 Welcome to In the World of Winooski. I'm Mayor Christine Lott, and today I'm joined by the Executive Director of Downtown Winooski, Meredith Bay-Tayek. Welcome, Meredith. Thank you so much for having me, Christine. I'm so glad to be in the studio with you, recording this episode. We have a lot of fun stuff to share today. Yeah, for those who don't know, Downtown Winooski is a nonprofit organization that supports our entire business community in Winooski, supports some of the events that we have in the city, and just does a lot for our economic development. Also, having Downtown Winooski in our city allows us to access grant funding from the state, so it helps support our tax finances as well. And so, Meredith is here to tell us a little bit about the organization and some really exciting things coming up, specifically Halloween in Winooski. Yes, now that the weather's getting a little bit cooler, we're immediately thinking pumpkins. So, Downtown Winooski, that was a wonderful introduction. We do a lot of like visible things in the city. Winooski Wednesdays, the Winooski Farmers Market, working one-on-one in groups with a small business community. And we do a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff too, especially this past year, during the pandemic, it drew into sharp relief that the technical assistance and the communication that we provide and the networking was invaluable. So, we feel really, really glad to be in Winooski. We, like you said, it's a legal reason. We have to have a downtown organization, but I think that we do above and beyond what's necessary, and we really want to support the entire city and make sure that, like you said, that cultural and economic vitality is there. Obviously, we're not the only ones working towards that, but we're really proud of our contributions. Yeah, we really, the city, our staff, enjoy working with your organization as well. And I know last year I heard from some of our local business owners how supported they felt. So, really appreciate the work that you were able to provide there and want any business owner in Winooski to know that they can come to you for support. Yes, absolutely. I think we do our best to do outreach one-on-one to people and make sure that they know that we're there and that we can help them. But there is still, our name is Downtown Winooski, so it's a little bit confusing, but we serve the entire city corner to corner and we really hope to bring everyone together and build a really strong network of small businesses and community members and community organizations because we're all working towards the same goal, right? We're all working to make sure that Winooski is successful and that we have a vibrant and supported community. Awesome, so tell us what you have coming up down the pipe. Yeah, so we just wrapped up an amazing summer. I hope that you had a chance to come out to some of our concerts or come over to the farmer's market, which does go until October 10th. We used to have a chance if you haven't been, but we are zeroed in on Halloween this year. This is a time-honored and beloved event in Winooski. It really brings so much of the percentage of the population of Winooski more than any other event because it really is welcoming and inclusive and as much as if you haven't seen it, you might think, okay, pumpkin's in display, but it is just stunning and the feeling of community and camaraderie is totally unmatched and so we're so glad to be a part of this event. It has been handed down to us from other community organizations and we partner heavily with the city staff on this event and last year in 2020, we had to cut back, of course we did. We had to pare down and make sure that our community was safe, but I think that we did it in a way that still preserved the heart of the event and we still had our thousand pumpkin and jack-o'-lanterns on display and we had a few other activities that were safe and this year, I think we know how to do, even though we're still dealing with a pandemic, we know how to keep our community safe and ramp it up a little bit this year so we're really excited to be offering music and activities in addition to the pumpkin display this year so we are really excited. What can we expect for activities this year? So we are working with an amazing group of volunteers although we still need more so please reach out if you're interested. We are working to have activities for children in crafts every day, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Saturday will be the majority of the vendors and activities in Rotary Park but we're also activating little pop-ups around the circle at different businesses so depending on how a business wants to get involved they may have a little pop-up outside so people can explore around. I think that that's something that people really have enjoyed in the past and so again, we're just sort of dialing it up a little bit. We're taking in a beloved event that is wonderful, obviously even if it's pared down like it was last year and just creating a little bit more of a party atmosphere. We're all out here to get together as a community and like I said, we kind of know how to do things safely. We know how to maintain social distancing and use masks and use other safety measures to make sure that we can still host this event and we don't have to keep stripping things away but we can do it in a safe and inclusive way. Can you tell us, so the pumpkin display is obviously the biggest, the centerpiece, can you tell us a little bit about how that's gonna be managed this year? Yeah, so we kind of have to manage it in the same way it always has because there is a certain amount of that logistics that just have to stay in place. So we're working heavily with city staff and the Rexon Park Department to make sure