Letter to the Editor - Fossil Festival planning meeting scheduled

The fifth Fossil Festival will be Labor Day Weekend, Sept. 4, 5 and 6, 2020. It will be the second hosted by Havre Public Schools Education Foundation.

The weekend festival takes time and many volunteers. A meeting has been scheduled to get plans under way. The meeting will be held Thursday, July 11, 7 p.m. at Boxcars. It is the hope of foundation directors that all of the dedicated, hard-working volunteers that made the prior four festival weekends a great success will, again, be on hand to do their magic for the 2020 festival. New volunteers that would like to help with this great community event are welcome to join the fun (and work).

The first Fossil Festival was in 2000, the idea of Sandy Saunders Anderson and Diane Jones Lamphier, to get the members of the Havre High School classes of the 1960s together to renew friendships. A reunion of the band The Squires, a popular mid-’60s band from the Havre area, was a big part of the first Fossil Festival and contributed to its great success. The main idea of Sandy and Diane for the event was “The Fossil Festival is planned as a very unstructured event where the goal is to provide a gathering place for people to renew old friendships, from any class, allowing for individual classes to have a mini-get-together within the weekend.” The original theme was mostly rock-and-roll and friends reuniting.

The Fossil Festival has been held every five years since 2000, always on Labor Day Weekend at the Great Northern Fairgrounds. It has grown in popularity every year and each event included additional alumni classes. When hosting it in 2015, the Foundation directors wanted all Havre High and Havre Central alumni to know they were welcome.

The fairgrounds is a good location. There is space available for attendees to bring campers and RV’s and stay on the event grounds. A reunion fee is charged to all attending to cover the expenses incurred by the host. Provided for the fee is entry to the event for the weekend, live music Friday and Saturday evenings in the Bigger Better Barn. A Saturday evening meal and a short welcome and program Saturday afternoon. In the past, food and beverages were available for purchase (such as Nalivka’s Pizza, Lions Club Pronto Pups, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages). Details to be determined by the planning committees.

Save the date — Labor Day Weekend, Sept. 4, 5 and 6, 2020. But before that, be part of the fun and join one of the planning committees to get this wonderful community event off to a good start. As previously mentioned, the Fossil Festivals of the past have had many great volunteers, without their help the event would not be possible.

After planning is under way you may learn more about the 2020 Fossil Festival on the HPSEF website, hpseducationfoundation.com, also on the website are photos from the 2015 event. Any questions may be emailed to [email protected].

Havre Public Schools Education Foundation