Shepherd's Hand competes for grant in online contest

One Whitefish nonprofit is part of an online voting campaign that will divide $20,000 among five different groups.

Shepherd’s Hand Free Clinic is competing in the Thrivent Financial “Share the Vote!” event in Montana. A Thrivent representative in each region of the state chose a local charity to receive part of the charitable funds based on the percentage of votes received.

Aaron Ells in the Kalispell office chose to sponsor Shepherd’s Hand, according the clinic’s executive director Meg Erickson.

“He made a personal donation of $500 to demonstrate his commitment to our mission of providing medical care and food through ministry programs that offer people hope and encouragement,” Erickson said.

The clinic’s mission is to provide comprehensive medical care for those who do not have health insurance and can’t access care through other means. The clinic operates every Monday night at Christ Lutheran Church with volunteer medical staff.

In addition to Shepherd’s Hand, the other groups participating in the vote event are Big Sky Honor Flight, Billings; City Life Community Center, Missoula; Eagle Mount Bozeman, Bozeman; and Family Promise of Missoula.

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans is a not-for-profit membership financial services organization.

Shepherd’s Hand Free Clinic will be using the funds generated from this event to help with the start-up cost of adding dental services to the free clinic and to help facilitate bringing the a dental program to schools in the Flathead Valley. The clinic has already received a matching challenge from Sherry Lesar in honor of her grandmother Lena Lamphere in the amount of $30,000 to help us reach the goal.

“We are estimating our cost to bring free dental care to the Flathead Valley to be about $60,000,” Erickson said.

Anyone age 16 and older can vote and participants are not limited to Thrivent members. Voting runs through Sept. 29. Visit http://bit.ly/16kbIuz to cast your vote.