Art & Music Festival received boost from Lincoln Prosperity Proposal awareness effort

Using colored pencils, Garrett Schwalm used a bench in the Hooper park pavilion as a desk as he enthusiastically colored in the landscape around an illustration of a whitetail buck.

Schwalm was hurrying to beat the deadline for the Lincoln Prosperity Proposal coloring contest at the Lincoln arts and Music Festival Sunday afternoon.

The coloring contest, which had $500 in prizes, made its debut at the festival this year, thanks to support from The Wilderness Society, which not only put up the prize money, but also helped sponsor the weekend's music and pay for advertisements both here and in Helena.

Although Schwalm's entry – one of several dozen submitted over the weekend - made the first cut as judges went through the entries, it wasn't among the winning entries.

Renae Myers took the first-place prize of $300, while Jordyn Zarske earned the $150 second-place prize. Cayley Linn took home $50 for third place.

The Wilderness Society helped with funding for the festival as part of an effort to boost awareness for the Lincoln Prosperity Proposal, the land management effort for public lands around the Lincoln Valley.

The Lincoln Prosperity Proposal is a collaborative agreement that came about during years of discussion and negotiation among user groups, landowners and other stakeholders, some of which are usually at odds with one another.

"TWS has been an active partner working with local stakeholders over the last six years on the proposal, which will create jobs in the woods, boost our local economy, protect our wild places and create new recreational opportunities for both motorized and non-motorized users," said Festival organizer Karyn Good, who also serves as a coordinator for the LPP.

The LPP coloring contest booth, staffed by local teens, shared a table with the booth that supplied general information on the proposal, staffed by members of the Ponderosa Snow Warriors.

Good said PSW's Victor Johnson was on hand for part of Saturday and spent all day Sunday visiting with people about the proposal, which would help ensure the Copper Bowls remain open to snowmobilers well into the future.

Good said it's important that they continue to raise awareness about the proposal within the community as the Lincoln Prosperity Group works with the Montana congressional delegation to introduce it as an act for Congress to vote on. She said they are currently working with both Sen. Steve Daines and Sen. Jon Tester in hopes it could be introduced sometime this year.

"We are having frequent conversations with them, she said. That's one of the reasons we are proactively looking for endorsements, to show them it has support."

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