Every night during the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, the paid parking lot behind First Interstate Bank is taken over by a local non-profit to raise funds for its organization. The lot is on a main route in the center of town with very high traffic. Fees are $10 for cars, $5 for motorcycles. Local organizations are sometime able to bring in almost $1,500 a night.
Christy Hedderman is with Sturgis Soccer, the organization in charge of parking donations for one night of this year's rally. She’s standing with her kids, both soccer players, near the entrance of the parking lot. Elsewhere, other Sturgis Soccer players and parents are helping as well.
Hedderman says Sturgis Soccer doesn’t have many fundraising opportunities throughout the year, so an event like this is especially helpful.
“We really kind of are just flying by the seat of our pants, I heard the other night someone was here for a couple hours and they brought in $250 so we’re hoping for something like that’d be a great target, it’s a pretty slow rally, so I’m not sure what that’s going to mean for us but that would be great to end up with a night like that,” says Hedderman.
Hedderman is a lifelong Sturgis resident. She says it’s important to support local businesses that give back to the community that lives here year round.
“Cus our kids really kind of take the backseat when it comes to the rally, oftentimes families leave because there’s nothing for kids to do, it’s not safe for them to come down by themselves or ride their bikes or those kinds of things so to get money to an organization that is for the kids is really exciting for us,” says Hedderman.
Including the First Interstate Parking charity, different churches, the high school and other organizations offer meals where some of the money goes toward their organization and causes.