SIGNATURE MONTANA | 65
C R I S I S
It Takes a Village
By Kay Bjork | Photography by Eric Visocan and Sage DuBois
If you visit the Toby's House Crisis Nursery website, you will see a picture of October Perez, affectionately known as
Toby to some family members. Bright-eyed and smiling, she is dressed in lavender jammies with white polka dots and, like
toddlers do, is playing adult dress up in a pair of her father's combat boots that rise past her knees. But those boots will
never fit October. She didn't get a chance to grow up. She didn't get to see her daddy when he returned from duty in Afghanistan.
She died of multiple injuries inflicted by her mother's boyfriend in 2011 when she was just two years old.
It was too late for Toby, but through her death, Toby's House Crisis Nursery was born. Aer six
years of planning, organizing, and fundraising, the doors to the non-profit crisis nursery opened on
December 28, 2020. eir main mission is to protect children from abuse and neglect.
Toby's House Crisis Nursery was established just after Christmas of 2020.
Photo
by:
Eric
Visocan
N U R S E RY
TOBY'S HOUSE
