A local church group heard of the Miss Montana mission to provide disaster relief for victims of Hurricane Dorian that decimated the Bahamas, and generously gathered funds and supplies for the trip.

Joy Knudsen was at the Museum of Mountain Flying on Saturday morning and spoke with KGVO News about the effort.

“I saw the article on Facebook that was in the Missoulian as they talked about this flight,” said Knudsen. “I’m the hospitality and outreach coordinator for Community of Saint Columba which is an Anglican church here in Missoula, and a little one helped me do some shopping. So, we took a couple of hours and were able to get a couple of backpacks stuffed with a number of supplies for some little ones over in the Bahamas.”

Knudsen described the contents of the backpacks.

“We put a camp towel, a fuzzy blanket, stuffed animals, some shampoo, bars of soap and lots of various snacks and foods like granola bars, beef jerky, all articles that wouldn’t melt,” she said. “We spent awhile getting that going, and we also put a toothbrush, toothpaste and bottles of water, things like that.”

Knudsen said a number of her church members and other community members donated funds for the project.

The Miss Montana will be departing from the Museum of Mountain Flying this evening to fly the nearly 2,800 miles to Florida to begin their mission to the Bahamas.

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