Latest news with #Flathead
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Flathead teen turns emergency lights on for first responders
May 19—Emergency medical services are not designated as essential, unlike firefighters or police, which means Montana isn't required to fund them. A resolution that started as a Flathead High School student's class project may change that. The resolution calls for a statewide study of emergency medical services to assess capabilities, needs, future demand and funding mechanisms. Flathead senior Kaylee Hampton, 17, helped draft the resolution as a political engagement project for her International Baccalaureate Global Politics class. The class is taught by Ryan Lee. "It started with just the proposal sheet from my global politics class, where I said I wanted to find ways to make funding more equitable in fire departments. From there, we devised a plan, figuring out who I needed to get a hold of, and sort of the route I wanted to go," Hampton said. She contacted Republican Sen. John Fuller of Kalispell, who sponsored the joint resolution, for guidance. Fuller is a former Flathead High School teacher. "He worked with me and told me that I could help draft a resolution for it. So, I drafted it myself. I got the go-ahead from my teacher, and from him [Fuller] and then we sent it off to the Senate Committee on Health," she said. Once she sent the draft off, a wave of relief washed over the ambitious senior who thanks to a "very concise schedule" and "really great family and friends" was able to carve out time to write drafts of the draft while going to school and spending nearly every other weekend competing in extracurriculars in addition to completing scholarship applications. The study will look at the implications of recognizing emergency medical services as a statewide essential service and look at anticipated future demands for services over the next five years, according to the resolution. WHILE MANY of her friends pursued ideas related to Ukraine, Hampton opted to do the project because it hit close to home. With a father working as a firefighter and paramedic for the Bigfork Fire Department and the Lakeside Quick Response Unit, Hampton learned firsthand the critical role EMS provides to Montana's rural communities and cities. "I think often we think of fire departments as just fire. When I realized that literally about 85% of his job is EMS-related ... that's what tells me it's so important," Hampton said. Also at her disposal was an understanding of the Legislative process. Hampton has three years of experience competing in Legislative Debate under coach Kelli Rosenquist on Flathead's speech and debate team. "I've had the training to write resolutions and do mock legislation, and so competing in that gave me a really good background on what's going on," she said. As with preparing for a productive debate, Hampton approached the project with meticulousness, research, resolve, confidence and patience — following the resolution and providing testimony as it made its way through the Legislature from November 2024, when a draft was assigned, to being signed by the Speaker of the House and Senate President at the beginning of May. Addressing the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Safety committee at the state Capitol March 19 was both scary and exhilarating, she said. "I've been wanting to do this since I started legislative debate when I was a sophomore. It wasn't this exact resolution, but I was like, I just got to get a bill passed. I really want to do it," she said. AFTER RESEARCHING the issue and interviewing local fire department chiefs in Bigfork, South Kalispell and Smith Valley, where her father started out as a volunteer, she learned that not having the "essential" designation is a nationwide concern. Primarily relying on money from local governments means that underfunded communities may exacerbate health disparities, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "A lot of the experiences I'm seeing within my valley show the strains are just getting pretty extreme. They'll get funding for fire, but they're not getting near enough for what 85% of their job really is," she said. Smith Valley Fire Chief Amy Beick said the department is proud of Hampton's efforts to resurrect a decades-old issue. "She's just very talented and ambitious," Beick said. "As far as the study, we are very excited to see a study done on EMS services at the state level. We are very confident they will find sufficient evidence to make EMS a necessary service, and that's long overdue," she said. Beick said her department currently funds EMS through ambulance billing revenue. Each time an individual is transported by ambulance, Medicare, Medicaid, or private insurance is billed, but it doesn't always make ends meet. Last year, the department had 730 calls for service, and of that, 569 were