Saturday's Discover Downtown event proved a success

While venders were packing up booths and Sax Cadillac was rockin' a cover of Eddie Rabbit's "Drivin' My Life Away" in the background, the Discover Downtown event coordinator and planners were huddled together, discussing the event.

Tera Verploegen, coordinator, and planners Marc Whitacre and Erica Farmer were pleased with the way things went Saturday

"It was a success. Lots of people said they're looking forward to the next one," Verploegen said.

The weather had been a concern earlier during the week, but there were no clouds anywhere in the sky Saturday. It got a little windy about noon, but the temperature was almost 60 degrees by 3 p.m.

The day started out with a 5K run at 9 a.m. and a one-mile walk 15 minutes later. The participants of both races looked similar: young and middle-aged, as well as strollers being pushed by parents.

Hayley Yost, event planner and owner of For You, By Me Events, set off both races by shouting "go" through a megaphone. She said the number of total contestants who had signed up in both races was more than 30.

The winners of the one-mile walk, Marley Springer and Alison Adams, paid no attention to the "walk" part of the race's title and took off running the moment Yost released the participants.

Yost said the two little girls, who are best friends, ran the entire time and crossed the line together.

The girls were too shy to comment.

The winner of the 5K race was Neil Hancock, who received a gift certificate for a nearby restaurant and used it to buy his children burgers.

Vendors lined both sides of 3rd Avenue between The 305 Building and The Historic Havre Post Office booth to booth. Some of the booths included: Liz McIntosh of Mud Lake Iron Works, Beth Jorgenson representing Usborne Books, Steffani Schlesinger of LuLaRoe Fashion, Montana Pencil Sketch Artist Dale Shulund, Havre historian Emily Mayer, K and D Concessions Catering and self-professed junk collector and seller of the recycled junk Karen Kuntz of Roundup.

During one of the tours of The 305 Building, building owner Whitacre told listeners that, at one time, the large dining hall on the fifth floor "was packed elbow-to-elbow with people violating prohibition in the '20s."

The ice cream-eating contest, which started about 2 p.m., was set up in the middle of the street on several foldout tables and seats. Owner of Gram's Ice Cream parlor Darla Owens officiated both the group and the individual contests.

The winner was the quintet Dean's Angels with a record time of four minutes and six seconds.

The winner of the singles contest was 14-year-old Dylan Griffith, who beat the record time of 10 minutes by 5 minutes and 17 seconds. Because he had annihilated the record and eaten 12 scoops of ice cream in less than five minutes, Owens said Griffith would get his entry fee back.

Griffith said he'd always been really good at eating ice cream. He said he doesn't normally get brain freezes, so that helps. As far as tips for how to win an ice cream-eating contest, he said it helps not to eat anything beforehand.

He said the last time he had eaten before the contest was at noon, when he had a fried Oreo and a corn dog from K and D Concessions Catering, about two hours prior.

Verploegen said the painted mailbox silent auction raised $620 for the group of students raising money to go to Washington, D.C., for the 2017 presidential Inauguration.

Three of the students going to D.C. were seated near the mailbox display. Neither of the girls were quick to answer who they hoped would be the next president.