Billboard spreads message of love in Havre

A new billboard in Havre has joined others around the country in spreading a central message of the Christmas holiday — love.

A billboard with only the word “love” on it was erected this week on the 200 Block of First Street West.

Chris Doll said his brother-in-law, life and health coach John Pogachar of Spokane, Washington, began putting the billboards up around Spokane, and after 11 people were killed Oct. 27 at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, he had one erected there, too.

Doll spearheaded the effort along with his two daughters and family friends to erect the Havre billboard.

He said this morning that getting it in place this week was appropriate so it was up for this Sunday, the start of the fourth week of Advent — the week of love.

“There’s so much discontent, anger, and hatred in our world; if only one person read that billboard and reflected on love and it changed their life, then it’s worth the effort,” Doll, a retiree, said in a press release earlier this week.

He said putting up the billboard is a way to honor the loving legacy of his wife, Maggie, who died of cancer in 2016.

“Maggie was all about love. She had so much positive energy,” Doll said. “Everything she did was about volunteering and helping people.”

Doll’s daughter, Jolyn Bessette, agreed.

“I’m one to hold grudges. My mom helped me through that constantly,”  Bessette, a Hill County emergency dispatcher, said. “She embodied love.”

Bessette said the billboard is also a call to residents of diverse backgrounds to love and accept one another as they are

The release said the Havre billboard is the ninth to go up in a total of five states.

“That’s one-tenth of the country,” Pogachar said in the release, adding there are plans for the project to expand to Canada as well. “I’m so excited.”

Pogachar said he got the idea for the love billboards when he was communing in nature during a camping trip in California in August. He decided to throw down his own money for one and see what happened.

A towering tree that he saw at Sequoia National Park during that camping trip partly inspired him, he said, because a fire had severely damaged the tree but it kept on growing.

“If we continue to pour love into our cities, into our children and nature … love wins out,” Pogachar said. “We win out.”

For more information about the Love on Every Billboard project or how to donate to it, people can go online to http://www.loveoneverybillboard.com/.