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Since 2004 the community of Thompson Falls has been striving to maintain the natural beauty of the town. Beautification Days is a way for community members to affect change on mass, as hundreds of people from schools, businesses and residents come out to clean up garbage and complete service projects. The event also provides help for residents who need it, such as the elderly, to remove garbage from their yards or complete much needed yard work. Due to COVID-19 the actual Beautification Days event was not held this year, however many individuals still participated on their own. One aspect of the event is the Thumbs Up Award, where the community, and the committee responsible for the event, recognized a local residence, business and institution for their commitment to keeping their property clean and proper.

Local community members nominate others who have worked to create, improve or maintain their property's appearance are then evaluated by the Beautification Committee. These nominations are turned in by mail and when the committee evaluates the property, they look to see how that property "improves" upon the community or area. One criterion could be continued pride of ownership, or possibly a property that has been significantly changed.

John Dowd

THUMBS UP AWARD winners included Little Bitterroot Services (right) and St. William's Catholic Church (above).

The residential award winner for 2020 was a house at 203 Grove Street, owned by Charlotte Milling and Marc Terrazas. "It was a cute house, but it was just a beige blob," Milling said about their Thompson Falls home. They worked to find flowers to put out front that the deer would not eat, as well as vastly improving the look of the house and the property.

The institution that won the award was St. Williams Catholic Church. The members there work every year to improve the property and have received the Thumbs Up Award before. However, the original concrete characters given out as the award have since begun to fall apart, so the new plaque was awarded to the church, as well as recognition for continuing improvement of their grounds. Charlotte Beaudry was there to accept the award, and recognition was given to Lynn Cooper and Marty Koskela for their efforts on the property.

The business to win the award was the Thompson Falls Little Bitterroot store, for their store front which is always changing with décor to suit the season. The staff and several clients that work in the shop came out to accept the award last Thursday.