Autumn party: Othello Chamber hosting Family Fall Festival

OTHELLO — The Greater Othello Chamber of Commerce will host a Family Fall Festival Oct. 21 from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. in front of Othello City Hall. This is the first fall festival the chamber has put on.

“There are a lot of amazing places that surround Othello where you can go and do a fall festival or things like that, but we're trying to make those same types of events available here in our hometown,” Chamber Manager Jackie Wilhelm said.

Wilhelm joined the chamber as a board member earlier in the year before becoming manager in early June.

“We have a really great energetic board who is very involved,” Wilhelm said. “Our big picture plan is that we want to be able to provide more free community events to Othello, to where people don't have to leave out of town and spend a lot of money.”

The Othello City Council also partnered with the chamber to put on the event by waiving all of the event facility fees other than the damage deposit, which the chamber will get back after the event. The fees waived totaled about $1500.

Wilhelm said that usually the chamber would be dealing with the tail end of the farmer’s market season in the fall, but the chamber’s efforts to quickly set up the July 4 event, poor farmer’s market turnout and their changes in management over the summer led to a different priority.

“We decided to put our effort and ideas into other events that would be more successful for Othello,” Wilhelm said.

The festival will feature numerous vendors and fall-themed activities, including a costume contest, pumpkin painting contest, family fall photos, trunk or treat candy giveaways from local businesses, arts and crafts, face painting and a Halloween-themed movie sponsored by McCain.

Both the costume contest and the pumpkin painting contest will feature prizes sponsored by Anytime Fitness, Wilhelm said. The costume contest will be split into different age groups with multiple prizes each. The pumpkin contest is also sponsored by Sunny Farms, who will provide the pumpkins, and Wal-Mart, who will provide the paint and supplies.

Wilhelm said Leadership, AVID and Honor Society students from McFarland Middle School and Othello High School have volunteered to help set up, break down and run the event.

With the fall festival, Wilhelm said she wanted to highlight more businesses in Othello that might not normally be present at an event like this, so the chamber is charging less money for non-food vendors.

“My take on this specifically is trying to partner with other businesses to kind of give them a chance to give back to the community, so I feel like that's the best way,” Wilhelm said. “I’m hoping that I get a lot of homemakers who want to participate, just to kind of spotlight them and let the community know that there are home-based businesses.”

The list of informational and non-food vendors signed on for the event includes Phoenix Family Farm, Time Honored Traditions, Pegs and Dots, IDesigns, Aesthetically Yours and more. Food vendors will include Blacky’s Smokin’ Sweet, Carrillo Crazy Snacks, Take-It-Eazy, DeliExprex and a food booth run by the chamber.

Wilhelm said they are hoping more than five hundred people attend the event.

“I hope that with this event, it will bring more businesses to get involved, and kind of show them with their support the types of things that we can get done in our community,” she said.

For more information visit the chamber’s Facebook page or contact them at 509-488-2683.

Gabriel Davis may be reached at gdavis@columbiabasinherald.com. Download the Columbia Basin Herald app on iOS and Android.