Blustering winds, pelting snow, and a sky colored like that of a bruise. Director of Special Events & Community Outreach Julianne Bitely describes what the annual Blue Door Banquet for the Boys & Girls Club of Missoula (BGCM) looked like—a Hogsmeade themed evening, made to resemble the wizarding village in the Harry Potter series. But in typical Montana fashion, the weather disrupted the vision and planning for the outdoor village and brought an unexpected yet welcomed reminder: Missoulians will show up and help out.
“I literally called everyone I knew in Missoula, and everyone came,” says Julianne. “I called Fancy Plants—the ACE garden center—and asked, ‘Do you have any hay bales that we could buy at cost last minute?’ They said yes.” She notes that it was just a matter of how many they needed, not if it was going to happen. It was nearing 2 p.m. when the BGCM staff was getting ready to take a break before the evening of festivities. “There was a two percent chance of any kind of weather, so we thought we were fine.” But of course, decorations were airborne, canopies were catching wind, and chaos ensued.
Julianne’s daughter was at Fort Missoula on a homeschool field trip and when she was being dropped off to Julianne, the parents—also Missoula local business owners—saw what was happening. “They just went into action—even the kids,” says Julianne. “The kids were carrying pumpkins, bringing them inside, getting them out of the wind, out of the rain. The people at the Butterfly House were so nice, even though their cars had all been hit by our canopies as they went flying.” All within a two-hour timeframe before the event was set to begin, the combined efforts of Missoulians saved the event. “By some miracle, we made it work. When people arrived, they didn’t know what happened. I don’t know how they didn’t know, but they didn’t.”
Lanterns lined the pathway, lamp posts, twinkle lights, a wand shop, and potion shop all were set to bring the theme of Hogsmeade to life. Wild Skies Raptor Center came with their owls, Second Chances Exotic Animal Rescue brought snakes and bearded dragons, lizards, and tortoises as the “Magical Menagerie,” which paid tribute to the fictional pet shop where wizards could buy magical creatures and supplies. The Butterfly House came with what were creatures from the Forbidden Forest—think tarantulas that you could hold.
“Jewelry Design Center wanted to support us so they held a Honeydukes cupcakes trolley,” says Julianne. Buying a cupcake actually entered you into a cupcake raffle to win $2,000 to spend in their store. Another big prize was offered: a trip to Harry Potter World in Orlando by way of the main BGCM raffle, which came in the shape of a flying key. Julianne beams that even though costumes were encouraged, Missoula delivered on jaw-dropping appearances. There was body paint, putty to manipulate facial attributes of famous Harry Potter characters, fake eyes, and peg legs just to name a few notables from the evening.
The Blue Door Banquet is the BGCM’s biggest fundraising event of the year. “It unlocks doors to the future,” says CEO Justin Kinchen, who came to the club in a time of need for leadership. The money supports the Back-A-Kid scholarships, where all the funds raised goes to making sure there are scholarships for kids and every kid has access, who wants it and needs it. But Julianne reflects on the reality of this past year—financial hardship is something that we cannot turn a blind eye on. It has affected everyone, in some way or another. The BGCM ensures that these club kids don’t have to directly feel the impact of that burdensome reality. Julianne also notes that nonprofit work tends to have low employee retention and with wages fluctuating so much across the map, it’s difficult to keep a foundation like BCGM stable and reliable.
“We really kind of rebuilt the organization, in every aspect, from the ground up,” says Justin. “We’re really lean, we’re probably trying to do more than we really should be, but that’s kind of nonprofit world for you I guess. We’ve done a really good job at making sure that whatever’s coming into us is really being used directly to making sure that the kids program happens and it’s awesome and that the kids are getting a really high impact out of it.” The trickle-down effect is an important component for nonprofit work, because when the staff is strained, the programs aren’t going to perform as well as they should. With Justin at the helm, the foundation is stable and retention is at an all-time high.
“This is something we feel really strongly for—my wife and I—our kid lives in this community, obviously, and we wanted to make an impact and do what we could to make things better here,” says Justin. “My wife has always been really involved in nonprofits so it’s been something that I’ve been wanting to be in a position where I could make a more direct impact, so this was a great way to do it.”
At BGCM, kids can come to the club no matter what their financial background is. They offer summer club—summer camp—and it’s from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. “Those parents who have to work really horrible hours, we’ve got you,” says Julianne. “And it’s the same for after school. We understand that people have to work and you can’t get [to school] at 3:15 because a lot of us work until 5. How do we fill that gap and make sure that our kids are getting what they need during that gap? We make sure their homework gets done. We’re there to provide support. We make sure they get to play outside and be loud…we want kids to be kids. It’s time for them to release and be children. I love that the staff we have is so supportive of it.”
The BGCM has an upcoming event—the first of its kind—called Santa on Skates, to be held at Glacier Ice Rink.
"We’ve done a really good job at making sure that whatever’s coming into us is really being used directly to making sure that the kids program happens and it’s awesome and that the kids are getting a really high impact out of it.”