EMS-related. "Seventy-eight percent of our call volume is medical," Beick said, noting that the fire department is not alone in the high volume of medical calls. "And so, nine years ago, our board decided we can't do that to our mutual aid [fire departments]. So, they went and purchased a used ambulance, and they figured out how to staff it and equip it." Prior to buying the ambulance, Smith Valley relied on Kalispell, which means traveling a farther distance and a longer response time. As the population continues to grow, so does the call volume, and Smith Valley made the switch to contracting with a private ambulance company. "But there's no money in EMS. There's no funding for EMS, so they couldn't afford to keep their doors open and went out of business. And so that left a hole for us," Beick said. "Who's going to transport? Do we just rely on mutual aid for all of our EMS calls, which isn't fair." The study is set to conclude in September 2026, with results reported to the 70th Legislature. REFLECTING ON the broader impact of her project and the importance of youth involvement in the legislative process, Hampton encourages her peers to "take the leap" by getting involved. "Just remember that you have friends around you, you have teachers around you who are willing to support you," she said, drawing from her own experience. She said it's an empowering experience to realize constituents can effect change. "I've always been like, OK, well, I can be upset about it, or I can make the change. I think that it's really empowering to be like, OK, yeah, this is a democracy. I have the complete power to get a hold of my representative and to see if I can do something and try to make that change," She said the experience was a big deal that not only demonstrated her capabilities but also speaks to the support and guidance of her mentors, coaches and teachers. "Getting to show my mentees that it's possible for teenagers to do things like this, I hope, is empowering to them too," she said. Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or hmatheson@
Yahoo
05-04-2025
- Yahoo
Former Bravettes star Hildal dies in police shooting
Apr. 5—The Flathead High School family received tragic news out of Ohio on Thursday that former basketball player Kesley Hildal died in a police shooting April 1. Hildal spent just one year at Flathead, but had such an impressive senior season in 2008-09 — she averaged 18.8 points and scored a school-record 39 against Missoula Big Sky — that colleges took notice. She appeared to be a popular teammate and had a big booster in then-coach Kim Elliott, who mentored Hildal in his third and final season as the Bravettes' varsity coach. "Kelsey is why we live," he said Friday. "You glean from her to find what strength you've got. She definitely has a spark in my soul." She was a comet at Flathead: Seemingly out of nowhere this highly skilled, 5-foot-4 player showed up and people couldn't stop her. "She was allowed to come in from the Montana (Youth Challenge) Academy, as a trial thing," Elliott said. "She was under extremely strict rules. She could not take a ride from anybody. She went from school to practice to home. Basketball was it. "Basketball was saving her life. And it did, for a while, until whatever that unfortunate situation happened with her this week." The story at said that the Ohio State Highway Patrol and Union Township police responded to a wrong-way driver on I-175 just before 11 p.m. on Tuesday. In a release, police said a trooper crashed his cruiser into Hildal's vehicle, a Ford Escape, to stop the pursuit. Hildal displayed a firearm and officers opened fire, the patrol said. She died at the scene. Hildal was 34. In her life, she'd survived brain surgery to stop a disorder called hemifacial spasm, then a car crash that left her with a punctured lung, a broken arm and quite possibly a brain injury. Behavioral problems surfaced that eighth-grade year and continued until her parents sent her to a wilderness boot camp in North Carolina, then to the Montana Academy. All of this was detailed in a Daily Inter Lake story written by Dixie Knutson and published on March 7, 2009. "Basketball is so important. It's a huge motivator for me," Hildal said then. "I look forward to going to practice. I feel in my element." By then, she was a sensation. Elliott recalled Brock Osweiler seeing her the first couple days in the gym and being awed. That was before she scored 39 against Joslyn Tinkle and the rest of the Big Sky Eagles. "How do you do that?" Elliott asked. "For her to do that, just on her own." The answer might be where the hoop went up at her Ohio home. "She told me where she grew up, the driveway was on a hill," Elliott said. "She'd practiced free throws and — because she didn't want to chase the ball down the hill — that the most free throws she made in a row were 144." Another answer is she was enormously gifted, or made