Greater Gardiner Community Council

07/31/2026

Today's the final day of this year's GIVE A HOOT community giving challenge!

If you haven't already, consider making a gift to the Park County causes you care about while every dollar is partially matched (the matching pool is up to over $500,000 this year 🤯).

All donations to Greater Gardiner Community Council will help us get the exciting interior work at the Gardiner Community Center underway later this summer.

Visit https://www.give-a-hoot.org/organization/GGCC to learn more, make a gift, or share our page with others who are excited about our community center getting the long overdue stabilization and facelift it deserves.

07/27/2026

It's the final five days of this year's GIVE A HOOT community giving challenge! 🦉

Before the month is over, we hope you'll consider making a gift to Greater Gardiner Community Council and any number of the other participating Gardiner/Mammoth nonprofits while every contribution is partially matched.

Every dollar raised for GGCC will help us in restoring the Gardiner Community Center to its former glory. Built in 1910 as the Gardiner Opera House, the Community Center now serves as Gardiner's largest gathering space outside of the school. It's the site of a century's worth of community memories, and it needs our help to continue being that for another century.

This year's GIVE A HOOT campaign is an excellent time to support our restoration of the Community Center because every dollar you can pitch in goes further, and all donations will help us transition as seamlessly as possible from the stabilization work currently underway, to the much more exciting interior work that we're looking to start later this summer. Thanks to a $25,000 grant from Park County Community Foundation, we’ll be able to kick off the interior work by implementing some sorely needed ADA accessibility upgrades, bringing us a step closer to ensuring the building can be enjoyed by all when it’s ready to reopen to the community.

The images are a few of the conceptual drawings of what the space could look like when all is said and done (minus the natural light coming in from a direction it never could on present-day Main Street in Gardiner and all the visitors with unnaturally good posture playing dude ranch dress-up). These drawings are by no means final, but they convey our vision of giving the interior the long overdue facelift it deserves while retaining some of the building's signature elements that were more prominent in its halcyon days, including the columns on either side of the stage, the tiled ceiling, and wainscoting along the walls.

Your support will help make our community’s aspirations for the Gardiner Community Center a reality, and gifts of any size truly make an impact. Last year's GIVE A HOOT matching funds amounted to over $1 added for every $3 raised for GGCC. Thanks to all who've already supported our efforts to preserve the Community Center, and all who’ve kept a torch lit for this beloved fixture in our community. It's because of you that we're finally closing in on its next chapter!

You can help us by sharing our GIVE A HOOT page and encouraging others to give while their support is matched, or by making a gift of your own if you haven't yet! Visit https://www.give-a-hoot.org/organization/GGCC to learn more and make a gift.

07/01/2026

If you’re hoping to support our ongoing work to return the Gardiner Community Center to its former glory, Park County’s annual community giving challenge is underway, and it's and excellent time to give while every dollar raised is partially matched. For perspective, the 2025 match amounted to OVER $1 added for every $3 raised for GGCC.

This year, we're stoked to have stabilization work underway at the Community Center! In other words, some long-awaited 💩 is getting done (case in point: our new sewer line), and you can support more of this glorious progress during GIVE A HOOT. 🦉

Every dollar you can pitch in goes further and all donations will help us transition as seamlessly as possible from the stabilization work to the much more exciting interior work that we're looking to start later this summer.

Besides financial support, we're also on the hunt for stories! 📚Do you have a story or a memory with a connection to the Community Center to share, or know somebody who does? When we reopen its doors, we want to not just recognize but celebrate its first 100+ years, and we could use your help with that.

Visit https://www.give-a-hoot.org/organization/GGCC through July 31 to learn more about how you can share stories, photos, or physical memorabilia, or show your support with a monetary donation.

06/22/2026

Happy first official full day of summer, everyone! If you haven't been keeping up with our progress on the stabilization work at the Community Center, this summer newsletter is a great one to check out to get up to speed. Find a snapshot of what's in this edition below, and be sure to read the full update with all the details and links. >> https://tinyurl.com/36uadrw2

📧 📧 In this edition 📧 📧

🔦 An update on the stabilization work with a special spotlight on our general contractor! Check out our short Q&A with WYLD LLC owner/operator and lifelong Gardinerite, Jordan Darr. (Photos of young Jordan and adult Jordan with his family courtesy of GGCC emeritus board member Schalene Darr. Thank you, Schalene!)

