Every year in November, Mount Ellis Elementary in Bozeman, Mont., hosts the Wild West Fest. Many different members from the community bring their families, friends and neighbors to enjoy the fun-filled evening.
The Wild West Fest celebrated its 22nd annual gathering on Nov. 9. As always, it started with an amazing chili cook-off. Community members donated 18 slow cookers full of chili. People stood in line to try the chili they wanted to have for their dinner. The Wild West Fest dinner included a bowl of chili, salad and a cornbread muffin. To top off the meal, the mouthwatering bake sale offered pie, cake, brownies, decadent caramel apples and much more.
Later in the evening judges with discerning palates sampled the chili selection in both the vegetarian and meat categories. After several minutes of careful deliberation, this year's winners and runners up were selected. In the vegetarian category the winner was Randy Jones, with Shirley Johnson as a runner up. The winner in the meat chili category was Dale March, and the runner up was Albert Sevilla. As a reward, they received gift certificates to Sweet Peaks Ice Cream.
The entertainment during the event is always the best part. Guests enjoyed a bounce house, an obstacle course, sumo wrestling, games for the smaller children and a box maze made by students from the Montana State University engineering department. Eighth graders class sold popcorn and drinks and raised $250 toward their class trip.
Wild West Fest was a successful event because of so many different school and community members. It couldn’t have been possible without them. Together we raised more than $2,000 to benefit school improvement projects.
