Sigma Nu hosts Shodair-FEST to support Montana kids

Multicolor strobe lights bounced off the walls of the Strand Union Building ballrooms on Tuesday, March 11, as students and fraternity members rocked out with Bozeman-based band Fritz Road. “Shout out Sig-Nu!” said Seth Norby, the bass player and lead singer of FR and former member of Sigma Nu Fraternity (SNF). 

Fritz Road played for SNF’s annual Shodair-FEST — which replaced the Montanathon, a dance-a-thon put on by Shodair Children’s Hospital (SCH) — to help fundraise for SCH, a psychiatric hospital based out of Helena.

MSU fraternities raised over $90,000 for nonprofits last year, and many chapters chose specific organizations on which to focus their efforts. SNF’s main charity is SCH, and they have helped the hospital by holding Montanathon as an annual event since 2018.

SCH is part of the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals (CMNH), a nonprofit organization based in North America. SCH is the only psychiatric CMNH, and the only CMNH in Montana. According to SCH Chief Development Officer Joe McClafferty, fundraising is essential to maintaining care for Montana children.

“Most of our patients we see are Medicaid patients — about 75 percent of the population we have. The reimbursement rates don't really match the rates that it costs to provide the care,” McClafferty said. “[Shodair-FEST] is essential for closing that gap.”

In addition to events such as Shodair-FEST, SCH is currently working on a children’s book called “The Bison & the Firefly” as an extension of their Hope Campaign — an initiative it launched to help fundraise and connect with Montana families.

According to the SCH website, “The Bison & the Firefly is a heartfelt story designed to bring mental health awareness to a level kids can understand.” The book is set to come out in March.

SCH has been a key player in Montana’s healthcare system for over a century, according to McClafferty. The hospital originally opened as an orphanage before transitioning into a polio treatment center and eventually becoming the psychiatric hospital it is today.

“As hospitals started to create their own pediatric departments, [SCH] really went towards more mental health and psychiatric health for kids,” McClafferty said.

McClafferty emphasized that the hospital wants to focus on treatment for Montanans. “If we looked at [SCH] like a business model, we could say why don't we just take a bunch of patients from outside the state of Montana and charge them for both — similarly like a university might do,” McClafferty said. “But we don't want to do that, we want to make sure this is based for Montana kids.”

According to the Montana Department of Health and Human Services, Montana has the third highest suicide rate in the U.S. McClafferty said that he believes that Montana’s geography worsens the issue.

“We’re in a rural state and we’re spread so far it’s hard to get access to care,” he said. “[Rurality] is a big challenge of mental health on its own, the fact there’s nobody around that you can go to get some help.”

SNF member Nathan Adamek, the student coordinator for Shodair-FEST, noticed in past years that Montanathon wasn’t getting a lot of community engagement. After taking on the role as the community service and philanthropy chair of SNF, he decided to rework the event.

“[Montanathon] was a little unengaged in the past, there was a lot of standing around,” he said. “So I tried reworking it into a music fest vibe. We have live bands, we have good food — we took advantage of Chick-fil-A and we have a ton of raffle prizes.”

The raffle prizes consisted of gift-card donations from a series of local businesses, including Feed Cafe, Co-op Downtown Bozeman, Backcountry Burger Bar, Bridger Creek Golf Course and Backcountry Outdoors. 

Along with Fritz Road, Shodair-FEST hosted two other Bozeman-based bands, Colourblind and Bottlecap.

After two bands played their sets, SCH introduced their “Champion Child” of the year, Ayliana. “[SCH] usually picks an individual that they’ve treated in the past and has them come and tell their story so that people can see what the hospital is doing and what it translates to,” Adamek said. 

Every CMNH in the nation chooses a yearly Champion Child, who speaks at events to help raise awareness. “I’m thankful for all the support I got there and how that support brought me to where I am today of being able to become a [CMHN] child,” Ayliana said to the crowd during the event. 

According to Adamek, SNF plans to continue Shodair-FEST as an annual tradition. “If you feel like you want to support something bigger than yourself, this is a really easy way to do so while you get to listen to some great music, get some food and get an opportunity to win some pretty cool prizes,” Adamek said. 

To keep up to date with Shodair-FEST, visit @shodairfest.

To see more from SCH, visit its Instagram at @shodair_montana.

Learn more about the Hope Campaign and “The Bison and the Firefly” at https://shodair.org/hope-campaign/.