On Wednesday the Friends presented a symbolic check for $100,000 to Society Director Richard Sims representing the amount of hours at $10 an hour they donated to the Society over the past year. "We are extremely proud of our volunteers and the time and effort they donate to the history of Montana," Sims said. "With their support, we are able to stretch our resources to provide the best service we can to the people of the state." The Friends have 125 members, who provided more than 10,000 hours of work to the Society in everything from hosting and providing food for events, student tours, working with artifacts and other collections, clerical work, right down to addressing envelopes for Society mailings and pounding nails for exhibits. This is the 35th anniversary of the founding of the Friends group, and Society staff thanked the volunteers with an Appreciation Luncheon.