InterBel Spring 2023 Newsletter

HOMECOMING: AN INTERBEL STORY

From football to fiber, Joel Graves, Trevor Utter, and Kevin Hodik all had their own reasons for moving to (or staying in) Eureka.

FROM EUREKA TO SPARTA

Michelle Schutte puts fear behind her as she competes in the Spartan Trifecta.

WHAT’S INSIDE

HOMECOMING: AN INTERBEL STORY PG 4

CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT:

TAMMY PG 6

BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT: CRYSTAL PG 7

EMPLOYEE SPOTLIGHT: MICHELLE SCHUTTE

A MESSAGE FROM THE GENERAL MANAGER

Or like the Eureka High Lions football team, you can resolve to fight to the finish and win big (page 4).

Michelle, Tammy, Crystal, and the Lions all made their resolutions happen. They exemplify the resolve to reach a goal, and then the commitment to that resolve. You can read their stories–and more–in this fourth edition of InterBel Happenings.

InterBel is inspired by our community, so we resolve to continue to do three things in 2023.

We resolve to serve northwestern Montana with high-quality internet and voice technology.

We resolve to invest our dollars back into the Tobacco Valley in the form of student scholarships, capital credits, and donations to local organizations.

And we resolve to stay engaged with our community, whether that’s by cheering on the Lions, empowering our employees to volunteer firefighters, or serving on local boards and councils.

As we look to the rest of the year ahead, I want to talk about resolutions.

Resolving to do anything for an entire year is difficult. But those resolutions can be accomplished with hard work, determination, and dedication–just take it from your fellow Eurekans.

Like InterBel Safety Manager Michelle Schutte, you can resolve to never let fear rule your life (page 8).

Like InterBel customers Tammy Pershall and Crystal Hill, you can resolve to find your way back home again (pages 6-7).

And, just like every year, we promise to stick to those resolutions.

Thank you all for being a part of our community in 2023. We can’t wait to see what this year brings. Jason

AND JUST LIKE THAT, IT’S 2023. I KNOW 2022 WAS AN EVENTFUL YEAR FOR OUR COMMUNITY–IT’S BEEN EVENTFUL HERE AT INTERBEL TOO!

HOMECOMING: AN INTERBEL STORY

IT’S THE MIDDLE OF SEPTEMBER, AND EUREKA IS ABLAZE IN ORANGE AND BLACK.

Balloons tied to light posts and posters hung in the windows along Dewey Avenue announce to all who pass by: this is Lions territory.

It’s Homecoming week for Eureka Public Schools and the entire town is celebrating. But for some locals, like Joel Graves and Trevor Utter, the event carries an even greater significance.

“Homecoming means a lot of different things to different people,” Joel said. “To me, it’s a special thing because I got to come home. I never really thought I would have that opportunity.”

Joel and Trevor both grew up here in Eureka. Like many, they left their small hometown shortly after graduation in pursuit of bigger things–but after several years away, neither could resist the call to come home.

Today, Trevor serves as principal of Eureka’s lone middle school. He also coaches the high school football team on the very field where he once played, leading the Lions to four consecutive state championships. As

for Joel, he served as the principal of Lincoln County High School for 15 years. Now, he’s the superintendent of Eureka Public Schools.

“Home is where the heart is, right? And this is where my heart is. This is where I feel most at peace,” Joel said. “This is where I feel like I belong, in Eureka, Montana.”

Unlike Joel and Trevor, Kevin Hodik is a transplant to Eureka. While living in the Flathead Valley and working for an electric cooperative, Kevin always had an eye on the work that InterBel was doing up here in Eureka.

“InterBel had a very good reputation statewide because of how progressive they were in getting communities connected,” Kevin said. “When the opportunity presented itself to move to Eureka and join InterBel, I had to take it.”

Today, Kevin serves as Chief Financial Officer at InterBel–but the opportunity to work for the cooperative wasn’t the only thing that drew Kevin and his family up north. Kevin received a call from Coach Utter asking him to coach youth football, and as a sports enthusiast with three young sons, he immediately knew the answer.

