Thank you to all who joined us for our biennial
banquet and the induction of the Class of 2022 into
the Montana Outdoor Hall of Fame!
Our 5th banquet and induction ceremony, held on December 3rd, 2022 in Helena, was a huge success! Thank you to all our inductees and their family and friends, to all our sponsors, and to all our banquet attendees. It was an inspiring evening for all. Check out the 2022 photo gallery from our Conservation Conversations and banquet! Our 2022 printed program is now also available online.
“Congratulations on a highly impactful event. There was a lot of good energy and it was very well done. I had seen the MC [Hilary Hutcheson] on a film a few months ago and she was impressive then as she was that evening. There was a great diversity of awardees and I really appreciated the tribal engagement and drumming. It is important to recognize the contributions of people who continue to make Montana such a special place. None of it gets done by one person. It is a network of people often working over many years. I think it was Stan [Bradshaw, 2022 Inductee] who said, “If you can accomplish your vision in your lifetime you aren’t thinking big enough.” Well said.”
– Patrick Graham (Former director Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, retired executive director of the Nature Conservancy in Arizona)
“Thanks for an excellent banquet, MOHF. It was a fantastic evening, showcasing the wild diversity of people and places that are Montana at its best. The participation by the Tribal honorees, especially, was proof that when we say “conservation” it actually is just an inadequate and shorthand way of talking about our relationships with wild nature — a two-way conversation that is far richer and deeper than our usual definitions. It really is about reciprocity; about the gifts we exchange with the wild world; about animating ourselves with the spirit of place and animating place with our cultural energy; about the recognition that our landscapes shape us just as profoundly as we do them. The honor drums from Blackfeet and Confederated Salish and Kootenai also were an important addition for all of us. The crowd’s response validated my long-held suspicion that people are hungry for ceremony. We have “streamlined” the world by excluding old rituals of respect, and that’s to our great detriment, I think. Regardless of whether attendees understood the full meaning of the Tribal honor drums and singers, I think they absolutely understood our human predisposition to mark the important moments in our lives with ceremony and song. We need these mile-markers to track how far we’ve come, and most importantly to remind us of how far we still have to go. Thanks again for the fine fare and even finer folk — and remember, the best ideas are the wildest ideas.”
– Michael Jamison (Crown of the Continent Campaign Director, National Parks Conservation Association)
