A longtime Montana Veterans Home volunteer’s effort to raise money for a new bus paid off big-time Thursday when the Whitefish Community Foundation presented a surprise donation of $117,500 for a wheelchair-accessible vehicle.

Foundation board members and donors handed the grant check to Dianna Bennett, who led the effort to raise $135,000 to replace the home’s older 12-passenger bus that is wearing out and prone to break-downs. The bus is used to transport residents to a variety of off-site activities and excursions and is heavily used for trips year-round. In a Daily Inter Lake article Bennett cited a total of 66 outings for veterans between June 2017 and January 2018.

Bennett, a veterans home volunteer since 2006, said she felt compelled to lead the fundraising effort because she sees firsthand the joy veterans get from their various outings. She got a $5,000 donation from the Whitefish VFW to jump-start the project, and the state VFW Auxiliary kicked in $1,000. Many individuals also made donations.

Big purchases such as vehicles aren’t part of the veterans home’s normal operating budget, Veterans Home Superintendent Joren Underdahl said. Such funding requests need legislative approval, and since the state budget is so tight, Underdahl had said he wouldn’t submit such a request this time around.

When donors of Whitefish Community Foundation read about the campaign to raise funds for the new bus, they decided this was a project with serious merit and put out a challenge to other donors within the foundation to raise the funds, according to foundation President Linda Engh-Grady.

Whitefish Community Foundation awarded $25,000 to help match funds from seven donor-advised funds. Donors include Ardy and Steve Whisler, Janna and Jamie Shennan, Byrdie and Ken Wessels, Carol and Richard Atkinson, John Kramer, Bill and Betsy Bayne, and an anonymous donor, to award a total of $117,500 for the bus.

Bennett’s fundraising brought in $20,000, which will make the new $135,000, 14-passenger wheelchair-accessible bus a reality for the veterans.

“While the Montana Veterans Home is not located in Whitefish, it fills a very important role for our community by serving veterans who have served all of us,” Engh-Grady noted. “The husband of one of Whitefish Community Foundation’s founders now lives in the [veterans] home.”

Engh-Grady said it is thanks to the Circle of Giving that the community foundation’s grant programs have grown considerably and are able to make major grants that have serious impact on the community. Donors to the Circle give a minimum of $5,000 annually, with some giving as much as $40,000. The Major Community Project Grant Award to the Montana Veterans Memorial Foundation brings the number of major grants presented since the program began in 2010 to 15. The foundation has awarded a total of $418,600 through this program, with awards ranging from $20,000 to $38,000.

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