9/15/2011 ~ Live Locally 5K Run/Walk
Owen 2012 Hat
Live Locally 2011
Saturday, October 22
Location: Health Care Plus, One 7th Avenue East, Polson, MT 406-883-3910
Race Begins at 10 AM
Pre-registration: Now through October 3rd – $15
Registration: October 3 through Race Day – $20
Ready for another race?
The Live Locally Race sponsors are excited to announce that this year’s fifth annual 5K Run/Walk event will again sponsor Polson’s own 2012 Olympic hopeful Melinda Owen. Melinda is a top U.S. competitor in the Pole Vault and has placed in the top 4 in indoor and outdoor competitions this year. Her mental attitude, training schedule, commitment, physical abilities and motivation are already those of an Olympian. Our goal is to financially support and encourage Melinda so she can focus on her training.
Melinda will be joining us at the Race!!!
As is tradition, many local businesses will donate prizes for post-race drawings. Country Pasta will provide a free spaghetti lunch for all participants. And for a special treat, Tipu’s Chai will be serving delicious Authentic Indian Chai to keep supporters warm and invigorate runners!! Stick around after the race to encourage your friends, family and coworkers – you won’t go home empty-handed!
Fun Gear!! We will have cool Owen 2012 stuff to buy, with proceeds donated to Melinda’s Quest.
An on-site respiratory therapist will be available to answer any questions and provide educational resources.
Registration forms can be found here, or in local businesses around Polson. Bring your family, friends, neighbors, acquaintances and event strangers. Help us support Melinda and make this year’s event a smashing success!!
Race organizers Heather & Sarah with Melinda Owen
…Where is everyone else?? Oh, I won?
10/27/2010 ~ Live Locally Results
Hand-made Torches for each age group winner!
Vision
The fourth annual Live Locally 5K, held at the Polson Health Care Plus building on October 23 was a marvelous feat of organization, planning and collaboration. Country Foods’ Heather Knutson and Health Care Plus Sarah Hartsoch Bird began planning this year’s race in July, wondering how they could creatively and appropriately implement the Live Locally theme into the event. What they came up with was to donate all proceeds to Melinda Owen, a 2003 Polson graduate who has high hopes (and a good shot) to compete in the Pole Vault event at the 2012 Olympics in London, England.
Heather, Melinda & Sarah
Support
Sarah and Heather started putting on the miles to gather sponsorships, prize donations, and support from local businesses to help make the event a success, and wound up with some amazing contributions. Country Foods and Health Care Plus would like to officially thank ALL our contributors, whether the contribution was a sponsorship, prize, time and effort, or just a good idea! Without you and your business support, the Live Locally 5K event would not have been the amazing success it was.
Participation
Owen 2012 Hat
This year’s race registrations totaled 231, a record high! Melinda was on hand signing autographs, taking photos, and handing out awards (miniature torches!!). There were over 85 prizes given away to race participants, and EVERY registrant received a free Sigg aluminum water bottle, donated on behalf of Melinda by her clothing sponsor, lululemon. Each runner also received a stylish race shirt, designed by Total Screen Designs Mike Lozar, and a bag of Country Pasta. A bonus to this year’s event was the sale of military and baseball style hats, tastefully embroidered with Owen 2012. This stroke of genius helped raise additional funds for Melinda and her Olympic dreams.
Results
2010 Live Locally Race Results
We are proud to say that this year’s Live Locally 5K event raised over $4,000 for Melinda!! Additionally, Country Foods has chosen to become the first Big Sky Club sponsor of Melinda’s Olympic journey. We are honored to support Melinda’s strong character and athletic talents. You can follow, encourage and support Melinda on her blog and Facebook as she trains, competes and prepares for the Big Event!
Melinda Owen with overall winners Jake Hartsoch & Ann Penturf
9/24/2010 ~ Live Locally Focus
October 23, 2010 at 10:00 am. HealthCare Plus, Polson
Live Locally 2010 Entry Form
Live Locally Supports Olympic Hopeful Melinda Owen
Live Locally is excited to be donating all proceeds from the 2010 race to Melinda Owen. Melinda, a 2003 graduate of Polson High School, is living out her dream of competing in the 2012 Summer Olympic Games to be held in London, England. She is currently in the pole vault training program in San Diego, California.
Live Locally is proud to be a part of her path towards achieving this dream. Being able to contribute to a local athlete is exactly what Live Locally is all about, says Sarah Hartsoch from HealthCare Plus. When we started this race 4 years ago, the idea was to promote and support our local businesses and people, and encourage a sense of community.
Melinda Owen is not only a tremendous athlete, but also an amazing and positive person. 
Heather Knutson from Country Pasta has known Melinda her whole life. She is a goal-driven person, who has always maintained who she is throughout all her challenges. Our community, and especially the young people of Polson have a great role model in Melinda,” comments Knutson.
Melinda plans to attend this year’s race on October 23, and will be signing autographs and available to talk about her experiences in training for the Olympics. We hope you are as excited as we are to support our local Olympic hopeful.
