Thanks are in order

Where to begin! We started the summer with a bang and Jeanne and I both feel like we were shot out of a cannon with the upcoming summer events and activity in the Visitors Center.

I would like to start with Mayfest. What a glorious day! The thanks begin with the Weather Goddess for more than making up for our weather last year.

Thank you to our incredible sponsors, without whom Mayfest could not continue:

Heritage Family Credit Union - PLATINUM SPONSOR

as well as Leaf Guard, Yankee Home, Coggins Toyota, The Bank of Bennington, Dr. Ghosh Allergy Clinic, Richards Group, Winburn Law Offices along with our multiple donors!

Thank you to our sponsors in kind who are just as valuable:

802 Restrooms, Cassella Waste, The Bennington Banner, The Tutorial Center, The Southwest Vermont Chamber, TD Bank, Keith Nichols Garage

Thank you to the Town of Bennington and the Police Department.

Thank you to Bill Clark for being ... Bill Clark.

Thank you to our invaluable volunteers:

John Shannahan (VIP), Michael Baker, Shannon Barsotti, Marc Branca, Arch Budnikas, Shelley Colvin, Jeanne Conner, Tom Haley, Matt Harrington, Rick Havlak, Jennifer Jasper, Michael Keane, Jennifer Kern, Bruce Lee Clark, Catherine Mack, Susan Plaisance, Alyssa Pridgen, Coco Rohde, Edie Sawitsky, Kristi Segura, Lauren Vining-Barsotti, Lilli West, and Ahmad Yassir.

Also:

Jake Stone and his incredible Mission City Church crew who took care of hospitality;

Jaime Capriola George and her MAU cheerleaders who kept the streets clean through-out the day (Mckenna, Taya, Ava, Destiny, Trianna, Alliyah, Kendra, and Kenzie);

and

Deb Larkin and her wonderful MAU girls' tennis team who live by the tenet "The Girls Varsity Tennis Team is committed to perform community service and take great pride in keeping Bennington green, beautiful and clean." (Leah Smith, Maple Van Orden, Violet Small, Claire Zimpfer, Mia Ponessi, Erica Jansch, Muqadasa Sadat, Gloria Fernande, Maggie LaBatt, Luisa Navelli, Georgia Paine, and Faun Realmuto)

BBC EVENTS COMING UP:

Thursday Night Live: June 22, 29, July 27, August 17, 24, and the TBD replacement for June 8

Hemmings Cruise Ins with Hemmings: June 15, July 13, August 10, and September 14

First Fridays: July 7, August 4, and September 1

Midnight Madness and Pop Up: July 20

Alex Torres with Vermont Arts Exchange: July 1

Town-Wide Tag Sale with Bennington Free Library and John G. McCullough Free Library: July 22

Harvest Fest: October 14

For more information on all our events, please visit www.betterbennington.com/events. All other Downtown events are listed on the Home Page calendar. Please feel free to submit anything you see missing!

The Better Bennington Corporation is the official ambassador and organization whose mission is to lead and support public and private efforts that promote and enhance downtown as the vital commercial and cultural heart of the community

Having such an appointed organization is mandated by the state for all 24 Designated Downtowns. Being a Designated Downtown assures us certain considerations with grant funding, tax credits, and more. We also host the official downtown Visitor's Center where Docents welcome guests and answer all their questions about where to go and what to do.

To learn more about the Downtown Programs, click here: https://accd.vermont.gov/community-development/designation-programs/downtowns

www.betterbennington.com

Student Art Street Banner Program

Are you a student in the Bennington area? Are you an artist? Would you like to share your art?

The Design Committee of the Better Bennington Corporation is accepting submissions to be considered for the new upcoming Street Banners and we want YOU to create something spectacular! All submissions will be juried and the selected pieces will adorn our new set of Downtown Street Banners that usually last for a couple of seasons.

We have selected a group of people to jury the art and 48 pieces will be chosen. ALL submitted student art will appear on our website with the name, school, and age of the student. We will have a ceremony to unveil the banners to celebrate the chosen artists and have them sign their banners before they fly above our beautiful downtown.

The application is here.

Help us fund the Student Art Street Banner Program by donating what you can.

Where will your money go?

• Paying for the production of the banners;

• Awarding the chosen students with $100 Downtown dollars IF we can raise enough funds!

