Page 22 - BusinessWest February 21, 2022

Brewster
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Committee, Safe Passage and its Hot Chocolate Run, and the Cancer Connection and its Mother’s Day Half Marathon.
But it’s not what she does that makes her a Difference Maker, although that’s part of it, but how she does it. Bill Grinnell, president of Webber & Grinnell Insurance, who nominated her for this honor, explained it this way:
“These nonprofits have a real piece of my heart because I believe that, if you focus on and encourage and support the nonprofits, then more of the people who need help in this world and this regio”n will get the help they need.
“I can honestly say that I have never met anyone so dedicated to helping those that are less fortunate in our community than Tara. I’ve seen so many people join local not-for-profit boards for networking opportunities or to strengthen one’s résumé. Unlike anyone I’ve ever met, Tara works tirelessly to gain support and funding for the organizations that she serves.”
To get some perspective on those comments, one needs only to listen to Brewster as she
talks about how she set out to become the top fundraiser for the Hot Chocolate Run, and then made the goal reality.
“Safe Passage has a leaderboard every year, and since I started doing the Hot Chocolate Run in 2009, it’s been my goal to be number one on the leaderboard,” she said. “And two years ago, I finally got there. How did I do that? I asked, and I asked, and I asked people that I knew — friends, family, those in the community — to donate to Safe Passage to help deal with domestic violence.
“That’s what it comes down to: doing what you can, and using your superpowers to help others,” she went on. “And everyone has the power to do something, some good, every day.”
Because she uses her power every single day, it seems, Brewster has earned her place in the Difference Makers class of 2020.
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Brewster grew up Florence, not far from where she lives now, which was certainly “not the plan,” she said.
She told BusinessWest that many of those she grew up with were firm of the belief that one had to leave this area to achieve whatever dreams they had made for themselves. And she came to that belief herself.
But her desired next destination was certainly different than most others had in mind.
“I wanted to go to Montana — I think Wyoming and Montana are my two favorites,” she recalled, adding that she had already been to several
states by the time she was in high school, and had determined that the Rocky Mountain region was where she wanted to go to college. “I thought
I would like Big Sky country and being out in
Tara Brewster, right, poses for a promotional photo for the Treehouse Foundation’s ‘Stir Up Some Love’ fundraiser with
A.J. Bresciano, first vice president and commercial lender at Greenfield Savings Bank, and Julie Kumble, director of Strategic Partnerships & Development for the foundation.
the wilderness; I wanted to be a pediatrician, and I wanted to go the University of Montana Bozeman.”
But fate would keep her closer to home.
Indeed, her mother was diagnosed with stage-4 ovarian cancer when Tara was just 15, a turn of events that would not
only alter her plans for
college, but inspire her
Brewster
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