The Wheel Inn Tavern in Lincoln, MT bustled with customers Saturday night.
The town’s annual softball tournament draws dozens to the small community tucked off Highway 200 West. But this night is special for a different reason.
Wheel Inn owners Melissa and Shea Forkan plan to donate 50 percent of all profits from August 16 to The Owl Bar’s victims memorial fund.
The couple explains, as small-town bar owners, the tragedy hit close to home.
"We closed down on Christmas Eve, and half the people that are sitting in the bar right now, they’re at our house for dinner," Melissa Forkan says.
When they saw Billings-based High Tide Bar organizing the fundraiser, the Forkans say it was a no-brainer to participate. Shea Forkan’s father grew up in Anaconda, and he still has family in the town, some of whom frequented The Owl Bar.
The couple says their patrons are more than just customers.
"They definitely become an extension of our family," Melissa Forkan says.
The Wheel Inn was one of dozens of bars, restaurants and taverns to participate in raising funds Saturday. Bars in Billings, Butte, and Great Falls joined in. So did rural towns, from the Tap Room in Shelby to the Jersey Lilly Bar in Ingomar. Many of these places plan to donate more than half of their profits raised Saturday.
Longtime Montana bartender and Lincoln resident Krissi Hagen says that’s significant.
"That's their money to get them through the winter," she says. "Small-town bars depend on their busy season to get them through the winter, because you're not as busy, you don't have that income coming in. So it’s a big thing."
Between sales and direct donations, Wheel Inn raised $2,200 Saturday. More than $40,000 has been collected for the victim’s families as of Monday afternoon. More fundraising events will take place throughout the month.
Melissa Forkan says they plan on taking donations throughout the week before driving to Anaconda Friday and depositing the funds.
