Making community giving sustainable
Photo by JOSH MCDONALD The Hecla Charitable Foundation donated $12,500 to the Mullan Youth Work Program. Pictured are students Caden Crandall, Lila Hileman, Hannah Cote, Mullan streets overseer Dan Zingler and Foundation members Mike Dexter, Carolyn Turner, and Hecla CEO Phil Baker.
Photo by JOSH MCDONALD The HCF donated $9,000 to the Mullan School District to help get their lunch program going. Pictured with Baker, Turner, and Dexter are Mike Summerkamp, Cathy Anderson, Les Wells, and Jackie Gorshe-Almquist.
Photo by JOSH MCDONALD The HCF donated $12,000 to the City of Wallace to fund their student work program within the Wallace Street Department. Pictured with Baker, Dexter, and Turner are Colton Smith, Hope Spears, Brian Davis, Faron Bassemier, and Jim Cason.
Photo by JOSH MCDONALD The HCF donated $9,450 to the Kellogg School District for their music program. Pictured with Dexter and Turner is Kellogg School District choir director Joy Persoon.
For 125 years Hecla has been a part of Shoshone County, they have seen the height of the community as well as the low as businesses and other organizations have folded due to economic hardship.
One thing that hasn’t changed is Hecla’s investment in the communities throughout Shoshone County through charitable donations.
Seeing the need to smooth out the company’s community giving efforts, Hecla President and CEO Phil Baker, with support of the company's Board of Directors, created the Hecla Charitable Foundation in 2007, which was initially seeded with company stock.
“The Foundation’s mission is to enhance the quality of life and to promote the social, environmental, and economic sustainability and development of those communities where Hecla has operations and activities,” Baker said.
While the roller-coaster of metal prices makes mine planning and operations challenging, it also impacts a Company’s ability to contribute to many worthwhile projects, as low metal prices often lead to budget cuts.
Within this overall mission, the Hecla Charitable Foundation focuses its efforts in four areas: education, community programs, youth activities, and health services.
Foundation board member Mike Dexter spent all of Wednesday driving from location to location with fellow member Carolyn Turner as well as Baker to present ceremonial giant checks to a few of the organizations that Hecla was able to donate to over the course of the last year courtesy of the Hecla Charitable Foundation.
“The Foundation is just one part of Hecla's community involvement efforts. In addition to making our corporate giving sustainable, we are also putting a more structured approach to community engagement,” Turner said. “We are seeking to better understand each community where we operate, understand our impacts, and work cooperatively over the long term to address mutual issues and concerns.”
This year the Foundation donated to the Mullan Youth Work Program, the new Mullan Elementary School Lunch Program, the Wallace Youth Work Program, and the Kellogg High School Music Department.
So far in 2017 the Hecla Charitable Foundation contributed over $150,000 with 35 percent going to community/infrastructure, 12 percent to education, 20 percent to health and services and about 33 percent to youth activities.
Hecla Mining Company prides itself on developing a close relationship with the communities in which it operates, understanding local issues and concerns, providing a safe work environment and good paying jobs.
In many cases, these jobs are multi-generational, as in the case of the Silver Valley in northern Idaho, where Hecla has operated for more than 126 years.
In 2009 the very first grants were awarded from the Foundation, which has now grown from the initial stock advances and some periodic cash infusions to a self-sustained program with over $6 million asset value.
Since the initial grants were awarded the company has given over $2.4 million to worthwhile community endeavors in Idaho, Alaska and Colorado with over 50 percent of that invested in Idaho.