For this year’s Great Falls Greats contest, our wild card question asked about silver linings from COVID-19.

Some of you shared meaningful answers and we’ve rounded up many of them here.

“Appreciating the little things.”

“Great Falls Take Down group bringing Great Falls together.”

“Sparse population and access to the outdoors so we could stay more free than other states.”

“The way the community came together to support local small businesses.”

“The number of people getting vaccinated.”

“The sense of community and helping each other.”

“Trying new places.”

“It helped build new relationships and form amazing new ideas for how to deal with a pandemic and helped us all learn to adapt to something new.”

“The silver lining was seeing the care that everyone had for one another and how supportive our community truly is. Great Falls is filled with so many amazing people.”

“Watching our community come together and support local business.”

“Our community coming together and our local health facilities stepping up to take care of our community.”

“Great Falls kept going and made it work.”

“We can work together no matter what os thrown at us.”

“All the take out.”

“Getting to know the City of Great Falls.”

“The amazing people in our community.”

“Cocktails to go!”

“More time with family.”

“15,000 lunches served for free to kids of community by Double Barrel.”

“New businesses/restaurants starting up during a pandemic.”

“How our community pulled together to help small businesses-especially restaurants!”

“I see more generosity happening in our community. People have stepped up and blessed others. I love telling people their coffee was paid for by someone else. You really don’t understand what it does for some people; it means a lot.”

“How amazing Tracy’s Diner was for donating food to essential workers.”

“Being more grateful for the little things.”

“Walking around to look at the murals downtown.”

“Electric City Coffee’s changing menus and specials!”

“A new appreciation for this city, its people, and our ability to adapt to support our small businesses. I love Great Falls!”

“The local merchants who came up with creative ways to love on the people of Great Falls. Absolutely the best!”

“To see the beauty of what businesses did to not only sustain the pandemic, but to also help each other out while doing what they could to accommodate their customers.”

“That a lot of the restaurants came together and still were able to serve people wonderful food, help neighboring stores, staying positive during this crazy year.”

“Everyone remembered to simply go outside!”

“Great Falls Take Down and Take Out Facebook page. We all learned about a lot of restaurants we may not have heard of or didn’t know much about them. I also feel like it brought a sense of community during a rough time.”

“Teachers!”

“I discovered so many new restaurants and different menu items. Also the groups that came together on social media to save the community really helped me feel connected. Great Falls is great!”