Downtown wine tasting grand success

In March, the officers of the Newnan Main Street organization went to Chicago to the National Main Street convention at the expense of the city of Newnan. We went to many different sessions to learn as much as possible from other cities throughout the United States on their programs and successes.

One session that Samantha Hines and I attended was on putting on promotions that bring business into the stores. From that session we got some great ideas, one of which was the wine-tasting event. A city up north had done a "Whining about the Weather" wine tasting. Since we don't have any weather to whine about, we had the idea to do the "Whining about the Economy." We were all excited about putting it together and formed a committee consisting of Keith Hines of the Costume Shop, Molly Morrow of M. Cole Design, Linda Bridges-Kee and myself.

Thanks to the committee and the hard work of Linda Bridges-Kee and Ashley Daniel, the wine-tasting event was a grand success. No one really realizes how much work went into making this event the success that it was. If you received the brochure and read the descriptions of all the wines and the establishments at which they were served, you need to know that Linda wrote every word, making sure to give a flavor of not only the wine but also the business. Months ahead of time she planned an ad campaign that went in all the local magazines, which brought new people to downtown. The comments we heard all night were compliments from the participants about how wonderful historic Newnan is and how they had never before been in many of the stores and would certainly come back.

The registration tent, the taxis standing at the ready if anyone needed a ride home, the wristbands that let the shop owners know who had paid, the security, the wine glasses and the design were all orchestrated by Main Street, Linda and Ashley. And to top it all off the Main Street merchants that participated received $100 toward putting on the event in their store.

The Main Street program works hard to keep Historic Downtown Newnan on the map and bring business our way. The membership is a mere $200 a year and goes toward all the advertising, promotions and events. But more than the money spent, or the events that come to town, the fact that Linda Bridges-Kee loves our downtown and genuinely cares about the Main Street merchants is reason enough to give Main Street your support.

For those of you who choose not to join because of personal differences with Linda please reconsider and put aside those differences. Main Street is a great organization and deserves your support. Let's all work together to make our downtown the best anywhere. In these economically-trying times, we need to all pull together and make sure downtown remains the heart and soul of Newnan.

Thanks to everyone who worked on this event and participated to make it so successful. We look forward to the next one. Join Main Street and let us know your ideas, and we will endeavor to put them into action.

(Martha Ann Parks operates Panoply Interior Design and Flint Gallery of Panoply in downtown Newnan and is an officer in Main Street Newnan.)