The 35th Girls Night Out event in Centralia was a success, with local business owners and shoppers alike enjoying the sunshine, fall deals and support for a local nonprofit.
“It was successful. Everybody was happy. The businesses were extremely happy,” event organizer Sandy Walczyk said Monday morning.
Walczyk, who owns the Bath Depot, Inc. inside the Shady Lady in downtown Centralia, was one of the local business owners who founded Girls Night Out in 2008.
“I just wanted to bring attention to what we offer downtown, and it just seemed like a good thing to do,” Walcyzk said.
Fellow downtown Centralia business owner Flossy Heymann was involved in the Centralia Downtown Association at the time and has stayed involved in Girls Night Out as it has grown over the years.
Heymann and her husband co-own Heymann Whinery, which was located in downtown Centralia from about 2009 to 2016.
“My husband and I moved our shop home in 2016, but we were just so engrossed with downtown Centralia when we had our shop here. It’s just our favorite, so I just keep going with the Girls Night Out. It’s just a fun time of the year,” Heymann said.
Over the course of 35 Girls Night Out events held in the last 16 years, the event has grown to include more local businesses and more attractions for participants, including a limo to take shoppers up and down Tower Avenue and gift bags full of items donated by the participating businesses.
“It kind of just keeps evolving,” Heymann said. “We keep looking for, you know, ‘What else can we add to it to make it a little bit different?’”
The event also includes a gift basket raffle, where Girls Night Out participants can buy raffle tickets to enter drawings for gift baskets that were donated by local businesses.
Shoppers can also enter for separate drawings at each of the participating businesses.
All proceeds from the gift basket raffle and $2 out of the $5 per-person admission fee go toward the Hope Alliance, a local nonprofit serving survivors of domestic violence and sexual abuse.
Girls Night Out has always benefited a charity, Walcyzk said, but has been supporting the Hope Alliance for the last nine years or so.
“We always have had a charity, and we were trying to get something that benefited women directly,” Heymann said.
Not including the funds raised during Saturday’s event, Girls Night Out events have raised a rough total of $7,600 for the Hope Alliance over the years.
“They love it because it supports something. Something good and positive and worthy,” Walczyk said of Girls Night Out attendees.
The event has consistently garnered 200 or more participants in recent years, organizers said.
“Downtown on the day of Girls Night Out is so much fun. You look down the street and you see all the pink and black balloons outside the businesses that are participating, and it looks great,” Walczyk said.
For more information about Girls Night Out and the upcoming spring event, visit https://www.facebook.com/DowntownCentraliaGirlsNightOut.
