Elizabeth Doney Havre Daily News edoney@havredailynews.com
A pancake breakfast in exchange for a freewill offering to benefit the community will take place on Saturday from 8 to 11 a.m. at the Havre Fire Department. Funds raised will go towards special needs in the community that the Greater Havre Area Ministerial Association serves. There are 21 churches, the chaplain of the Northern Montana Hospital, Salvation Army and Rocky Boy represented in the local ministerial association, Pastor Brad Ulgenes of the First Lutheran Church said. The breakfast event is an annual effort to benefit communitybuilding projects through Mayor Bob Rice and the city of Havre. City employees, including members of the Havre Fire Department and volunteers from area churches, will be manning the griddles of sausage and pancakes. “The fundraiser is a joint project coordinated by Mayor Bob,” said Ulgenes, who is a member of the local ministerial association. “(Rice) said he would line up the cooking crew with city employees. And at least one person from every church will volunteer to help with the event. We are all in this together and we really appreciate Mayor Bob for coordinating this.” Rice annually coordinates a community breakfast to help out local organizations and this year, the Greater Havre Area Ministerial Association was chosen as the beneficiary, Ulgenes said. “Mayor Bob came to the ministerial offering to help with expenses because we have had an increased need in our assistance fund,” Ulgenes said. “We have a voucher system we run with the city for after-hours emergencies mostly rooms and gas. It’s for people traveling through, domestic violence situations and basically people in need.” The Greater Havre Ministerial Association Works together to provide spiritual worship resources, and pastors gather to discuss needs and opportunities for sharing God’s love in the community. “We seem to be having people needing help with energy assistance,” Ulgenes said of special needs in the community. “We have a lot of people in need of medical assistance and people needing h e l p wi t h d e p o s i t s fo r electricity or rent.” The association works with Salvation Army, St. Jude’s Catholic Church, the Havre Food Bank and the Feed My Sheep soup kitchen. Dues are split and channeled through these organizations to p r o v i d e s u p p o r t a n d e n c o u ra ge m e n t t o t h e community, Ulgenes said. “We are not the f i rs t resource we are the fill-inthe- cracks resource. Our funds are limited and supported solely by donations,” Ulgenes said. “We have found that, here in Havre, pastors work well together. We support each other in ministries and outreach involvement.” Members of the association take turns providing worship services for residents at the Northern Montana Care Center, help with the annual Everybody Loves Firefighters food drive and a local New Year’s Eve gathering for youth. The efforts of the ministers is continual one of their long-term fundraisers is their joint endeavor with the hospital to establish a chapel for the long-term care facility, Ulgenes said. “We have some funds already raised for (the Chapel),” Ulgenes said. “But, it seems that there is a greater demand for more stringent areas. We just see more people who are in need and we try to distribute the funds in a fair manner to those people in need.” Fu n d s ra i s e d t h ro u g h Saturday’s pancake breakfast will be provided a matching grant award from the Hill County Thrivent Financial for Lu t h e ra n ’ s, a f ra t e r n a l organization. Thrivent will also match the funds raised through the walk to support the Hi-Line Sletten Cancer Center, which is also being held on Saturday, Ulgenes said. “Basical ly we need six Thrivent members involved in the events for the matched contributions,” Ulgenes said. “It’s a community need, so we wo r k t o g e t h e r f o r t h e community and we are excited to be in partnership with Mayor Bob and the city.” The ministerial association gathers together every week for a prayer meeting Thursday s at noon and once a month for their regular meeting. The meetings are open to the public for participation or prayer requests and hosted by several churches. The next prayer meeting will be held today at noon in the Fireside Room at First Lutheran Church, Ulgenes said. “Thursday’s prayer meeting will have speakers for the next meeting. One is on Christian parenting, another is helping teens and youth through the Boys & Girls Club of the Hi-Line, passenger safety and a faith based initiative in domestic violence program,” Ulgenes said. “We are finding that more and more programs are finding us a valuable support system fo r the community.” Donations can be made to the Greater Havre Area Ministerial Association through the c a r e o f S t . Ma r k ’ s Episcopal Church, Attn: Gale Wheatley, Box 950, Havre, MT 59501. For more information call 265-5881.
