Grant provides $90,000 for Bigfork ACES after-school program

Bigfork’s middle students will soon have a new place to spend their afternoons as a $90,000 grant from the Whitefish Community Foundation aims to expand the Bigfork ACES after-school program.

The Foundation’s Kids Fund Grant will provide $30,000 each year for the next three years and will be used by ACES to establish an after-school program specifically for students in grades six through eight. That program will engage participants in challenging activities that focus on community service learning, addressing each child’s scholastic needs, mental health needs, connecting with adult mentors, and building valuable career and life skills. 

Bigfork ACES will work with the Bigfork school system to identify middle school students who would especially benefit from the program, including those from low-income, single-parent and foster families.

Started in 2019 to support programs in the areas of health, safety and education that mitigate challenges and prevent local youth from becoming homeless, to date the Whitefish Community Foundation has awarded more than $585,000 in Kids Fund grants to Flathead Valley nonprofit organizations, including Flathead Youth Home, CASA for Kids, Child Bridge, Boys & Girls Club of Glacier Country, Center for Restorative Youth Justice and Nate Chute Foundation.

“What we are realizing is that family health contributes to youth homelessness. Food insecurity contributes to youth homelessness. After-school programs really play a critical role in preventing all of that,” Whitefish Community Foundation President and CEO Alan Davis said. 

“The homeless statistics are a little skewed in Bigfork because we don’t have our own law enforcement here,” Bigfork ACES Executive Director Cathy Hay added. “We fall within the county as far as the statistics show, so the problem is larger than a lot of people probably realize.”

For a decade, Bigfork ACES has been dedicated to providing safe, educational afterschool and summer programs for Bigfork-area children and teens, regardless of their families’ ability to pay.

While the program is designed for elementary students, they have been more than willing to open their doors to several middle school students who would be left with nowhere else to go after school without ACES.

“It’s like some of these kids are my own children. I have probably had some of them as many days in a year as their parents do,” Hay said. “It’s hard to just tell them ‘sorry, you are now on your own.’ I don’t want to have to do that and now I won’t have to.”

“As kids age out of our elementary school program, we want to continue providing enrichment opportunities for them. This grant will make a huge impact on our community and provide many students with a safe place to go after school,” she added.

For the Whitefish Community Foundation, which supports programs around the Flathead Valley, ACES was the perfect recipient for this grant.

“We were excited to see an application from Bigfork ACES and from Bigfork in general. People don’t realize that we operate here,” Davis said. “Our tagline is giving together for the Flathead Valley. Even though we are based in Whitefish, there are a lot of important programs that we are able to support across the Flathead Valley. We love this (ACES) program in particular because it started pretty much from the ground up. We love helping them get their vision off the ground.”

“Our Kids Fund remains committed to supporting and empowering youth throughout the greater Flathead Valley,” Davis added. “Bigfork ACES serves kids from Creston all the way down to Swan Lake which creates unique challenges for their community. We feel privileged to help Bigfork ACES address the growing need for afterschool programs in their rural service area.”

For Hay and the nearly 50 students who make ACES their afternoon home every day, the grant represents a 10% increase to their annual $300,000 budget and could not come at a better time.

“If the people of Bigfork believe in something, they believe in it a thousand percent and they will make it happen,” Hay said. “We (ACES) are going to keep going strong and we are not going anywhere. We are going to keep following our mission and provide a place for Bigfork kids to go after school.” 

Whitefish Community Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering philanthropy, building endowments and helping donors and nonprofits benefit the greater Flathead Valley. To learn more about their donor, grant and nonprofit development programs, visit http://www.whitefishcommunityfoundation.org.