Cherries ripe and ready at festival

POLSON — The Flathead Cherry Festival saw a slew of venders, local and otherwise, come out to enjoy Polson in its prime.

And then there were the crowds and the cherries - and that’s what the fest is all about.

“I think she’s covered in cherry juice,” said Brooke Schildt, between laughs as her 7-year-old daughter Sydney tried to lick away the last remnants of the red fruit from her hands. The family was visiting the area on vacation from Nebraska.

Sydney was one of many wide-eyed youngsters to embrace a children’s cherry pit spitting contest on Main Street before the adults took their shot later in the afternoon.

Four-year-old Trenton Burland of Ronan finally mustered a good shot with his pit after swallowing a couple seeds. 

Usual suspects, the Great Scots Pipe and Drum band was on the scene in kilts and other traditional Scottish garb, rocking the bagpipes for everyone around. Unfortunately for the band members, it was plenty hot out.

“Wearing 10 pounds of wool with the lake two blocks away and trying not to get in is like dying of thirst and having a glass of water sitting in front of you,” master piper John Hamilton said.

The band is one of the festival’s main attractions, and organizers get the calls before tourists make the trip. They ask when the Great Scots will be playing.

This marks the band’s sixth year together and fifth year playing the cherry festival.

The Boys and Girls Club of Ronan had something to win on display - a 1967 289 V8 Mustang being raffled off. Tickets went for $10 a pop. The car will be restored by representatives from Car Quest, Two Creek Automotive, Collision Service, Ronan Auto Body and Ed Callantine and Tracy VanNess and the proceeds all go to the charitable organization.

One Polson high school sophomore to-be who won’t soon forget this year’s festival was Annie Venters. The event marks another important step in a family fundraising effort to get her to South America to study abroad.

Friends of Venters’ family put up an inflatable slide, an obstacle course and a couple inflatable bounce-around pits in front of the Cove Deli and Pizza and hired Venters for $8 an hour to keep the facilities in order. A family bake sale was also on the block, and Venters hosted a car wash in addition to her normal baby-sitting gig to help raise funds.

“I want to go because I love to speak the Spanish language and I think it would be an amazing experience to live in a different culture for a whole year,” she said, adding that she is still undecided if she will be spending her junior year in Brazil, Argentina or Chile.   

First she has to raise $5000 and is well on her way.

An arts and crafts fair for kids, a quilt contest, a most unique food made with cherries contest, a magic show and pie eating contests all made the festival complete. And the Great Scots, Singing Sons of Beaches and the Southern Comfort Band provided the cherry-eating melodies.