Families Like Ours
A storytelling event for the Helena community
May 8th, 2026
Doors 6:30 pm | Event 7:30 pm
Myrna Loy
Families Like Ours
The Early Childhood Collaborative and the Helena Village Collective, along with many community partners want to create space for parents to share their real stories. Parenting is messy, complicated, and sometimes overwhelming—but no one should have to go through it alone. By telling our stories, we remind one another that struggle is normal, connection is possible, and our community cares deeply about giving children the best start in life. We believe the best way to raise healthy, thriving children is to also nurture healthy, connected parents.
The evening may include moments that are deeply meaningful, and at times, emotionally heavy for some. We encourage everyone to take care of themselves and know you are always welcome to step out for a moment if needed. Whether you arrive with a friend or on your own, you are not alone here and we hope this space offers connection, support, and a sense of belonging.
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Inspired by Roots Family Collaborative’s Moms Like Me in Bozeman, Families Like Ours brings that same spirit to Helena, creating a space for honesty, connection, and healing through shared experience. Storytellers will work together and with a local storytelling coach to shape and share their stories with the public this spring.
The process and act of sharing are monumental — not only for the storyteller, but for everyone listening. Together, these stories spark empathy, reduce isolation, and help build a more compassionate community for all families.
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We will have three amazing storytellers sharing how they entered into the world of parenting and what that looks like. Their experiences are real, beautiful, vulnerable and brave.
Being a storyteller is not easy. Each storyteller applied last year and were selected based on their stories.
They have been working with our storytelling coach, Lisa Teberg-Johnson since January.
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We will have live music from Rebekah Orr in the lobby during our welcome hour.
Joslyn Dollar will be playing for us throughout the show.
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Tickets for sale on the Myrna Loy’s website for $5.
If cost is a barrier, please email mbjerke@sphealth.org for your community member ticket. This event is for our community and you are a community member. No questions or justifications necessary. We want you to come without adding stress to your life.
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We are partnering with Discovery Kid Zone (DKZ) to provide free off-site child care.
Space will be limited. Registration required. Click here to register your child(ren).
Children will be fed dinner.
DKZ Address: 2024 9th Avenue, Helena MT
Children may be dropped off after 6:30 pm and picked up by 9:30 pm.
Click here for more information on DKZ.
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Maureen Bjerke: 406-461-4449 or mbjerke@sphealth.org
If you’d like to help spread the word, click here to download our flyer.
Our Storytellers
Jessie Obrecht
Jessie is a local non-profit professional, wife, and mother who has been deeply shaped by her experiences of infant loss and infertility. In her free time, Jessie can be found hiking, getting lost in a good book, or planning her family's next great road trip. By sharing her story she hopes to offer a sense of community to others, ensuring no one has to walk through these seasons alone.
Kim Lloyd
Kim moved to Helena in 2008 from Minnesconsin (a region straddling the St. Croix and Mississippi rivers along the Minnesota/Wisconsin border) - intending to only stay a year. Seventeen years later, she's still here, thanks to the trails, the community, and a series of life choices - a husband, a house, finding a great job, and finding a great kid.
The story didn't totally go as planned. After a long road of trying to grow their family, Kim and her husband ventured down the foster care path. Kim works for St. Peter's Health teaching nutrition and agriculture education in the schools. In her fleeting free time she enjoys organizing her brain by running the South Hills trails. Her aging black lab Willow often tags along and sometimes on her heels is our summer surprise kitten, Zip.
Samantha DeWit
Samantha DeWit is a mother of six in a blended family, raising kids without nearby relatives and without the safety net most people assume exists. She is also the Director of Operations at The Original Montana Club and the Membership Manager at Montana Free Press. In her Families Like Ours talk, she takes listeners into the quiet, late-night moments of working motherhood, where the house finally sleeps but her body still can’t. She explores what happens when old survival instincts collide with parenting, how anger and love can sit side by side, and why “just ask for help” isn’t simple when you’ve spent a lifetime learning not to need.
Her story moves from isolation to connection, and from doing it all to letting herself be held. It’s honest, specific, and built for anyone who has ever felt underwater, judged, or alone in the work of loving their family.