{"id":4897,"date":"2014-12-19T12:16:56","date_gmt":"2014-12-19T19:16:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=4897"},"modified":"2014-12-21T10:47:59","modified_gmt":"2014-12-21T17:47:59","slug":"big-believers-in-downtown-trying-to-make-a-difference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2014\/12\/big-believers-in-downtown-trying-to-make-a-difference\/","title":{"rendered":"Big believers in downtown trying to make a difference"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Marten\"<\/a>

Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News<\/p>

During a family portrait shoot at his downtown studio, Clark Marten, left, shows members of the Dimich family, Caroline, center, Alli and Tom, an image on his camera. Behind the camera is Pam Dimich.<\/p><\/div>\n

Rudi Marten was considering different ways of expressing his commitment to downtown Billings when he thought of the classic Christmas movie \u201cMiracle on 34th Street.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reflecting on the movie was doubly inspirational. It led him to think in terms of \u201cMiracle on Montana Avenue,\u201d the downtown street where he and his parents decided to relocate their Columbus photography studio two years ago.<\/p>\n

He also decided to adapt the \u201cWe Believe in Santa Claus\u201d message of the movie to \u201cWe Believe in Downtown Billings.\u201d<\/p>\n

He created a logo with that statement and gave it to the Downtown Billings Alliance. Then, with photographs of the downtown provided by the DBA, Rudi created a series of posters that now are on display on sidewalk informational kiosks throughout the downtown. He said other businesses are free to use the logo in any kind of promotions they wish.<\/p>\n

Then, he and his parents, Clark and Rachel Marten, demonstrated their commitment with two fundraisers to support Spare Change for Real Change, a DBA-sponsored program to find long-term solutions to homelessness in Billings.<\/p>\n

\"Rudi\"<\/a>

Rudi Marten<\/p><\/div>\n

They took out a full-page ad in the Gazette to announce that through the end of December Clark Marten Photography was offering family or children portrait sessions for $99\u2014they\u2019re normally $350\u2014and donating all the proceeds to the Spare Change program.<\/p>\n

Last week, the Martens hosted a $100-a-plate dinner and silent auction in their Montana Avenue studio and donated all the proceeds of that event to the program, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t say enough about the kind of business and property owners they are for us,\u201d DBA Director Lisa Harmon said.<\/p>\n

When Clark Marten Photography bought a storefront at 2606 Montana Ave. two years ago and moved into it six months later, Harmon said, the Marten family immediately got \u201cengaged in the downtown with economic development and outreach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rudi is on the board of the Business Improvement District, an offshoot of the DBA, and he serves on two committees that grew out of the recent two-day Community Innovations Summit, aimed at finding those long-term solutions to homelessness. Rachel Marten also serves on one of the committees.<\/p>\n

On top of everything else, Harmon said, the Martens have gone out of their way to acknowledge and express gratitude for the work of the Business Improvement District\u2019s Purple People, the workers who are literally the boots on the ground, the crew that keeps the downtown streets and sidewalks clean.

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n

\u201cThey have supported us in so many ways,\u201d Harmon said.<\/p>\n

The Martens, as we have reported before<\/a>, decided to move to Billings when Clark and Rachel talked about turning their successful photography business over to Rudi. As part of that transition, Rudi talked his parents into moving the business from Columbus to downtown Billings.<\/p>\n

Rudi wanted to be here because of the arts and culture, the vibrancy of the downtown. They looked at four or five locations, Rudi said, but they kept coming back to the space at 2606 Montana Ave., because both the building and its location were so promising.<\/p>\n

He said they liked the idea of being between Broadway, downtown\u2019s main street, and the liveliest stretch of Montana Avenue. They wanted to be the bridge, the business that brought those two areas of downtown together.<\/p>\n

\"Logo\"<\/a>

The logo designed by Rudi Marten.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWe knew it was going to take a while to change,\u201d Rudi said, \u201cbut we had a vision of what it could be.\u201d<\/p>\n

And they went into 2606 Montana Ave. with their eyes open, knowing it was next door to the St. Vincent DePaul charity office, frequented by homeless people, transients and\u2014to use a term that has grown familiar since the downtown summit\u2014\u201cserial inebriates.\u201d Rather than ignore one of the downtown\u2019s biggest problems, or pretend it didn\u2019t exist, they wanted to be part of the solution.<\/p>\n

The Martens, who also live in downtown loft apartments, said another advantage of the Montana Avenue building was that it would be big enough to host dinners and other fundraising events. They used to do an annual fundraiser for Big Brothers and Sisters in Columbus, Rudi said, but it meant clearing their house of all its furniture first.<\/p>\n

In addition to the recent event for the Spare Change program, Clark Marten Photography has hosted two wine auctions, one to support creation of a downtown children\u2019s museum and the other to support Big Brothers and Sisters, and a second dinner to raise money for the Center for Children and Families.<\/p>\n

They also were a sponsor of the homelessness summit, and family members were there on both days of the event. The summit gave Rudi hope. He called it \u201ca huge step forward in getting downtown awareness and involvement.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s still not sure what the best solution is for downtown, or whether the city needs anything as elaborate as a one-stop campus for transients and homeless people. The best thing to come out of the summit was the chance for service providers to learn exactly what other agencies and organizations are doing, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re taking steps forward that are mindful of the resources we already have,\u201d Rudi said.<\/p>\n

One of the best resources the downtown has, it\u2019s safe to say, is the Marten family itself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rudi Marten was considering different ways of expressing his commitment to downtown Billings when he thought of the classic Christmas movie \u201cMiracle on 34th Street.\u201d Reflecting on the movie was doubly inspirational. It led him to think in terms of \u201cMiracle on Montana Avenue,\u201d the downtown street where he and his parents decided to relocate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4898,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,14],"tags":[1836,1068,676,1837,975,1073,1074],"class_list":["post-4897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-billings","category-news","tag-clark-marten","tag-clark-marten-photography","tag-columbus","tag-community-innovations-summit","tag-downtown-billings-alliance","tag-rachel-marten","tag-rudi-marten","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}