Didn't see this posted anywhere else......
"Celebrate Springfield"
is a celebration of Main Streets completion and how far Historic Springfield has come. Here's what you need to know:
12 noon on Main Street
- Bold City beer
- Saxophones
- Hot dogs
- inflateable Moon Walk
- Face painting
- Mimosas
- Baked goods
- Refreshments
- Booths of info from businesses & organizations
- The center of activity will be at the Spar Council building, and various businesses on Main Street as well.
1pm on Main Street
- Motorcade featuring many various city and business officials makes it's way up Main Street, to mark it's Grand Opening
- 1st Street to 12th Street, then cuts over to the UF Proton Therapy Institute
1:30pm at UF Proton
- Presentations and speakers from the Mayor's office, Sherriff's office, Councilman Gaffney, JTA, JEA, Shands,
UF Proton, other major departments / businesses, and almost all of the local neighborhood organizations.
- Wine & cheeses served as well
- Presentations & rubbing elbows will take place on the 2nd floor of the UF Proton Therapy Institute
Should be very interesting presentations......plus free beer, mimosas, and wine! And I love the saxophone.
And there will be cup cakes at the Team Recovery Thrift store so don't forget that Main Street is from 1st to beyond - OK, 12th for the purposes of this celibration, but we all know it goes a bit further than that!
Let's hope that snow (flurry) does not happen and we get some sunshine!
I just realized that this celebration of a completed Main Street is not including many some ones, and someone in particular, who, in many ways, made all this possible. He took over the idea and ran with it well over a decade ago and we would not have gotten the work if it had not been for him, as well as many others who have gone unnamed.
This person is Phil Neary and he did this as ED of HSCC, which is the organization that is mostly responsible for the work on main Street.
Though he is being left out of this celebration, we all should at least remember his contribution as well as realizing that this took a lot of work on the parts of many who are indeed going unnamed.
I don't believe anyone is being left out. All are welcome to partake!
FSU813, of course anyone can come out to this event. That was not the point. As Phil Neary picked up a dropped idea and ran with it, as Phil Neary worked with a local professional and came to a meeting with the very first future Main Street renderings and worked very hard in his capacity as the Executive Director of HSCC to make Main Street happen, one would think that he would have been invited to this in a more official capacity than just "Hey, everyone can come". And then add in the fact that he is just one of many more, and, well, it's just a shame.
Just one of the issues we sometimes have, the new forgets the old who did the hard work before us.
Bold City Brewery graciously donated 6 growlers (1 gallon each) of their beer for the event. There are 3 types of beer and 2 growlers of each. All three can be found at 3 Layers: Duke's, Killer Whale, and 1901 Red Ale.
Come get it tomorrow around noon at or near the SPAR office while it lasts, but don't plan on drinking too much. We're probably going to make it a 3 beer max, but we'll see how it goes.
ok. so....3 beers...3 mimosas....3 glasses of wine.......(ha)
Thanks to everyone who came out to the thrift store for cupcakes. We had a great time with friends and with the HR Block folks who provided free hot dogs and hamburgers -- not to mention that really fun jumpy thing that the little ones love bouncing in.
Roland played some music and displayed his art. Mike actually sold a piece of his art! And sales weren't bad today either. I'm thinking of giving away free cupcakes each Saturday.
Sportmotor. I have yours waiting for you and yours too, Jeremy. (Although my grandson licked the icing off, you don't mind do you?) ;D
Quotequote from the SPAR Council announcement: Celebrate Springfield! Saturday, February 13th.
This is a community wide event to celebrate the Grand Re-opening of Main Street.
The “Main Street Celebration†from a business owners point of view.The day could have been very bad weather wise, but we were smiled upon with great weather and some much needed sun shine. Most of the events were down on the far end of Main Street from us (at 3rd and Main) , but we did get a few bunches of folks to stop by. With cupcakes from us and hot dogs and more from H&R Block, we had a decent amount of traffic overall. Unfortunately, it was only for about an hour or so and then everyone gathered around for the “motorcadeâ€. This short time period also meant that lots of folks could only get to one area of Main and did not really have time to explore it all.
It was a bit…..understated. To begin with, we already know we can actually drive down Main Street, so why zipping by in closed cars was celebrating Main Street, I’ll never know. What we need to do is show people we can walk down Main Street. Everyone knows they can drive down it, they do that already.
Then, the motorcade hit 12th, zipped over to the Proton Therapy Institute for a ceremony. So, we are celebrating the completion of Main Street at the PTI, which, as we know, is not on Main Street. And the people who walked on Main to see the zipping motorcade had to get in their cars and drive to the PTI for this ceremony. How many of those folks returned to Main Street to keep walking around? I bet very few.
It just seems to me that the way this was done was not actually celebrating Main Street. To do that, the entire venue should have been Main Street. There are several locations where the ceremony could have been held. The Place next to Carl’s, for instance, holds 200 guests. They also cater. This could have been a fund raiser too. It could have been the Councilman and others walking from store to store rather than zipping by, safe and snug in a closed car. It could have just been outside on Main Street, where all could see that we can and do have a walk-able commercial corridor. It could have been something truly helpful to all of us.
Instead it was…I don’t know, a short but fun time for some, yes, certainly; but overall, just opportunity lost. Let’s learn from this and the next time we “Celebrate Main Streetâ€, let’s actually celebrate Main Street.