Volunteering at Brunswick Main Street

by Sophie Smith | Sep 17, 2019 | Emerging Projects

Pictured: Clean Up Day 2018, Gene and Diane Farmer and David Roberts of Brunswick Crossing, April 28, 2018

Volunteering at Brunswick Main Street

By Brunswick Main Street

Volunteers are the heart and soul of Brunswick Main Street.

They are the Board members who spend hours contemplating the direction of the organization, they are the committee members who pull out the weeds in the flower pots or organize a property tour, and they are the ticket collectors, wine pourers, race officials and cleaners for one of our many events. Without them, Brunswick Main Street would only be a fraction of what it has become. This community cares deeply about our downtown, its history, and its importance to our identity.

Brunswick Main Street could not be more proud of who we are, where we have come from, and where we will continue to go.

OUR VOLUNTEERS ARE THE BEST.

And we want you to meet a few:

“I volunteer for Brunswick Main Street because I want the people of our town to come together and have fun. I volunteer for a lot of the events BMS puts on — you can often find me at the registration table for an event — but I also hand out shirts for the Potomac Street Mile, help at other events, and sometimes drop by the office for a few hours to help with mailings.”

Has volunteering for Brunswick Main Street been rewarding?

“Volunteering for Brunswick Main Street has been a great thing for me. The events themselves are fun and I have met so many great people by volunteering. I enjoy meeting the other volunteers — both BMS regulars and people who volunteer for one event a year — and the people who come to take part in the events.”

What would you say to someone considering becoming a BMS volunteer?

“If you want to have fun and feel useful, come volunteer for one event. Try us out and I think that you will like us.”

Mary Bellamy

Event Volunteer, Pictured Right

“If you believe as I do, that it is important for our downtown to be a lively, attractive commercial center of our town, then we should all help to make it happen. Brunswick Main Street is the best organization to do this. It’s a proven nationwide program with methods that have worked in many towns across the country.”

Has serving on a BMS committee been rewarding?

“Volunteering for Brunswick Main Street has been personally rewarding because I’ve made many friends and we all work with the same sense of purpose. It’s rewarding to see our accomplishments, even though we have a long way to go to make our downtown all we want it to be. We’ll never stop trying.”

What would you say to someone considering serving on a committee?

“I encourage others to become Main Street committee members. Committee work is where things really get done. You can use your ideas and skills to make things happen. It’s also a great way to meet people and make new friends.”

Diane Ellis

Design Committee Member, Pictured Right

“I volunteer for Brunswick Main Street because I come from a place where my small-town upbringing shaped my character positively and profoundly and I want to do my part to contribute to a strong community that can benefit my own children and others in the same way.”

Has volunteering as a Board member been rewarding to you?

“It has absolutely been rewarding. I have met many good people that I would not have gotten to know and it has tied me into the community in a way that I don’t think would have happened otherwise. It is incredibly satisfying to be able to go into a business or walk down Potomac Street and to stop & chat with friends & acquaintances. It is tremendously comforting to know that when my boys run around a crowded city event, there’s a good chance there’s at least two other pairs of eyes on them who know where & with whom they belong. My volunteer experience has been the “knitting” force that people invoke when they say “close-knit community.”

What would you say to someone considering becoming a Board member?

“Don’t stand in your own way! You can do it! There really are resources out there that a person of vision & action can access through Main Street to make our common dreams for a vibrant downtown a reality. Becoming a Board Member is the most profound step you can take towards putting yourself where you turn an idea into an achievement.”

Alyssa Theodore

Board Member, Promotions Committee Chair

WE NEED YOUR HELP

As Brunswick Main Street pushes itself as an organization, our need for community input and volunteer power becomes greater. If you have been thinking about becoming a volunteer, now is the time! Visit this page to find out what our current volunteer needs are: CLICK HERE

Call To Artists: Temporary Public Art for Frederick County Main Streets

by Sophie Smith | Jul 9, 2019 | Emerging Projects

Call to Artists

With support from the Tourism Council of Frederick County, (Visit Frederick), Frederick County’s (Maryland) five Main Street Programs are collaborating on a project to bring temporary public art to each of its five Main Streets. These communities are the following: Brunswick, Frederick, Middletown, New Market and Thurmont. The Frederick Main Street partners are seeking an Artist/Team to design, fabricate, and install temporary public artworks (to be installed for approximately one year) at each of the Frederick County Main Streets.

