To see a group of college students flooding into a brewery on a wintry Saturday morning may be a reason for concern, but instead of slamming shots and chugging brewskis, these fervent puzzlers queued to throw down some edge pieces and puzzle their way to victory.
Bobbie Ryder, executive director of the Downtown Pullman Association, had never heard of competitive puzzling, but was encouraged by Pullman Mayor Francis Benjamin, a lover of puzzles himself, to put it on.
“This is Francis’s idea. Francis really wanted to do a jigsaw puzzle competition,” Ryder said.
Benjamin circulated to all of the teams and assisted in handing out puzzles at the Paradise Creek Brewery competition.
“It was a joint effort; no one person could say it was my idea, but it was finally like, ‘We just got to do it,’” Benjamin said.
Communities like Palouse, Washington and Moscow, Idaho hold similar puzzle competitions, which encourage people of all ages to compete for the chance at puzzle glory. While none of the grade school divisions received any registrations, there were several family teams with young children who registered, along with single competitors, pairs and groups of three and four.
“I thought if I had two teams, I had a competition. It ended up with 54 people registering, now we’re easily over 60 people,” Ryder said.
At Paradise Creek alone, 11 teams were competing, while across downtown at the Neill Public Library, there were at least 12 pairs, individuals and family competitors.
While this event was, by all accounts, well-attended, these numbers are nowhere near the downtown Trick-or-Treat event last October.
“I think we had 1,800 people downtown. It was really big,” Ryder said.
Both the puzzle and trick-or-treat events are part of a larger push to revitalize Pullman’s historic Main Street after COVID and construction took a toll on local businesses.
“Pullman is not alone. There are small towns across the United States that are struggling,” Ryder said. “After COVID, our shopping habits changed, all those things that you used to find downtown…you don’t find that that often anymore.”
Last year, the DPA successfully elevated Pullman to affiliate status in an organization called Main Street America.
“Main Street America is a national program. They guide us and give us training and all kinds of things about how you can overcome [and] how you have to be able to shift,” Ryder said. “You have got to be able to pivot when it’s time to pivot. We may be in one of those times that we need to do some pivoting.”
One of these MSA initiatives is a tax credit program through which locally owned and operated businesses reinvest directly in the community in exchange for a significant business and occupation tax credit.
“[Local businesses] can send their tax dollars to Olympia, or they can bring all of it back here, and we can do with it what the community wants, and so we’re doing things like this,” Ryder said.
By encouraging locals to engage with these community events, they are also encouraged to patronize downtown businesses and, therefore, be more willing to do so in the future.
Back in October, during the trick-or-treating event, foot traffic was at its peak, and it drew college students and young families to Main Street. Corey Cook, local parent, emphasized the importance of downtown community events like the trick-or-treat to build connections around the challenges of raising young children.
“Trying to get out for food, it’s between naps and temper tantrums,” Cook said. “We’re getting dinner tonight, but I don’t think we would have if we weren’t here right now.”
Looking ahead to the DPA’s 2026 calendar, several more of the “small business crawl” events are lined up for Mardi Gras, Valentine’s Day, International Women’s Day and beyond. The DPA has also inherited the Music on Main concert series from the Chamber of Commerce and is already scheduling performers for the summer.
The DPA is always looking for volunteers. If you are interested in working with the DPA, information can be found on their website.
