By Robert Lucke
The Hill County Parks and Recreation Foundation provides a venue in which funds can be given as memorials of loved ones to help in building all the county parks. Through the years since the foundation's inception, it has been used mainly for assistance in Beaver Creek Park.
Memorials have included such projects as picnic tables, a bridge project, metal fire pits, a water heater for Camp Kiwanis, trees and landscaping, and outhouses, outhouse tanks and outhouse bases at Camp Kiwanis.
Some memorial money could be used to improve Beaver Creek Reservoir for boaters and fishermen. Whole new campgrounds in the past have been developed with memorial money.
Most of the Hill County parks west of Havre found in towns like Gildford and Rudyard are funded by a combination of gifts along with county money. Memorial money makes an ideal gift for those parks as well.
In addition, any money donated for memorials to the Hill County Parks and Recreation Foundation are tax deductible.
For folks who establish a memorial to a loved one in Beaver Creek Park or the Hi-Line parks, it is a way to honor loved ones in a manner that will stay in those parks as long as the parks remain. And for people who loved those parks, this is a very fitting tribute to them.
Have a memorial idea or want to start a memorial for a loved one? Contact Toni Hagener at 265-5205 or Mel Gomke at 265-4655.
