On November 26, the Salem Main Street Association celebrates the start of the holiday season with a parade and tree lighting. The Association’s long-term goal is to bring the holiday spirit to downtown through illuminated decorations that create a festive and welcoming atmosphere that attracts customers to the many small businesses downtown. The Salem Main Street Association is a volunteer organization that cares for downtown and the businesses within it. Jim Vu, president of the Salem Main Street Association board of directors, stated, “A vibrant downtown is a reflection of a vibrant city.”
The Salem Main Street Association is partnering with the Salem Chamber of Commerce to emphasize the value of small businesses and what they bring to our community. Citing an Atlanta small business impact study, Jim referenced the fact that money is better spent with small businesses. Jim said, “Shopping at local businesses returns 80% of the money spent back into the local economy, while shopping at a big-box store brings in approximately 30%. We want our community to know the impact each customer can have on the success of our local economy by being intentional about where they spend their money.” The idea of Small Business Weekend is to dedicate their time to giving back to local businesses what they typically give to big-box stores on Black Friday. They have purchased net lights for trees, snowflakes for ballot boxes, and are starting a parade that will take place over five blocks at 6:00 p.m. on November 26. The First Annual Downtown Salem Christmas Parade will wind through our downtown streets, ending on Court Street between Liberty and Commercial Streets to kick off the holidays in style. The tree will be lit above Winslow’s Boutique. Many downtown businesses will have unique window decorations, and a display contest will run throughout the month of December. The public will be able to vote for their favorite display, and the display that receives the most votes will receive a $500 donation to the nonprofit of their choice. Voting will be available online through their website.
While we encourage all members of the community to show up and support others for the parade and ceremonies, we realize everyone may not be able to make it to the tree lighting, this is okay because the decorations will be up through the end of the year to get in the festive mood and experience the multitudes of great local businesses.
The Salem Main Street Association is planning and starting things to get this plan into motion. They could always use more volunteers. Volunteers will help hang the snowflakes, the netting of lights, and other items they may have to do. Volunteering takes place on the 12th of November starting at 8:00 AM from Isaacs coffee shop.
This is a starting point to decorate Downtown Salem and the vision is to decorate more streets, a longer parade route, and more extravagant displays if this year is well received and supported by the community.
For more information please visit https://salemmainstreetassociation.org/ and or the @DownTownSalem for more information about the parade, window decorating, donations, and more. Both Social media platforms are run by the Salem Main Street Association.