“Eureka has had a very good football program for the past several years, which was a good recruitment tool when my family was looking to move,” Kevin said.

“When you get an opportunity to be part of a great tradition such as InterBel or the Eureka Lions football program, you jump at those opportunities.”

The Pride of Lions

The Eureka Lions are a proud bunch.

“A group of lions is called a pride,” Trevor said. “We talk about this a lot with our students. What does it mean to be part of the pride? What does it mean to be a lion? What does it mean to be a group of lions? We are the lions and we are proud to be the pride.”

This Homecoming Week, the Lions have a lot to be proud of–including their technology.

“When other schools are talking about technology, I guarantee the name Eureka will come up in that conversation because they know what we’re doing up here,” Joel said. “We’re the envy of the school world in Montana.”

With fiber-optic internet, all 800 students across the district can be connected at the same time without buffering. They can complete assignments, communicate with their classmates, and explore a world beyond their rural hometown.

“They have the opportunity to learn things in this remote location that they wouldn’t

otherwise,” Joel said. “We may not have a French teacher or a German teacher, and we can’t offer forensic science, but there are schools in Montana that do. With the internet connection we have, students are able to take those classes online. And we have InterBel to thank for that.”

InterBel is proud to provide Eureka Public Schools and the broader community with more than just technology. While Kevin coaches youth athletics, his teammates serve on the volunteer fire department, drive ambulances, and sit on boards across the community and state.

“We are a larger business in a small community, and I believe that as a result we have an obligation to serve in a greater capacity than just to provide a service,” Hodick said.

“I’m not from Eureka originally, but I take a lot of pride in calling Eureka my home now,” Kevin said. “I want to create a community which my kids wanna return home to. So wherever they go, they can always be proud to call Eureka home.”

WHEN YOU GET AN OPPORTUNITY TO BE PART OF A GREAT TRADITION SUCH AS INTERBEL OR THE EUREKA LIONS FOOTBALL PROGRAM, YOU JUMP AT THOSE OPPORTUNITIES.

“We need to be here when the community needs us, because they’ve invested in us over the last 60 years.”

And when a financial need arises in the district–whether it’s a new scoreboard for the football field or a new sound system for the school auditorium–InterBel is one of the first to step up and donate.

“There’s an old saying that it takes a village to raise a child, and here in Eureka, we are lucky to have InterBel as part of that village,” Joel said.

A Place to Call Home

While their journeys to (and back to) Eureka may have looked a bit different, Joel, Trevor, and Kevin have one thing in common: they are all working to make Eureka an even better place to call home.

So that when the Eureka Lions take the field for their Homecoming football game, all three can cheer loudly and proudly, boldly declaring that this is, in fact, Lions territory.

Whether you are a lifelong Eurekan or new to northwest Montana, InterBel is working to create a community that everyone can be proud to call home. Go Lions!

WITH FIBER, YOU CAN COME HOME AGAIN

It’s a tale as old as the Tobacco Valley: young people, searching for career opportunities they can’t find in rural northwest Montana, trade in the comforts of home for the convenience of a larger city.

But the end to that story is changing. With fiber internet from InterBel, two Eureka residents have built careers they love from the community they call home.

The Best of Both Worlds

Tammy Pershall spent her childhood in Eureka, Montana, nestled between magnificent mountains and a seemingly endless expanse of Douglas firs. It was the kind of all-American childhood many only dream of, free to run wild under the watchful eyes of her neighbors.

“Eureka is a small community, and one big family,” Tammy said.

Then she married a military man and took

up a government career, which led her to relocate around the world before settling in Helena, Montana. In the city, Tammy missed her family, as well as the vastness that only Eureka can offer. She dreamed of owning her own land: a place filled with cows, chickens, and an abundant vegetable garden.

“Living that far away, you don’t get to come home very often, maybe a couple times a year. It’s hard. You miss out on a lot,” Tammy said.

