FEC grant brings new instruments to junior high

The Columbia Falls Academic Foundation  is the recent recipient of a $46,000 Flathead Electric Cooperative Community Education Grant. The grant allows CFAF to support the Columbia Falls Junior High School music program.  

CFAF board member Laura Fay presented the “Play It Forward” grant request to the Co-op’s trustees. 

“At Columbia Falls Junior High School, sixth through eighth-grade students receive music education. But there is very limited district funding available to support the program. Some of the equipment, such as the current choral risers, needs to be replaced to meet current safety standards. Many instruments are inoperable and beyond repair, such as a 1936 trombone, French horns from 1967 and 1970, and a tuba and trombones dating from the early 1960s,” Fay said.  

As a not-for-profit, member-owned co-op, Flathead Electric’s  business model means that when it brings in more revenue than is needed to operate, that money is allocated back to its members as ‘capital credits.’ Each year, some of these capital credits go unclaimed, usually because members move away without updating their mailing addresses. When capital credits go unclaimed for five years or more, Montana law allows the money to be used for educational purposes.  

“Due to this statute, Flathead Electric Cooperative is occasionally able to award Community Education Grants funded by unclaimed capital credit dollars,” FEC Community Relations Manager Katie Pfennigs said in a release. “We do our best to connect members with their capital credits, but sometimes those funds go unclaimed. We are grateful that Montana law allows our Trustees to redistribute those unclaimed capital credits for educational purposes that benefit our members. Over the years, those dollars have been thoughtfully invested back into the communities we serve through our scholarship program and other important initiatives, such as the after-school tutoring program for the Kalispell high schools, the School Resource Officers in the Bigfork and Evergreen school districts, and now the music program in Columbia Falls.”  

“The Columbia Falls Academic Foundation is thrilled by the Co-op’s support of music education in Columbia Falls. In total, we are trying to raise $136,000 to address immediate needs in the music program, and this $46,000 grant award is priceless to our students,”  Fay said.

“This recent support of the music program at CFJH is transformative.  Students lose instructional time either because I am often repairing an instrument in the middle of class while they wait or because their instrument is broken and needs repair.  As a teacher, being able to focus on helping the students grow and progress is huge.  For the students, not only will they have more tools at their disposal to create music but they feel supported and valued for their work,”  Ben Caudill, the school’s band director said.