GREAT FALLS — Anything you donate to Habitat For Humanity is likely to have a big impact, whether it's something like an old table that you don't want anymore or, perhaps some light bulbs from a home improvement project.
But one plumbing company in Great Falls is going beyond the usual with a big donation - a pickup truck.
"It's a 2005 Chevy,” said Martin NoRunner, the director of Great Falls Habitat For Humanity, describing the truck.
The red pickup truck may not be new, but it's just what the Great Falls Habitat For Humanity chapter needs. "It's clean. They said it was a beater but I don't think my truck looks as good as this,” NoRunner explained.
It was donated after the chapter started asking around for a pickup truck.
"We needed one to just do our operations on our builds to get our folks where we needed them to be at for the builds,” said NoRunner.
A Habitat For Humanity member contacted Mike Waldenberg, the CEO of Central Plumbing, Heating, and Excavation in Great Falls.
"I basically got to thinking about it (and) I told her I'd think about it over the evening and call her the next day,” Waldenberg said.
He did, in fact, call the next day and said he would like to donate one of the company's old trucks.
"We are very community involved and mindful of all our fellow mankind here in Great Falls and in the region and it was just a nice little thing we choose to do and we hope that old truck gets them a long way down the road,” said Waldenberg.
"It's definitely a good deal. It's the Bose sound system for when the boys and girls need to have some tunes on the job site,” NoRunner said as he described some of the truck’s features.
The money that was going to be spent on a truck can now be put toward helping families, something that's especially important right now.
"With inflation, automobiles down to any type of raw material that we would need for building, it's all gone up,” NoRunner said. "So it's just been a Godsend being able to get this really needed equipment in the form of a truck so that we can continue on with our mission and get those more expensive things now instead of having to have an additional payment."
The need doesn't stop here though. The chapter is always on the lookout for vehicles people may want to donate that could be of use.
If you have a truck or other vehicle you'd be interested in donating to Habitat For Humanity, you can call them at 406-453-5972.
