Nonprofits help clean up Wisconsin Avenue
<p>Whitefish Bulldog Booster Club president Colby Grove shakes hands with Joe Gregory along Wisconsin Avenue.</p>
Joe and Cindy Gregory were looking to clean up Wisconsin Avenue and help local nonprofits along the way when they created a new program that does just that.
The Gregory family has adopted Wisconsin Avenue as part of the Montana Adopt-A-Highway program and are asking volunteers from nonprofits to help them clean the street from the viaduct to Big Mountain Road.
“They were inspired by the community support of the annual Clean the Fish,” said consultant Chris Hyatt in representing the Gregory family. “They were looking to support volunteerism and cleaning up the town, while giving donations to the community.”
The Gregory family through the Krummholz Fund and the Whitefish Community Foundation are donating $1,500 to the nonprofits who volunteer for the program.
The Whitefish Bulldog Booster Club was the first nonprofit to join the family recently in cleaning Wisconsin and receive the donation.
Hyatt said the nonprofits for this year’s two remaining cleanups have been selected, but the Gregory family will be looking for groups to participate in 2017.
“It’s open to any nonprofit willing to volunteer and make a difference by cleaning our community,” Hyatt said.
The Gregorys split their time between Tennessee and Whitefish, and established a gated vacation compound called Krummholz Lodge on Whitefish Lake after coming to the Flathead Valley more than a decade ago, according to their website for Krummholz Lodge.
The philanthropic couple have invested in several local groups such as ALERT and Potter’s Field Ministries and the Whitefish Trail.
The Adopt-A-Highway program, through the Montana Department of Transportation, encourages volunteers to keep a section of highway free of litter in exchange for its name posted on a sign in the section of the highway they maintain. Volunteers are required to clean the sections of highway three times per year, generally in the spring, summer and fall.
For the spring, summer and fall of 2017, the Gregory family is seeking three nonprofits to participate in the program. All the nonprofits must be involved with the Whitefish Community Foundation.
For more information contact Tracie Coopedge at Gregory Management, at (423)793-0120 or 620 Shelby Street, Bristol, TN 37620.