Pie throwing tosses out lunch debt
Travis Mire, left, with Mountain West Bank’s Ponderay branch hands Lake Pend Oreille High School Principal Geoff Penrose, right, a check for $1,050 on Thursday after the bank held a “Mire Mash” fundraiser to raise money for the school’s student lunch debt. The fundraiser featured MWB employees and brothers Travis and Matt Mire, who had several pies each shoved in their faces last Friday. The goal was to raise $250 to pay off the LPOHS student lunch debt, but after surpassing that amount, the rest will go toward next year’s debt. (Photo by MARY MALONE)
(Photo by MARY MALONE)Mountain West Bank’s Ponderay branch donated $1,050 to Lake Pend Oreille High School on Thursday after a “Mire Mash” fundraiser featuring MWB employees and brothers Travis and Matt Mire, who had several pies each shoved in their faces last Friday. The goal was to raise $250 to pay off the LPOHS student lunch debt, but after surpassing that amount, the rest will go toward next year’s debt. Pictured from top left, Matt Mire with MWB, LPOHS students Kolt Koivu, Paieton Allen, Madison McNall, Andrew Stovall, Nathan Ford, Hunter Sutton, LPOHS instructor Lu…
SANDPOINT — The Mire brothers faced off in a "Mire Mash" last Friday to raise money for Lake Pend Oreille High School.
Mountain West Bank's Ponderay branch officials hoped to raise enough money to cover the $250 lunch debt of LPOHS students, but when family, friends and other acquaintances of Matt and Travis Mire heard they would have the opportunity to shove pie in the brothers' faces, they quadrupled their goal.
"Our mother hit us the hardest," Travis Mire said.
MWB vice president and branch manager Judy Baird said the children of both brothers enjoyed filling their fathers' faces with whipped cream as well, though she said she has "never seen so much Reddi-wip."
"They were very, very gracious to do it," Baird said of Travis and Matt Mire, both of whom are MWB employees — Travis Mire is a mortgage loan officer for the Ponderay branch, and his older brother is the vice president and commercial loan manager of the Sandpoint branch.
The idea originated from a young lady in Coeur d'Alene who was featured on the "Rachael Ray Show" in April after she began "Lemonade 4 Lunch" campaign to pay off student lunch debt in the Coeur d'Alene School District. After raising and paying off $23,000 of that debt, Amiah Van Hill now seeks to pay off lunch debt for the entire state of Idaho. Before the Rachael Ray episode was taped, Mountain West Bank officials contacted the show's producers and coordinated a $5,000 donation toward her goal.
"We saw what the bank has been doing, so we got some information about the schools here in our area and we chose Lake Pend Oreille High School," Baird said.
The Ponderay branch has "adopted" LPOHS, and after raising $1,050 during the "Mire Mash," they not only paid off the current student lunch debt at the school, but put the rest toward next year's lunches. Baird said they have plans for more fundraisers to help out the school as well. She also hopes to introduce the bank's financial literacy program into the school, which would teach the students the basics of types of accounts, building a credit score, how to apply for a loan and more.
"It is always welcome when a local business steps up and helps out our students," said LPOHS Principal Geoff Penrose. "What I love about this is they identified a need and a strategy for approaching it pretty much all on their own and just came to us and said, 'we've got a solution,' to a problem we didn't even know they knew we had. I appreciate Judy's persistence and Matt and Travis' pie-ready faces."
Pie throwers were able to choose which brother their pie and money went to, so for anyone keeping score of the "Mire Mash" competition, Matt Mire raised $500 and Travis Mire raised $505. While Travis Mire raised more money, Matt Mire said his brother actually lost because he had more pies thrown at him.
"It's all in how you interpret it," Baird said.
Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.