Deadline has been extended to July 31st at 5:00PM

Examples of Temporary Public Art:

About the Project:

The vision of the Main Street Public Art Project is to celebrate Frederick County’s downtowns, to create linkages between the five communities and to highlight the connections between their agricultural communities and downtowns—both today and into the future.

This project calls for public art installations that are active for one year. The pieces should be exploratory and experimental in nature and could engage with one or more senses. In this case, the temporary art pieces should be removable after a year or be composed of materials that only have a lifespan of a year. The goals of the project are the following:

To highlight both the common threads of the Main Streets (what makes them “Frederick County”) and the uniqueness of each Main Street.
To encourage locals and tourists to visit and appreciate the offerings in each of the Main Street
sites.
To engage dialogue with the community about art and how it can enhance public spaces

APPLY:

Please note that the deadline for the proposals has been changed to July 31st at 5:00PM. All applications must be sent to Susie Leong at publicartonmain@gmail.com. If you have any questions, please contact Susie at 301.455.4487 or email the above address.

One Artist/Team will be selected to provide five (5) temporary public art pieces, one for each of the Main Street sites. These must be five (5) unique public art pieces.
Total budget for the project is $38,750
All professional Artists or Artist Teams living within 80 miles of Frederick County are welcome to apply
The Selection Committee (comprised of Main Street representatives and art professionals) will review all applications and select up to five (5) Finalist Artists or Artist Teams. The Finalists will be invited to develop proposals for the five sites. Each Finalist will receive an honorarium of $200.

To apply, please review and download the below attachment:

CALL TO ARTISTS Frederick Main Street Project

The Next 15 Years…

by Sophie Smith | Jun 12, 2019 | Emerging Projects

A Guest Blog Post by our Board Chairman, Julie Martorana

This year Brunswick Main Street celebrates its 15^th anniversary. 15 years and going strong! So what will the next 15 years look like?

As an organization, Brunswick Main Street faces the same challenges our city faces: embracing our past and looking forward to our future. The past provides us with knowledge from lessons learned and a solid foundation. However, we must be willing to change. None of us can afford to remain stagnant. The best way to honor our past is to continue to envision our future, just as our founding members did when they began.

This past year Brunswick Main Street has been doing just that. We are looking for ways to build on our strong organizational foundation while recognizing the changes occurring around us. A sign of a strong, healthy organization is continually asking, “How can we improve”? And that sentiment, I am happy to report, is alive and well at Brunswick Main Street.

Our newly developed Strategic Plan charts an ambitious course for the organization into 2025. Through 2020, we will be concentrating on expanding our foundation by working to increase the capacity of the organization through the following efforts:

Developing a comprehensive fundraising plan to ensure we have the resources to carry out our plans
Expanding our volunteer base, again giving us the necessary diversity of resources
Recruitment and development of our Board of Directors to ensure we have a sustainable organizational structure for the future
Updating and documenting internal processes to support our growth and expansion
Increasing our grant-seeking efforts to support our proposed programs and internal development

My intent here to show what Brunswick Main Street will be doing to build our organization. This is by no means an exhaustive list of the plans for our future. We have many goals in each of our committees which include the Design committee, the Promotions committee and the Economic Restructuring committee. For more information about these committees and their plans please check out our our pages HERE.

In the next 15 years Brunswick Main Street has created a vision for our downtown that includes:

1. Attracting new and vibrant businesses to our downtown corridor and strengthening our support systems for the exisiting businesses within our Main Street district.

2. Making our downtown an attractive city center that is clean, green and safe.

3. Promoting all of the wonderful outdoor recreation opportunities right outside of our downtown. Everyone should experience the beauty of the C&O Canal in Brunswick!

I hope that this look into the future of Brunswick Main Street generates hope and excitement for what is to come. At Brunswick Main Street we are motivated by the vision for our future and what we can do for Brunswick’s downtown district. If you feel this same hope and excitement I urge you to join us. It will take all of us, involved and engaged, to create the vibrant city center that will make us all proud of the town we love so dearly.

Community Legacy 2018 Grantees – Where Are They Now?

by Sophie Smith | Apr 17, 2019 | Emerging Projects

The Brunswick Main Street Community Legacy Grant was created to financially assist commercial property owners in the Brunswick Main Street district who wish to improve the interior or exterior of their space. To find out more about it, click here! In 2018, Brunswick Main Street chose four awardees for this grant: Cannon’s Events LLC, The Own It Company, Beans and the Belfry, and Brunswick’s up-and-coming Community Art Center located on 14 East A Street. Let’s take a look into the renovations that have been made possible thanks to the Community Legacy Grant!

