Hi-Line Living: Havre pride cleans streets

Havreites and Hi-Liners gathered to pick up garbage in the area to keep Havre and the area looking sharp.

Havre Pride has been held for around 17 years, according to Kim Cripps, one of the main organizers of the event and a real estate agent with Hi-Line Realty.

She said the initiative was begun by local business people, who wanted to improve the cleanliness of the streets of Havre. They go out twice a year: at the end of April before college graduation and the end of summer before Festival Days.

This year, the event saw at least 30 to 35 people hit the streets with trash bags, Cripps said.

"If we get one bag of trash, that's one less bag that's blowing around in our community," Cripps said.

She said the events see great sponsorship from Montana State University-Northern and local businesses, as well as the Havre Area Chamber of Commerce.

By the end of the weekend, the large green dumpsters the city provided were full, Cripps said.

"I just take my time out of my day to clean up because I'm part of Havre and I love to live here," said Shawn Holden, the owner of Holden's Hot Wheels. "And I wish people would pick up their garbage."

He said he and his family, which included the employees at his shop, collected four trash bags of garbage, along with miscellaneous garbage, in the three hours they were out there.

He added that he has been doing it for years, every spring and fall cleanup.

"I try to do my part to make Havre look better," Holden said.

Fred Smiley, a professor of education at Montana State University-Northern, said the group assembled at 9 a.m. Saturday for doughnuts before heading out to the streets.

He said one of the great parts about the cleanup was interacting with the community. As the group passed by residential areas to pick up trash, residents would come out to say hello and chat and people driving by would honk their horns at them.

"It's just one of those deals that's kind of fun," Smiley said.

Smiley said he and his group joked about who had the most trash, but he did not actually keep track of it.

"I know the streets looked a lot better when it was finished," he said. " ... We should do more of it, to be honest with you."

He added that after doing so much work indoors at the college, it was nice to get out and get some fresh air to lift the spirits.

In addition to the Holden's Hot Wheels crew, Havre Hi-Line Realty, the Boy Scouts of America, Montana State University-Northern Interim Chancellor Greg Kegel and various staff and faculty from the university, Northern Montana Hospital and a lot of individual people came out Saturday to clean the streets of Havre.