GRCA Commerce Quarterly Summer 2019 - 30

in your community

M a i n

S t r e e t

P r o g r a m s

boyertown: State award and new

festival energize Main Street

By Adrianne Blank, Main Street Manager, and Emily Jones, Assistant Main Street Manager, Building A Better Boyertown

Pennsylvania Downtown Center (PDC) has named
Building a Better Boyertown among its best performing
Main Street programs of 2019. Hamburg, another Berks
County Main Street program, was also honored. This
award recognizes those programs that have demonstrated
an "across the board" capacity to generate new jobs,
new businesses, public and private investment and
volunteer hours during 2018.
Borough Councilwoman Lori Carnes congratulated BaBB, saying,
"Wow!" What an honor! Boyertown is such an awesome place to
live and work that our community shines in everything we do! We
are blessed however to have the resources and backing of the PDC
and the staff and volunteers in town that work so tirelessly to make
Boyertown even better!"

The top performing Main Street Programs
across the Commonwealth are:
1st - Easton Main Street Initiative

2nd - Building a Better Boyertown
3rd - Our Town Foundation (Hamburg)
4th - Quakertown Alive!
5th - Ebensburg Main Street Partnership
6th - Downtown Lewistown, Inc.
7th - Downtown Hazleton Alliance for Progress
8th - Oil City Main Street Program
9th - Castle Shannon Revitalization Corp.
10th - Downtown Bedford, Inc.

30 COMMERCE QUARTERLY SUMMER 2019

We at Building a Better Boyertown are among some incredible
programs, and we are so grateful to our community for their love,
volunteerism, and continuing support.
This past June we introduced a new and vibrant event - ItalFest.
Brought to Building a Better Boyertown by the Firefly Café, the
concept of the event was to celebrate "Ital," a Rastafarian philosophy
based on unity with nature and increasing your "vital energy" by
eating whole, low processed foods from the earth. Ingrained in this
mentality is a deep respect for all living things and keeping unhealthy
elements out of your body.
With the generous support of the Colebrookdale Railroad,
Boyertown Community Library, Spirit Holistic Center, and The
Other Farm and Forge we were able to grow an incredible event.
World music, plant-based food, craft beers, ciders and kombucha,
holistic and eco-friendly vendors, and our incredible community.
Plant-based food vendors from all over the East Coast attended, and
their wares were unique and delicious.
Our personal favorites were the empanadas from Freakin' Vegan,
and the seitan wings from Greyhound Café. The music was amazing,
opening with Sancocho Band with Latin fusion instrumental, and
de Tierra Caliente with Latin party music that got the whole event
dancing. This inclusive, positive, family friendly event, held in the
scenic Colebrookdale Railroad yard, was a delightful event - right up
to and including the unbelievable rainstorm. Thanks to the generosity
of The Other Farm and Forge, ItalFest wasn't washed out! Rather, the
party kept going indoors grooving to StringsNskins. We celebrated
Caribbean, Latin American and African heritage through the dynamic
and explosive blend of the violin and the djembe. Founded by vocalist
and percussionist Okai and Latin Grammy Award Winner violinist
Luisa Bastidas, their music was enlightening and dynamic and we
look forward to having them back. Overall, ItalFest was a tremendous
success and we're already planning for next year.

GRCA Commerce Quarterly Summer 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of GRCA Commerce Quarterly Summer 2019