that we can secure the pumpkins from local farmers and we already have those relationships built which is great and also we'll go and get those pumpkins and then we'll have a couple of different ways that people can help actually carve them. So we'll have the traditional big carving weekend at the senior center and just like everything else we're kind of turning the dial up a little bit with that. We're having some other kids activities and some other little special surprises that I'm not gonna divulge now but just some more things to show the volunteers that we really appreciate them and just to make it a little bit more of a holiday atmosphere. We're here to come together and celebrate community. So again, because we kind of know what we're doing when it comes to keeping people safe because of the pandemic, I think that we're feeling really comfortable that we can host these in-person events to support the Halloween. So we will have that carving event but we're also gonna keep the pickup and takeaway and bring back carving situation that we had last year. It was wildly successful. People brought all the pumpkins back that they picked up. They carved them beautifully. They had more time to do that. We were so impressed with that and then it gives people that aren't able to come to the in-person event or maybe they're not comfortable with it to do it on their own time. And we saw that from individuals, from businesses, from organizations. And so we're really happy to be offering that option as well. I actually last year was able to organize a family carving time. That's great. Which in the past have never been able to get everyone together for the Saturday session. So it's wonderful to have those multiple options. Yeah, absolutely. We obviously took that chance last year and the team at the city really took control of the logistics of that. And we did it because it was out of necessity. We needed to make sure there was a safe option. And then when it became so successful and so like you said, people were actually able to do things with their family. We thought, we're not, why get rid of that? You know, it works. It's like hybrid. It's a hybrid, exactly. So I kind of feel like that's truth for everything right now is we're all just in a hybrid, right? We're taking what worked in 2020 and in early 2021 and then we're adding in-person events where possible. And so that will be a huge undertaking. Every year it's a huge undertaking. We will need people to carve the tops off the pumpkins, get all of the insides out and also carve beautiful pumpkins for the display. And then we'll cart them over to the Rotary Park on Friday. So we'll need a ton of power and volunteer help for that as well. Setting up 1,000 pumpkins is no easy feat. But it is a really fun event. It's one of those things where, again, if you haven't volunteered for it before, it may not sound exciting. It might sound like, oh, this is something that would be a good thing to do for my community. But it's really fun and we always have a great time with it. And then we have a couple of other volunteer positions too, people that can light the candles at dusk and then continue lighting them throughout the night. And we're really hoping to have the candles lit Friday, Saturday and Sunday because Sunday is the 31st, which is officially Halloween, which is really fun. We don't have that beautiful three-day spread every year. So we're really excited to take advantage of that. It's a solid Halloween weekend. Solid Halloween weekend. Are there, how many volunteers are you looking for this year? So we would love as many people as possible to help with the carving because like you said, there's so many options. You can come, we're actually going to be organizing the in-person carving at the senior center a little bit differently where people actually sign up for a time slot to make sure that we're spreading things out a little bit more, both because of the pandemic and because it's just gonna be more effective to carve all those pumpkins. And then like we said, we have the pickup and kind of take away and bring back option as well. So we will need as many people as possible for the carving. And then for the actual days of the event, we'll need about 10 to 15 people every day to help just kind of with the logistics of it. We also have crossing guard needs. Rotary Park is such an amazing place to have an event, but there's traffic. So we wanna make sure that families and anyone who's attending, especially as the sun goes down, we wanna make sure that everyone feels really safe and supported. So we will need people who are willing to don the very fashionable high visibility vests and there is a cool flashlight also. So I mean, that's a cool volunteer job. So we will need those people also to help with crossing guards. And then there's other kind of events that are going on like we said, little pop up things that we'll need help with. So we do have a list of volunteers that's getting larger by the day and people are basically saying, I wanna help with marketing because I'm not gonna be there that weekend or I'll help with promotion or I really wanna carve and I wanna help with the logistics or I'm there to light candles. We have return vendors or excuse me, not vendors volunteers who are very excited to take up their old positions, their old jobs. They know what it entails to light the pumpkins. They know what the crossing guard position is and they're willing to come back but we still have a gap to fill. So if you have the desire to help out, please email info at downtownwanuski.org or you can reach out to volunteer at winuskivt.gov. And some of these options you can do, they're pretty short shifts, right? They are. You're not doing a full night. No, you're looking at about 30 minutes usually for