As this year’s Excellence on Main approached, we were confounded by how to run an awards program that would adequately represent the tremendous hustle, creativity, and care that every single Main Street program embodied over the last year and a half. How do you choose “the best of the best” when local programs all over the state leapt into action, leaned on each other for ideas, and made impacts like we’ve never seen before? So we threw the idea of awards out the window for the year and leaned into the opportunity to tell stories from as many Main Street communities as possible.

Originally shared during a live presentation at this year’s RevitalizeWA virtual conference in September, these videos feature a set of quick interviews that attempt to tell the story of Main Street’s collective impact over the course of the pandemic. The true depth and breadth of that impact is nearly impossible to capture, so we’ve broken it down into three themes – small business survival, the importance of place, and people helping people.

Whether you are fully immersed in this work as local Main Street staff or volunteers, or want to learn more about what Main Street is all about, we hope you enjoy this celebration of the resiliency of local communities as we close out the year.

Small Business Survival

The Importance of Place

 

Community Spirit

The Washington State Main Street Program is a program of the Department of Archaeology & Historic Preservation and is managed under contract by the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation.