[OMS_MANAGERS] Downtown Holiday events during COVID

[Sarah Lu Heath]

We certainly haven’t figured this out either but I have learned….

You local radio station can probably set-up a temp FM station that only broadcasts for a mile or less. This is very helpful for creating a distanced event.

Sarah Lu Heath
Executive Director
Astoria Downtown Historic District Association
No.1-12th Street, Suite 114
PO Box 261
Astoria, OR 97103
503.791.7940
www.AstoriaDowntown.com<http://www.astoriadowntown.com/>

From: OMS_MANAGERS <oms_managers-bounces at omls.oregon.gov> On Behalf Of Elaina Turpin
Sent: Wednesday, September 16, 2020 4:25 PM
To: Oregon Main Street program managers <oms_managers at omls.oregon.gov>; Oregon Main Street program managers <oms_managers at listsmart.osl.state.or.us>; oms_managers-bounces at listsmart.osl.state.or.us
Cc: Ryan Currence <operationsindowntown at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [OMS_MANAGERS] Downtown Holiday events during COVID

As far as tree lighting events- we did some brainstorming last week but haven’t followed through with concrete plans yet.


  *   There’s a local guy who does sound for car shows, he’s got speakers on a trailer he can haul around town. We’ve considered asking him to drive around playing holiday music, following Santa in a fire truck, or police car, or horse drawn carriage.
  *   We’ve got a local theatre group who does radio plays, they’re looking at broadcasting a special holiday play.
  *   Also, our Chief of Police usually reads The Night Before Christmas at our tree lighting. We’re going to do something virtual with that.
  *   Maybe a lighting contest or map of houses/businesses in town with light displays.

Small Biz Saturday- I’d considered the receipt idea prior to COVID because you know people have spent money locally and you can quantify the impact of the $ spent. We just did a QR Code Scavenger Hunt for our Corn Festival and it went better than I expected with a dozen or so entries. That would be easy to do at local businesses, even if they aren’t open for foot traffic.


Elaina Turpin
City of Aumsville
595 Main St.
503-749-2030

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From: OMS_MANAGERS <oms_managers-bounces at omls.oregon.gov<mailto:oms_managers-bounces at omls.oregon.gov>> On Behalf Of Downtown Bend, OR
Sent: Wednesday, September 16, 2020 3:39 PM
To: Oregon Main Street program managers <oms_managers at listsmart.osl.state.or.us<mailto:oms_managers at listsmart.osl.state.or.us>>; oms_managers-bounces at listsmart.osl.state.or.us<mailto:oms_managers-bounces at listsmart.osl.state.or.us>
Cc: Ryan Currence <operationsindowntown at gmail.com<mailto:operationsindowntown at gmail.com>>
Subject: [OMS_MANAGERS] Downtown Holiday events during COVID

[EXTERNAL E-MAIL SENDER - Only respond and interact from trusted sources]

Greetings,

I wanted to reach out today and share with you some of our thoughts and ideas for the upcoming holiday season, and request your thoughts, feedback, and ideas.  Thanks!

Halloween/Trick-or-Treating
We are canceling our in-person event.  Instead, we are hosting an online costume contest (with awards) and a month-long Downtown Halloween scavenger hunt (with awards).  Plus, we'll be promoting anything that our businesses are doing something special (ie-giving out 'treats' with any online or in-person purchase).

Ladies Night
We always host a Ladies' Night in November, and it's a huge success.  Normally, participating businesses would have food, drinks, and discounts from 5-7 on a Thursday night.   This year, we're considering hosting an online-only event. We'd ask bars and breweries to pre-package cocktails and growlers to sell the two days before the event, and restaurants to make special discounted to-go desserts (that people can enjoy at home), then on the evening of the event, all discounts and free gifts would be offered for any online, phone, text, or email purchases made during the event hours.  We're event considering hosting a Zoom 'party' where ladies can drink together and share stories about their purchases.  Thoughts?  Ideas? Feedback?

Shop Small Saturday
Normally, as an AMEX Neighborhood Champian, we host a booth in Downtown Bend where we hand out passports and we usually have over 60 businesses that participate in stamping the passports.  We gather donations from all of the participating businesses, arrange them into prize packages and award them to random winners that participated in the Shop Small passport event.  This year, we are (again) considering moving this event online due to the COVID restrictions.  We'd give out all of the AMEX swag to businesses to give to their customers, and we'd still collect donations from participating shops to create prize baskets - but this year we'd have our community participate by submitting their receipts - each receipt (for online or in-person shopping) would be an entry to the prize raffle. Thoughts?  Feedback?

Community Tree Lighting
Normally, this is a big event with Santa, the mayor, local celebrities, and a couple of thousand people who could down to the lighting of the community tree.  This year, we're trying to get a local station to live stream the event, and we'd encourage everyone to count down to the tree lighting from their own living rooms.  We'd like to make it more interactive than that, but we don't have any ideas to do so (yet!).

Santa Visits
- Canceled

Please let our team know if you have any thoughts or ideas that we can use. Thanks so much for 2cents!

I hope that all of you are hanging in there during these strange times. Be well,
Mindy Aisling
Executive Director
--------------------
[Image removed by sender.]
Downtown Bend Business Association
Talk or Text - 541-788-3628    www.downtownbend.org<http://www.downtownbend.org>
916 NW Wall Street in Downtown Bend Oregon

We are a nonprofit committed to increasing
the vitality of Downtown Bend.


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