• Marketing the project;

• Awarding one lucky artist with a $200 gift certificate from a blind drawing to Jay's Art Supplies;

• Being the recipient of one of the banners when it reaches the end of its shelf life if one of the first people to donate $200 or more.

• The first to donate $200 or more will automatically receive a banner when they are retired in two years. (48 total)

• If you donate $500 or more, you automatically receive two banners when they are retired in two years.

Please donate via our Patronicity page

or

send donations to:

Better Bennington Corporation

Banner Program

215 South Street

Beautiful Bennington, VT 05201

Sample Banner

Summer is here!

Summer is here and events are cropping up EVERYWHERE! Now that people feel they can once again gather and enjoy each other’s company, Bennington feels alive with all kinds of activity. At the Better Bennington Corporation, we are all in full speed ahead mode having launched our part of the summer festivities with Mayfest.

Mayfest planning takes months, and event planning is not for people who expect that things always go smoothly. We had 85 vendors in place for that event and then came the threat of bad weather – not just rain, but wind, hail, and storms! We watched the weather daily, hourly, every fifteen minutes. A rain date is not practical with all the logistics and moving parts involved in such a festive day, so all we can do is hope. We lost 12 vendors due to the weather threat and their positive Covid tests within 2 days of the festival and had 3 no-shows. Those things happen.

NONE of this dampened our spirits and determination that the show must go on and the weather would hold, and that is exactly what happened! The weather report changed as the day progressed. Vendors were happy. Merchants were happy. The crowds seemed to be enjoying themselves. When the monsoon blew in with a vengeance at 4pm, we called the festival and the vendors packed up quickly while Nik Segura continued to play his keyboard. Within an hour, Main Street looked as though nothing had happened.

My assistant, Kaiya, and I found our groove during all of this and shifted immediately into Thursday Night Live the following week. With Mayfest under our belts, we are ready to tackle the rest of the summer. So, what does that include?

Thursday Night Live: The lineup can be found on the BBCwebsite’s event page, www.betterbennington.com/events. Sixteen additional incredible performances will be coming your way.. Mowgli’s Satyrdagg brought over 100 people to Merchants Park on June 2. With 11 people on stage, they gave an electrifying show. We upgraded the event the following week with colorful banners and several vendors for the Taconic Chamber Quartet (plus drummer!) TThe threat of bad weather drew a smaller crowd, but those who came out were given a beautiful treat of both classical and pop music thanks to five state-of-the art musicians playing under blue skies as the clouds disappeared. Starting on June 16, we closed a part of Pleasant Street to accommodate vendors (thank you to Stu Hurd and the Selectboard for their support) and hosted the outstanding Planet Kniffen for a large enthusiastic crowd.

Midnight Madness: On July 21, you will find specials, discounts, and more with our shops staying open from 7pm – 12am.

Town-Wide Tag Sale: On July 24 downtown Bennington welcomes buskers of all ages and genres to entertain you while we incorporate downtown into the successful town-wide tag sale in both Bennington and North Bennington, in partnership with both libraries. We are excited to offer a communal space for those who prefer not to have the sales at their own homes. School Street will be full of people selling household items, clothing, and more that they no longer use.

We are co-sponsoring a few events with The Vermont Arts Exchange, QueerConnect, Hemmings Cruise-Ins, and the United Counseling Service. The Pride Parade and Block Party are on June 26, so come join our neighbors as we all celebrate our LGBTQ community. We have planned three more Cruise-Ins on Main Street/School Street! Good weather will draw out upwards of 250 novelty vehicles to display and show off. UCS is gearing up for their marathon 5th Annual Super Hero 5K, and VAE has invited Alex Torres to return to Bennington and lead us in a joyous concert of Latin music. Food trucks and dancing will accompany this party on August 27.

Finally, we are really looking forward to launching Harvest Fest on October 8. Think “Mayfest “but with more of a nod to novelty foods, lots of activities for kids and adults, and, of course, more music! We are excited to dedicate one area to the farmers and vendors who will be represented by the Bennington Downtown Market when it opens in a few months. Merchants Park will be utilized by closing Pleasant Street to traffic and adding more food trucks along that street to help the flow. If you have an activity you would like to host, give me a holler.

See you Downtown!