Snowball keeps it all local

This year’s Snowball Dinner, a fundraiser for Scenic Montana Trails, was all about local businesses, sponsors, prizes and keeping dollars in the community.

“Bottom line is our Snowball was a great success from pretty much every angle,” Tom Stanley, secretary of Scenic Montana Trails, said.

Scenic Montana Trails buys fuel locally, as many parts as it can to fix any machinery locally and it pays groomers who live locally.

“By and large, most of this money stays local in our effort to improve the recreational trails in the greater Seeley Lake area,” Stanley said.

Scenic Montana Trails, formerly the Seeley Lake Driftriders, contracts with the state of Montana, which provides money for the group to groom trails used by all varieties of bikes (fat bikes, e-bikes, etc.) and different motorized options including snowmobiles, ATVs and side-by-sides.

Prizes donated for raffles and auctions included an electric motorcycle, avalanche kits, campfire accessories, 50 pounds of ground beef, massages, coffee and a rolling Craftsman toolbox. The event hit capacity at the Seeley Lake Community Hall on Feb. 3, which Stanley said it does every year.

Author Bio

Keely Larson, Editor

Perfectly competent at too many things

Keely's journalism career started with staff positions at the Lone Peak Lookout and The Madisonian in southwest Montana and freelancing for Dance Spirit Magazine.

In 2023, she completed a legislative reporting fellowship with KFF Health News during Montana's 68th legislative session and graduated with an MA in Environmental Journalism from the University of Montana. Keely completed a summer fire reporting internship with Montana Free Press in 2022.

Her bylines include Scientific American, Modern Farmer, U.S. News & World Report, CBS News, The New Republic, KFF Health News, Montana Free Press, Ars Technica, Mountain Journal and Outside Business Journal.

She also is a producer and editor for a Montana Public Radio podcast.

Keely received her undergraduate degrees in History and Religious Studies from Montana State University in 2017.

In her spare time, she's dancing, drinking processo and running around the mountains.

  • Email: pathfinder@seeleylake.com

 

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