Chance, his wife Codilyn, and their daughters McKenlee, Sawyer and Quincee.
Chance Evenson, maintenance supervisor at our plywood plant in Kalispell, Montana, learned early on about the power of volunteering to build community.
“I had a great 4-H shooting sports mentor, Pat McVay, who dedicated his life to shooting sports and hunter safety,” Chance says. “I really admired and looked up to him. He put in a lot of time and money so kids could compete across the country. It made a big difference to me that someone would give so much to help a bunch of kids succeed.”
These days, Chance pays it forward with several commitments to youth organizations in the Flathead Valley, including nearly 20 years of volunteering with 4-H. For the past eight years he’s also coached for the Montana Avalanche, a girls’ softball team, and coached and supported the Flathead Valley Wrestling Club.
“Chance embodies the spirit of volunteerism,” says one of his five nominators. “He has a rare ability to meet kids where they are, inspire them to push beyond their limits, and help them believe in themselves. His leadership ensures young people have mentors to guide them, role models to look up to, and experiences that build both character and lifelong skills.”
For his dedication to building youth confidence, resilience and community, Chance was named one of our 2025 Volunteers of the Year. As part of the award recognition, he received a $5,000 TREE-mendous Matching Gifts reward, which he will donate to Avalanche softball.
Chance and the other coaches with the Flathead Valley Avalanche softball team.
MEET CHANCE
Tell us a bit about your day job.
I'm the maintenance supervisor at our plywood plant in Kalispell. My day-to-day job is to make sure we have the correct parts, get work orders lined out for the crew, and generally ensure we can make the mill run safely and reliably. We have a crew of 16, and we’re 24/7. When we share holidays with the lumber mill that shares our complex, we rotate with their crew so we can have coverage.
What did you think when you found out about the award?
I was pretty excited — and really curious, too! I was like, “Oh, I wonder who nominated me?” I do put in a lot of time and effort outside of work. On the rare weekends when we have nothing going on, it’s a relief to get caught up around home. But I enjoy volunteering and helping the community out.
Tell me more about what motivates you to volunteer.
When I was growing up, we had a lot of volunteers for shooting sports, baseball and wrestling. It made it more of a family. Without volunteers to help, I never would’ve gotten to see some of the stuff I got to see, or to compete in national competitions. When parents couldn't make it to an event, the other parents joined in and helped. It takes a community to make a kid's dream or goal come true.
What made you choose the organizations that you did?
Even before I had my own kids, I was an instructor and got certified to help continue with the 4-H shooting sports program. My family were all in 4-H, and my mom is still one of the leaders. So I kind of didn't have a choice! Then we had kids and they got involved in it. My wife is one of the senior leaders for 4-H. She’s on the board for Flathead Wrestling, so she's there a lot more than me. And she helps out with Avalanche softball, too. I couldn’t do all this without her!
Chance, McKenlee and Sawyer head toward the wrestling ring.
What are the community challenges you see that you're trying to address with this work?
For our 4-H shooting sports program, we used to shoot under the grandstands at our fair. Well, they're very old, and they’ve been condemned as unsafe to be in. So now we’re using a different building, where every night we have to tear everything down because it's a building that multiple people in the community use. So that's a challenge in itself.
We've had a lot of new people move into the area that came from states with different firearms laws and rules. And it’s a challenge sometimes to make clear that we take safety very, very seriously. It's really hard for some of the people who come from bigger cities to realize that we do know our gun safety and keep kids safe. Since they haven’t been around it, it's a whole new experience for them.
And our 4-H program isn’t just shooting sports, but also livestock showing and more. Kids can earn college scholarships if they put their heart and soul into it — and for some families, that gives the kids their only shot at going to college.
What’s your favorite part of the work?
Helping the newer kids. They listen very well, and it's an accomplishment to see them succeed. When they first get there, they're nervous, scared. You get them to where they’re enjoying it. If it's softball or shooting sports, you see their scores or their batting improve, and it’s like, “I actually made a difference.” This kid is now succeeding in a sport that he wanted to try, and he enjoys it because he's improving. I really enjoy seeing kids progress.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to get involved in this kind of giving back?
Just come down, check it out, spend a day, see what you think of it. Come in on your free time and start helping out. Eventually, you'll either like it or you'll decide it's not for you.
How have you benefited or been changed by volunteering?
At times it’s very stressful. It’s not always what it’s cracked up to be. But when a kid comes up, or even an adult, and says they had fun or thanks you for your time, that makes it worth the sleepless nights or the long hours of setting something up or being out in 100-degree heat.
It's really good to see everybody help each other out. You get a bunch of strangers who end up working together and become like family, making sure everybody's taken care of.
Chance and Codilyn are passionate about supporting activities for their own daughters and all other kids in Flathead Valley.
What’s next in your volunteer plans for the year ahead?
Softball every Saturday, and then in about three months we'll be on the road for softball tournaments. Right now, every Friday and Monday we're doing wrestling. Wednesday and Thursday are shooting sports, which is a year-round activity.
It’s been tough to get kids to wrestle year round, especially when it's nice and warm outside and they'd rather be outside than in a gym.
How are you distributing your $5,000 TREE-Mendous Matching Gifts grant?
The Avalanche softball team we've been working with is new to the Flathead Valley. It started in Missoula and branched off to Kalispell because there were a lot of kids who wanted to play summer ball, but the Missoula team couldn’t take them all. So we're trying to get the Avalanche up and running in Kalispell. The grant will go a long way to get the team the gear they need. I really want to see the Avalanche succeed at all ages in the Flathead Valley, so more kids who really want to play have the opportunity.
