Above, from left to right: Ashley Peterson and Ann Schilling of CASA, Thomas Coleman, Theresa Coleman, Paula Coleman, and Scott Coleman of the Patricia Coleman Foundation at Pompey’s Playground in Sacagawea Park.
Patricia Coleman Foundation Supports Vulnerable Children
November 9, 2020
LIVINGSTON, MT – Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA/GAL) Program of Park and Sweet Grass Counties is pleased to announce a very special donation from the Patricia Coleman Foundation in the amount of $10,000.
This gift personifies the mission of the Patricia Coleman Foundation, which was created in memory of nurse and community pillar, Patricia Coleman. Coleman served as a registered nurse at the Mammoth Clinic in Yellowstone National Park from 1988 to 2002 and was integral in forming Community Health Partners in Livingston, serving as Board Chair for many years. A letter from the Foundation read, “She was known and loved throughout the Gardiner and Mammoth area for her compassion, empathy, and devotion to all she cared for…She was a nurse in the U.S. Army early in her career, and the Head Nurse for the University of Tennessee Pediatric Intensive Care Unit…But mostly she was a dearly loved and loving wife, mother, and friend.”
The Foundation, represented by Stuart Coleman, Thomas Coleman, Theresa Coleman, and Scott and Paula Coleman, has raised money throughout the past eighteen years to support local organizations and nursing scholarships. As Patricia loved nursing, and moreover caring for children, a gift to CASA and the most vulnerable of our population was a perfect fit.
CASA/GAL of Park and Sweet Grass Counties is a 501(c) 3 non profit organization dedicated to advocating for abused and neglected children in the foster care system. Highly trained, community volunteers fight for a safe, permanent home and the opportunity to thrive.
CASA, along with the Angel Fund, Shane Lalani Center, Community Health Partners, and Livingston Food Resource Center all received donations as the Foundation is set to close and disbursed all of it’s remaining funding.
CASA/GAL of Park and Sweet Grass Counties will be using the gift in meaningful and permanent way. In 2018, the CASA board established an endowment with the intention to further secure the future of the program and advocacy of abused and neglected children. The program had intentions to begin their “Legacy Campaign” in the Spring of 2020, but due to COVID priorities shifted elsewhere. The Patricia Coleman Foundation donation has become an unexpected and fitting “seed” gift.
Ann Schilling, Program Director of CASA, is excited to celebrate such a purposeful contribution. “We are so grateful to the Foundation for this donation. A gift of this size is quite large for a small budgeted organization like ours and we are so proud to be using it toward the kickoff to our Legacy Campaign,” Schilling said.
Board President, Marcus Lilley, believes the gift is community philanthropy at its finest. “This gift really embodies what a legacy is all about; what you will leave in this world and how you are remembered,” Lilley said. “In this case we have a woman who had a profound impact on our community and now she will positively effect children in perpetuity. That is powerful.”