Banners are coming
By SHANE MARLER
Peabody Main Street Interim Director
I believe it was Paul Revere who said, "the banners are coming!" Or was it "the British are coming"? A few months ago when I was still a volunteer for Peabody Main Street Association, I was lucky enough to assist the design committee in installing the new banners that adorned the light poles downtown. It was extremely windy and cool and the process was a bit cumbersome, but I was pleasantly surprised at the number of volunteers who showed up to help.
The group quickly got a routine down and there was even a little bit of competition between the Young Kids crew and the Old Fogies crew. The Old Fogies won, because they installed more banners than the Young Kids did. The challenge is on for future banner installations.
The downtown banners send a message. "This is our home, we have pride, welcome to our community." So it makes perfect sense that we'd want to send that message to visitors all year long. The Peabody Main Street design committee began the process of soliciting funds for fall banners as soon as the winter banners were up. It was easy to see what a difference it made in the ambiance of the downtown district and everyone loved them.
At press time, the budget to purchase fall banners is only a couple hundred dollars short. We're sure that after this news reaches our readers, the shortfall will be eliminated quickly by the generous contributions of the people of Peabody. And while we're on the topic of generous, we would all like to thank the LaFoys for building the frames for the banners. They did a wonderful job with the construction.
So it's almost time to go back to the drawing board and design some more banners. I wonder what the new colors will be. What style will the community choose this time? Will some local artists participate with their really creative ideas? What will the weather be like on the day the volunteers hang them from the light poles in downtown? And the biggest question — who will win the installation race? The Young Kids or the Old Fogies?
