'Chair-ity' brings in $3K for those in need

Interestingly decorated chairs that were up for auction had people hanging on by the seat of their pants Saturday.

The "chair-ity" event, A Chair at the Table, organized by the District 4 Human Resources Development Center, was held at the Eagles Club Saturday.

Karen Thomas, HRDC executive director, said the funds raised by the event were going to Havre Food Bank and Northern Montana Child Development Center, most likely for classroom supplies for Head Start and Early Head Start.

This was the second year HRDC has organized the event and Thomas said it is going to be an annual event.

"The turnout was excellent," Thomas said. "Probably four times as many people showed up this year. ... We probably had twice as many chairs."

Thomas said anyone who wanted to make a chair for the event could. Jen Graham, a Head Start teacher who is one of the organizers of the event and an artist, knows a lot of other artists, Thomas said, who submitted chairs to the event.

"From there, it's just grown," Thomas said.

A few of the chairs were made by organizations such as Montana Actors' Theatre, who included tickets to one of their productions and drink vouchers with their chair decorated as a knight and named "A 'Knight' at the Theatre."

The event brought around $3,000 after bills were paid, Thomas said this morning.