Carnival rewards kids a prize and a smile

Andrew Waite

Mineral Independent

Every kid was a winner at St. Regis’s Fourth of July carnival.

If they didn’t get the ring on the bottle, the ball in the cup or the beanbag in the bucket, they still got a small prize and an enjoyable time.

That didn’t prevent the game players from doing all they could to win the bigger awards.

Adam Sabota, 6, had a pretty clever strategy in the beanbag toss. He held out his non-throwing arm in front of him and used it as a guide. Looking over his arm was like looking through a scope.

“I’m a good thrower,” Sabota said. He certainly had some muscle behind his tosses. One shot flew right past the buckets that he was aiming for and into the lengthy grass behind the game stand.

When Sabota made one of his shots, it slammed against the back of the pails. He won a green water gun for his efforts but came up one throw shy of a large prize.

Marissa Driskell also won something green. Driskell, an 11-year-old from Wallace, Idaho was perusing the carnival with her grandmother, trying her luck at many of the games.

Her strategy at the ring toss seemed to be: don’t think too much. It didn’t work out too well for Driskell, but she still got a green bracelet for playing.

“I’m staying in the shade,” she said. Temperatures climbed into the 90s on July 4, according to weather.com.

Chandell Anselmo, who was working the ring toss with husband John, said Driskell’s no-thought strategy worked for some other children.

Winter Giles had similar luck at the cup game. She dropped the ball into the mug like it was no big deal and won a pink cup for the good throw.

Winter’s grandfather George Humphries said his family comes to St. Regis from Spokane, Wash., and Reading, Calif., every Fourth for the fireworks and the Clark Fork River.

“And we’ll see you next year,” he said.

While some kids spent their tickets on games trying to win prizes, others just wanted to have some fun. That’s why Nick Summar from Great Falls geared up for the “bungee machine,” as he called it.

Participants spent two tickets to strap on a life-preserver of a vest that was attached to a large bungee cord secured from the back wall.

The goal was to run as far down the ramp as possible before the cord whipped the person backward.

Like those kids playing the carnival games, Summar,10, had a strategy.

“You have to go as low as you can,” he said. “You have to go as hard as you can.” Summar said the machine was “awesome.”

Dante Lewis got his thrills in the human bowling apparatus.

After being strapped into a life-size hamster ball, Lewis was rolled down the lane and into the giant, soft pins. He got a strike, but that is not what excited him.

“I liked that when you get in, you start going upside down, cause you are just hanging there,” Lewis said.

Other kids stayed away from machines that looked scary and simply chose to make themselves look scary.

Nicholas Juelfs had his face painted to look like Spiderman.

The Gillette, Wyo., 4-year-old was speechless after he looked in the mirror and saw what he had transformed into.  

Aside from all the kids who won and had a good time at the carnival, the St. Regis Community Council didn’t end the day as losers, either. They could not say if they had turned a profit or not, but ticket sellers said the carnival was definitely popular.

“The kids tickets are a huge success,” said volunteer Corrynn Cochran.