Pierce County Events Calendar
This calendar is the place to find fun events happening throughout Pierce County, including Tacoma, Puyallup, Lakewood and beyond.
Have an event that isn’t listed? Please email events@SouthSoundTalk.com with the following information:
- Name of Event
- Date, time and location (name of business if applicable and complete address)
- Organizer(s) name
- Cost
- URL to purchase tickets
- Website URL
- SHORT description of the event
- Photo
Our editors will review and post within a few business days.
One person can make a difference. In May 1985, Dr. Gordon “Gordy” Klatt walked and ran for 24 hours around a track in Tacoma, Washington, raising money to help the American Cancer Society with the nation’s biggest health concern: cancer.
Gordy spent a grueling 24 hours circling the track at the University of Puget Sound. Friends, family, and patients watched and supported him as he walked and ran more than 83.6 miles and raised $27,000 through pledges to help save lives from cancer. As he circled the track, he thought of how he could get others to take part. He envisioned having teams participate in a 24-hour fundraising event. The next year, 19 teams were part of the first Relay For Life event at the historical Stadium Bowl and raised $33,000.
After previously battling stomach cancer, Gordy passed away from heart failure on August 3, 2014 at the age of 71. But his legacy lives on. He shaped an idea that started as one man walking and running a track and helped turn it into a global fundraising phenomenon.
Our Tacoma Buddhist Temple Bon Odori Festival is back after 3 years! As part of our religion, we honor those who have passed by celebrating them through Japanese traditional dancing called Bon Odori. Everyone is welcome to dance, enjoy the food or just watch the dancing and taiko performances. 4pm: Food, beer garden, info booths, Japanese items for sale and Kings Books table. 4:30: Obon service. 5pm: Dancing and taiko drumming will occur in front of our temple on Fawcett Avenue up from UW Tacoma. 8pm: memorial candle service. Come early before the food runs out. Credit card and checks preferred for all purchases. Questions: info@tacomabt.org.
Sasha Davies, author of The Menopause Companion, will lead this in-person, small-group workshop.
Through a mix of creative prompts and small group discussion, we’ll write and/or draw our way toward understanding who we are as our bodies change and who we hope to become.
Open to anyone contemplating or experiencing their transition to menopause. You don’t have to be a “writer” or an “artist” to attend! We will not be evaluating each other’s work.
Cost: Workshop only: $15 | Workshop + Copy of The Menopause Companion: $30
p.s. If you’ve not been yet, you’re going to LOVE Lauda. Plan on coming early or staying late to shop a little. It’s the most delightful stationery shop around–pens, journals, cards, watercolors!!!–they have all of my favorite things.
Registration, course map, and results can be found at https://patriotcrosscountry.com/ppr
Cost – $15
Online Registration closes on August 18th at 11:59 PM
Registrations are also accepted on the day of the event for an additional charge of $5
8:30 AM – Registration/Packet Pick Up Opens
9:20 AM – Registration/Packet Pick Up Closes
9:30 AM – Start of Event
10:30 AM – Start of Awards
USATF certified 5K course is flat and fast
Raffle prizes are given away at awards ceremony
Ribbons are given to top 3 in each gender and age group
Medals are given to 1st place overall male and female
All proceeds benefit Washington High School Cross Country
For More Information:
Allen Culp
253-219-5252
aculp@fpschools.org
This event provides funds to purchase shoes and uniforms for local youth runners, as well as provides a college scholarship for a graduating senior
Join Tacoma Aikikai for a one-day introduction to Embodied Empowerment and Self-Defense in a space welcoming all women-identified, non-binary, and gender-nonconforming folks.
Our philosophy is that we all have something to teach and learn about tapping into our internal power. Hone awareness, set boundaries, and learn verbal, emotional, and aikido-based physical skills to defuse, deflect, and evade vulnerable situations.
Online registration closes on October 4th at 11:59 PM
Registrations are also accepted on the day of the event for an additional charge of $5
7:30 AM – Registration + Bib Pick Up Opens
8:50 AM – Registration + Bib Pick Up Closes
9:00 AM – Start of 1K Kids (Cost is $5 / Registrations are only accepted on the day of the event)
9:15 AM – Start of 5K
High School Cross Country races will follow this event
Course is mostly flat with some gently rolling hills on grass and dirt trails
Event shirts are available for purchase on site
1K Kids Awards:
Every kid receives a prize
5K Awards:
Ribbons are given to top 10 in each gender as they finish
For More Information:
Allen Culp
253-219-5252
aculp@fpschools.org
Jesse McNeil
253-359-6497
jmcneil@fpschools.org
This event provides funds to purchase shoes and uniforms for local youth runners, as well as provides a college scholarship for a graduating senior
ANNUAL AUCTION BENEFITING SOUTH SOUND CARE FOUNDATION CELEBRATES 10 YEARS
Beer & Bites is October 7th!
