Artwork Submitted part one

In NO particular order, here is the first batch of artwork that was turned in for our Student Art Street Banner project! We will load ten a day for the next several days. So much talent in our area!

Art Pieces 1-10

Midnight Madness Extras

Come join the excitement when all the great shops are open for the most incredible sales event of the year. Some stores offer 20% - 50% off their entire inventory. Others offer live entertainment, deep discounts on specific items, or once-a-year special offers.

Midnight Madness is the biggest shopping night of the year and everyone comes downtown to experience the fun and excitement of the bustling streets, crowded shops, and activities for the entire family.

Downtown Bennington offers you restaurants, cafés, breweries & a distillery, bookshops, bakeries, chocolatiers, a country store, gift shops, flowers, and more… the quintessential Main Street Experience on more than just Main Street!

The BBC Pop Up Shop at 341 Main Street (Makers Market) will also be open from 5pm - 11pm.

1. The sales we know about are in the DISTRX app! Please check it out. Once you create your FREE profile, click "Events" in the upper right hand corner and scroll to the event you are looking for.

2. We will be selling up to $2000 worth of Downtown Dollars at the Pop Up Shop (341 Main Street) at a 5% discount in increments of $100. So, $100 Downtown Dollars for $95 for the first 20 people. They will have an expiration date of October 14 (Harvest Fest.) The Downtown merchants and restaurants will be reimbursed in full.

3. We will have a 50/50 at the pop up shop. Stop in and join the fun!

Town-Wide Tag Sale

The Better Bennington Corporation joins forces with the North Bennington McCullough Library and the Bennington Free Library for a town-wide tag sale on July 22, 2023. This event is free (unless you buy lots of loot!) and open to the public.

Who doesn't love a good tag sale? How about several tag sales all on the same day, all around the same town!?

Several folks are coming together for a group sale in Merchants Park while others will host sales at their homes in Bennington and North Bennington. Every item imaginable is up for grabs. As they say, "One person's trash is another person's treasure..."

As of this writing, there are 38 unique sellers and more applications are still coming! A QR code to the listing on Google Maps will be available at both libraries and at every sale. It and will go live on the Wednesday evening prior to the sales weekend. There will also be a full page map in the Banner on the Saturday. All the sales will also have access to the QR code.

Some sales will take only cash. Others will accept checks and Venmo. Some might even take credit cards! This is an individual decision by each seller.

Engage instead of complaining

A common refrain that makes me want to throw things is “there’s nothing for kids to do in Bennington.” Even more maddening, “There’s nothing to do period.” For those of us who literally create “things to do,” this can be disheartening.

“why don’t they”

“They should”

HOWEVER!

Megan Sherwood wrote a post in the popular Facebook Group, Bennington Blotter on July 3. “Really want to try this at maybe willow park? Would anyone participate if I started it? Or can you think of a safer spot so it doesn’t get ruined!? I think it’s so cute!”

She was referring to a painted rock caterpillar project. We got cyber chatting and she jumped at the offer of sponsored help and a plan was quickly born — not by complaining about what “they” could do, but by seizing on the opportunity to make her idea an instant reality! She will chair the rock painting committee and jointly spearhead the Bennington Rock caterpillar with the Better Bennington Corporation. North Bennington will start one as well and Benny S and Benny N will find each other somewhere in the middle of the new trail.

But first we need the rocks. And the art supplies. Lo and behold, the BBC already had them ordered for the upcoming First Friday without a plan for the completed rocks. A group of responders to Megan’s suggestion formed and now the rock painting project has gone viral in a day. The volunteers will oversee the table for rock painting not only at all the First Fridays but at the Thursday Night Lives, Midnight Madness, Junior Garlic Town, Friday music nights at the museum, and Harvest Fest.

Kids are welcome to gather their own rocks too. If they paint them at home, they can still add to either Benny. Suddenly , just like that, we have something for kids to do — along with the Splash Pad, Lake Paran, free music all around town, the Blueberry Festival at The Apple Barn, the new playground at Willow Park, Sonatina Music Camp, countless programs at the Bennington Free Library and John G. McCullough Library, gaming at Gamers Grotto, and so much more.

Come to Main Street this Friday between 5 and 9. Paint a rock. Get a treat. Buy yourself a present. Listen to free music. Play free games. Pickleball, cornhole, hopscotch, jump rope, hula hoop, work on a puzzle! (If you have other ideas for activities, email Jenny at events@betterbennington.com)

At 7:30, please gather around the BBC info table at Putnam Square (Four Corners) to help congratulate the 48 student artists who paintings were chosen for the new street banners out of 121 submissions. They will be presented with their downtown dollars at that time.

It will be easy to find us. We will be right next to the rock painting station. Thanks, Megan, for becoming a “THEY!”

Remember, “It’s not just Downtown, it’s OUR town!”