Rapid City’s new ‘Greenway Days” celebrates community’s past, present, future

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN) - Memorial Park was buzzing with activity last weekend as a brand new community event took place.

To honor the past, appreciate the present, and look forward to the future, the Friends of Rapid City Parks hosted a new event this past weekend called Greenway Days.

This event is an outcome of the 50th 1972 Flood Anniversary held in 2022, where community members emphasized the importance of remembering the flood every year to bring the Rapid City community together.

The Friends of the Rapid City Parks’ mission is to keep the floodplain free of development, commemorate the lives lost, and celebrate the city’s greenway.

“Having a 10-mile greenway space in a city is very unique, so unique that it is one of the largest greenway spaces in the county, so we felt the importance of the icon of this space, but the history of how things came about is essential to keeping development from happening,” Greta Chapman, the board chair for Friends of Rapid City said.

The city’s greenway is a space for recreation and an important part of the community’s identity.

“Rapid City is really gifted by this jewel of a creek; it really pulls our community together. My fly-fishing friends of course enjoy it for the fishing, but we also enjoy the parks, golf, the bike path, and all the things our city has to offer along the greenway,” said B.Y, the representative for the Black Hills Sportsman Club.

This weekend’s celebration offered over 14 outdoor events, one of which was the creek cleanup.

“Many of the things in our community seem far out of reach, some big kinds of environmental problems that we as individuals can’t really handle; we can’t tackle them on our own, but grabbing a trash bag and pulling a bag of trash out of the creek makes an immediate, tangible difference for our community, and so far our group has pulled out more than 500 bags of garbage from our river,” said B.Y.

Greenway Days not only honors the city’s past but also ensures the greenway remains a cherished part of Rapid City’s future.

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