News

Well here we are in November and it is time for the Holiday Season to go into full swing.  We have some great activities ahead and Holiday decorations will be up soon.  If you have some great decorations, store windows and restaurant themes, we would like to know.  We will come by and take a picture and share it on social media.

• November all month- Holiday Open Houses begin
• November 6th-  Christmas decorations go up
• November 7th- OK Ale Trail
• November 7th- Mural Festival
• November 11- Veterans Appreciation Day
• November 28- Horse Drawn Wagon Rides begin
• November 28- Small Business Saturday

Small Business Saturday is going to be more important than ever this year with everything we have all been through.  We would like to come together as a community and really promote everyone.  We also ask that you share our posts that last week of November.  When we help each other we become stronger together.

If you plan on doing something special on Small Business Saturday, we want to know so we can promote you with additional social media coverage.  Please contact Stephanie at info@downtownedmondok.com

We would also like to know if you have any events coming up in December as well, such as Santa visits, charity events, shopping or restaurant events, etc.  We would like to get those on our calendars now so we don’t double book.

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Scarecrow Winners Announced

This years scarecrows were the best we have ever had and the public loved them.  We got so many comments, shares and posts about the contest.  Many people have now said this is one of their holiday traditions- coming to Downtown Edmond to see our scarecrows.  We saw so many families down here taking photos with them.

For the month of October, we had 53,617 Facebook views and a similiar Instagram response.  This brought more people to Downtown and it brought more attention to all of your businesses.  We thank everyone who participated.

The winners for 2020 are:

• Sherri & Co: 1st place and winner of a $75 DEBA gift certificate and an ad in Edmond Life & Leisure
• Urban Forestry: 2nd Place and winner of a $50 DEBA gift certificate
• Edmond Fire Department: 3rd Place and winner of a $25 DEBA gift certificate

Honorable mention

• Fine Arts Institute
• Edmond Tag Agency
• Edmond Police Department
• Hilton Garden Inn.

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Tree Damage

The City of Edmond began tree damage clean up in Downtown Edmond today.  This will be a difficult job and may take a few days.  Please tell them thank you if you see them or send a thank you email.

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Time to Nominate or Volunteer

It is that time again please send in your nominations for the
DEBA 2021 Board:

President
Vice-President
Secretary
Treasurer

We are also looking for chairpersons for the following:

• Streetscape– 3 decorating or planting projects a year
• Historian– helping to gather and compile publications and information
• Community Relations– charitable projects 3-4 times a year
• Sponsorship–  communicating with potential sponsors for the arts festival and other events
• Signage- managing signage before and during the arts festival
• Stage Entertainment-  Managing the stage entertainment before and during the arts festival.  This includes scheduling acts and being here during the arts festival.

All of these positions require a monthly 1 hour meeting.  If you would like more information or would like to volunteer, please email Stephanie at info@downtownedmondok.com

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Veteran appreciation

We would like to recognize all of our Veteran family on November 11th with some special social media posts.  If you are a Veteran, you have a veteran in your family, or have an employee who is a veteran.  Please email Stephanie at info@downtownedmondok.com or text 405-471-2348 so we can recognize them.

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From the Edmond Chamber of Commerce

It is with heavy hearts we inform you that Ken Moore passed away this morning. Ken was our President and CEO for 9.5 years and had a massive impact on our chamber and Edmond as a whole. Ken was highly respected in the community, and known as a “chamber legend” around the country after leading chambers in five different states for 47 years of his life. After he retired in 2016, Ken remained active in Edmond, the community he loved and served well. He will be missed dearly by many. We offer our condolence’s to Ken’s family and his many friends.

We will notify our members when funeral arrangements have been made. In the meantime, please share your photos of Ken in the comments below so that we may share with his family the happy chamber memories made.

DEBA will miss him!

