Food bank cashes in on frendly rivalry

Football fans took their friendly competition off the sidelines and turned it into a way to help out the food bank in Mineral County last week that led into the showdown between the University of Montana Grizzlies and the Montana State Bobcats on Saturday.

Sharon Patterson, over at the extension office in Superior, admitted that she was a Griz fan as did Dave Brink, while fellow coworker Kevin Chamberlain said that he really didn’t care one way or the other.

For 11 years, the Can the Cats Food Drive has asked fans to donate food items into boxes that supported either the Cats or the Griz. The contest had been held in Bozeman and Missoula and this year, Patterson thought that it would be fun to do something similar at the extension office.

“I thought it would be a fun way to promote the food bank,” Patterson said. “Bozeman and Missoula have been doing it for their respective food banks and I thought, ‘why shouldn’t we get in on it?’ All the food collected benefits out food bank here. There are a lot of people who have graduated from UM and that are Griz fans.”

Patterson said that once they put the boxes out, the hospital and the chamber also got into the fun and put out boxes. In the extension office last Thursday, the boxes for the Cats were fuller than the boxes for the Griz and Patterson said she was hoping that the Griz fans would start showing up soon.

“It gets all kinds of people involved,” Patterson said.

Chamberlain added that while there is rivalry between the two sets of fans it’s all in good fun. Patterson said she actually cheers for both teams, but when they play against each other, she’s Griz all the way.

“No one’s calling the game yet,” she said on Thursday. “No one’s saying the Griz are going to win by ten points or whatever.”

Chamberlain said that he thought the fan competition was a great excuse to raise food for the local food bank.

“This is about the time you start thinking about this sort of thing. It’s during this time of year that food drives are hit the hardest,” Chamberlain said.

And although the Griz didn’t win on the field, fumbles and turnovers proved they couldn’t hang onto the ball at crucial times and they lost 16-21, you can bet that no one loses when families in need don’t go hungry this season.