Pictured: Melissa Ford-Kalbfell and Judi Orr of the Community Foundation present the Good Deeds Grant check to Brooke Vanderpool, Manchester Alive President/CEO
The Community Foundation was pleased to award a Good Deeds Grant this spring to Manchester Alive to help support the new Second Fridays on Main festival initiative. Second Fridays on Main are being organized with the goal of building community through increased opportunity to gather safely and increase awareness of the unique opportunities North Manchester has to offer. Additionally, Second Fridays on Main also aim to increase the quality of place and livability of North Manchester, thereby increasing the potential for relocation to the area. The Good Deeds Grant awarded will help enable Manchester Alive to purchase the necessary equipment to safely and successfully facilitate the program.
The Second Friday events, which run from June through October, have been a great success so far. The first event in June featured the Eel River Cruisers car show and band “The Bulldogs,” and the most recent event in July featured a parade and local band “The Strays.” The next Second Fridays on Main event will be held on August 12 with the theme “Family Farm.”
In January 2019, Manchester Main Street and North Manchester Chamber of Commerce merged their agencies to form Manchester Alice, a collaboration that offers greater opportunities for economic and community development as well as more effective ways to promote the common business interests of North Manchester. An Indiana Accredited Main Street organization, Manchester Alive strives to maintain a high level of engagement with the four point approach of economic vitality, design, promotion and organization. These strategies are the driving force behind a strong downtown which translates to a strong community.
The Community Foundation’s Good Deeds grant program was established in 1993 to ensure that unrestricted grant money would be available to the Wabash County community to give priority to nonprofits and initiatives that address advancing educational attainment and alleviating urgent need. To date, more than $4.5 million has been distributed from the Good Deeds Endowment.