♿ A special thanks to our friends at Park County Community Foundation for awarding us a $25,000 grant to fund badly needed ADA accessibility upgrades at the Community Center to make sure the building can be enjoyed by all when its ready to reopen to the community.

📚 A reminder that we're on the hunt for stories with a connection to the Community Center! You can help us ensure we celebrate the building's first 100+ years when we reopen its doors. If you have a story, a photo, or some physical memorabilia to share, or a suggestion for somebody we ought to sit down with for an oral history, we’d love to hear from you!

👷 A standing invitation to walk through the Community Center with our own Dennis McIntosh to see the historic building's bones up close and get a peek at the construction progress. We'll also keep sharing progress photos to our page, so be sure to follow along for those!

🦉 Last but not least, a reminder that GIVE A HOOT is right around the corner! The impact of this month-long community giving challenge is felt by all the nonprofits who participate because every dollar raised throughout the month of July is partially matched. For perspective, the 2025 match amounted to over $1 added for every $3 raised for GGCC. Consider supporting the restoration of the Community Center next month while your donation goes further, helping us transition as seamlessly as possible from the stabilization work to the much more exciting interior work!

P.S. If you're a Pray, Emigrant, Mammoth, or Gardiner post office box holder, look out for our GIVE A HOOT postcard next month—we hope it gives you a chuckle. 📬

06/10/2026

Thank you Gardiner Resort Area District for all your support!

In the coming months we'll be covering a few notable projects that have been funded by Gardiner Resort Tax Funds. First up is a progress report from Dennis McIntosh, Greater Gardiner Community Council (GGCC) President.

05/06/2026

Current progress on the Community Center! Descriptions with each picture.

03/20/2026

Happy spring equinox, everyone! Our streak of forward progress with the community center has continued since our winter dispatch went out in December, so it's time to share some exciting updates. Check out our full message for details. >> https://tinyurl.com/3bhrcap3

Some highlights from our spring newsletter:
🏗️ Demo contractors have come and gone and the community center is just about ready for our general contractor to start the long-awaited stabilization work.

💥 Momentum with the project is making it possible to go back to some of the funders who've expressed support of the project from the outset, but have been more interested in funding the interior work, which is going to be a lot more exciting for all of us!

👀 Take a look at the direction we're headed with the interior, complete with some renderings of what the upper level could look like when all is said and done (minus the dude ranch dress-up and unnaturally good posture of the building's alternate universe occupants...you'll see what we mean when you see the images).

📚 We're on the hunt for stories! If you have a story, a photo, or some physical memorabilia with a connection to the community center to share, or a suggestion for somebody we ought to sit down with for an oral history, we’d love to hear from you. Learn more about what we're looking for to recognize the building's first 100+ years while we bring it into the future.

Keep an eye on our page for more updates and photos of the next phase of the restoration work as it unfolds!

02/15/2026

We are seeking local contractors and trades professionals who are interested in helping us complete the Community Center renovation project. It is important to us to keep the funding raised through local volunteer efforts as local as possible. Thank you to everyone who has reached out so far!

We are searching for a project manager, a general contractor, and/or qualified sub-contractors who understand our mission and will help us successfully complete the renovation.

If you are interested in finding out more about this project and potentially being a part of the community effort to revitalize the historic building, please contact:
Dennis McIntosh, Greater Gardiner Community Council President, 406-224-5982, [email protected] The GGCC will remain the owner’s representative throughout the renovation.

The Gardiner Community Center was built in 1910, originally as the Gardiner Opera House and later called the Eagles Hall. It has been the cornerstone for community events and local lives for 115 years. Our goal is to give the building another 100 years.

02/15/2026

Demo at the Gardiner Community Center is nearly done. Here’s a few (bad) pics of what it currently looks like.

There were a few small surprises waiting for us behind the walls, but that’s the nature of rehabilitating a 100 year old building. The demo has allowed our structural engineers and architects to finally see exactly what we’re working with, and we’re excited for the next step of starting to put it back together. We don’t currently have a timeline for this, but will post again when we know more.

01/14/2026

A huge thank you again to all of the volunteers that helped us move everything out of the Community Center and with some more demo this weekend. We appreciate you!
The professional demo crew will start to arrive this Friday, 1/16/2026 and demo of all of the non-original walls of the building should be fully underway early next week. We expect the demo crew to be here for roughly two(ish) weeks.