Founder’s Day
Awardee: Centralia Downtown Association
Award: Purposeful Promotion
Year: 2024
City: Centralia
The Purposeful Promotion Award is an award that recognizes creative, effective promotional campaigns that celebrate and attract visitors and residents to the downtown or neighborhood commercial district. The Centralia Downtown Association (CDA) has been named the 2024 Purposeful Promotion Award recipient for their newly created Founders Day event, which celebrates Centralia’s founder George Washington and his example of community leadership.
In 1850, George Washington, the son of a Black slave, made his way across the Oregon Trail from Missouri. He settled near the confluence of the Skookumchuck and Chehalis Rivers, and by 1875, George and his wife Mary Jane had filed the plat that established the town of Centerville, now called Centralia. George not only founded the town but led it for decades to come, sustaining it through dire economic times. His leadership shaped what it means to be a Centralian to this day.
Starting in August 2017, Centralia celebrated the bicentennial of George’s birth with a year-long celebration, culminating in the dedication of a bronze statue of George and Mary Jane in Washington Park. At that time, the Centralia Downtown Association played a hand in the bicentennial celebration; years later, during the pandemic, the CDA noticed that George’s story was being forgotten. Accordingly, the CDA submitted a Founders Day proclamation request to City Council and launched an annual downtown event to continue preserving George’s legacy.
Centralia’s inaugural Founders Day event was held on August 12, 2023. The CDA brought together local historians, musicians, businesses, and educational partners to create an event that served to educate, celebrate, and promote their community’s history and heritage. The event was organized by more than 25 volunteers and attracted 150 attendees.
“George’s example of compassionate leadership, hard work, partnership, and tenacity lives on,” noted Washington State Main Street Program Director Breanne Durham at the Excellence on Main ceremony. “The many partners and volunteers who came together to honor him through Founders Day did so with George’s legacy in mind—to promote community pride and unity.”