A gathering of global cultures...

A crowd favorite, the caber toss, required athletes to lift a 13 foot , 41 pound tree trunk as far as they could. This was the second time Lawrence Jones of Boise had competed in the caber toss. He admitted it wasn't the weight of the caber that presented the greatest challenge but the awkwardness of the wooden pole.

by Tim Bondy

Mountain Home News

The second annual Highland Games and World Fair took place in Carl Miller Park on Saturday, and organizers said the games were quite successful.

Terry Hall came in third place in the freestyle bagpipe competition. The event focuses on innovative ways to show how traditional bagpiping and drumming can be elevated to a modern sound and approach, according to Fran Capples, who came from Nampa to attend the Highland Games.

The history of the Highland Games likely goes back to before the 12th century in the Scottish Highland region, and this year's event maintained that historical focus as an overall athletic event and celebration.

Saturday's games featured nine athletic throwing events commonly seen at similar games held around the world each year. However, this event had a secondary focus of music, dance from other world cultures.

The City of Trees Pipe and Drum band opened the games as they fired up their bagpipes and marched through the park winding their way to the entertainment stage area at far end of the park.

Keeping with the world fair theme of this year's Highland Games means looking outside the Celtic culture. Linda Schulze and Krista Packer from the Society for Creative Anachronism filled a new niche with their medieval-themed clothing and display.

From there, 91 athletes that included 29 children, spread out among the nine event venues to vie for Highland Games' glory and fun.

All of athletes received Highland Games T-shirts to wear during the competition. The adults wore the blue shirts, and the children wore orange shirts. In the weeks leading up to the games, the organizers held a emblem or logo design contest with the winning design being printed on each of those shirts.

Jazmeena Schroeder, an aspiring artist and senior from Richard McKenna Charter High School, won $50 and two art supply kits for designing what she called a "dragon melding into the U.S. and Scottish flag," logo for the games.

Polly Saulls, the Mountain Home Highland Games and World Fair organizer, wanted to make sure the games were family friendly in all ways, from the entertainment right down to the athletic events.

"This is a true family throwing event. If a family wanted, they could have mom, dad and all the kids throwing," said Saulls, who explained the local Taco John's restaurant fully sponsored the children's events so families wouldn't have to even pay the entry fee for their young competitors.

This year, Saulls was able to host the popular freestyle bagpiping contest. The event featured solo or groups of bagpipers competing on stage in front of a judge and a large crowd in hopes of being named the best bagpiper for the games.

Brent Davis won first place in the event. A trio consisting of Brian Sheldon, Matiu Call and Kurt Kahm took second place while playing the song "Itchy Fingers." There was a tie for third place between Tim Eld and Terry Hall.

"I'm was the least experienced and the oldest of all the pipers on that stage today... we were all great today," Brent Davis said while letting on he has only been playing bagpipes for about two and a half years.

The "world fair" theme of the games started last year and continued this year, and this was seen in the diversity of the vendors and entertainment.

I wanted this to be a multi-cultural event and help the small businesses in the area, Saulls said while letting on she wants to expand on the world fair idea more in the future.

Keeping with the world fair theme, Saulls talked Boise vendor Abdul Mukomwa into selling their creations at the games this year.

"I'm from Africa originally. We were at the Harvest Festival in town last week and really liked the idea of world fair... we'll be back next year," Mukomwas said.

People from all over the western U.S. attended the games this year. There were athletes from Montana, Oregon and Utah. Most of those attending were from the Boise area.

These games were every bit as good as the Boise games we went to a couple weeks ago" Kurt and Connie Kahm said while explaining they especially liked how friendly the people in Mountain Home have been to them.

Saulls said she organized the children portion of the games to increase the interest in the games for next year and into the future. But there was also a lot of novice adults thrower in this year's game as well, she emphasized.

"We had some friend throwing in the games and decided to head down here to see what they were all about... well worth our time," Kevin Squier and Erik Maliff said while saying they plan to be throwing in next year's Mountain Home games if they have them again.

Saulls said she was very happy with how the Highland Games turned out this year and is already planning next year's games, currently planned for Oct. 8, 2016.