Sponsorship & Donations
Interested in sponsoring or donating an item or gift certificate to be given away? There’s still plenty of time and opportunity to do so. We offer two levels’ signature sponsorship and donating sponsors.
Signature Sponsors:
Get logo on back of race shirt, name mentions on radio advertising, name on all emails and correspondence, signature sponsor sign at the race, one complimentary entry form.
Donating Sponsors:
Donating sponsors can donate any item or value of gift certificate they would like. These items are given away in a prize drawing following the race. This is a very fun part of the event, as all participants can win. Donating sponsors are listed on the race shirt, and are noted when giving their donated prize away.
Please call or email if you are interested in sponsoring or donating.
Heather Knutson
212-0489
livelocally@hotmail.com
A Special THANK YOU to our Signature Sponsors
Anderson Radio Broadcasting 
Navigator Travel
First Interstate Bank
Super 1 Foods
Western States Insurance
Total Screen Design
Wal-Mart
Glacier Bank
Lake County Public Health
Mission Mountain Realty
St. Luke Community Clinic
1st Citizen’s Bank
Hu Beaver Builder
Fidelity Title
Community Bank
Stene Aviation
Country Pasta
Health Care Plus
Questions or comments? E-mail us at livelocally@hotmail.com or call 406-883-3910.
9/7/2010 ~ Live Locally 5K Returns to Polson October 23, 2010!!
In honor of Lung Health Awareness & National Pasta Month, HealthCare Plus and Country Pasta have teamed up to provide a 5K Run/Walk on October 23rd. Our “Live Locally” theme encourages participants to support local communities in their everyday activities.
In honor of our theme, all proceeds will be donated to Melinda Owen, a Polson graduate who is training for the Summer Olympic Games in 2012. Follow Melinda’s training and events on Facebook!
There will be educational resources in regards to Lung Health, including an onsite respiratory therapist to answer questions. All participants will receive free pasta and there will be an open prize drawing following the race with prizes supplied by local businesses.
Brochures and sign up forms are available at local Polson businesses, or print and mail the Entry Form above to HCP (address listed on form).
25 Acts of Kindness
As many of you know, 2015 marks Country Pasta’s 25th year of business, and you may have seen that we started the year by purchasing a local shopper’s groceries for her as our first of 25 Acts of Kindness. I wanted to share with you a little more about this concept and why we are doing it.
Country Pasta founders, Dean and Linda Knutson, displaying the quality semolina they use to make the product and the early packages of Country Pasta.
To be quite honest, I stole the idea from another company I heard was celebrating its 60th year in business last year. Upon first hearing about this, I thought it was a great concept, and one I thought was worth jumping on board with.
At the supermarket today, consumers are overwhelmed with product options to choose from. One of the most interesting things to me lately has been the multiple options of the same item, just in different sizes. Does anyone know how many different ways you can purchase a candy bar these days? You have regular size, king size, fun-size, miniatures, and bite size, did I even get them all? We recognize that you have many options to select from, and we greatly appreciate 25 years of support for Homemade Style Country Pasta products. In an effort to give back to our customers, we are coming up with 25 ways that we can say thanks, while have fun doing it!
In addition to surprising shoppers by purchasing their groceries, we have also donated to food banks, and have plans to give pasta away, Montana themed items away, and are launching one of our big acts of the year, which is a Montana trip give-away. One lucky customer and their guest will win a trip for two to Montana to enjoy the beauty of this area we get to call home including a boat cruise around Flathead Lake, a visit to our headquarters, a trip to Glacier National Park, and many more fun activities.
So we look forward to continuing our 25 Acts and we hope you will have as much fun with this as we plan to. And once again, we thank you for being a valued customer. Here’s to the next 25!
6/1/2010 ~ Helena Race for the Cure 2010
Country Pasta joined over 4,400 participants in support of the Montana Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Helena Saturday, May 15, 2010. Supporters gathered near the Capitol Building wearing shirts in a rainbow of colors to help find a cure for breast cancer. There were Survivors, moms, dads, brothers, sisters, friends, kids, grandparents, babies in strollers, dogs, balloons, food, giveaways, racers, runners, joggers, walkers and even a pink Policeman! Throughout the morning Country Pasta representatives wore Volunteer shirts. During the 5K race we lined up near the finish line to cheer for the racers, and changed into our green and pink Country Pasta shirts in support of our Team Runner.
Country Pasta donated time and funds to support Survivor Activities. We were privileged to help Survivors and their families have great parking spots, a quick and painless registration process, lots of free stuff, and shirt signs celebrating or honoring those who have been affected by breast cancer. We met some inspiring people and heard many encouraging stories. Thank you to everyone who worked so hard to make this a successful, fun and exciting event. We are proud to participate and already excited for the next Komen event this September in Coeur de Alene, Idaho.
To see what’s going on at Country Pasta TODAY, follow us on Facebook!!
A Helena Policeman Supports the Race
Cool Shirt!!
