By Savannah Barnes
“I get up every day to help people realize their
dreams for their communities,” Bonnie Sachatello-Sawyer says when asked
what drives her. Dr. Sachatello-Sawyer launched Hopa Mountain, a 501c(3),
in the fall of 2005 with support and input from many individuals
throughout the country. “Hopa” is an old English word for “hope,” meaning
“what is desired becomes possible.” It is a visionary endeavor designed to
build on community assets rather than simply solve problems. Hopa provides
community leaders with training, mentoring, and financial resources to
help them advance education, ecological health, and economic
opportunities. Volunteers are at the heart of Hopa’s work. Hopa’s youth
leadership program coordinator, Jess Stoffel, is collaboratively
organizing youth service projects. One volunteer, Nick Dobeck, is
gathering donated building materials from Bozeman to fix a community
center in Fort Belknap. Because of correlations between early literacy
development and fundamental success in life, another volunteer, Linda
Clark, has spent two years analyzing how to improve early literacy in
rural communities. A third, Bob Yaw, is helping develop astronomy
education programs on the Blackfeet Reservation.
Sachatello-Sawyer’s first volunteer job was as a
candy striper. Her father, a doctor, thought she might pursue medicine,
but it was her parents’ active community service that led her to consider
a career in public service. Yellowstone Park brought Sachatello-Sawyer
west. Throughout the years she has served on boards for the Gallatin
Valley Land Trust, Business and Professional Women, Friends of the
Library, and the Bozeman Cultural Council. She co-teaches non-profit
leadership workshops on Board development, grant-writing, and strategic
planning. On November 8th, Hope Mountain and MSU’s Leadership
Institute are bringing Rev. Bliss Browne, founder of Imagine Chicago, to
speak and conduct a community workshop.
All of Hopa Mountain’s work recognizes the
inextricable links between nature and culture, and that compassion is only
learned through action. Sachatello-Sawyer says action starts with
identifying what you hope for and imagining what could be.
