At the 2024 Main Street Now Conference in Birmingham, Alabama, we announced our 2024 Great American Main Street Award (GAMSA) winners: NewTown Macon (Macon, Georgia), Madison Main Street (Madison, Indiana), and Monroeville Main Street (Monroeville, Alabama). I spoke to the executive directors of each program to learn how they celebrated this exciting achievement and the impact that the Great American Main Street Award has had on their work and their communities.

What was one of your favorite reactions to the Great American Main Street Award announcement? Did you receive any special shout-outs or congratulations?

Emily Hopkins, NewTown Macon: I was actually in the car with the chair of our Main Street board when I got the call from Main Street America telling us we won. I remember seeing the number pop up on the screen and saying to Trish: ​“I think this might be about GAMSA…” When they told us we won, we both started screaming with delight. I’ll always share that moment with her. 

It was tough, but we kept the award a secret from most of board members and major donors. During the award ceremony, I sat beside Karen Lambert, President & CEO of the Peyton Anderson Foundation. Karen’s mother founded NewTown in 1996 and she carries on her spirit and passion for downtown Macon in her role at Peyton Anderson Foundation. Seeing her beam with pride on stage when she accepted the award is something I’ll never forget, along with all the smiles, hugs, and happy tears that were shared by all Maconites who attended the ceremony.

Austin Sims, Madison Main Street: My favorite reaction to receiving GAMSA was the honest reactions by my board members. I was told not to tell anyone other than a few board members, and I took that to heart! Out of our group of 15 who attended, only five of us knew that Madison had received this recognition.

Anne Marie Deas Bryan, Monroeville Main Street: To say our community partners were a little excited would be an understatement. We were so proud to be able to have so many people at Main Street Now to celebrate with us. Our new partnership hashtag is #CollaborationWins because this is a win for all of Monroeville. Regions Bank, a Main Street Alabama investor, Main Street Now 2024 sponsor, and now, a Monroeville Main Street sponsor, came to visit our community and wrote a wonderful story about us in April. They immediately updated their story when we won the GAMSA, and it has been picked up by nine different publications, including CSR Wire and MENAFN. The calls with congratulations and questions about Main Street keep coming in!

How did your community celebrate the award?

Emily Hopkins: We’re still celebrating! That Friday, when we got back to Macon, we hosted a press conference celebrating the award with our community. The press conference was held on Coleman Hill, one our beloved parks overlooking downtown Macon, and we showered the crowd with confetti when Mayor Miller announced that we won the award. The following Sunday, we invited the community to join us on Coleman Hill again for our monthly Second Sunday concert hosted by Bragg Jam (a non-profit that hosts an annual music festival and other concerts throughout the year). We gave out free t‑shirts commemorating the GAMSA win to the first 50 people who showed up — people started showing up an hour and half early for the show! Alongside those events, all the downtown theaters have put our GAMSA win on their marquees, and Visit Macon installed a mural commemorating the win.

Austin Sims: We are still celebrating! For the award ceremony, we worked with the River Boat Inn & Suites to host a watch party for folks at home so that they could gather and celebrate with us live via Facebook. We have also worked with Visit Madison, Inc., and City of Madison to brainstorm celebration ideas. So far, we have created a banner for our office window, drafted a blog post, started a social media campaign with businesses holding the GAMSA plaque, and created a page on our website dedicated to the award and related information.

Anne Marie Deas Bryan: We will be celebrating for the next year! The city signed a proclamation declaring June as Monroeville Main Street Month, commemorating our designation on June 1^st. We now have eight-foot-tall GAMSA/​Monroeville Main Street banners around our courthouse square and we shared our projects, success, and partners in a slideshow at our Farm to Table dinner. After the dinner, the slideshow will be used to create multiple reels to use on social media, our website, our committee profiles, speaking engagements, and more.

In the coming months and years, what plans do you have to use your award deepen or expand your work?

Emily Hopkins: We have an incredible story to tell in Macon. Our downtown experienced a dramatic decline in the 1970s and 1980s — only a third of our storefronts were full, many of our historic buildings were shuttered, and our streets were empty. Downtown Macon was the worst of the worst, and now we’re being recognized as one of America’s greatest downtowns. We got here today because our community rallied around a shared vision for downtown Macon where all Maconites have opportunities and resources to open a business, purchase and rehab a building, or curate the experience they want for themselves and this community. We plan to use this honor as leverage for generating national news coverage around our efforts to achieve an integrated revitalization success story where no Maconite is left behind. 

Austin Sims: We will continue our social media campaign with the business owners holding the plaque until we run out of businesses! We hope to place permanent duplicates around Madison to encourage a wayfinding activity. Each location throughout our district will have information about GAMSA, the award, and Main Street Approach, as well as about Madison. We are struggling to find the funds for this at the moment, but we hope to continue the search and the planning.

Anne Marie Deas Bryan: We are looking forward to spreading the word about the Main Street Approach and how it can transform communities. We’ve had numerous communities call, schedule visits, and ask for us to come speak in their community. We have received unexpected donations which we will use for grant projects. We are currently working on multiple grant applications for a $500,000+ public/​private partnership project. This project will see the creation of at least four new businesses (probably a total of seven business within two years) and 23 new full-time jobs upon completion. Just last week, we assisted the city in securing $350,000 in state and federal funding with no match required — a grant we found after both the private partner and city officials ask for Main Street’s help with identifying possible funding. In the long-term, we want to own a building, and we are discussing a capital campaign to raise funds to purchase and renovate a building and to create an endowment fund to help cover annual expenses and long-term maintenance.

What does the Great American Main Street Award mean to your organization? How does this recognition impact your work and your community?

Emily Hopkins: We received this honor because of the equitable and fair habits we have created as a community to drive progress. We created the Macon Action Plan, our downtown comprehensive plan, as a community, with input from every zip code, race, religion, and identity in Macon-Bibb County. And we implemented that plan together. This award shows us that if we continue working the plan and working together, we win. This honor recognizes our shared commitment to each other as Maconites and gives the encouragement to keep chipping away at the goals we’ve identified for ourselves. 

Austin Sims: To us, it is reassurance. This award solidifies the story of Madison and the Main Street Approach. This award reflects the longevity and commitment our community has to Main Street and to Madison. This award is helping us tell our story.

Anne Marie Deas Bryan: It has been gratifying to be recognized for the hard work so many in our community contributed to revitalizing our historic downtown, and it adds a new level of credibility to our organization. In Monroeville, a win for one of us is a win for all of us! Receiving GAMSA has been a source of community pride, which means more citizens are talking about our program and becoming interested in downtown activities.