Various local businesses are participating in the first-ever Pullman Halloween Crawl at noon Saturday in downtown Pullman. 

From 12-4 p.m. at Manny’s Coffee House, participants can drop off carved pumpkins for a contest. The first-place winner will receive a $150 gift card, according to a flyer from Promote Pullman, LLC. 

From 3-6 p.m., downtown businesses are hosting trick-or-treating and photo walls for people to take pictures in their costumes, said Jandi Utzman, Promote Pullman, LLC owner. 

The Pullman Depot is hosting a zombie/Halloween costume contest at 5:30 p.m. Elementary and junior high students will be judged at 5:30 p.m. High school students will be judged at 6 p.m. Adults and groups will be judged at 6:30 p.m., said Victor “Vic” Hudak, Atom Heart Music owner. 

Multiple businesses are donating gift cards as prizes for the contest, Hudak said. A small group of judges will determine the winners of the four different categories.

Hudak said he pitched his costume contest idea to the Pullman Depot, which partnered with Promote Pullman, LLC for the Halloween Crawl. 

“We have these tie-ins to each other. Like, Jandi was doing a carving contest and some other events.” Hudak said, “So we thought that we could try to connect the different things going on [and do them together].” 

In total, there are about 27 to 30 businesses involved with the Halloween Crawl, Utzman said. 

Promote Pullman, LLC is hosting the event. Utzman said she started Promote Pullman, LLC to help plan events to bring companies more business.  

The company was founded at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic to help bring the community together during hard times, Utzman said. 

“With businesses shut down, we needed events. We needed to find a way to bring down customers,” Utzman said. “It kinda turned into a long-term thing.”

Promote Pullman, LLC has planned four other events in the past year. The company plans events for the community to celebrate holidays and support major local events, she said. 

“I wanted events [to appeal] from college kids to kids growing up here, to have more memories of fun events downtown,” she said.