Benefit Baseball: Man Up Coats Kudos

The Helena Area Community Foundation will benefit Sunday from the Helena Legion Baseball Community Night at the Ballpark event at Kindrick Legion Field.

Organizers said 100% of the gate sale proceeds from the doubleheader between the Helena Senators and Kalispell Lakers will go to the foundation.

The games are at 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. at 1300 N Ewing St.

There will be a 50/50 raffle, root beer floats and the sale of exclusive merchandise.

The foundation supports projects of nonprofit organizations in Helena and surrounding area communities through annual grants.

For more information, go to: https://helenaareacommunityfoundation.org/.

The Man Up Crusade returns July 26 for this year’s Friday Night Event during the Last Chance Stampede.

Man Up is a domestic abuse awareness campaign sponsored by professional rodeo. This is the third year of encouraging people to “wear purple” on Friday night of the rodeo to promote awareness of domestic violence.

All tips and koozie sales from Friday night of the rodeo are donated to the Friendship Center from the Helena Exchange Club. This is the third year the Exchange Club will donate its tips.

This is the third year it has been sponsored by the sheriff’s office and the Last Chance Stampede. In partnership with the Friendship Center, we will be raffling off a Man Up Crusade belt buckle and a jewelry set, along with a 50/50 drawing the night of the rodeo. All the proceeds will go to the Friendship Center.

This year’s sponsor is Broadwater Hot Springs.

Craig Aasved, CEO of Shodair Children’s Hospital, recently joined the board of trustees for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, a network of children’s hospitals that are connected to help generate local support.

Aasved joins other corporation and hospital executives to serve on the volunteer board, forming a strong board poised to grow and strengthen the nonprofits’ mission to engage communities and increase fundraising for local member children’s hospitals.

In Montana, Shodair is the only CMN hospital in Montana, and the only specialty hospital in mental health and genetics of the 170 other hospitals across the U.S. and Canada.

Aasved is among three new board members to officially take office this week at the CMN board meeting held in Minneapolis. The two others sworn in are Treasa Bowers, executive vice president and chief human resource officer at 7-Eleven Inc., and Adam Starkman, president and CEO of Canada’s Children’s Hospitals Foundations.

Aasved said Shodair has worked to deepen its relationship with CMN in recent years, and he looks forward to fostering the strengthening of that partnership.

“Children’s Miracle Network is in a pivotal place to bring awareness to children’s mental health and continue to break down stigmas associated with it across the country,” he said. “I’m proud to be part of that critical work for the youth in this country,” he said.

Aasved has spent his entire career in health care, holding several executive roles in hospitals across Montana with the last 8 1/2 years at Shodair. He has helped to position Shodair as the state’s leader in the medical genetics and mental health disciplines as the only facility in the state with an inpatient acute and residential unit under the same roof. He also was the driving force for Shodair to open outpatient psychiatry services seeing the need for a continuum of care for patients all over Montana.

“Having a seat at the table helps position Shodair as a leader in the industry, which is part of our organization’s vision,” he said. “CMN has a rich history of helping local hospitals garner corporate support while keeping all the money in the state where the funds are raised. It’s easy for me to get behind the idea that Montana donations helps Montana kids.”

Aasved served as Shodair CEO through a capital campaign for a complete campus redesign in Helena, including a $66 million replacement hospital and a medical office building that opened last spring.

Aasved is a Montana native who grew up in Lewistown. He now serves as president of the Montana Hospital Association and has volunteered with the American Hospital Association.

Carol Schroeder of Helena was among three outstanding Montana Red Cross volunteers honored for their exceptional service to the humanitarian organization recently at its annual meeting in Great Falls.

Others honored were Judy Miller of Missoula and Jo Scott of Kalispell.

Schroeder received the Biomedical Services Volunteer Excellence Award. She volunteers as a blood donor ambassador and ensures donors have a positive experience. She provides a warm welcome, answers questions about the donation process and offers refreshments to donors after they give.

Schroeder said she volunteers with Red Cross for many reasons.