Jacob Dimond / jake@yelmonline.com
The City of Yelm’s parks and recreation department has been busy all throughout 2025 and will continue that trend in October with three free events for families and community members to enjoy, including “Boo Bash,” “Haunted Market” and “WALK-tober.”
During an interview on Monday, Oct. 15, Yelm Communications and Recreation Coordinator Line Roy told the Nisqually Valley News that one of the many community activities set for next month is “WALK-tober.” The event will occur throughout the entire month of October and will include prizes for those who choose to participate.
“With WALK-tober, the last few years we’ve done the 100 miles in 100 days walking challenge in the community. This is just a different iteration of that. You’ll walk every day and post a picture onto social media, and then we’ll pool prizes from those posts. Every time you post, you’ll enter to win some prizes,” Roy said. “It’s free to participate. We just want to see some people out there enjoying the community and the last little bit of sunshine before we turn into a soggy mess.”
Then, the first annual “Haunted Market” event is set to occur from 5 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 23, at the Yelm Community Center. This event will replace the “Spooky Trail” event, and Roy believes it will be something new and fun for attendees to enjoy.
“The Haunted Market will be like a farmers market or vendors market, except the vendors are leaning into the spooky goods. There will be some seasonal treats and things like that,” Roy said. “We’re bringing some of the spooky elements through activities like a fire dancer. We might have an aerialist. We’re going to do the Halloween decor out there.”
Finally, the final STEAM event of 2025 is set from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Oct. 25, at the Yelm Community Center in the form of “Boo Bash.” Yelm’s STEAM program has been ongoing since May and has focused on science, technology, engineering, arts and math.
“We’ve been doing these programs about once a month throughout the summer. We started in May, and Boo Bash will be the last STEAM event of 2025. The kiddos come in, and they’ll have some halloween themed arts and crafts and activities to do,” Roy said. “If the kiddos want to come in costume, they’re definitely welcome to do that. It’s not trick-or-treating or trunk-or-treating. It’s crafts and activities. It’s super cute. We’ve had a really good turnout for the entire series of these events. The kiddos just have a great time.”
Roy believes that the parks and recreation department provides continuous activities that are rooted in making Yelm a fun, healthy and connected community.
“We want to build experiences that bring the community together and create memories for them,” she said. “We have expanded our programming in the past three years to move from two events — Christmas in the Park and Prairie Days — to now we continuously host 75 to 100 events every year. Most of them are free to participate in, and we just want to get people connected in our community to enjoy the parks and spaces we live in.”
During a Yelm City Council meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 9, Roy gave a preview at several Christmas-themed events set to occur this December — with the first being photos with Santa and a tree lighting on Friday, Dec. 5, at Yelm Community Center. Then, on Saturday, Dec. 6, the annual Christmas in the Park will return to Yelm City Park. More information on both events will be announced online on the department’s Facebook page.
“We’re already planning for 2026, building on the momentum of this year — including the return of community favorites, and we’ll be celebrating milestones like America’s 250th birthday,” Roy said during a Yelm City Council meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 9. “We’ll also introduce new events like backyard bricks. We manage our resources very carefully, leveraging partnerships and donations to stretch our budget. Because here in Yelm, we’re not just planning events, we’re building our community.”
