Just the right amount of fun

PINEHURST –– Coming off of a successful 2023 event, it’s safe to say that Pinehurst Days is officially back.

Hosted by the Pinehurst/Kingston Lions Club, Pinehurst Days was three days of family fun in the not-so-hot sun, which helped keep people around and engaged.

“We had a great turnout. Great weather – I can't remember the weather being this perfect. It never got too hot,” PK Lions Club member Bruce Rumpel said. “Great turnout for the parade too – it ran about 37 minutes. A lot of the local fire departments and police departments made it out as well, which is always a great addition.”

The event was themed “Honoring Heroes” and with that, the PK Lions decided that they would offer free breakfast to any current or retired military, police, and first responders as well as having them featured in the parade.

“We served over 250 people during our breakfast and probably 50 or 60 of them were either police, first responders, or military,” Rumpel said. “We knew going in that we’d probably give away a lot of breakfasts, but most of them wouldn’t let us cover it. They either wanted to pay for it themselves or at least provide a donation.”

The rest of the three-day event went just as well, Friday’s dinner had more than 100 people attend, more than 150 people attended Real Life Silver Valley's community movie night, the vendors kept people busy for all three days, Sverwood had people dancing on Saturday afternoon, and the Commancheros Car Show provided plenty of cool and classic vehicles for folks to peruse.

On Saturday evening, the crowd shifted to Pinehurst’s Dike Road, where the defacto main event of the weekend, the burnouts, kicked off.

Hundreds of people lined the road or sat in the bleachers as dozens of vehicles tried their hand at laying rubber on the asphalt.

The smell of melting tires, clouds of smoke, and the occasional pop of a tire kept the crowd on their feet.

“The turnout was better than ever,” burnout organizer Miranda Elam said. “Everything went off without a hitch, and everyone had fun. Thanks again to the competitors, spectators, volunteers, police department, and first responders – We’re looking forward to next year already.”

While Saturday night was entertainment for everyone, Sunday was for the kids – one of the newer additions to the festival is a series of BMX races for the youths and the competition has really heated up over the years.

Lions club member Brad Kitchen organizes the races and was impressed by the level of participation and sportsmanship that oftentimes is missing from youth sports events.

Everyone 14 years old and under was welcome to participate with one requirement – all riders had to wear a helmet.

“The kids we super good sports and the parents were very supportive,” Kitchen said. “Many of the parents helped man the pit crews and EMS responders when there were crashes. At 34 entries, this was our biggest yet. It was a great way to finish out Pinehurst Days 2023.”

In 2019, the festival was dwindling with many organizers wondering if they should just let it go altogether. That year they decided that they would give it more go – it did not disappoint.

Then in 2020, when everything was lost to pandemic restrictions, it only increased the community’s thirst to host their marquee event.

In the years since, the event has evolved into a mix of both old and new – bringing back the burnouts in 2019 was a major step in the right direction, but Rumpel remembers when the festival was even bigger.

“Pinehurst Days was started by the former Pinehurst Chamber of Commerce,” Rumpel recalled. “When their chamber died off they let the festival go away and it went away for a few years. The Lions Club stepped up and brought it back. The first year we put it on we used $400 of donated money, but that was a long time ago.”

The event used to be a late spring, early summer attraction as well, which included a traveling carnival that would make stops in Pinehurst, Kellogg, and Wallace on its way through the region, however, unpredictable weather made it difficult to pull off a multi-day event so the event was moved to the first weekend in August.

“The move to August resulted in us losing the carnival, but the event really took off when we added the Commancheros Car Show,” Rumpel said. “That gave people a reason to come into town and spend more than 30 minutes just looking around. Now they come in and park, they shop the vendors, look at the cars, watch the parade – there’s a lot of things to keep them around for.”

Pinehurst Days is the primary fundraiser for the PK Lions, who in turn reinvest the money into the community through events, activities, and scholarships.

“We’ve got a great group of people who put on Pinehurst Days – many of them are Lions, but a lot of our community members are stepping up as well to organize different parts of the event and we’re so happy to have them.”

BMX Race Results

2 Year Old Strider Division

First Place: Dalton Flores

3 and 4-Year-old Division

First Place: Knox Squires

Second Place: Layne Vidal

Third Place: Gage Farmin

5-Year-old Division

First Place: Radley Haynes

Second Place: Bradley Hendzel

Third Place: Rusty Zupan

6-Year-old Division

First Place: Max Lewis

Second Place: Jackson Hager

Third Place: Tucker Vidal

7-Year-old Division

First Place: Cayson Vidal

Second Place: Lily Hendzel

Third Place: Fysher Rasmussen

8-Year-old Division

First Place: Paxton Peterson

Second Place: Rainy Zuoan

Third Place: Nai’a Kalac

9-Year-old Division

First Place: Gannon Farmin

Second Place: Jackson Flores

Third Place: Clara Hall

11 and 12-Year-old Division

First Place: Kash Haynes

Second Place: Jake Vidal

Third Place: Eric Hall

11,12 and 13-year-old

First Place: Gracen Haynes

Second Place: Kashton Haynes

14-Year-old Division

First Place: Zaiden Mithello Menlec

Second Place: Robert Spoor-Sharp

BMX Bike Winners

Radley Haynes and James Wendel