By Ron VandenBoom
Call it a spud scramble or a tater tackle, but what it amounted to was a lot of free potatoes for anybody with a sack and the desire for free spuds.
Dozens of Havre residents took advantage of the free potato giveaway Friday at the Hill County Fairgrounds.
Wayne Maughan, owner of Maughan Farms in Fort Benton, donated the truckload of spuds after being contacted by Havre resident Heather Hinckley.
Hinckley said she heard about Maughan's generosity from a friend and called Maughan to learn the details. She also called some organizers of a similar giveaway in Chinook last week to learn what they thought of the event.
The potatoes, part of a batch of seed potatoes Maughan couldn't sell, were brought to Havre for the one-time-only giveaway.
The giveaway was scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. but, according to Hinckley, there were "wall-to-wall people" waiting to get at the pile of tantalizing tubers as early as 10:15 a.m. By 11 a.m. the pile was about half gone and going fast.
A donation bucket was set up to help with transportation costs and a driver.
Hinckley said giveaways are planned and anyone interested in having a giveaway in their community should call Maughan at (406) 734-5255.