Beer & Bites, the annual event and auction benefitting The South Sound CARE Foundation (CARE) will celebrate its 10th anniversary on Saturday, October 7th 2023. All proceeds from this annual event go towards expanding clinical trials and research for patients fighting cancer in the South Sound. Historically a cancer diagnosis in the South Sound meant an immediate referral to Seattle or cancer centers far beyond. Since 2008, the South Sound CARE Foundation has been expanding access to the very best care for patients in the Puget Sound region. Important trials are conducted locally, patients are living longer and they are living better lives. Beer & Bites helps fund this research and provide access to care that patients were previously unable to find locally.
Spearheaded by CARE’s Founder, Dr. Frank Senecal, and Gordon Rush, a CARE Emeritus Board Member and Founder of The Rush Companies, Beer & Bites got its start in 2013 as a way to get the local community involved in improving treatments options for a disease that has touched far too many: cancer. The 10th annual Beer & Bites fundraiser will be held at The Waterfront Venue at Narrows Marina. The generosity of the local community has allowed Beer & Bites to raise more than $7.6 million over the last 10 years to bring important research to our area and to allow cancer patients to stay close to home, surrounded by their support systems during some of the most challenging times of their life.
“Finding a better way to care for our patients and a better way to treat the cancer – whether it is surgery, immune therapy, chemo therapy, or radiation therapy—all depend upon good clinical research,” said Dr. Frank Senecal, Founder of the South Sound CARE Foundation. “Beer & Bites helps make that research possible.”
You are cordially invited to the 2nd Annual HopeSparks Lighting the Way Dinner and Auction Fundraiser!
We’d love for you to join us as we envision the future together and celebrate our accomplishments.
Ticket price includes: Reception with silent auction and appetizers, delicious dinner with complimentary wine, opportunities to engage in games – including a dessert dash, and a chance to bid on incredible live auction items.
Tickets are $150 per person or $1,500 for a reserved table of 10 guests.
This is a dressy casual, 21 and over event
All event proceeds go to HopeSparks programs that directly benefit children and families who have experienced trauma, adversity, and overwhelming life challenges.
Grab your friends and family, or your date, and come out to enjoy a scrumptious spaghetti dinner benefiting the Gig Harbor Senior Center, on Saturday, October 21, 4pm to 7pm.
The Spaghetti Dinner Fundraiser, is a casual and family-friendly event where you can indulge in a delicious spaghetti dinner, replete with a choice of meatballs or sausage, salad, garlic bread, ad dessert, for a great cause – Gig Harbor Senior Center programs, services and its future forever home!
Don your spookiest or most fun Halloween costume and support a great cause at the same time as Centerforce hosts All Hallows Eve: A Just Like You mixer and auction on Friday, Oct. 27.
Wine and beer will be available, along with some hors d’oeuvres, while you browse the silent auction, grab a bottle of wine from the wine pull or try your chance at winning 2 tickets for travel valid on Alaska Airlines! Tickets are $45 each for our 21-and-older event at Lakewood Elks Lodge #2388, 6313 75th St. W, Lakewood, WA 98499. Doors open at 5 p.m. Costumes are welcome but not required. Purchase your tickets today at https://centerforce.salsalabs.org/allhallowseve2023/index.html
For 50-plus years as a local not-for-profit 501 (c)(3), social service organization, Centerforce has provided employment training, volunteer opportunities and assistance for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities to move toward inclusion in their community. The 200 individuals we serve in south King, Pierce and Thurston counties have a wide range of disabilities and a number of barriers to traditional employment. With this event, our goal is to raise $40,000 to support our programs that assist individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities find jobs, and be able to engage and participate in their communities.
As with everyone, Centerforce services have been significantly impacted by the pandemic and other economic forces. We serve those with intellectual and developmental disabilities who are among the most vulnerable and, as a result, are still impacted by the pandemic.
When you attend our event, it supports clients like John B., who has been employed at Safeway for 18 years; Sarah H., who worked for McDonald’s for 10 years, then lost her job during the pandemic, and with our help, found employment at Safeway; Chris J., who is now on his 8th year working for the Ram Brewery and Restaurant; Joe C., who transitioned from a 13-year job at the ARC to working for MOD Pizza; Tyler K., as a school-to-work client, secured a job with OnTrac five months before he graduated; and Deacon C., who with our help, transitioned from school to working his first job at Red Robin, before his high school graduation.
Would you like to sponsor our event or donate silent auction items? Contact us here. For more information regarding Centerforce and its services, contact Debby L. Graham, M.A., Executive Director, at 253-426-1860.