these, especially for a crossing guard position or even for lighting the candles or even coming by and doing 30, 45 minutes of helping us set up the pumpkins with a lot of many hands, make sure it works. So the more people we can have, the more we can get done quickly and then everyone can go and enjoy the festivities themselves. It is a really good opportunity to do some volunteerism, to give back to your community. We've always seen pretty good participation in this event from when it used to be organized by residents in the season's greetings group. And now you all have carried the torch with the city here. Really look forward to seeing just an array of folks from Winooski at this event. Yeah, absolutely. I will say, when it comes to attendance at this event, we, like I said, we see a huge percentage of the Winooski population attend, but we also attract a lot of people from all over the area. And that's one thing that we're hoping to even increase and even increase the population of Winooski that's coming. So one kind of volunteer area that we haven't discussed is just people that are willing to lend their voices to the table come and help us with planning and logistics because we wanna make sure this is a really inclusive event. We know that sweet treats are a huge part of Halloween, but there are people with food allergies or with other sensory needs that we wanna honor as well. So we would love to make sure that we're being as inclusive as possible. So that's another volunteer position that's maybe not even heavy lifting, but it's heavy lifting in terms of making sure this event is really open and welcoming to all. And helping you see if there's any blind spots in the planning. Which I'm sure there are. We can only do so much and we try hard, but we can see only through the lens of our experience sometimes. Are there any other details you'd like to share? I do wanna just have a shout out to our lead volunteers. Sue Egan and Laura Wade have been incredible kind of gathering information and coming up with ideas to figure out how to enhance this already beloved event. So I just wanna say thank you to them and to everyone who has helped on the downtown Winooski board and on the city side. It is really all hands on deck situation with Halloween. And so I just wanted to make sure that we have a quick shout out to them because it's certainly not just me that's doing this work at all. We actually have a pretty strong sense of civic engagement in volunteers in Winooski. It's one of the things I love about our city. Yeah. And being able to see it come out several times a year is wonderful. Exactly. The other area that I just wanted to plug is fundraising. This event does take a lot of people power, but it also takes fun. So if anyone is also interested in fundraising, we have some kind of fun ideas that are coming up this year. In the past, we've run an adopt a pumpkin campaign where residents or even someone who used to live in Winooski and wants to give back can donate a nominal amount, $1, $5, $50, whatever they're able to afford. And that will directly go towards paying for the pumpkins and paying for the other activities that we have going on. And so we're still, we have brought on some incredible local sponsors and some incredible local partners, but we're always looking for funding ideas and we certainly welcome any community input there. Yeah, for those who don't know, as a nonprofit organization, the events that you run, they're not generating profit. It's operating revenue. The city does provide some funding to your organization, but there are also gaps there that you need to fill through these events. Absolutely, yeah. And a lot of times it covers just the event. I think something that people may not realize because we are such a vibrant city. We have so much going on all the time. Compared to other cities, our size and compared to other cities that serve the populations that we serve, we're really scrappy. We're really, we do a lot with a small budget. And so certainly we will do the most. We're committed to this event no matter what because this is so important to the community. But the more that we can fundraise and the more that we can support this event, the more that we can continue to amp it up this year and in future years. Right, and potentially have additional community events someday in the future. Absolutely, yes. So anything else that you wanna tell us about Downtown Winooski? Yes, I wanna say that we are always sharing what our small business community and our partner organizations and other community members are doing. And so if you follow us on social media at Downtown Winooski on Instagram and Facebook, we also have an e-newsletter that you can sign up for that we share a lot of great information. I'd highly recommend doing that. We actually have a lot of people that are informed through those channels because we do have a lot of smaller events that aren't Downtown Winooski. Maybe it's a restaurant or a retailer that's offering something special. And so there's always something going on. There's always something around the corner. So I highly recommend looking at that. And then I would also say checking out our website and making sure that you kind of know what's going on and we share a lot of great info there. So that's my shameless plug. Well, thank you so much for coming in this evening to tell us a little bit about what we can expect this year. Thank you in the organization, the board, the business owners for continuing to help keep Winooski thriving and to all of the volunteers who help keep this afloat as well. We're really excited. Looking forward to Halloween in Winooski 2021. Yeah. Visit downtownWinooski.org to learn more or WinooskiVT.gov sign up for our e-news alerts and we will also share that information. Thank you.