“Even for my kids. Every time we’d leave, it was always, ‘Can’t we just move back?’ They missed it too, even as young children.”

Shortly after her husband retired from the military, Tammy’s career presented an opportunity to work entirely from home. Tammy could suddenly work from anywhere in the world–but there was only one place she wanted to be.

“I’ve lived all over the world, and there is no

other place I’d rather be than Eureka,” Tammy said. “It’s my home. It always has been.”

But Tammy’s job required her to communicate with people in all corners of the state, at all times of day. It required a high-speed, reliable internet connection that would have been unheard of in the Eureka of her youth. She had all but abandoned the hope of coming home when she discovered that InterBel had begun delivering fiber to communities across northwestern Montana.

“When I found out that high-speed, fiber optic internet was available, I was in,” Tammy said. “I was able to keep my job, make the move, still do what I love to do, and be where I want to be.”

In June 2020, after 20 years away, Tammy and her family were finally able to come home. She was able to build the farm of her dreams, on a property shared with her in-laws and her children (and yes, a few chickens), while continuing the career she’d come to love.

“Before, we only made it home once every six months if we were lucky. Now I get to see my family as often as I’d like,” Tammy said. “When I take my breaks, I can walk around, I can feed the animals, I can soak up the sun if I feel like it. To have that and be able to still do the job that I love, it’s the best of both worlds. It’s a dream come true.”

A Forever Home

Crystal Hill spent her childhood summers 20 miles southeast of Eureka in Trego, Montana, where her dad lived and worked on a quarter horse farm. Even into adulthood, Crystal dreamed of those childhood summers spent playing with horses and roaming the wilderness of the Tobacco Valley.

“When we first started visiting Eureka, my husband and I came for Thanksgiving. The next year, we came for Thanksgiving and stayed until after Christmas. The year after that, we stayed until after New Year’s,” Crystal said. “Eventually, it just felt like Eureka needed to be our forever home.”

Now, as Venue Coordinator and Innkeeper at RiverStone Family Lodge, Crystal has devoted her life to giving guests the same sense of home she found in her first summers in Eureka.

“I’m grateful to come back to this place that I remember so fondly as a child, because it feels like coming home,” Crystal said. “I love providing a space where people can come, feel welcome, have a really good time without any worries, and feel like we’ve really treated them like family,”

Between events and overnight guests, the Lodge welcomes more than 1,000 visitors a year, many of whom stay for a week or more

at a time. Crystal and her team work hard to provide these guests all the comforts of home, including access to high-speed internet. With three separate networks from InterBel–one for guests, one for the Lodge’s main office, and one for events–RiverStone does not have to throttle users’ bandwidth.

“Most people come here for the view, but we are able to provide them with so much more,” Crystal said. “We can provide a better guest experience for everyone that comes through our doors because of interBel.”

While their paths back to Eureka may have looked a bit different, Tammy and Crystal’s stories teach us the same lesson: that with the right technology, you truly can have it all–all from the rural community that you call home.

WE CAN PROVIDE A BETTER GUEST EXPERIENCE FOR EVERYONE THAT COMES THROUGH OUR DOORS BECAUSE OF INTERBEL.

—CRYSTAL HILL

TO SPARTA FROM EUREKA

She looks ahead–only a few more feet to go, the better part of twenty grueling yards behind her. She scales the eight-foot-tall plywood A-frame, using the chains and hand grips to propel herself forward. The Olympus can knock down even the most skilled racers; goodness knows it’s knocked her down in the past.

But not today.

Today, she has gripped and pulled her way across the 20 yards, dangling in the air the whole way. Today, she has conquered the Olympus. The 58-year old-woman lets herself drop back to solid ground and continues the race. One obstacle and one kilometer down; 29 obstacles and 20 kilometers to go.

Michelle Schutte is a Safety Manager at InterBel. She is also a competitor of the Spartan Race, a series of obstacle races of varying distance and difficulty held around the world. This year, her skills and strength took her all the way to Sparta, Greece, to compete in the Spartan Trifecta–one of the most challenging, most demanding physical competitions in the world.

