even businesses participated in the Downtown Brookings Boutique Crawl last Saturday.

A boutique crawl is a special event where a group of boutique shops come together to create a day full of shopping and fun. It’s a chance to shop local and support the community. The boutiques offer complimentary sips, treats and discounts.

Once arriving at any of the stores, customers were offered a “passport” that guided their shopping. For each store they visited, they could get a stamp that earned them a chance to get a prize valued over $100, but only if they visited all seven stores.

The event was full of all sorts of people walking downtown with shopping bags from the boutiques.

The boutiques had a range of discounts, treats, fun things to sip on and a spin-to-win wheel.

Jeryn Christensen, the owner of Be Still Boutique, came up with the idea for the event.

“I created this event to add more of a focus on the boutiques we have downtown,” she said. “There are seven of us which made for a fun day of shopping!”

Plus, she knew if she created a store-focused event it would get more attention and bring a variety of people in.

“It has been crazy busy all day,” she ordered 500 of the “passport” cards, and by 2 p.m. some stores had run out. She had only 30, Christensen said.

But it was the perfect time for this event since spring and spring break are right around the corner

Her message to her customers is that you can stay in town and still find affordable, cute and trendy clothes.

One customer, Kennedy Bender, a student at South Dakota State, visited four out of seven stores. She said she would love to see this event again since it was a fun day to get out, walk around and spend money.

“Everyone is friendly, and there are a lot of cute clothes and sales, especially with spring break coming up,” Bender said.

Emerald Grace Clothing Co. owner Erica Bousema said it was her first year participating in the crawl. She loved collaborating with other retailers in the downtown community.

“We are always recommending our customers to shop at our neighbor boutiques,” she said. “So, it was an easy decision for us to participate in this event.”

Going into the event Bousema said she was anticipating a fun and lively weekend, and her experience with the boutique crawl went great and was even busier than expected.

The spin-to-win wheel allowed their customers to win an exclusive discount or free item as a way to add fun and be interactive with the customers. Many of the boutiques had started to transition their stores into spring clothing and marked down all of their winter items.

“It is truly the best of both words in our store right now,” Bousema said. “There are so many fun, new items but we also have such great pieces on sale as well.”

Chelsea Lang, Socialight owner, said their customers got to experience fresh new arrivals, store deals, special treats and positive vibes.” Socialight joined the Crawl because they wanted to lift fellow boutique owners and help each other be successful.

Lang hopes this event brought people downtown who may have otherwise stayed home, and that it allowed shoppers to experience all of the boutiques downtown and maybe find a new regular stop.

“We love our Socialight girls and appreciate every time you stop in to visit us and shop for pretty things,” Lang said.

Customer, Sophia Williams, a student at South Dakota State, also attended the event where she went to five out of seven boutiques. Her experience at the Crawl included a lot of good clearance sales and fun spring clothing.

She shopped for hours, especially at Socialight.

“I just kept coming back to try more things on, and this event was a good excuse to get dressed up, get off campus and hang out with friends,” Williams said.

Williams said it was the perfect day to walk around Downtown Brookings. The expectations were set high, and the turnout was even better.

Christenson said, “I still want to keep doing it, per season, or once a year.”