from Division I stock — in fact her twin sister Alix was a standout soccer player at Ole Miss. Elliott served as her guardian for an official visit to UM and Lady Griz coach Robin Selvig. "He said, 'We would love you to come and join us,'" Elliott recalled. "'When I saw what you did against Tinkle and Big Sky, that definitely caught my attention.'" Like a lot of walk-ons before and since, Hildal didn't stay. Hildal had tried her hand at mixed martial arts and according to some Facebook posts from friends and fellow fighters, was set to make her professional debut. Elliott noted she was involved with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, but that contact with his former player had gotten more sporadic. Same with her parents, who'd thanked him profusely for his role in her time at Flathead. "Just a really gifted athlete, and gifted academically," Elliott said. "She loved basketball and she loved ketchup. We'd go to restaurants, and she'd devour those little packets. And her tongue was always hanging out on free throws." Elliott, not for the first time, became emotional. "She fought through some very unfortunate things that began with that accident," he said. "If you're coaching, you're a parent, you're a teacher. ... Just listen to the kids you're involved with. Don't judge. I learned a long time ago, give them time and space, let them play. Give them a hug after the game. I wish I could give Kelsey a hug right now."
Yahoo
08-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Flathead High School speech coach wins Assistant Coach of the Year
Mar. 7—Flathead High School's Scott O'Donnell was selected as Assistant Coach of the Year for the Montana West District of the National Speech and Debate Association. He will be up for the National Assistant Coach of the Year, which will be awarded during the national speech and debate tournament in June. Scott O'Donnell said the award means a lot and is validation that the work he's doing is making an impact. "It's one of those of those things as a teacher you don't always know if you're doing good for kids. As a coach, it's proof I did something for a community I care about. It's really an honor. There are so many coaches out there who deserve it and put in so much time and effort," he said. Nominated by fellow Flathead speech and debate coach, teaching colleague and father, Sean O'Donnell described him as an enthusiastic coach. "Like many coaches, Scott brings enthusiasm to every practice and tournament and deeply believes in speech and debate. However, his greatest strength is his recognition that we do speech and debate not for trophies, but for the way it changes lives every single day," Sean O'Donnell stated in the nomination letter. A 2020 Flathead graduate, Scott O'Donnell coaches the same short prep events he competed in as a student — extemporaneous speaking and impromptu speaking — for the junior varsity squad. It is his first year coaching at Flathead and he previously coached the Hellgate High School team for three years while attending college. "These are the events I have the most experience in and I want to pass on that knowledge to the next generation of competitors," he said. Sean O'Donnell noted his special skillset in drawing out the talent of "highly independent" albeit "rascally boys." "Beyond competitive success, one of Scott's cornerstone beliefs is that speech and debate will help competitors become better people," Sean O'Donnell said. "Scott's special talent is that he is able to corral these students to be within the guideposts of good behavior, while still allowing them the independence to find joy in the activity. Both at Flathead and at Hellgate, he has developed the relationships to help those students grow and mature, a gift that will help them for years to come," he noted. Scott was also described as an innovator who thinks outside the box when helping individual students find success. "There is no question that Scott O'Donnell's students have had a tremendous amount of success. In his first three years at Hellgate High School, he took a nearly non-existent short prep squad and made it one of the more competitive squads in the state. For the past two years, Maxime Diaz has consistently been a finalist in extemporaneous speaking and was a 2024 NSDA (National Speech and Debate Association) qualifier in extemporaneous speaking. This year, the two students from Flathead that Scott worked with the most extensively were respectively the highest-placing finalists in extemporaneous and impromptu speaking at state. "Although a young coach, he is already making his mark on the competitive success of his squads," Sean O'Donnell said. Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or hmatheson@
Yahoo
09-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
A dream fulfilled: Pursuit of the northern pygmy-owl successful