Lighting the Fire

When Michelle’s younger sister Johna Morrison was about to turn 50, she had an idea. On a whim, she asked Michelle if they could compete in a Spartan Race in honor of her birthday. The Spartan Races, as Michelle learned, are three obstacle course races. The shortest is the Sprint, a 5k with 20 obstacles–such as the bucket

carry, where racers carry a handle-less five-gallon bucket filled with gravel for 200400 meters. The Super is a 10k race that ups the obstacles to 25, and the Beast is a 21k race with 30 obstacles.

Michelle humored her sister, assuming she’d forget about her racing desire. After all, why would two 50-somethings choose to compete in a grueling obstaclestudded race?

Johna did end up forgetting about her Spartan suggestion, though for more tragic reasons than Michelle had expected. In 2017, around her 50th birthday, Johna lost her husband to suicide.

piece of paper. She sealed the paper, sewed it onto the back of her jersey, and ran her first Spartan.

“If she wasn’t going to go, I was going to take her with me,” Michelle said.

The next year, Johna joined Michelle on the obstacle course. Bolstered by her sister’s support and participation, Michelle placed second in her age group and 17th out of all women in the 5K Sprint.

That race lit a fire in Michelle, and she has kept competing in the Spartan ever since. She’s added increasingly difficult races to her list of accomplishments, most recently

the Trifecta: the three Spartan races, completed over the course of three days.

BY INTERBEL AND THE PEOPLE WHO WORK HERE.

In the midst of her grief, Michelle chose to go through with the race in her sister’s honor. She wrote her sister’s name and the names of her sister’s children on a

Finding Strength in their Voices

Michelle completed her 10th Trifecta in November 2022 at the Trifecta World Championships in Sparta, Greece. Throughout those three days, Michelle kept her supporters near to her heart and active in her head.

When she is racing, pushing her body to the very limit of what it can do, she finds comfort in the voices of those closest to her.

“I heard the words of people that have believed in me,” Michelle said. “They

THE GRIPS HAVE STARTED TO STING HER PALMS. HER FEET, FLAT AGAINST THE PLYWOOD, HAVE ALREADY SLIPPED MORE TIMES THAN SHE CAN COUNT. BUT SHE’S STILL HANGING ON.

I’M SO WELL SUPPORTED

—MICHELLE SCHUTTE

literally were my strength.”

Among the voices that give Michelle the strength to persevere are her teammates at InterBel, including CEO Jason Moothart. Michelle says that Jason was the first

becoming an internationally competitive athlete in her mid50s–really were.

“It was his voice that I heard the most as I was running,” Michelle said. “I’m so well supported by InterBel and the people who work here. They are part of my core team.”

THAT’S WHAT SPARTAN IS ALL ABOUT: CAMARADERIE.

person at InterBel to motivate and empower her to race. When Michelle began to doubt herself, he was quick to remind her of how amazing her accomplishments–

Michelle’s teammates at InterBel are proud to support her, whether she’s across the world or right here in Montana. Some of them have even joined Michelle on the obstacle course, competing together in a team race.

“It creates a bond that goes beyond just your normal commonality. You’re really cheering for each other,” Michelle said. “That’s what Spartan is all about: camaraderie. It’s about taking care of each other, encouraging each other. It’s unlike anything you’ll ever do.”

Running a 5K while climbing over walls and carrying 100-pound weights may seem like an impossible feat, but Michelle insists that anyone can race a Spartan if they set their mind to it. She maintains that fear, created by what we’re told we can be, is the only thing holding us back.

“Fear keeps people a shadow of who they should be. They let it make their choices for them,” Michelle said. “You don’t have to believe what people say. We would all be shocked by what we can accomplish. The power of what you believe becomes true.”

INTERBEL TELEPHONE COOPERATIVE INC.

300 DEWEY AVENUE.

EUREKA, MT 59917

OFFICE: (406) 889-3311

TECH: (406) 889-1500