By Tim Leeds
The focus of "Havre ... it's the people" this month is on the youth of the community.
For this month's selection, Havre schools were given the difficult task of narrowing their student bodies down to one example that typifies the promotion.
The Havre Area Chamber of Commerce's promotion is designed to focus attention on people who are positive influences in the community.
Brad Nelsen
Brad Nelsen, son of Jeff and Julie Nelsen, is a fourth-grader at Devlin Elementary School.
He is a member of the student council at Devlin for the second year, and says he enjoys the fund-raising activities the council does for the school. He said he also likes the pizza party the council has at the end of the year.
Nelsen said he likes going to school at Devlin.
"A lot of my friends are here and I like the teachers," he said.
Nelsen said he likes to help other students in the class when he can.
He said his family moved to Havre from Poplar when he was in the first grade. He likes living in Havre, he said.
"It's clean here," he said. "I like to play in the snow with my friends and ride bikes."
Nelsen said he also likes to play basketball and soccer.
Jesine Munson
Jesine Munson, daughter of Greg Munson and Arleen Rice, is a fifth-grader at Highland Park Elementary School.
Munson said she "just loves school, period." She said she really enjoys the activities at the school.
Munson said she does many activities outside of the class. She said at Christmas they went and sang at the Eagle's Manor and at the long-term care center at the hospital.
She said the fifth graders went on an orienteering field trip in the Bear Paws. The students had to use compasses to find landmarks, she said. She's also looking forward to a bike trip later in the year when the students will ride around town, she said.
Munson played basketball for the Northern Montana Hospital fifth-grade basketball team this year.
Munson said she likes living in Havre.
"I don't like big towns," she said. "I like the small communities. I've just gone to the big towns. I don't like the traffic and stuff. Here it's easy to get to a friend's house and easy to get around town."
Munson is also involved in many activities outside of school. She said she attends a pen and ink class with her aunt, Sheila Juers, who is teaching her how to watercolor.
Munson is also involved in 4-H. She said she likes to take animals to the competitions. She said she will be taking a horse this year and this will be her third year with a lamb.
"I enjoy animals," she said. "You can do cooking and stuff, and I enjoy crafts."
Munson said she has four horses and enjoys going on the weekend to ride or work with them.
Jayme Seidel
Jayme Seidel, daughter of Scott and Dana Seidel, is a fifth-grader at Lincoln-McKinley Elementary School.
Seidel said she likes almost everything about going to school at Lincoln-McKinley. She said she especially likes the art at the school.
"We have paintings in the cafeteria, stained glass in the hallway by the stairs. When we do art, we do projects we can hang out on the wall."
Seidel is the president of the school student council. She said they participated in the angel tree at Christmas, and bought gifts for two boys and two girls.
She said the school cleaned up around the school earlier. They picked up any trash and litter in the area, she said.
Seidel said she also likes playing volleyball, basketball, softball and swimming.
Seidel said she enjoys most of the things about living in Havre.
"I like it," she said. "It's only the cold weather I don't like. I like the people, the ice skating rink, the activities around town."
She also participates in 4-H. She said she entered in the cat, sewing, crochet and cooking events last year, and plans to enter in the cat, sheep, horse, sewing and cooking events this year.
"I like being outside," Seidel said. "We have a cabin in the mountains and we go out to it in the summer."
Seidel said she also likes getting together with her friends.
Kayla Bauer
Kayla Bauer, the daughter of Matt and Julie Bauer, is a fifth grader at Sunnyside Elementary school.
Bauer said she likes going to school at Sunnyside.
"I really do like it," she said. "The teachers are really nice. They make you feel like they can help you any time. There's lots of fun things to do."
Bauer, who recently won the school fifth grade spelling bee, is the school student council president.
She said one of her favorite things about being president is the opportunity to let all of the students work in the school store, where students can buy supplies like pencils and paper.
Bauer is also on the school SWAT team. She said they welcome new students to the school, give them a tour and make them feel at home.
Bauer said her class participated in the angel tree last Christmas. She said they raised $70 for a 3-year-old boy and an 8-year-old girl.
She said students also brought pennies in to donate to the soup kitchen. They raised $143.54 cents in pennies, she said.
Bauer said she was also the winner of the school chocolate sale fund-raiser two years in a row. She also played girl's basketball this year, and plays softball.
Bauer said she likes living in Havre.
"It's not too big and not too small," she said. We haven't had a lot of the problems that bigger cities would have."
She said she likes to go ice skating, and go to the mall with her friends.
