The Sugarbeet Festival was a success and holds promise for the future

The Chinook Sugarbeet Festival saw hundreds of people coming out for events Saturday, with many people saying they were glad with the festival's return.

In the past, the Sugarbeet Festival has had an overarching theme, with the parade and community events matching the theme usually directed toward Chinook businesses.

The festival wasn't held in 2017, and this year, there was no theme, letting the community branch out to different ideas, stressing community pride.

Vendors

Indiana Street was lined with vendors selling assorted goods and having activities for the communities. One of these vendor booths was for the Jesse James Memorial Foundation and its first-year dunking booth.

Children lined up to purchase their chance to try to dunk various teachers and public servants.

Ruth Dannels, founder of the Jesse James Memorial Foundation, said she had started the foundation after her son had died in 2016 on Super Bowl Sunday from injuries sustained in a car wreck. He was 18 years old. She said this was a way to carry on his legacy of love - he was a kind compassionate person who liked to help. After volunteering at the 2014 Special Olympics in Havre, he wanted to become a special needs educator.

The foundation has awarded several scholarships to seniors over the years as well as donated $5,000 to the Special Olympics in Havre every year, Dannels said. She added that the foundation has also had many projects at the school and that schools are always in need of something because they are constantly losing funds. Dannels said she hopes that her foundation can continue serving the Chinook community. She said there was a great turn out and many people were having fun this year.

Dannels said Blaine County Sheriff candidate Undersheriff Frank Billmayer, his competitor Sheriff's Office Lt. John Colby, Chinook Police Chief Elmer Zarn, Blaine County Justice of the Peace Perry Miller, local teachers and others waited to be dunked in the tank.

Miller, 25-year justice of the peace and the high school wrestling coach, said the dunking booth was a good deal for a good cause and he was having fun at the festival this year. He added that Ruth Dannels had come to him with the idea of him being involved with the dunk tank.

Jesse Dannels was a fine young man, Miller said, and if he is out there looking down on him getting dunked he hopes he's getting a laugh out of it.

"It was cold before they put the ice cubes in," Miller said, laughing as he wiped himself down with his towel.

Another vendor at the event was Chinook minister Sherry Edwards making altered bullet shell jewelry. She said she was having a great time at the festival this year and the crowd had been good, adding that even though the crowd may have appeared small, events were scattered around between Indiana Street and the fairgrounds. She added that not having a festival last year may have hurt the number of people that came out, but she was sure that the festival will build momentum again in time.

She said she had gotten the idea for her business after receiving one of the bullet casings of her father, a World War II veteran in the U.S. Army Air Corps, when he had died. She said she wanted to repurpose it and make something beautiful. She added that she had first started about two months ago and was unsure she would be able to have a booth for the festival because of a lack of inventory, but when the time came she had enough that she was proud of and contacted someone in the committee and set up her booth.

Community

The community members who were at the festival made their way up and down the street talking to vendors and laughing with each other. One was Izaac Goldhahn, 17.

He said he was having a good time and there was a good crowd at the event, adding that the car show had many neat vehicles this year. He said his mother would be riding a unicycle in this year's parade and he was very excited for the street dance that night. He said he dances the two step.

He said he was a little disappointed this year that there was no theme, remembering BNSF was the theme last festival and that there seemed to be more activities then. But with some more time he is sure that next year the festival will be bigger and better, he said.

Chad Beck and his family were also at the festival. Beck said he was having a great time and he was glad they had brought back the event, adding that his family had had fun throughout the day. He said he had fun at the Three-on-Three Basketball Tournament and his son had fun at the Fun Run Race earlier in the day. He said the parade would be fun and he was excited to see what will all be there now that there was no theme. He added that he was also looking forward to the street dance that night.

Mary Pyette, a retired Blaine County nurse, said she was also very excited for this year's parade, adding that she had served the community for years and she was proud to see Chinook doing so well. She added that she was also the first lady of Red Rock Power and that her husband and she were the ones who had gone out to get the company's first truck. She said she was very proud to have Red Rock Power in the parade this year. She said that she was very active in the community even after retiring and she is on the Sweet Medical Board and the Sweet Nursing Home Board and she doesn't miss any events in town.

"Chinook is the best town around," she said, adding that she plans to write a book titled "Mary Said," where she will tell the history of Chinook.

The members of the band Plowed Under, which was playing the street dance that night, were also at the events earlier in the day. Justin Kallenberger, the band's guitarist and vocalist, said he was having fun and was enjoying all the things at the festival.

Band members T.J. Overcast, a Chinook native, and Rob Everingham of Havre said that they were also having a good time at the festival and that they were very excited to play that night.

Overcast said one of the strongest parts about Chinook is that it is filled people who don't want to be anything else but themselves, even with the festival, it is a very unique part that is specific to the town.

"Small town festivals are the heart of Montana," Everingham said, adding that everybody is able to kick-back and have some fun, taking a break from harvest or whatever else they are doing and being able to come down and relax.