BELLE FOURCHE—It was a small town. The community was all gathered for a nice, quiet evening while enjoying steaks and drinks. As supper was coming to an end, there was a murder, right in front of everyone!
While it sounds like the latest edition of the television program Dateline, it was actually something much more fun: Bordello of the Damned murder mystery. The interactive murder mystery was a fundraiser for Chutes for Charity. “We’re the charity group of the Black Hills Roundup,” explained Bev Watson, president.
The community turned out to support the charity organization on the evening of October 17 at the Belle Fourche Community Hall. “It went pretty well. You know, it was a night of adventure and excitement, a lot of laughter, and I think all in all it went pretty well,” shared Watson. “I think we had around 180 [guests]—so we had a good crowd.”
Planning an event of this size takes more than the current nine-member board that runs Chutes for Charity can manage alone. It takes a lot of help from the locals. “It takes a community to put that on. I mean, we had a lot of help. A lot of people stepped up and really helped us out and gave us some really great donations,” said Watson. “Bob Morris came in and helped with the narrating. Justin Tupper did our auctioneering, and Kerbi Bowden, she got some of the football players to come help us tear down. A lot of friends and family stepped up to help us set it up and help tear down—even people we didn’t even know were helping us tear down!”
Of course, there was a cast that worked really hard to prepare for the night of fictional murder. “Oh, they did an awesome job! They were having so much fun this last month that they just really did a great job,” shared Watson.
Community members, small business owners and even the mayor volunteered to be in the cast of the murder mystery. The cast included Michelle Evans, Cody Crago, Joan Gerkin, Cheryl Westland, Randy Schmidt, Colin Hanzli, Bill Hennessey and Dawn Newland, with Bob Morris serving as narrator.
The entire evening was dedicated to raising money for Chutes for Charity. Attendees got to enjoy the fun mystery theater as well as social hour and a steak dinner catered by the Branding Iron Steakhouse.
Businesses, organizations and individuals donated items to be auctioned off in either a silent auction that took place throughout the evening or a live auction that was held following the theater event. Justin Tupper served as the auctioneer. “It isn’t just Belle Fourche, we do all the surrounding communities in this tri-state area, and we draw donations from them too,” explained Watson.
Chutes for Charity has been a staple in the area for quite some time. “Our organization was established in 2009 by four local gals here in town, because their husbands were associated with the rodeo, so they felt there was a need to do something to help give back to people that needed some help,” shared Watson.
The organization is dedicated to helping families and individuals rebuild after traumatic events. Watson said, “We’ve actually helped over 500 people since 2009, and given back to people—we’ve given out over $650,000.”
With the success of their first-ever murder mystery dinner event, Watson says they hope to do it again next year. Chutes for Charity is a nonprofit organization, and according to Watson, donations are tax-deductible. All of the money raised from this event will go back to Chutes for Charity to help our friends and neighbors during some of the worst times in their lives. Watson said, “We just really want to shout out to everybody that helped us, and I mean we are really fortunate and it really does take a community to support us—that allows us to give back—to help others.”
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