October 2025 in Sturgis
October is my favorite month of the year! Both my birthday and favorite holiday occur in this month, plus so many other fun festivities. I definitely stayed busy with plenty of great community events around Sturgis and the Black Hills.
To kick off October, I attended the 2025 Northern Hills Agriculture Appreciation Banquet. Our community is directly tied with the ag industry, so this is a nice way to say. “Thanks!” to all of the farmers and ranchers. It was a nice evening to catch up with community members and enjoy some good food made by High Plains Restaurant out of Newell.
The following week held the Chamber’s October Mixer over at BrewBerry Bistro. If you haven’t yet checked them out, I cannot recommend BrewBerry enough! They offer a great drink menu with locally roasted coffee beans and herbal tea as well as a delicious variety of food items. They try to source many of their ingredients locally, with a goal to promote small businesses.
The Sturgis Brewing Company hosted a music bingo event with Sturgis Rotaract on October 10th, which just so happens to be right before my birthday. What a perfect way to celebrate! They were asking for jars of jelly to be donated to the Food Pantry in exchange for bonus “Jam Bingo” cards. I love how creative our community’s organizations get when it comes to fundraising! We had a blast guessing song titles and artists from all sorts of music genres, while also enjoying some tasty Sturgis Brewing Company beverages.
My birthday had an amazing finish when my now fiance proposed to me at our home! Not to toot my own horn, but he’s a pretty great guy.
Hockey is my all time favorite sport (Go Avalanche!) so we just had to kick off the new season with a bang! Kadence and I gathered up a group of friends and went to the opening home game for the Rapid City Rush at the Monument Ice Arena. Although our team lost that evening, it was a great game with plenty of action. The way you can feel the sense of community towards our home team in that arena was almost tangible. If you’re looking for Christmas gift ideas for me, I wear a size rink-side ticket and bucket of popcorn, haha!
Getting back to Chamber-specific activities, the Annual Women’s Business Summit by SD CEO West took place at the end of October in Deadwood. Veronica, Kadence, and I all had the privilege to attend this year. We brought up plenty of 57785 magazine, Chamber membership packets, information about our events, and more to display at a booth. I was able to converse with so many amazing women from all over the region and state about both our organization and their businesses. The day was filled with productive networking and presentations from speakers, giving me useful tips for the workplace.
To finish off the beautiful month of October, I had to go all out for Halloween. Homeslice held their annual Creepy Crawl in downtown Rapid City. Kadence, my fiance, a few friends, and I all met up for this fun event. There was a murder mystery to be solved by going around to the various restaurants and pubs, looking for clues. Homeslice did a great job putting this spooky night together. The Chamber held the Downtown Sturgis Trick or Treating again this year, as well as the storefront display contest, an online costume contest, and the first ever Community Trick or Treating Map. We went around town talking to homeowners or leaving notes, inviting the decorated houses to be included on a yard sale-style map. This helped parents of trick or treaters find houses offering goodies, and the homes off the beaten path were given recognition.
October is one crazy month for me, with all kinds of festivities. But now we can begin to move our attention towards November and December, along with their respective holidays. What plans do you have for Thanksgiving and beyond? Do you travel to visit family all over the country or do you prefer to stay home, snuggled up under a blanket?