The Big Sandy Mountaineer -

When Connie Green started Big Sandy Activities in an old house on the south side some 40 years ago little did she know that she was aiding the town financially and giving them something that many towns the size of Big Sandy do not have.

That is how present Big Sandy Activities director Lorrie Merrill thinks of her organization and she should know.

“It started as a day care program,” continued Merrill. “The State of Montana had closed down institutions and people who had lived in those institutions were sent to nursing homes. When settings like the Big Sandy Activities centers started to spring up, it was found that clients were far happier in a group home setting and it did not cost the State of Montana what costs were in the nursing homes.”

Merrill said that in Big Sandy they moved Big Sandy Activities to its present location some seventeen years ago. They found the house that today houses women clients and an old pole barn behind was turned into a day care center.

Big Sandy Activities has had some long term people in charge. After Connie Green left Jean Denning took over and Merrill became the third director of the organization.

“We have eighteen clients now,” said Merrill. All are housed in residential settings.”

Crunch the numbers and one can see that financially they are huge for Big Sandy. Big Sandy Activities employs over thirty people and has a payroll of sixty thousand dollars a month most of which stays right here in Big Sandy. All employees live in and around Big Sandy and impact the schools, stores and tax base of Chouteau County.

A few years ago Merrill was faced with putting a lot of money into that old pole barn or building a new building for day care activities among other things. Merrill and her board decided that a new building was called for and they made it work. That has added greatly to the economy of Big Sandy as well.

And it did something else.

“Building that building guaranteed that Big Sandy Activities will be here for a long time,” Merrill said, smiling.

There are many rules of what happens to people living at Big Sandy Activities. Those rules make for spending even more money in the Big Sandy economy. All eighteen clients have to go on an outing a week. Merrill said that they go everywhere. They fish, they go to games in Great Falls, they eat at different restaurant. As a group, they are on the go a lot and the clients love it!

“Most decisions about what we do are based on what we can do financially and I know that Big Sandy Activities helps keep Big Sandy stable,” said Merrill.

But it is so much more than that that makes the Big Sandy community what it is.

“Our society judges people by how they look and what they have done. That is what gives people value,” said Merrill. All too often we forget what is in people’s hearts and have a hard time looking at them that way.”

With so many disadvantaged people in their midst, it has been good for Big Sandy as they do not look at Big Sandy Activity clients differently than they look at anyone else. The community has learned that Merrill’s clients are good and noble and often great people and are wonderful members of our community.

That is what makes Big Sandy so different. That very attitude that welcomes Big Sandy Activity clients with open arms and open hearts.

“That is of so much value to Big Sandy,” added Merrill.