Rocky Boy's St. Mary's Catholic Church to begin raffle

Effort set to offset fundraising delays amid pandemic

St. Mary’s Catholic Church on Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation, which burned down Dec, 14, 2019, has seen a number of fundraising efforts put forward to try to get the structure rebuilt, but since late May those efforts have been put on hold due to the pandemic.

But the Rev. Joseph Tran and Pastoral Council Member Lori Osgood have organized a raffle to raise money for the project with a 2021 Can-Am Defender ATV as the prize.

“Anything we’ve come up with, any benefits or anything like that, we haven’t been able to move forward with it because of COVID and the limited number people who could participate… until this raffle, it pretty much stopped,” Osgood said.

Osgood said the cost of rebuilding the structure will likely be $1.2 million, depending on who ends up making the bid for the project, but Tran said the project is still a ways away from reaching that goal.

“We raised money from a GoFundMe account, we have less than $5,000 there,” he said, “Then we have $128,000 from donations.”

He said the project would likely need at least another $200,000 before any work can begin.

Tran said the project will likely be looking at a five-year plan for fundraising.

“Since we live in such a small community, we cannot raise a lot of money within a year… I don’t think we can raise more than $30,000 a year,” he said.

Osgood said the project did get a healthy head start due to efforts of the surrounding areas, which jumpstarted the fundraising.

“Communities in the surrounding area have been very supportive,” she said. “When the church first burned down the Bishop asked the other parishes to take up a second collection.”

Tran and Osgood said they are hoping the raffle will help bring in money for the project, but they don’t have plans for similar events until the pandemic situation abates.

“When the pandemic is over, we’ll probably have a benefit dinner, but until the pandemic is over there’s no way that we can do it,” Tran said.

Tickets for the raffle will start being sold Friday at Gary & Leo’s Fresh Foods for $20, and will continue to be sold Saturday as well as the Thursday, Friday and Saturday before Labor Day, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Stan’s Pawn Plus, Tilleman Motor Co., Red’s Auto Parts and First Bank of Montana in Big Sandy will also be selling tickets.

Osgood said people in the congregation are also selling tickets through PayPal and Facebook. She also said Craig Tilleman has been helping with the raffle as well.

She said she’s also reaching out to people in Montana who live in places like Missoula and Great Falls who have connections to Rocky Boy to help out statewide and she’s had success getting some people involved.

Osgood said people interested in helping can call Tran at 395-4380.

Despite the long way to full funding, Tran said, he has been working with an architect on the design for the new building, and Osgood said they are going to use this opportunity to make upgrades to a building, which she said, the community was beginning to outgrow before it burned down.

“When my grandfather passed away and we had his funeral, I was told later that we had people outside who couldn’t fit in the church,” she said.

Tran said they are still waiting on the lease, because the land still belongs to the tribe, but Osgood said the plan is to break ground in spring of next year.

Until the end of May, Tran had been using Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, which was offered to him and his congregation for worship.

Since then he’s been holding sermons in the parking lot of the original church building site, which he said, has allowed for people to more easily social distance than they would in a building.

“The people feel more comfortable to do outside Mass,” he said.

Osgood also said there was an emotional resonance to using the space even in an unconventional way.

“We feel connected to our own property,” she said.

Osgood said they’ve never had to cancel a sermon due to weather, but have had a few cancellations due to lockdowns on the reservation.

She said as they were holding Mass one day a wind came and scattered paper everywhere and she heard one parishioner say, “We just need our church back, we just need our church.”

Tran said the outdoor sermons tend to attract people more sporadically than before because many in the congregation need to look out for their health amid the pandemic.

“The challenge for us is the people, they come, but they don’t come regularly like before the pandemic,” he said. “They have to be safe first, that’s the priority. But we try as much as possible to be able to assist them.”