“I wish that every day was Saturday and every month was October

— Charmaine J. Forde

Octobrrrrr is here, Main Street Gardnerville!

It was a beautiful sight to wake up to a dusting of snow on the mountains this morning. Fall is such a lovely time of year here in the valley. Watching the trees transition to fall is a spectacle. The tiny leaves dance as they fall, revealing colors that are so bright and vibrant that they can only occur in nature. The gold, oranges, and reds—they’re exquisite. I say this often: how lucky are we to live in a place of such beauty and all four seasons.. albeit sometimes all four seasons occur in the course of a single day. Ah, Nevada, you beautiful wonder. Happy Birthday to you.

We survived our first fall freeze here in the valley; even though it will be short-lived, it’s getting us ready for cozy evenings by a fire, our favorite coffee shops and eateries’ seasonal offerings, fabulous fall fashion, and Santa! It’s never too early around here to talk about the magic of the holiday season that is coming your way like a freight train, so get ready. Enter eye roll and heavy sigh here.

Before we get whisked away by the scent of pine trees, gingerbread, and cider, we still have the beautiful, bountiful season of autumn, with celebrations and giving thanks to enjoy. In true Main Street Gardnerville fashion, we kicked off fall in the only way we know how to do things around here—over the top!

All I can say is WOW, what a turnout for our Annual Slaughterhouse Lane Coffin Races and Fall  Festival. I was blown away this year by all the families and the community who attended this event, which has grown so much over the years. This event has become a staple and tradition in welcoming fall into our lives, and it is, by far, one of my favorite events we host. I love seeing the families, and young ones year after year build scarecrows, performing for the crowd, enjoying live music, getting their faces painted, taking a Tahoe Sleigh Rides haunted hayride, and watching some coffins racing downtown. Our friend Monique De Haviland did a fantastic job, as per usual, of bringing an incredible lineup of local musicians paired with our local, talented youth performers: All About Dance, Dance Workshop, Northwest Martial Arts, and CBP Aerial Arts; it was perfection.

We are so grateful that our friends at the East Fork Gallery partnered again this year by bringing the 35th annual Scarecrow Festival back for the community to build their seasonal scarecrows. We even welcomed a new addition, Grandpa Archie’s Haunted House—all made possible by the hard work of the retired DCSO Duffy Family and their incredible support team.

The Slaughterhouse Lane Coffin races celebrated nine years of rubbing and racing. It would not be a spectacle without a few coffin malfunctions and a team eating hay. Congratulations to our coffin teams for their incredible builds and for laying it all out there on Slaughterhouse Lane, and a more enormous congratulations to the winners of this year’s races … drum roll, please… ECV Clampers won the title of Crappiest Coffin (10 more minutes!); Dance Workshop the Cracked Nuts won Best Costume; StorAll 20/30 Black Betty won Fan Favorite, and Main Street Gardnerville Who Do the Voodoo laid it all out as the 2024 Championship team. Congratulations to all the teams; we can’t wait to see you back on Slaughterhouse Lane next year.

Of course, none of this would be possible without the tremendous support from the Town of Gardnerville, our amazing Volunteers, my overworked and incredible assistant Minos, our wonderful vendors, Mike Olson, the best Coffin Race MC around, and our generous sponsors: Carson Valley Health, Quick Space, Chase and Sheets, Carson Tahoe Health, Jacobs Berry Farm, Dixon Realty, JT Basque, Pacific Crest Dermatology, the UPS Store, Thomas Real Estate Group, Bill Hemphill, and Settelmeyer and Reiman Hay. Your continued support has been instrumental in continuing to make this event a reality and tradition for our families and community. We are truly grateful for each one of you. If you missed it this year, don’t worry; we will return to Slaughterhouse Lane on October 4th, 2025, and do it all again.

October has been a busy month around here. This month was recently proclaimed Breast Cancer Awareness Month at the October 3rd Douglas County Board of County Commissioner meeting (at the 53:00 minute mark). This is the 4th year Commissioner Mark Gardner has made this proclamation for a cause near and dear to his heart and so many of our community affected. Our Paint the Town Pink campaign is in full swing to support this proclamation. We recently partnered with our community health champions at Carson Valley Health by hanging pink ribbons along the light posts downtown. To add a unique flair, our flower sub-committee worked hard to transform the seasonal adopt-a-pot flower pots into Pink Flower bowls that now adorn our Main Street. You can click on the link below and sponsor these Pink Flower bowls; three-quarters of the funds raised will be donated to our local cancer treatment centers.

But wait… there is MORE. Tomorrow, Saturday, October 19th, is our inaugural Paint it Pink 5k Fun Run/Walk at 8 am at Heritage Park with $5 for every entry donated to our cancer treatment centers. Online registration is closed; however, you can still register on the day at 7 am. Our partners in health, Carson Valley Health, and Carson Tahoe Health, will be on hand with resources, fun giveaways, and raffles. With everything we do, this fun run is costume-encouraged, and we hope to see every shade of pink as far as the eye can see. We are sitting at just under 200 registered runners, and it will surely be a perfectly pink affair for all to enjoy.

This is the final run in the We Run This Town Series, and we are excited to see 75 runners ready to earn that limited edition I Run This Town tee shirt for completing all three runs in the series. Congratulations to all you dedicated runners out there. We can’t wait to see you tomorrow. Like I say, exercise gives you endorphins; endorphins make people happy, and we LOVE happy people.

Remember, we have the 3rd Annual Dia de Los Muertos Festival on Saturday, November 2nd, from 11-5 pm at Heritage Park. This is quickly becoming a community favorite and a beautiful cultural celebration in downtown Gardnerville. We are partnering again with our friends at Douglas County Community Services and Carson Valley Arts Council to present this festival. We are very excited to announce the Latino Arte De Culture will return with Aztec Dancers and their 12ft La Catrina Doll. Mariachi Sol de Reno will return with incredible mariachi music, local Grupo Paso Fino is scheduled to perform, and the Nuestra Dancers will also return with beautiful folkloric dance. It will be a day filled with authentic food, beverages, and vendors from our local Hispanic business community and beyond. If you haven’t attended, please add it to your must-do list. For a quick highlight of last year’s event, click HERE!

There is always a little something for everyone on Main Street Gardnerville. Thank you for hanging with me through all the exciting news and upcoming events. We can’t wait to see you downtown.  Please take some time to visit our unique shops, businesses, and eateries. Without our downtown businesses, we wouldn’t have a downtown. Let’s ensure they feel our love and support for all they do for our community.  Remember, spend local, tip generously, and be kind to each other. We can’t wait to see you downtown.

See you soon, Main Street!