Western Montana blessed with many who want to help. "Movers and Shakers" Western Montana InBusiness

Elizabeth Barrett Browning I’m not, so there’s no sense in trying to list all the ways I love and honor Missoula and western Montana.

Were I to try, though, high on my list would be the can-do, will-do, doing-it-now attitude of our friends, neighbors, co-workers and communities.

On faith and hard work, with generosity and unfailing devotion, we build playgrounds and theaters and swimming pools. We carve carousels and deliver food and build homes for one another. Our children grow up believing in the power of individuals to bring about positive change – because they see it happening every day, all around them.

So when, each November, Western Montana InBusiness puts out the call for nominees for our annual "Movers and Shakers" edition, we are quite literally overwhelmed by all those deserving of recognition. We could publish a dozen such issues each year and never run short of either movers or shakers.

Awesome, too, are all the names you don’t normally see in print – folks who work behind the scenes as much as anything, but who really get things done. You’ll read about several of them in this edition of InBusiness: Traci Sylte, Angie Lipski, Kristie Nerby, Michael Hudson, David Bjornson, Chris Newbold, Tim Bechtold.

I was particularly struck by Lipski, an architect at Missoula’s MacArthur, Means & Wells, and her devotion to creating a built environment that serves all Missoula citizens – and her remarks about the delight with which new tenants of the Gold Dust Apartments encounter their lovely digs.

"They didn’t think they were worth something that nice," Lipski said. "Every single person is worth it."

And therein lies another reason to love western Montanans: We truly do believe every single person is worth it, and make good on that belief in a thousand different ways.

Thus come another batch of the movers and shakers feted in this month’s edition: Peggy Grimes at the Montana Food Bank Network, SueAnn Grogan at the Whitefish Housing Authority and Michael Hudson of InnerRoads Wilderness. Their whole lives are dedicated to helping those among us who are troubled or less fortunate.

Grogan has gone through rough times herself, having once struggled to find a home she could afford in Whitefish. Over the years, she’s built, financed and found homes for people all over the world: in Papau New Guinea and Ecuador – and Whitefish.

"It’s an amazing thing when you can help a family into a home," she said. "Now, I’m home doing what I was doing overseas, and it’s very satisfying."

You’ve probably seen Grimes in the news lately, as her Montana Food Bank Network works to enlarge and renovate its warehouse and offices in Missoula, all part of an effort to increase the network’s ability to distribute food to 189 agencies and food banks all across Montana.

But you probably don’t know the unusual course of her career path. I’ll leave you in the capable hands of InBusiness reporter Lori Grannis to hear that story.

Hudson is likely the least known of the bunch, having devoted himself to helping at-risk youth by taking them into the backcountry. Time in the wilderness has a profound effect on teenagers, he said, as do the challenges of everyday life "in the rough."

But it works, Hudson said. Because? "It’s a sense of hope that things could be better."

You’ll also recognize some of the folks profiled, although I think you’ll be surprised by their stories – people like online blogger Jay Stevens, filmmaker Peter Rosten, Greg and Scott Beach of Beach Transportation, Jack Sturgis of the Missoula Education Association, Denise Moore of Missoula’s Hilton Garden Inn and mountain-biking advocate Dave Ryan.

Sturgis wins the award for the "key to success" that made me smile: "Always try to have fun and pick up litter."

Truly, I finished reading the collected profiles evermore grateful to have happened upon Missoula late one summer nearly 30 years ago. Then and now, I couldn’t ask for finer friends, neighbors, co-workers – creative, generous and smart to a one.

It is one of the many blessings of life in western Montana, for which I give thanks this month of "official" thanksgiving, and all year through.

Reach editor Sherry Devlin at (406) 523-5250 or by e-mail at [email protected].

SHERRY DEVLIN Is editor of the Missoulian and Western Montana InBusiness Monthly.

Full Edition: http://www.mtinbusiness.com/inbiz-0711/