Caleb Nickerson
ALLUMETTE ISLAND
July 13, 2017
Dozens of hungry fried potato lovers made their way to Trimmer’s Fries on Allumette Island Thursday to celebrate National French Fry Day. This is the second year Trimmer’s has celebrated the occasion and it featured a load of activities to celebrate everyone’s favorite starchy tuber.
“We have lots of games for the kids,” explained Trimmer’s owner Cheryl Smith. “We had a Mr. Potato Head contest, potato bowling, potato sack races and all kinds of potato based games.”

Smith said that she had heard about the national celebration on the radio several years back and thought it was the perfect opportunity to promote her business.
The grand finale was a french fry eating contest, where around a dozen contestants raced to down an extra-large order, still piping hot from the deep fryer. Each contestant was only allowed one bottle of water and whatever condiments they preferred.
Noah Vaillancourt prevailed in the men’s division while Hannah Dubeau took first place in the women’s division. Vaillancourt said that his strategy of dousing his fries with water to cool them down gave him the edge.
“You have to take it slow at first,” he said. “Don’t burn your mouth right at the start.”
Both Vaillancourt and Dubeau were awarded a Trimmer’s shirt as well as a potato trophy.
In addition to all the fun, Smith also presented $500 of the day’s proceeds to help start up the Chapeau 4H Club.
“I just talked to people in the community before this event to see who was the most in need,” she explained. “Right now we’re trying to revitalize the 4H Club. We thought it would be great to help them get off the ground.”