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Pennsylvania Downtown Center Announces Winners of 2010 Townie Awards
Press Release
June 16, 2010
Lancaster, Pa. – Pennsylvania Downtown Center last night presented 12 awards during the organization’s annual statewide Townie Awards gala. The Townie Awards are a festive and venerable tradition designed to recognize the commonwealth’s core communities and individuals for creation and implementation of programming and events that exemplify the goals of PDC’s community revitalization mission. Eligible communities consist of Pennsylvania Downtown Center’s nearly 300 member organizations, which include approximately 70 Main Street and 30 Elm Street programs, making the Townies a competitive award process each year. PDC received more than 40 Townie Award nominations this year, which is a record number of submissions.
Pennsylvania Downtown Center’s executive director, Bill Fontana, said “Each year we look forward to the Townie Awards presentation for its ability to excite and inspire our members to continue their community revitalization efforts. Our member communities work tirelessly to improve their cities and towns, and we love having the opportunity to applaud them for their efforts.”
The Townie Awards are a part of PDC’s annual statewide conference, which is held in a different commonwealth community each year in order to highlight the respective city or town’s accomplishments in community and neighborhood revitalization. This year’s conference, held in downtown Lancaster, was attended by more than 400 individuals – a record number of attendees – and included borough and municipal officials, experts in community planning and landscape architecture, and dozens of Main Street and Elm Street managers. Highlights of the conference included nationally-recognized speakers, more than two dozen educational sessions, walking tours in the downtown and mobile workshops to Mount Joy, Manheim, Elizabethtown, Lititz and Ephrata.
Founded in 1987, the mission of Pennsylvania Downtown Center is to advance the sense of place, quality of life and economic vitality of Pennsylvania’s downtowns, traditional neighborhood business districts and nearby residential areas. For information about the Townie Awards and this year’s recipients, contact Norah Griffiths Johnson at (717) 233-4675, or via email.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Following are the 12 Townie Award winners for 2010
Building a Better Boyertown (Boyertown, Pa.)
Two awards:
Program-wide Physical Improvements and Design
Special Events
Daniel Tobin of the Frankford Main Street program (Philadelphia, Pa.)
Recipient of the Chairman’s Award for Youth Involvement
Deena Kershner of Our Town Foundation (Hamburg, Pa.)
Recipient of the award for Outstanding Achievement by a Manager
Downtown Indiana, Inc. (Indiana, Pa.)
Program-wide Public Space Improvements: Indiana PA Road Diet
Easton Main Street Initiative (Easton, Pa.)
Community Partnerships: Fostering a town/gown relationship with Lafayette College
New Kensington Community Development Corporation (Philadelphia, Pa.)
Two awards:
Anchor Building Project: Coral Street Arts House
Volunteer of the Year: Jesse Clayton, for Pop’s Playground
Our Town Cooperative (Canonsburg, Pa.)
General Image: Art Lives…in Canonsburg!
Revitalization of Youngsville (Youngsville, Pa.)
Organizational development of Youngsville’s downtown
Seventh Street Development Corporation (Allentown, Pa.)
Storefronts: Façade Transformations Program
Honorable Mention:
Mount Washington Community Development Corporation (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
Special Events: Art Marketplace and Public Art Initiative