Subscribe to this blog 
Posts Tagged ‘Strom Center’
Is your community on your Christmas list?
November 19th, 2009
We don’t often think of giving Christmas presents to our communities unless we are considering a donation to a community foundation or program. A recent post from the Strom Center at Dickenson State University reminded me how important it is for rural communities to create activities that encourage residents to shop locally this holiday season. In many ways individuals who commit to buying their Christmas gifts locally are giving a gift to the community.
Specifically, the Strom Center post highlights a “shopping celebration” they are sponsoring in Dickinson called “Ladies Night Out.”
Featuring Downtown businesses, Ladies Night Out offers an eventful evening for all ages. Over twenty downtown stores will be offering a special discount/promotion during this event. A majority of the stores will be hosting refreshments and food sampling. Various downtown professional businesses are sponsoring the event to make the night spectacular. Downtown bars and restaurants will be offering different specials to complete the night.”
Events like Ladies Night Out are a part of a burgeoning “shop local” effort many communities are working on this holiday season. They provide the entertainment necessary to keep residents from driving to larger communities for their shopping.
Howard, SD created a similar event named Hometown Holidays back in 2001. Geared more towards families, it offers a lighted parade, horse carriage rides, Santa Clause and much more. It’s a pretty big event for a town of 1000 residents.
Reflecting on these two events has caused me to wonder what else small, rural towns are doing this holiday season? With this in mind, I conducted a quick internet search, and found a few more innovative activities, which sounded fun:
- In Centerville, IA (pop. 5924), their holiday event includes a “Holiday Sampler Open House” where people can taste holiday foods at various businesses and pick up the recipes of those foods they like.
- Millford, OH (pop. 6,284) deserves mention here if for no other reasons than they have been hosting holiday festival for 25 years. But I also think it’s neat that they’ve created their own website for the event (www.hometown-holidays.com), and they offer antique fire engine rides.
- With a population of 54,548, Petaluma, CA is a bit large to call rural, but I love their idea of hosting a Lighted Boat Parade. It’s definitely problematic to host an event like this in a northern climate, and I’m not sure how it would stimulate local spending. But watching this video just makes the event look like a lot of fun.
There are undoubtedly a lot of other great ideas happening in rural communities. And sharing them will help other communities make the most if their holiday season. If you know of innovative holiday event, share them in the comment section below.
Photo Credit: David R. Carroll - Flickr
Tags: Buy Local, North Dakota, Strom Center
Posted in Economic Development, In the News, Rural | Comments (4)