Submitted by Downtown Camas Association
Chosen from over 12,000 nominations nationwide, Camas was named a Top 10 town in the 2019 Small Business Revolution Main Street competition. The winning town receives a $500,000 investment, which includes assistance and transformation of six small businesses—all of which will be filmed on location as part of an 8-part original TV series on Hulu.
Previous season winners have described the experience and its ongoing results as life changing for their town’s business district and the entire community.
The next critical step is to be chosen by the show’s team to advance to the Top 5 finalist through a nail-biting online announcement on February 12th. Following that exciting news, a furious week of public voting will determine the winner. Voting will be done on the Small Business Revolution website and it’s one vote per device per email per day.
If included in the Top 5, Camas will ask the community, state, region and the nation for their votes and to spread the word through their own social connections. The Downtown Camas Association is encouraging people to mark their calendars now and ask all family, friends, co-workers, clients, etc. to be prepared to vote as well. Winning would create a positive focus on Camas, Clark County and the Pacific Northwest.
“We are over the moon excited about the chance to be a part of Small Business Revolution Main Street!” says Carrie Schulstad, Executive Director for the Downtown Camas Association. “The show is incredible and truly shines the light on the inspiring stories of small businesses. We have such amazing hard working businesses and some serious mill town pride in Camas, and it would be an honor to have their expertise here to help build strength and sustainability in our small businesses and in our town. We have worked hard to bring our town back to life and to build community and we are so grateful for those that are supporting our downtown businesses. The authentic small town experience has true value! Because of that, we ask for your vote. But no matter what happens, this whole process has been such a genuine community “uniter” and we will use this momentum to continue to strengthen and preserve our town.”
The Small Business Revolution Main Street series showcases one small town and six of its small businesses each year. 2019 will be Season 4. The efforts are funded by Deluxe Corporation, a company that has been working with small businesses in marketing and finance for over a century. The goal of the show is to show the joys and challenges of owning a small business, why supporting small businesses is so important to communities everywhere, and the powerful changes that can happen when effective and creative marketing and business management techniques are employed. The overall efforts lead to community pride and investment on a grand scale. Prior series can be watched on Hulu, YouTube or on www.smallbusinessrevolution.org.
Since finding out their Top 20 status in November, the Camas community has been engaged in using #mycamas on social media and sharing the unique qualities of the town and of the small businesses. A reception for the Small Business Revolution team was held on January 2nd at Grains of Wrath in Downtown Camas and attracted hundreds of people, many wearing #mycamas t-shirts, who were excited to meet the crew and show their community spirit.
For more information, visit www.smallbusinessrevolution.org or https://www.facebook.com/smallbizrev
