Watch out for the bikers! Deschutes Parkway to shut down Saturday for 47th annual Toy Run

The 47th annual Toy Run is this Saturday, and this year’s event is expected to bring 1,500 people on motorcycles to downtown Olympia.

Deschutes Parkway will be closed to normal traffic from Lakeridge to Fifth Avenue from 5 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 7, because of the event.

Each year, the Olympia Toy Run invites motorcyclists to gather, ride and bring toys and money for The Salvation Army for distribution to needy kids through its Toy n’ Joy Shop.

Gates open to the motorcyclists at 10 a.m. Saturday in the Target/Applebee’s parking lot at South Sound Center off Interstate 5 at Sleater-Kinney Road in Lacey. Then at 1 p.m., riders will make their way through Olympia to the Capitol Campus.

Admission is $10 per single rider or $15 per couple or a new unwrapped toy for a kid of any age.

People can expect clogged roads and stalled traffic along the route from South Sound Center to Olympia, as well as increased foot and vehicle traffic at Marathon Park from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday after the bikers reach their destination.

Ty Vinson

The Olympian

360-357-0201

Ty Vinson covers the City of Olympia and keeps tabs on Tumwater and other communities in Thurston County. He joined The Olympian in 2021. Before that, he earned his bachelor’s degree in journalism at Indiana University. In college, he worked as an intern at the Northwest Indiana Times, the Oregonian and the Arizona Republic as a Pulliam Fellow. Support my work with a digital subscription