalls the administrator asking. “The kids made a lot of friends on Foothill Road that have continued through their lives.”

Two of Moddrell’s sons, Tim and Bill Henderson, live in Reno; son Mike Henderson and her daughter Marie Moddrell reside in Kalispell.

Like many who relocated to the Flathead in the ’70s, Moddrell didn’t have a job waiting for her here, but was certain something would come up.

She found work at Flathead Industries, where her husband-to-be, Randy Moddrell, also had found a job after also moving to the Flathead, coincidentally, in 1977.

Randy Moddrell, who died in a motorcycle accident eight years ago, was one of the original founders of the Special Friends Advocacy Program and dedicated his life to the service of people with disabilities.

Like her late husband, Gaye Moddrell, too, was always involved in service work, she said.

“I kind of fell into the work through volunteer opportunities. I was going to go into horticulture and landscaping, but I seem to be guided” to working with people with disabilities.

At Special Friends, it’s all about making sure people with developmental disabilities have a voice, she said. As the organization’s director, Moddrell said “there’s no such thing as a normal day.”

Her days are a blur of administrative duties such as tracking data on how many people are receiving varying amounts of assistance, combined with the ongoing interaction with clients.

“I couldn’t do it if not for the people I serve and seeing the changes and growth,” she said. “Sometimes it’s a challenge, but it’s fun, and I’m working with so many dedicated volunteers.”

Special Friends recently moved into new quarters at 230 Second St. E. in Kalispell, across the street from Linderman Education Center, in a building that’s “bright and clean with marvelous neighbors.” The organization had outgrown its old quarters on Second Avenue West.

Moddrell enjoys rural living in the Fair-Mont-Egan area, where she can raise berries and have a garden.

“It’s different without Randy there,” she said. “I wasn’t used to having to ask for help.”

Her family remains a pivotal part of her life. Several of her grandchildren help out at the fry-bread stand and she’s proud of all of them.

“What’s neat is I see these values passed down from my children to their children,” Moddrell said. “They know the value of diversity.”

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