Dawson County Healthy Community Coalition Community Champion of the Month

kathy-mclane

Dawson County Healthy Communities Coalition is pleased to honor Kathy McLane as the recipient of the May Community Champion Award. This award is given in recognition of Kathy’s diligence and hard work and her contributions to community organizations as part of Glendive and employee of Midrivers Communications.

Kathy was born and raised in the Glendive area on a family ranch NW of Glendive. She attended area schools including rural and public before finishing at Dawson Community College. She started out working for U.S. Senator Conrad Burns, U.S. Representative Rick Hill and served as the Finance Director of three political campaigns. She spent a few years as the General Manager for two ranch operations and worked five years at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. After so many experiences she felt the call of home where she found work with SRS Crisafulli Pumps & Dredges spending time with a long standing company in the community before moving on to Midrivers.

At Midrivers she found a position as Community Resource Specialist, Kathy went to work writing grants and many benefited from her work. Hospitals, parks, counties, libraries, museums, schools, athletic events, and non-profits in the Midrivers service area benefited from her writing skills. With her efforts and those that came before her over $4 million in grants alone were awarded in the Eastern Montana region. Kathy received her training for grant writing with the Economic Development Finance Professional Certification Program, which she payed forward to Eastern Montana by teaching grant writing to Leadership Sidney, Leadership Miles City, and Leadership Glendive, of which she is a graduate, and at Dawson Community College.

Her work at Midrivers was not the only contribution she made to the region. She has served many regional boards including the Montana Chamber of Commerce, Montana Cooperative Development Council, Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame, and the Miles City area Economic Development along with Dawson County Economic Development board. Currently she spends her time serving Glendive Agri-Trade Expo where she served as president for many years in the past, the EPEC board, Ag Mounted Action shooting, a proud member of the Glendive Lions, and life member of the Frontier Gateway Museum.

With her involvement and insights in grant writing many organizations in Eastern Montana might have fallen short of reaching financial goals for projects. She has always been a cheery and caring individual and carries that through the work she has done.

“As member of DCHCC, I am honored to present Kathy with this award for her service to others and her contributions to our community and to Eastern Montana, stated Denny Malone.