Kacy Herron
Kacy Herron, daughter of Tim and Lori Herron, is a sixth grader at Havre Central Junior High.
She said she likes going to school at Havre Central.
"It's fun," Herron said. "They do a lot of activities that are fun. The teachers are nice."
Herron is a member of the school student council, has been on the honor roll for two quarters, and was selected as student of the quarter for the second quarter of this year.
Herron is active in the school's religious activities. She said she attends mass regularly and has read at mass since she was in the third grade.
She has been an altar server since the fourth grade, and has helped at the fall Harvest Dinner. She said her family has helped decorate St. Jude Thaddeus Church for Christmas for the last three years.
Herron has also volunteered to help at the soup kitchen during lent,
Herron said she has played softball since she was six, has participated in basketball since fifth grade, and plans to play volleyball this year.
Herron said she likes living in Havre.
"It's just a nice place to live," she said. "The people are nice."
She has been involved in 4-H for the last three years. She said she took cooking and a lamb to the fair the last two years.
Brittany Callahan
Brittany Callahan, daughter of Tim Callahan and Patty Nault, is an eighth-grader at the Havre Middle School.
Callahan said she enjoys going to school at the Middle School.
"They offer a variety of subjects," she said. "The teachers here are really great. They explain the subjects really well and make them really interesting."
Callahan is a member of the school's student council and is involved in a variety of activities. She said she tries to combine her school activities and community service.
She is the president of Junior HELPers, a group that tries to prevent drug and alcohol use. She said she also participates on the HELP committee, and visits the community care center.
She said she has worked on the ELF project with area firefighters. They collect canned food to split among different charity organizations throughout the town, she said.
Callahan said she is very interested in sports. She plays basketball and volleyball, likes to ski and play softball, she said. She said she likes to be with her friends and do things with them.
Callahan said she likes everything about Havre.
"I like the variety of people," she said. "The students here are great. They really do work hard to make the school a better place."
Amber Tijerina
Amber Tijerina, daughter of Sherri Tijerina, is a junior at the Havre Alternative School, or SUNS (Students United for New Successes).
Tijerina said she is very happy working in the SUNS program.
"I just love it," she said. "It's a stress-free environment, with lots of one-on-one help. We're like a family here."
Tijerina is the president of the SUNS program, and is involved in a variety of activities at the school.
They recently held an Indian Taco sale, part of which was donated to Habitat for Humanity, and part of which will be used for a field trip at the end of the year.
The program also participated in The Salvation Army's Adopt a Family at Christmas. Tijerina said SUNS has done this for the past six years.
"Everybody chips in money for gifts and brings food items for the gift basket," she said.
She said the group participates in Earth Day, cleaning up at Pepin Park, by the Dairy Queen and in the area around Robins School.
Tijerina said SUNS does a lot of work with elementary and pre-school children. She said they often work with Havre Head Start, taking the children sledding, reading to them and putting on skits.
She said they also make books with the first graders at Lincoln-McKinley, and judge the grocery sack slogans grade school students make for Red RIbbon Week.
Tijerina said she moved to Havre from Seguin, Texas, when she was six. She said now she wouldn't leave the town.
"I just love it here," she said. "I love the mountains and the trees. I'm a country girl now."
She said she likes the people in Havre better than people in the big city. She said people here are very friendly.
Tijerina said she spends most of her spare time reading and writing. She said she is interested in joining the Red Cross, but hasn't had much time to look into it yet.
Jana McPherson
Jana McPherson, daughter of Randy and Marie McPherson, is a senior at Havre High School.
"The best thing about Havre High is the interest that the townspeople and students have about everything going on here," she said. "Be it pride or spirit, there's always excitement and enthusiasm.
McPherson is the student congress president at Havre High. She said it's a lot of work, but the challenges are good. She said one of the programs she is involved in is "My little ponies," a mentor program set up by the student congress. The high school students partner up with a first grade class at an elementary school, McPherson said.
"The kids love it and the mentors do, too," she said. "It's a fun thing for both."
McPherson also plays volleyball and tennis, and is a member of the Art Club at the high school.
She said Havre is a good community to live in, full of pride.
"It's a very supportive community," she said. "Everybody in Havre likes to see fellow Havrites do well."
McPherson said she teaches young kids how to play volleyball and coaches volleyball, as well as mentoring. She said she participated in a blood drawing set up by the High School Key Club that went very well.
McPherson said she'd like to attend the University of Montana-Missoula next year, possibly majoring in biology. She said that isn't definite, but is her top choice right now.
