Community Giving

Community Grants: Montana Resources Employees Receive Harold McGrath Award

Oct. 30, 2008 - Butte, Montana

The Butte-Silverbow Chamber of Commerce presented the 2008 Harold McGrath Award to the Employees of Montana Resources at the Chamber’s annual banquet held at the Civic Center in Butte. The Harold McGrath Award, established by the Chamber in 1986, is presented annually to individuals and entities that enhance or contribute significantly to the quality of life of the Butte-Silver Bow Community. Recipents must have an obvious and recognizable impact on the community.

In presenting the award, Marko Lucich, Executive Director of the Chamber said, “All companies recognize that the most valuable assets of any business are their employees. At Montana Resources the 346 employees extract the copper and molybdenum ore from the ground and make a usable concentrate that is shipped to smelters where it is further refined for use by society. We all use these metals in our daily lives. These employees also contribute a great deal of time, talent, and money to make Butte and the surrounding communities a better place to live. It is a good and generous attribute that they give back to the communities they live in.”

Lucich cited contributions totaling $600,000 in the last two years:

  • Food Bank, refrigerated truck
  • Rescue Mission
  • Human Resources Council, District 12
  • Big Brothers, Big Sisters
  • Salvation Army
  • Safe Space
  • United Way
  • Young Musicians
  • YMCA
  • Butte Sheltered Workshop
  • Paul Clark/ Mcdonald’s Family Home Camp Mak-A-Dream
  • Montana Special Olympics
  • Butte Center for Performing Arts Butte Center for Performing Arts
  • Butte Symphony
  • Fallen Miner Memorial
  • Youth Connections Monitoring Program
  • Barrett Memorial Hospital (Dillon)
  • St James Healthcare Foundation
  • Pool Pals of Whitehall
  • Philipsburg Chamber of Commerce
  • Butte Silver Bow Arts Foundation
  • Ennis Teen Center
  • Community Youth Center – Donna’s House (Anaconda)
  • Folk Festival
  • Montana Tech (55 Horatio Alger Scholarships)
  • American Legion Baseball
  • Butte Relay for Life
  • Shop with a Cop
  • Jeremy Bullock Foundation

Lucich also pointed out special projects that the Montana Resources employees initiated:

Over 300 Christmas Baskets prepared and distributed to people who wouldn’t ordinarily have a Christmas Dinner in the  Butte, Anaconda, Basin, Boulder, Dillon, Philipsburg, and Deer Lodge areas. (Special thanks to Jacque Dinsmore and Mike Cerise).

A Motorcycle Raffle initiated by Andy Kuchtyn that returned over $10,000 to the Human Resources Council #12

Concluding the presentation Lucich said, “There is over $1 million dollars in base payroll that is paid to the MR workforce each month that enters the communities and is circulated many times over. Other tremendous impacts to this area are the goods and services and taxes that are paid.  During this year through September, Montana Resources paid almost $25 million in purchase orders and taxes to this community.