Students Enhancing Local Businesses

Who: Greg Smith
Age: 21
What: Started SELB (Students Enhancing Local Businesses)

This article is a few months old from The Montana Standard. But, it just came to my attention and is a great story. Many hands make light work.


Young people doing good things
By Erin Nicholes, of The Montana Standard - 09/26/2007

ANACONDA — Barb Killoy’s gift shop needed a new paint job, but like most small-business owners she didn’t have time to tackle the project.

So when she heard volunteer group Students Enhancing Local Businesses would do the job for free if she bought supplies, she leapt at the chance.

“To get that many workers to get it done in such a fast manner was awesome,” Killoy said, her store Mother Lode Gifts & Mailing now freshly painted.

Hers was among several buildings the 50-member group — SELB, for short — spruced up this summer on donated labor.

On Tuesday, SELB got a pat on the back from Montana’s highest official. The group and founder Greg Smith each received 2007 Governor’s Awards on Civic Enhancement at a banquet in Billings.

“I was really excited for the group because they worked hard,” See GOOD THINGS, Page A7 Smith said.

A 2005 graduate from Anaconda High School, Smith created SELB because the town needed a facelift and he needed a project.

“I am going to medical school, so I knew I had to do some sort of volunteer work,” said Smith, a human biology major at the University of Montana-Missoula.

He noticed Philipsburg’s economy had gained momentum after volunteers painted downtown buildings. Around the same time, college students from Idaho fixed up his grandparents’ lumber yard.

“I put together the P-burg idea with the (Idaho) idea and came up with the student group,” Smith said.

He recruited volunteers from high school government classes, using statistics, the personal rewards of public service and a survey to rally them.

“I got 100 to agree it was an excellent idea,” he said. “I had 90 sign up, and 45 actually worked.” All summer, the volunteers scraped trim, painted siding and pulled weeds throughout town. They stained facilities at local softball fields, cleaned up Commercial Avenue facades and painted businesses.

And the word spread.

Tonya Mavrinac, owner of Stylin’ Tease salon, heard about SELB from a volunteer during a hair appointment.

“She was telling me how they were up doing the Mother Lode,” she said, adding her new salon needed fresh paint. “I called (Smith) and they were here within two days.” Each youth volunteered four hours a week, and while most had summer jobs they were inspired by Smith’s idea that a little paint can do a lot for a town’s image, member Derick Budd said.

“I really agreed with him that we needed to get something done to make this town look a little better,” he said.

The group has benefited youth as well, said Killoy, whose granddaughter is among volunteers.

“Giving them the pride in helping in those sorts of things is great,” she said.

SELB is finished for the season, largely because its volunteers are back in school, but plans to resume in June, with possible expansion to Deer Lodge and Dillon.

“In a heartbeat, I’d recommend them,” Mavrinac said.

— Erin Nicholes may be reached at erin.nicholes@mtstandard.com.