It was feeding time in Statesboro last Friday, September 9th, thanks to the Downtown Statesboro Development Authority's Taste of Downtown event. The heart of the event was held on the lawn of the Bulloch County Courthouse, where local businesses featured products and services.
Unlike most First Friday events, where the activity is focused on the courthouse square this event was included "tastings" throughout.
The event is designed as a scavenger hunt where downtown businesses partner with local restaurants. This provides a great opportunity for the community to visit local businesses, meet the owners and hopefully discover a new restaurant or two.
Participants purchased special wristbands for only $10. Participating businesses were paired with a restaurant vendor, and every store had a different offering, from ice cream, snowballs, pork, and cinnamon buns, to wine, coffee, shrimp and grits, and more.
The rainy weather didn't come close to keeping the citizens of Statesboro from enjoying their time.
Some stores like Southern Pottery gave away not just food but also goodies to visitors. The Garage at Fit partnered with Smoothie King to give out free Angel Food and Strawberry Extreme smoothie samples. Pladd Dot Music teamed up with Butts-n-Brew Barbeque to serve brisket and turkey. Grice Connect and Lori Grice Photography once again partnered with Stacy Underwood of Uncle Shugs Bar-B-Q Place offering homecut potato chips and mac-n-cheese.
Georgia Southern also ran a bus continuously from campus to downtown so students could participate in the popular tasting First Friday event.
Fun events every First Friday
In the heart of downtown, in conjunction with the tasting event, many local businesses set up booths to compete for the attention of the passerby citizens as a part of the First Friday initiative. First Friday is an event held on the first Friday of every month in Downtown Statesboro that gives local businesses a chance to advertise themselves to the public. Here are some of the standouts.
Below is a "tasting" of businesses who participated.
Little Bit Gifts
Little Bit Gifts, owned by Penny Harris, is a 10-year-old local business in Statesboro that makes doggy bandanas, jewelry, and ornaments. A unique feature of Little Bit Gifts is that customers can request their own custom-made ornaments. Harris has an evident love for the things she crafts, and ornament making seemed to be a real game changer for the business.
"I started doing ornaments about five years ago," Harris said. "And they're actually one of the things I really enjoyed doing more than anything else."
Little Bit Gifts may be small, but this business may be just big enough to stay on the radar for fans of handmade art.
The Bees' Knees
The Bees' Knees buzzed into First Friday to show off what they had to offer this year. The Bees' Knees is a local bee farm primarily focused on producing honey for its customers. Before becoming a business, it was a hobby for the owner, Ed DiNello.
"I didn't realize the expense that came with beekeeping," he said. "So basically, I was like, 'I gotta come up with some kind of revenue stream to justify having this hobby.'"
During the rise of Bees' Knees, the company was known for setting up beehives in the backyards of paying customers. But as the business grew, things changed. Now the company primarily focuses on honey production.
DiNello and his employees were happy to show off some of their products at Tasting Downtown. Products include their flagship honey, the Wildflower, and other honey varieties like blueberry, chestnut, sourwood, cotton blossom, and more.
Emergency Training-First Aid CPR Certifications
Emergency Training offered registration opportunities for citizens interested in becoming CPR certified or First Aid training. The business is run by Alicia Washington. Her story started as nothing more than an HR Business Manager of a home health agency. The agency lacked personnel capable of certifying staff, so Washington became an instructor to help fill that gap.
"I noticed there was a demand," Washington said. "People started calling my job asking if I could certify them--so I started teaching at the public library here."
After becoming quite famous for her abilities as a teacher, Washington began Emergency Training. Now she teaches her classes at the YMCA on Saturdays and the EGRMC on Sundays.
Emergency Training offers intensive CPR training and classes to teach how to provide first aid safely and effectively. While some courses are targeted at more experienced medical personnel, some classes are also offered to those with no experience.
AT&T
While not a locally owned business, AT&T did show up to First Friday to gain some potential customers. Their booth offered tablets, phone cases, and speakers with offerings for cell phone plans and DirecTV contracts.
Something the Assistant Manager, Elissa Caley, was very proud to announce was a cell phone service known as First Net. First Net is a service for First Responders. It's a phone service wholly dedicated to public safety.
"It's something for us to not only give back to our first responders but also for them to be prioritized in natural disasters," Caley said.
In disaster situations, FirstNet allows first responders to get in touch more quickly to react to problems faster.
Volunteers made event possible
Downtown Statesboro Development Authority volunteers worked diligently through less-than-ideal weather to ensure the event's success, spreading out across downtown to label the stores participating in the tasting while helping local businesses set up their tents and equipment for First Friday.
However, when the event officially started, their job wasn't over. Many had to stay and help facilitate the passing of tickets and maps and ensure everything was still going smoothly.
The workforce wasn't just made up of adults but students as well. Students like Kimmy Smith, an intern for the DSDA. Her job is helping coordinate volunteers, writing newsletters for the DSDA, and social media management.
For students, doing volunteer work is not just an excellent way to give back to the community but also a way to help earn volunteer hours.
"Some (students) are in the mechanical or some of them are in the engineering program," Smith explained. "They have to have 100 volunteer hours done per year. Some are in the Honors College, so we have to have an exponential learning project that has to get completed."
It's hard work at times, but it's rewarding nonetheless. And it allows amazing events like A Taste of Downtown to happen. Volunteer roles and student internship opportunities can be requested by emailing [email protected].
For more information on First Friday and other events downtown, make sure to follow the Downtown Statesboro Development Authority on Facebook.
All photos by John Caesar/Grice Connect.
