Today, Noah Hannah is an active little boy bouncing off the walls, pestering his mother and practicing his archery skills.

As a baby, his spine was so crooked, it curved back and forth like a snake.

Thanks to the Flathead Shrine Club and the Shriners Hospital in Spokane, Noah is living as normal a life as he can. Nine casts and months of time rearranging his spine have it popped into shape.

His father, Ken Hannah, was so grateful for the group’s generosity he joined the Shriners when his son was made better.

“There are no words,” he said. “There is no way I could pay them back. From a parent’s perspective the second you enter the hospital until you leave it is just a personal experience.”

One of the Shriners’ original goals was to help children with polio. The group founded a hospital in 1922 to deal with that problem. When that disease was eradicated, the group decided to continue its help with orthopedics.

That’s why, from 8 to 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Flathead Orthopedics in Kalispell, the Shriners are offering a free screening clinic for Flathead Valley children.

“They look for anything musculo-skeletal,” Hannah said. “Any children with these issues are usually referred immediately to the Shriners hospital.”

That was the case with Noah, diagnosed at just 4 months old with scoliosis consisting of a 23-degree curvature of the spine. In a short period of time, the curvature went to 80 degrees and the conventional “wait and see” method was scrapped for emergency intervention.

“We were one or two months away from a spinal fusion in a 15-month-old baby,” Hannah said.

Instead, the hospital attempted an elongation, derotation, flexion cast, where Noah was twisted and turned to make his back straight.

“I called it the torture machine,” Noah said of the contraption that made a fitted cast.

Another child in the Hannah family — a cousin in Utah — had been diagnosed and treated by the Shriners in Salt Lake City.

Noah’s grandmother didn’t hesitate when asked where her grandson should go, insisting he get to Spokane as soon as possible.

And as a charity organization, Hannah said the Shriners help even those most disadvantaged families.

“They never send a bill to a family,” he said. “They may bill insurance, but the family never gets billed.”

Since each cast was in the neighborhood of $2,000, not including specialist work, this saved heartache and debt for the Hannahs.

Noah, despite his dislike of being prodded and poked by the doctors, is happy he can be active (everything but jumping on a trampoline) and made many friends during his Spokane stays.

So while the Shriners might be best known to the general public for their fez hats and driving tiny cars in parades, many families know their generosity goes more than skin deep.

Reporter Ryan Murray may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at rmurray@dailyinterlake.com.