Longtime Whitefish resident and business owner, Rhonda Fitzgerald, has been advocating for the community of Whitefish over the past 30 years. Recently, her efforts were recognized with the Friend of the Fish Award.

The Whitefish Convention and Visitors Bureau, better known as Explore Whitefish, recently created the award to show appreciation to an outstanding steward of the community. The inaugural award was presented to Fitzgerald at the organization’s annual meeting.

Julie Mullins, executive director of Explore Whitefish, said the hospitality industry requires hard work and that it takes a special person who is willing to commit long hours for little pay and oftentimes, go underappreciated.

“We created our Friend of the Fish Award to recognize a member of our community who not only is dedicated professionally but who passionately works for a better Whitefish through volunteerism and stewardship,” Mullins said. “For that industry person that fights to keep Explore Whitefish on track.”

Mullins added that there was “no question” that the first Friend of the Fish Award recipient should be Rhonda Fitzgerald, owner of the Garden Wall Inn and member of the executive committee on the board of Explore Whitefish.

Fitzgerald is also the founder and organizer of the Whitefish Farmers Market. She worked on Montana’s Tourism Advisory Council for years, currently serves on the Whitefish Community Housing Committee and has served on numerous volunteer boards with the city. She’s been described by co-workers as fair-minded, selfless, perseverant and hard-working.

“She was one of the original volunteer members of Explore Whitefish back in 2006 and continues to follow her passion in keeping Explore Whitefish on track to balance the economic benefits of tourism while working to maintain our culture, close-knit community and protect our wild spaces,” Mullins said. “She always puts the needs of her neighbors and other member businesses before her own personal business or her own personal needs.”

Nick Polumbus, president of Whitefish Mountain Resort, worked with Fitzgerald on the board of Explore Whitefish for about 14 years. He was one of the presenters of the award and took that opportunity to remark about Fitzgerald’s preparedness.

“She always has facts for her position on any given topic and so she is always willing to be that tenacious fighter for what she thinks is right, in this case for Whitefish,” Polumbus said. “If you wanted to debate with her, you’d better be ready.”

He said Fitzgerald drove a process that included quality conversations and thought-out deliberations, often helping the board arrive at the best possible solutions.

“She worked … endlessly for tourism in Montana, and specifically in Whitefish, advocating at every level she could along the way, with the state, or with national consultants, always with the best interest of Whitefish in mind,” Polumbus added. “(She is) truly one of the most intelligent people I've ever met in my life.”

Fitzgerald called the award “quite an honor" and said that having Polumbus and Mariah Joos present the award along with heartfelt acclaim was the best part. 

While she spoke fondly of her husband Michael, daughter and two grandsons in town, and her son with three granddaughters in Chicago, she was quick to steer the conversation away from herself to talk about the mission of Explore Whitefish.

After buying the old, beautiful home on the corner of Spokane Avenue and Fifth Street in 1985, she opened the Garden Wall Inn in December 1987 and spent a few years learning the ropes.

“I finally realized in order to succeed, people needed to want to come to Whitefish, in order to want to stay with me. And in order to want to come to Whitefish, they would have to want to come to Montana, because we were not on the map,” she said. “That’s when I started to get involved, in the mid-90s.”

She said the authentic nature of Whitefish is what makes it a place people want to visit. The fact that it is a year-round community of real people is its greatest strength and that needs to be protected.

“Our competitive advantage is the strength of our community and the culture,” Fitzgerald said. “That's what makes people want to visit and so we have to be the steward of that … first and foremost.

“I’m very proud of the point of view that the board has adopted. They embraced this idea in 2009 or 2010 of the geotourist, which is someone who appreciates the authentic place and whose visitation doesn’t degrade it for the residents,” she added. “It enhances the quality of life for the residents.”

Trying to keep Whitefish authentic and working to attract conscientious visitors who will respect local culture and nature are two main objectives of Explore Whitefish.

“We want our visitors to love the wild as much as we do and take care of it, and Rhonda's been a big part of making sure we stay on point on that,” Mullins said.

Fitzgerald added that the group’s focus has always been on doing what is best for the community. It tries to strengthen the shoulder seasons so there are year-round jobs for people.

“I think the work that Explore Whitefish is doing is super important for the community because we need to keep a strong business community and we need to keep people who live and work in Whitefish,” Fitzgerald said. “We don't want to be this place that people commute into to work and, really, they can’t even do that now.”

She suggested that one way people can help keep the community intact is by supporting local restaurants that participate in the 1% Community Sustainability Fee (CSF) program. Recently, the Explore Whitefish board voted unanimously to allocate half of the money collected by restaurants through the CSF to Housing Whitefish. 

“You can be part of the solution by contributing a small amount, a few cents, toward solving our housing problem,” she added.

The housing crisis is making it impossible for people to live and work in Whitefish and Fitzgerald called the situation “awful.”

“Because you lose all of that flavor and energy and vitality. You just stop being a community,” Fitzgerald said. “Whitefish is very unique and pretty incredible but if people aren't the stewards of it, then it will not continue.”