Feb. 9—I've been searching for a northern pygmy-owl for the past few winters now, and honestly, I was starting to lose hope. Permanent residents here in this corner of Northwest Montana, they move to lower elevations in the colder months to hunt for more plentiful small birds and mammals. People post sightings on the Montana Birding Facebook group and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's eBird website. Both are great resources, but if you're struggling to find one like I was, it can start to give the impression that they're as common as crows this time of year. A good way to spot one, some say, is to search for a noisy group of songbirds creating a commotion, mobbing the owl in an effort to chase it off. I've certainly never witnessed it, but nonetheless, it's pretty brave behavior given that the pygmy's diet consists largely of those same songbirds. I once read online that the best way to find a northern pygmy-owl is to look for a group of people holding binoculars, spotting scopes and cameras who have already spotted one. So a few weeks ago, a Friday in mid-January, I was in between morning and evening assignments and giving the Montana Birding page a quick doom-scroll for recent sightings. A photographer had written an inspirational post about never giving up, specifically not giving up the search. She had spotted a northern pygmy-owl on her drive home after a long day of hiking in search of one. Early Saturday morning I had a dream. I was at the top of an indistinct hiking trail and there in front of me in the lower boughs of a tree was a northern pygmy-owl. I didn't have any camera gear with me, a sure sign that this was in fact not reality. I hustled back down the trail to my vehicle, grabbed my camera and lens and started back up. There was now a steady stream of water cascading down the trail causing me to lose my footing several times. I struggled my way back up to the pinnacle and shot several photos of the owl. Later on, when I went to look at the photos, I realized I had not adjusted any camera settings and all the resulting photos were not sharp. And then I woke up. I had some time that day before a pair of Flathead boys' and girls' basketball games so I headed out to search. First location, no luck. I backtracked, turned down a road off Montana 206 and started to scan the treetops. I felt a sudden tinge of optimism. I didn't see anything but ... hmm, this feels ... right? I made another turn and the trees crowded in along the shoulder of the road. I drove a bit more and just as a wooded property transitioned to a large snow-covered field, I saw it. Just a tiny lump perched on the tippy top of a distant tree backdropped by the Swan Range. I grabbed my camera, settings already pre-adjusted, and took a few photos along the shoulder of the road but I was too far away. I could hear the sounds of someone working a firewood processor on the wooded property, so I started walking toward the driveway when I saw a young man checking their mailbox. I explained the situation, showing him a zoomed-in photo on the back of my camera and asking if it would be at all possible for me to walk along the border of their land to get closer to the owl. He ran to ask his father and his father thankfully obliged. I headed over to a little cattail-lined frozen marsh along the edge of the field and scanned the trees. I didn't see it. Where was it again, exactly? My perspective had changed. And then, there it was, in flight and landing on the top of a tree about 10 yards in front of me. I spent the next 30 minutes happily snapping away under a nearby tree as it occasionally offered me a stare while scanning the surroundings looking for prey. As I was making photos and observing and smiling in the 10-degree weather, I felt this wave of gratitude hit me for the way it all unfolded. For this place. For this job. For people like the father who allowed me onto his property to photograph a bird, sight unseen. For my wife and family who forever encourage me. And for never giving up. And since that first sighting, I've seen three more. A northern pygmy-owl takes flight along a wooded property near Columbia Falls on Saturday, Jan. 18. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake) Casey Kreider My second northern pygmy-owl sighting, along Highway 93 North near Olney on Wednesday, Jan. 22. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake) Casey Kreider A third northern pygmy-owl sighting along Blackmer Lane near Columbia Falls on Tuesday, Jan. 28. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake) Casey Kreider A third northern pygmy-owl sighting along Blackmer Lane near Columbia Falls on Tuesday, Jan. 28. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake) Casey Kreider My first northern pygmy-owl sighting, on the border of a wooded property near Columbia Falls on Saturday, Jan. 18. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake) Casey Kreider
