Chinook youth raising money for mental health organization

A youth group in Chinook known as JUMP is putting on a “Big and Bold Vacation Bible School,” which started Aug. 3 and for the remainder of the week will be collecting money to aid Intermountain, a Helena-based mental health organization.

Pastor Chris Haughee said Intermountain provides hope and healing to youth and families, including residential care.

“We still have an aspect of the care that we provide for children that involves residential stay for those children that have not been successful in (a) home, school or community environment that have needed a level of specialized care that requires they be out of their home for a period of time,” Haughee said.

“So we still have kind of what people would think of that sort of legacy work that continues both in Helena, and in the Flathead around Kalispell, and then through a partnership we have with Montana youth homes in Missoula,” he continued.

Haughee, who also works in church relations for Intermountain, has been speaking at Methodist churches along the Hi-Line this week including Havre’s Van Orsdel United Methodist Church Monday and he spoke at the vacation bible school Tuesday.

Youth group leader Chrissy Downs said JUMP first volunteered with Intermountain about five or six years ago.

“We’ve been aware of the program and what they do for a long time. And it’s just something that, our group likes to try to help others, especially children, and so that’s how we got to know him, and then Chris reached out that he was going to be in the area. And we decided we would let the kids bring their change to help out,” Downs said.

“We don’t have a set goal, we’re just, we’re filling change cans right now. And then we hope, beyond the (vacation bible school), the JUMP group themselves hope to be able to do some other things for the Intermountain kids throughout the year,” Downs added

Haughee said Intermountain’s much larger impact comes through partnerships with schools. Intermountain provides mental health care teams and clinicians to these schools and mental health was the topic of his talk at the vacation bible school.

“We’ve all seen the reports that the pandemic has only exacerbated some of the issues in terms of the mental health crisis in our country, and that it doesn’t discriminate. Any socio-economic background, any ethnicity or locality, age, it doesn’t really matter.” Haughee said. “That’s part of the hope, of energizing local faith communities, of getting out into places like the Hi-Line to come alongside community efforts like the vacation bible school in Chinook and the community youth group that is putting that on.”

He said activities like Chinook’s vacation bible school are exactly the type of activities that support resilience in children and families and in communities, mentioning the importance of having outlets and the positive impact of giving back.

“Most children understand that they can be a part of something that’s bigger than themselves, that they’ve all had struggles themselves perhaps, or friends that have had hard times dealing with overwhelming sadness, or, they wouldn’t put it in these terms, but a mental health issue,” Haughee said.

“To be able to connect them to the work that Intermountain does so they see that these are children that are very much like themselves, and that as they gather that that offering as part of what they’re doing, they’re helping to encourage those children. Of course, because it’s a faith-based setting, we also encourage those children to pray for the children of Intermountain and their families as well,” he added.

For more information about Intermountain, people can visit ihttp://ntermountain.org .

For more information about the vacation bible school or to sign up, people can contact Chrissy Downs at 262-4013 or 357-2236.

The JUMP youth group can be found online at https://www.facebook.com/JUMPChinook .