PHILIPSBURG - A monthly after-school program called Friday Night Flight afforded nearly a dozen middle-school and high-school students a chance to watch the Montana Grizzly men's basketball tournament in Missoula on Nov. 13.

"It was a lot of fun," senior Laura Barsotti told the Philipsburg Mail. "I had never been to a college basketball game before and I was really excited."

The travel group ate at Noodle Express and even caught a glimpse of the UM volleyball team's win over Sacramento State.

"I'm a volleyball player," Barsotti said. "I was so inspired to see how intense they played. I wish the season was just beginning over again."

According to organizer Christa Poser, Friday Night Flight is funded through the school district by an annual $50,000 Century 21 grant. It pays for transportation, chaperones, food ... the works.

The program gives kids in Philipsburg something to do on Friday nights, said junior Cadeen Bonney. "I would go to all of them if I could. I wish they had it every Friday night."

Locomotive to be repaired, protected

COLUMBIA FALLS - A historic locomotive, parked in the heart of uptown Columbia Falls, should be "much more vandal proof" after a planned facelift.

According to Heidi Desch of the Hungry Horse News, the Shay Engine has fallen into disrepair, hit by several incidents of vandalism. Much of the wood on the engine has rotted away, and what wasn't rotted was burned in a fire last May.

"Most of the wood," said city manager Bill Shaw, "will have to be removed and rebuilt." The city's also looking to replace brass fittings that have been lost or stolen from the train engine.

City leaders are planning a contract for repairs to the locomotive, and have set aside $10,000 for the work. They're also considering a fence that would protect the engine from vandals, and Plexiglas barriers to prevent theft.

"The intent is to make it much more vandal proof," Shaw said. "The council will have to decide if they want it fully accessible or partially accessible to the public."

The 1877 engine has idled in Depot Park since 1963. It was a specialty engine, built for logging work.

SKC player takes on Indian Rodeo duties

PABLO - Basketball will have to take a backseat in Tiffany Sinclair's life this winter.

The Salish Kootenai College guard went to Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago and came home Miss Indian Rodeo 2010, the Lake County Leader reports.

Sinclair, from the Blackfeet Reservation, won the title during the Indian National Finals Rodeo. The queen contest included a two-minute speech; a traditional dress; personal interviews, a test on culture, world event and rodeo; and horsemanship.

The latter was the easiest part, Sinclair said.

"I've done this all my life," she said. "I've grown up around horses."

She had the best essay and the best scrapbook.

Sinclair said the contest was nerve-wracking.

"I stressed on the little things. I really enjoyed it though," she said.

Now her duties will entail attending events and traveling on rodeo circuits. She'll talk with youth about the importance of education and staying away from drugs and alcohol. It will be busy, and Sinclair said SKC basketball coach Juan Perez understands.

"Sometimes I feel bad for not being there for my team," she said. "Knowing I have their support - it's one less thing to stress about."

First-graders practice writing with blogging

EUREKA - The first-graders are blogging in Corina Henrie's Eureka classroom, part of a computer literacy program that partners with Montana State University in Bozeman.

Krista Tincher reports in the Tobacco Valley News that during the first blogging session - between the young students and their "blogging buddies," senior elementary education students at MSU - the most any youngster wrote was five words. Now in their fifth session, the students are writing five sentences, complete with punctuation.

"That's pretty good for the first quarter of the first grade," Henrie said.

The program is intended to help with reading and writing skills, as well as Internet literacy.

Each student spends one hour per week reading and responding on the school's laptops.

The work, Henrie said, is challenging, forcing kids to read sometimes difficult words, and to find "creative spelling" for words they wish to write.

Recently, the students met their blogging buddies via Skype, a program that allows an audio-visual link on the computer.

"They have a real audience for their writing," Henrie said. "It gives them a purpose, a meaning behind writing. It gives them inspiration."

In return, the MSU teaching students get direct experience working with first-graders, learning new ways to teach reading and writing.

Donations help keep Bigfork needy fed

BIGFORK - Demand at Bigfork Food Pantry has doubled during the last year, at a time when food donations have been dramatically reduced.

But Jasmine Linabary reports in the Bigfork Eagle that monetary donations are up substantially, allowing pantry managers to buy the food needed.

Pantry manager Sue Stuber said the number of people seeking help usually drops between March and August - but not this year. And food drives that brought in more than 6,000 pounds of food as recently as 2007 brought fewer than 1,000 pounds this year.

But Stuber estimates financial donations are up somewhere between 25 percent and 50 percent.

"This community, as usual, has been a huge backer of the (pantry)," Stuber said. "We are not hurting."

One anonymous Bigfork woman, Stuber said, donated all the turkeys and hams for this year's Thanksgiving baskets.

Contact the pantry at 837-2297, or at P.O. Box 850, Bigfork, MT 59911.

Weeklies Reader is compiled by reporters Michael Jamison, Vince Devlin and Kim Briggeman.

Editor's note: Each week, the Missoulian provides readers with a sampling of news gleaned from weekly newspapers around western Montana.