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The Edmond-based Artist

When Edmond’s largest interactive art piece was installed at the Festival Marketplace on October 15, it not only marked the city’s 235th public art installation, but also a new business trend. Interactive art is engaging visitors and citizens to stay downtown longer, and it’s working with Edmond businesses to do so.

The presence of art pieces in Edmond enhances our overall economic vitality. Interactive art brings Edmond citizens and people from outside the area to our downtown to eat in our restaurants, shop in our stores, and create experiences that make them want to return again and again. While it may be hard to put a number on that, the impact is tremendous.

How it works

1. Visit “Key to My Heart” on the north end of the Festival Marketplace at 30 West First Street. 
2. Scope out where you’d like to add a lock on the seven-foot-tall and 32-foot-long steel L-O-V-E letters.
3. Visit a downtown Edmond business selling locks.
4. Write a message on the lock.
5. Walk back to “Key to My Heart” and attach your lock.
6. Drop the key in one of the slots in the base of a letter.

Business selling locks

Several businesses already have locks available for purchase, including The Edmond Historical Society & Museum, Edmond Tag Agency, Frenzy Brewing Company, Hello Love Salon, Office Depot, and Silver Leaf Gems.

Downtown Edmond business leaders expressed excitement about attracting new customers with interactive art. 

Ashton Stovall, co-owner of Urban Okie, said, “I am a huge fan of Zonly Looman. This is a creative way to motivate people to spend more time in downtown Edmond.”

Evan Small, co-owner of Blocworks, said, “Art installation takes lots of cooperation and the collaborative spirit is contagious. I love the blooming creativity in our downtown.”

Kristy Woodson, general manager of Around the Corner, is also supportive of this concept. “I’ve seen this concept in other cities and we are really supportive of fresh ideas that bring new customers,” she said.

Private funding partners

The private funding partners for “Key to My Heart” are Matthew & Kim Myers, Chris Dingess, David Maschino, Ashley and Casey Massegee, Kyle and Lex Copeland, and Chris and Anabelle Anderson.

You can read more information about Edmond’s Public Art on the Visit Edmond website.

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Synchronicity: Connecting your Team for Optimal Results! 

Session Description: 

In 2020 we have a plethora of artificial intelligence, data, and analytics yet still feel phenomenally disconnected in the workplace. Let’s create better interoffice relationships where each team member feels supported, encouraged and valued, where it’s more likely that interoffice relationships will improve, client connections will grow stronger, and your team’s productivity and performance will reach new heights! 

Meet our Keynote Speaker, Shannon McKain:

For more than a decade, workplace culture expert, Shannon McKain, has motivated audiences to make changes for the better in their professional and personal lives. A gifted speaker, McKain’s authenticity and her ability to intimately connect with an auditorium filled with employees and executives aren’t performance art — she’s the real deal.

Before traveling the country to influence others, McKain was in her audience’s shoes, working in the corporate world where she saw, and even experienced herself, how The Great Divide impacted growth and success among her peers.

Calling on that past, she openly shares personal stories and her own encounters with culture issues in ways that not only build trust and empathy with her audience, they result in dramatic mindset shifts that help drive dynamic transformations within an organization.

When:

Thursday, November 19, 2020 9:30 AM thru 02:00 PM

Where:

At: Gaillardia Country Club
5300 Gaillardia Blvd

Registration:

RSVP Required; Cost: $75 for members; $90 for Non-members & Late Registrations

 *only 75 participants will be able to attend in person – first come, first serve

$400 for a sponsored table of 4, $500 for a booth sponsorship (comes with 2 tickets and display space for your business ) 

$25 for virtual Zoom option – this option is listen only and participants will not be able to be seen

Registration: 9:30-10:00am
Welcome: 10:00am

Spread the news about these self-guided art tour brochures that were recently completed by UCO students from a grant that Visit Edmond received. Digital versions are showcased here: https://visitedmondok.com/public-art.php

Hoot Gibson and other business leaders started the organization to provide a sense of community amongst the Downtown Edmond Businesses. 

