Jeeps and huckleberries, huckleberries and Jeeps

By CHANSE WATSON

Managing Editor

WALLACE — The annual Wallace Huckleberry Festival is set to take on a more rugged look this year as Dave Smith Motors will be partnering their Jeep-A-Thon with the event.

Scheduled for Aug. 16-17, the joint event will have all the standard huckleberry-themed fun one would expect with this festival — but it also now includes an extra helping of Jeep-themed fun as well.

Detailed out by Dave Smith Motors representative Mary Kae Repp at the Wallace Chamber of Commerce luncheon on Wednesday, this new partnership will be a significant add-on to last year’s Jeep-A-Thon.

The confirmed Jeep activities will include a Jeep display on Sixth Street (near City Hall), a Jeep Fest contest, the presence of the Dave Smith Jeep VIP Club booth and a drawing to win a 2020 Jeep Gladiator.

The Jeep Fest contest categories will include most decorated, most accessories, extreme off-road and genuinely classic. Awards will be given to first- through third-place finishers, as well as a best overall people’s choice award.

Activities that are possible (but are not yet confirmed) include a Jeep drive up in the hills, a parade, toy Jeep races and a street dance with a live band that is lit up by the Jeeps.

With all of this on top of the traditional Huckleberry Festival activities such as the 5K Fun Run, pie eating contest, dog costume contest and vendor booths — Repp is optimistic about this year’s turnout.

“I think one of the things we find most exciting about the event is that we have this unbelievably large database of over 500,000 people and we are sending out emails to those people a couple times a month, making them aware of the Huckleberry Festival.”

Wallace Chamber Director Dave Copelan is also excited for the community to partner-up with Dave Smith.

“It’s a great opportunity to tell the story of Wallace and the Silver Valley to Jeep enthusiasts from literally all over the planet. We are looking forward to working with the Dave Smith team, the city of Wallace and Shoshone County authorities to make this a fun, safe and well — attended event.”

While Dave Smith has been known in the past to sponsor events like these, Repp stressed that committing to this event is a big deal for them considering some recent financial changes.

“We’ve made some fairly significant budgetary changes at our company and we’ve canceled a lot of our sponsorships because we have reduced our spending. This is the only sponsorship that we kept for the entire year.”

For the latest information on the event, visit the Huckleberry Jeep Festival and 5K Fun Run Facebook page.