Our View: Giveaway House has a long, tremendous history

For decades, the Giveaway House on Havre’s north side has been a godsend for people who need clothing, household items and more.

In the 1970s, two concerned women, Ruth Nystrom and Ann Friesen, started the program.

It has been a model charity. Many people benefitted. There was minimal overhead. Community members generously offered their services as volunteers.

As the program fades into history, the Giveaway House will be morphed into Havre’s Helping Haven and will share a building with the My Neighbor in Need program at the old Havre Central High. For a number of reasons, the new arrangement should be fantastic for everyone involved, but we hope people remember the tremendous work the organization has done and put to the background the inane absurdities that have taken place there in recent years.

Bitter in-fighting, backbiting, lawsuits, broken promises and now criminal charges have enveloped the charity in the last couple of years.

It is a sad ending to the wonderful history of the organization.

But as the group fades away, it is fitting to remember the many great things that happened in that modest north-side house.

A grateful community offers its thanks:

• First, to the great ladies, the late-Ruth Nystrom and the late-Ann Friesen, who had the foresight to start up the Giveaway House more than 40 years ago.With nothing but hard work and great insight, they planted the seed that became such a gift to people’ needs for 40 years.

• To the many volunteers who folded and separated clothes, readied furniture and other household supplies and oversaw the distribution of donations to people who needed them.

• Finally, to the thousands of people who made a tradition out of donating clothes and other items that no longer fit or were no longer needed to the Giveaway House, certain that they would be put to good use.

The people of the region have benefitted from the hard work of these people. May the tomfoolery of recent years not take anything away from the work that has been done.

The happy ending to the story is that the work of the Giveaway House will continue in a convenient location with caring volunteers.