by William Skink

The post I wrote about Glacier Hope Homes at 4&20 Blackbirds continues attracting comments that add additional odor to the stinking pile I first caught a whiff of in June, 2015.

When I had some conversations earlier this year with service providers in the Flathead area familiar with GHH, one person mentioned a shady funder in Great Falls. I didn’t get a name then, but now if you go to the GHH website, it seems there is a little more information about their funding:

Glacier Hope Homes, Inc. is financially supported by Veterans Seal Team, a non-profit from Great Falls, Montana that supports organizations that provide services to Veteran Organizations. Veterans Seal Team has provided capital for our monthly expenses as well as supporting our Veterans with supplements from its founding company, Safer Medical of Montana, Inc. Mr. George Ackerson, the founder and principle of both Veteran Seal Team and Safer Medical of Montana, Inc. is fully committed to supporting and reacclimatizing any Veteran that desires help and wants to be a part of society as a whole functioning body. George is a helicopter pilot from Viet Nam era. He understands the needs and has the desire to provide help to our Veterans.

According to the document at the original link (at 4&20, pdf), Ackerson faced indictment in District Court for forgery and counterfeiting in the 90’s. There are other allegations floating around as well.

Glacier Hope Homes recently moved and is now located in Columbia Falls. I am not sure why the move occurred. GHH also claims to offer a plethora of services, but from the people I’ve talked to, those services mostly don’t exist. So if you go to the website and see that services like career counseling, job placement, and assistance in filing for benefits is offered, be very, very skeptical.

I would also suggest any Vet interested in GHH ask how much labor around the property is expected of Veterans.

If anyone wants to contact me about GHH, you can send an email here: willskink at yahoo dot com. I received an email recently from someone who is interested in talking to other people with direct experiences.

I will also add that it would be nice if an actual reporter looked into this. I think there is a story here that needs to be told. If the allegations I’ve heard are true, people have already been taken advantage of.