All these years later, it is still in operation and stronger than ever.  The Association provides many events for the the city of Edmond like the Downtown Edmond Arts Festival which is in its 42nd year.  The also provide support for the business members by using networking events, training, social media coverage, community outreach and keeping everyone up to date with newsletters and emails.

It is wonderful to be part of such a rich history!

On a summer day in 1889, Jennie Forster marched into Brown’s Lumber Company and ordered enough lumber, on credit, to build a school house for the new village of Edmond, Oklahoma Territory. The Ladies School Aid Society, consisting of 15 women, had been formed and the ladies were determined to have a proper school for the local children.

Jennie (Mrs. George) Forster was the president of the society. Among the other members were Mrs. L.G. Wahl, Mrs. C.A. Dake, Mrs. Frank Kiedrowski, Mrs. E.W. Erisman, Mrs. H.H. Moose, Mrs. Peter Wilderson, Mrs. J.J. Shen, Mrs. Alvin Ricketts, Mrs. John Pfaff, Mrs. Henry Morrison and Mrs. F.S. Peck.

The women set to work immediately to earn the money to pay back the lumber bill. They badgered their husbands, as well as the other town merchants and citizens. Mrs. Forster joked in later years she was sure the businessmen “felt like running out the back door when they saw me entering the front door.”

The ladies had other fund-raising ideas, the first being an ice-cream social featuring blackberries, ice cream and lemonade which raised $25. Several of the women wove rugs to sell and they held other socials, dinners and suppers. The town pulled together and by August of 1889 the new school house was completed on one of the six future school house lots.

By the end of the first school year, all the money for the lumber had been paid back and most importantly The Thanksgiving Game DInner to benefit the project raised enough money to finish paying the school teacher, Miss Ollie McCormick, for the school year. A tuition didn’t have to be collected from the students, making this a free public school.

The first class of 19 students reported September 16, 1889. By the end of the term there were 37 pupils. By summer of 1899 the town had outgrown its little school house. Ten years to the month of when it was built, the structure was sold and remodeled into a home, which it remained for almost 100 years.

Making the Case for Restoration

Through the passing years most people forgot about the school and many were convinced it no longer existed. There were a few, however, who believed the school house was still on the old school lots on East Second Street…part of the boarded up Sander’s Camera Shop.

The Edmond Historic Preservation Trust had considered the school house as a future project from its beginning in 1982. Local historian and Trust member Lucille Warrick finally convinced the Edmond City Council members that not only did the school house still exist but possibly was the last remaining original 1889 structure in town. In 1997 the council gave the Trust the go-ahead to “investigate, acquire and preserve” the historic structure.

Once again a group of concerned citizens, led by a strong-willed woman, went to work on the 1889 school house. Immediately research was begun to prove to the nay-sayers that this was, indeed, the original school house. It was a great day when the inside walls of the old camera store were taken down and the original blackboards, painted on the walls of the old school, were revealed.

April 15, 2007, following years of hard work, the official dedication of the building was held. In the fall of 2008 a class of students from Russell Dougherty Elementary School walked two blocks down the street and through the front doors of the old school to begin a day of instruction in the manner of 1889.

The children of Edmond were attending the town’s first school house once more.

More than 200 pieces of public art dot our city with color and beauty. Some are in plain sight and others require slowing down to see. You can ponder the beauty of murals and sculptures on your own or during the Art in Public Places Tour.  Many of those pieces are located right here in Downtown Edmond.  Take a stroll through our beautiful district and discover the artistic flair.  Our most popular being Humpty Dumpty by artist Kimber Fiebiger located on Broadway between Hurd and Main Street and Dali by artist Chris Cargill located in the Alley at 14 South Broadway.  Both make wonderful photo opportunities. 

If you would like a map of all of the public arts in Edmond, contact Visit Edmond at 405-341-4344.