The Own It Company

Located right across the street from Brunswick’s Square Corner Park is The Own It Company. As a community-centered organization, The Own It Company focuses on providing a collaborative office space to promote creativity. As recipients of the Community Legacy Grant, The Own It Company was able to update their electrical wiring throughout their building and install adequate electrical outlets on several of their work stations. As an older, more historic building, The Own It Company understands that it is just as important to keep the inside of their building operating efficiently as it is to preserve the historic factors of their building.

Cannon’s Events LLC

A bit further down West Potomac Streets sits Smoketown Brewing Station, a popular brewery for residents and a returning hot spot for tourists. With the money received from the grant, business owner Dave Blackmon was able to invest in his new business, Cannon’s Events, by renovating the rear exterior of the building. The exterior improvements include new windows and a set of double doors leading to a freshly set patio perfect for hosting events. Additional renovations that were made possible as a result of this grant include the installation of commercial fans, LED lighting, and glass interior walls.

The Community Arts Center

Another recipient of the Community Legacy Grant is The Community Arts Center located on 14 East A Street. This historic building previously known as the “Beth Israel” Synagogue building is in the process of being renovated. This process was made a little easier for owner Matt Marcello after being announced a recipient of the grant. The money provided by the grant was used to place a new roof on the building. Marcello was thrilled to cross this task off of his to-do list and looks forward to creating a community art center people can visit and admire the work of their peers.

Beans in the Belfry

The final recipient of the Community Legacy Grant is Brunswick’s favorite cafe: Beans in the Belfry. Beans in the Belfry is in the process of putting their renovation plans into action as they get ready to introduce a new fence and bike rack on the side of their building. They feel these renovations will be a major improvement in the city scape of downtown Brunswick. The bike rack will be perfect for customers and tourists coming from one of the many surrounding trails.

Brunswick Main Street is proud to extend a helping hand to the businesses that continue to contribute so much to the town of Brunswick! Together we encourage not only business owners but community members to support these businesses and help show others why we love Brunswick!

Pocket Park Project

by Sophie Smith | Feb 13, 2019 | Emerging Projects

To maintain and preserve the historic downtown of Brunswick Main Street, the town works closely with the Community Foundation of Frederick County, especially our Organization Committee. With the help of this committee, applications for various grants are reviewed and dispersed according to where they feel the grant will best be put into motion.

Recently, our very own Brunswick Main Street has been awarded the Linda Moran and Don Doughty Fund! Both Don and Linda have created this fund to share their appreciation of music and gardening. The couple feel that both music and gardening can bring a calming and restorative balance not only to individuals, but to communities. Wanting to share their passion for the arts and give back to various communities within the county, Don and Linda have worked together to set up the Don Doughty and Linda Moran fund to increase gardening opportunities and brighten up public green spaces.

Brunswick is especially excited to be recipients of this environmentally focused grant. We are particularly excited for our volunteers to tackle revitalizing the Pocket Park, our community park located across from Beans in the Belfry. Volunteers are eager to glove up and get down to business as they set out to purchase new plants, create new pathways in the park, tend to the flower beds, trim back some of the overgrown trees, and much more! The park includes a sign made out of bricks from the old high school – what a great way to recycle!

Brunswick Main Street would like to say a huge thank you to Karin Birch -our longtime volunteer for the park- for all of her hard work to keep downtown Brunswick a beautiful, welcoming and historic main street!

Join us at the next Small City Saturday on April 13th as we launch this exciting project – stay tuned for updates!

Click through these images below for our BEFORE shots!

Storefront Windows Project

by Sophie Smith | Nov 19, 2018 | Emerging Projects

You can find old historic photos of Brunswick, Maryland in the windows of many of the shops and businesses in the Brunswick Main Street district! Brunswick Main Street, in partnership with the Brunswick History Commission and the Brunswick Heritage Museum, have identified some of the former uses of many of the buildings downtown. This project intends to help the Brunswick community better understand the boundaries of the Main Street district, learn about Brunswick’s amazing history and see its transformation, and to imagine some ways to utilize the spaces in the future! The Design Committee Chair, Dr. Wayne Allgaier, has served as the Project Manager of the Storefront Window Project. Make sure you try and see them all!

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