Celebrants have a grand old time at Havre Festival Days

Editor's note: This corrects the information with the photograph of the Kiwanis Pancake Feed.

Havre Festival Days continued its long-standing tradition in the area over the weekend, bringing the community together in a family-friendly environment for all to enjoy.

Linda Gobin said she has been coming to, and participating in, Festival Days events for decades.

"I've been going to Festival Days for about 35 years, and what I like is seeing the people you never see all the time," she said. "Since I have been retired I don't see so many, so you get to see people you haven't seen all year." 

She started selling popcorn balls at the craft show and then over the years has made her own crafts and also brings in raw honey to sell.

Chris Partin and Tashina Waltz said that they have been going to the Havre Festival Days since 2015 and thought that this year the event was the biggest they have seen. 

Partin added that this year he also got to have a unique experience, driving the truck which pulled the Angel Care Float. 

That float won the Best Commercial Entry this year.

"I've been to parades and been on the outside, but being in it and driving a truck for it it kind of makes you feel good," he said. "Seeing everybody wave to you and stuff."

Partin said that the festival is important because it brings people together, both in town and out of town, for a family friendly event. He added that it is also good for businesses.

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Waltz, who works for Angel Care and said her family was also going to be doing a family corn hole tournament in the evening, said they always have a great time during the Festival Days weekend, with their favorite events being the parade and the Custom Collision Repair burnout competition. She added that she likes to see all the different cars in the burnout competition and see what each vehicle can do.

Custom Collision Owner Chris Preputin said that this year's Car Giveaway, BBQ and Burnout was bigger than previous years and he wanted to get the community getting. He added that this year they had more than 100 applications for the Car Giveaway and fed 535 people at the barbecue, about 225 more than last year. 

He said that the Car Giveaway is a community event, and it wouldn't be possible without the support of the community and the event sponsors. 

"I started it, but the community is who actually pushed it as far as it's going," he said. " ... The community has really gotten behind me."

He added that with the large number of applications it is getting harder and harder to pick a winner each year and he wanted to thank this year's judges for taking the time to go through each application and select this year's winners.

"Usually we are done a day before. This year it was such a hard decision; there were over 100 applicants," Preputin said. "It took us two days to get it all figured out."

This year's winners were Sheila Doney, who received a 2000 Chevrolet Impala, Randy Sangrey who received a 2002 Buick Century, Brandi Shortman who received a 1999 Ford Windstar, and Justin McLean who received a 1998 Ford Escort.

Sheila Doney said that she was in shock when she heard her name called. She added that her whole family knew about the event and were acting suspicious, particularly her girlfriend, and she is grateful for the opportunity.

She added that because she now has a vehicle she will be able to go back to school. She said that she couldn't go this past fall because of her lack of transportation, work and her children going to school. Her son doesn't usually have a ride to school and the school bus doesn't go to where they live to pick him up so it is a struggle every day to try to find a ride for him. 

"And now I could go back to school in January," she said, adding that she plans to attend Aaniih Nakoda College on Fort Belknap Indian Reservation and enroll for classes in allied health. "... I'm so happy right now."

Doney's mother, Patty Carrywater, said that her daughter really deserves the vehicle.

"She's really hard working and an excellent mother for her two kids," she said,

Preputin said that beyond the car giveaway he really enjoyed the burn out competition this year. He added that they did have to modify the event a bit from last year, because of the city recently laying down chip seal on the roads surrounding Custom Collision. He said that the modified event is also safer, having each vehicle hitched to a tractor while performing the burnouts.

The burnout competition is a great way for people to express horsepower without having to risk getting in trouble, he said. He added that it's something not everyone is able to do and it's nice to be able to give them an event that offers such a unique experience.

The winner of this year's burnout competition was  Beau Durbin, who drove his white Chevy pickup truck. Second Place was Kyle Reynolds, who drove his black Jeep at the event.

Many people listed the parade as one of the highlights, but had other favorites as well.

"My favorite events are the pancake feed and parade," Kim Kohlman said. "Some new favorites are Rock Lotto and the street dance. It's fun to see people represent our community at the parade."

She said she remembers going as a small child to the parade and that she likes that there's a variety of fun community events. 

"This year was my first time participating in Rock Lotto and I plan on doing it again next year," Kohlman added. 

Dave Martens is one of the organizers of Rock Lotto, for which musicians submit their names and are randomly put together into bands that perform on Town Square during Festival Days.

He said Rock Lotto had a great turnout this year, with both musicians and community members coming out to Town Square for the event.

Martens added that the event has grown from previous years and he was glad to see everyone having a good time.

This year, the event had 35 people sign up to participate and created seven different bands, which played a wide variety of different genres of music.

The North Central Montana Shrine Club also held its annual beef raffle, which is one of its numerous fundraisers to help families and children afford going to the Shriners Hospital in Spokane, Washington, at the end of Rock Lotto. The money raised goes to paying for hotel rooms and travel. Families are not charged for the medical treatment their children receive while in the hospital.

Josh Heitzenroder won the first place prize of half a beef, Doug Jenkins won the second prize of the hind-quarter, Jan and Tom Roberts won third with the front-quarter. This year, the Shriners also had a number of new prizes available also in the raffle. Lindy Scofield won a Big Green Egg Barbecue Set and Bob Sharples won a $250 gift card to Gary & Leo's Fresh Food.

Barbara Schroeder had left Havre for a while, but has been hitting Festival Days every year since she returend.

  "I enjoy the 48-hour softball tournament because I have cousins coming from Billings who participate in it every year and they always ask me to substitute for people who can't make it, and I enjoy hanging out with them and playing softball," Schroeder said. 

She said she has attended Festival Days for the past six years since she moved back here. 

"I enjoy Rock Lotto also, listening to music and watching all the people enjoy themselves," she said.

Along with specific events and the atmosphere, several people commented on the food.

"It's the comaraderie of the people; it's like family gets together. And one of the things I like about Havre is the population is small enough and big enough to where when people smile at you they mean it and when they don't smile they mean that, too," Larry Holt said.

Holt said his favorite thing about Festival Days is the food and this is his fourth year coming to Festival Days.

Gary Cleavenger said he has been attending Festival Days for at least a decade or longer.

"I do enjoy looking at the cars as I remember a lot of them growing up, as my brother had a lot of Mustangs and I had a '68 Charger," he said. "I've seen a lot of changes throughout the years, but I like the parade and the floats where everyone is cheerful and happy."

David Jacob McGee said Festival Days has an inclusive feeling where everybody is family to a certain degree.

"What I like about Festival Days the most is that it's not overrun with too many people that it's a small-town feeling and yet there is plenty of people out here," McGee said. "Another thing that I like the most is that everybody knows everybody." 

"I'm not sure if I have a favorite (event) because I like the food, I like the music, I like the car show and I like the people," he added. "I think the best part of Festival Days is you get to know the town."