Collection of every Heritage Days button

By JOE SOVA / Hungry Horse News

A familiar face in Columbia Falls adorns this year's 29th annual Heritage Days button.

Karl Skindingsrude, the colorful, long-time emcee of Heritage Days events such as the Wildcat Athletic Endowment Association Auction, Boogie to the Bank and kiddie and main parades, is on the 2008 button.

Skindingrude's image is from a photograph taken by Chris Peterson of the Hungry Horse News during last year's Night of Lights parade.

Andy Grundstrom, who moved to Columbia Falls in 1983, might be the only person to possess every one of the 52 different Heritage Days buttons made since 1980, including the 2008 button. He was four short of the complete collection, but Jimmy Trohanov — who died earlier this year — filled in the gaps by giving Grundstrom buttons from 1981, '82, '85 and '88.

Grundstrom displays all 52 buttons on the same shirt, in order, chronologically. He said last week the shirt and buttons tip the scale at 4 1/2 pounds. Grundstrom will add to his collection as long as he can. He said that when he's gone, the shirt and button collection will be donated to the Columbia Falls Area Chamber of Commerce — to be used as a display.

What is now Heritage Days was known as Progress Days until 1975, when the name of the celebration was changed to Western Roundup Days. That moniker stood for five years, then Heritage Days came into being in 1980.

FOR MORE THAN a decade, it has been up to Heritage Days committee member Shirley Reynolds to come up with ideas for the annual button. There have been as many as five different buttons the same year, but only one for 2008, with Skindingsrude's image.

"Karl has devoted so much time every year being our DJ," Reynolds said Tuesday. "We needed to honor him."

Heritage Days buttons, which cost $1 each to purchase, have a new wrinkle this year. For the first time, three buttons will be worth cash to the owner. Each button is numbered, and three numbers are drawn Sunday at Marantette Park during Family Day. The drawings, over a three-hour period from 1 to 3 p.m., are worth $100, $200 and $300. But you have to be present to win the cash if your number is drawn.

Buttons can be purchased at the Columbia Falls Area Chamber of Commerce visitors center in Marantette Park and from a number of local businesses. Proceeds go to help fund Heritage Days events.

"We hope to start doing this annually," Reynolds said of giving cash awards for certain buttons.

REYNOLDS HAS BEEN the "Heritage Days button-maker" for the last 15 or 16 years. This year, she used a button/badge press to produce about 700 buttons. She has lived in Columbia Falls since she was 7 years old, coming to town with her family from Bemidji, Minn., when her father went to work for Plum Creek.

"I wanted to be involved in functions," said Reynolds, who sacked candy for Santa to give to kids during the Night of Lights parade. She has also helped beautify Columbia Falls by way of flower planting over the years. Reynolds accepts no payment for her efforts.