2022: Morgan’s Version

It’s me, Morgan, the PR & Marketing Manager and magician behind the screens. Fancy meeting you here (I’m the writer behind most of our Downtown Buzz Blogs)! 

I’m super lucky to be working for an organization that’s devoted to the health and prosperity of its 2.5 mile Downtown footprint, which also happens to be where I live. I came to Downtown Wabash on a whim with a communications degree in hand and lengthy arts background to share. Now, I live, work, play and dine in Downtown Wabash every single day and I wouldn’t trade it for anything at this time in my life.

As this nonprofit organization’s brand, public relations and marketing manager, I’m still sitting on cloud nine from all of our rebranding efforts that we accomplished this year. Early this year, Monday, Feb. 21 to be exact, Downtown Wabash, Inc. successfully accomplished one of the most important things an established nonprofit organization could do: a full rebrand from Wabash Marketplace, Inc. to Downtown Wabash, Inc. 

Let me explain to you why executing a full rebrand is so important for any established brand and most important to this organization.

1. As Wabash Marketplace, Inc., there was community confusion around what our organization did, who it served, who was involved, what the mission was, what a Main Street organization was and how it was successful.
2. Wabash Marketplace, Inc., a 40-years-old nonprofit organization, had lost its sparkle. The public was used to the same product, same language, same color, style and overall tone in the community.
3. Our team had grown to two full time and one part time team members after years of employee turnover. Our Executive Director Andrea, myself and our Downtown Coordinator Carly were ready to grow locally, in the Northeast Indiana region, the State of Indiana, the Midwest and at the national level.
4. The mission and vision of Wabash Marketplace, Inc., a Nationally Accredited Main Street organization, needed some updating to better-tell the story of our impact in Downtown Wabash. Sprucing up the mission and vision statements meant changing the imagery and storytelling that’s current with national trends in many other flourishing downtown districts.

Wondering how we accomplished this?

For starters, we changed the 40-years-old name from Wabash Marketplace, Inc. to Downtown Wabash, Inc. And with that came new logos, colors, fonts, tone and style; new imagery; new website; new and improved mission and vision statements; new organizational values; new internal staff protocols; new event execution standards; new organization methods; new small business opportunities; new transformation strategy; and many other new things.

As that magician behind the screens, I’ve touched nearly every aspect of this rebranding with the knowledge and history of Andrea and Carly, of course. Planning, executing and maintaining this rebrand has, by far, been the most exciting, yet challenging piece of my 2022 in Downtown Wabash.

There’s more than just the rebranding in 2022 that I’m excited about! For example, our website received the Nonprofit Standard of Excellence Award in the Web Marketing Association’s 2022 WebAwards Competition. This accolade wouldn’t have been possible without the help of the rest of this team and our developer, Javon Bell of Bellaire Studio.

This organization was able to plan and execute more than 40 public events including 11 First Fridays, 20 Downtown Wabash Farmers Markets, Sidewalk Sales, Trick-or-Treat Extravaganza, Jingle Jubilee and Holiday Shopping campaigns. We’ve estimated that between all three of us, we dedicated more than 800 hours of womanpower to these events this year. 

In March, we hosted our first-ever Leprechaun-Con Bar Crawl in Downtown Wabash and in September, we launched our first-ever Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration honoring Mexican artists and Hispanic culture in Northeast Indiana. In June, we welcomed Miah Michaelsen of the Indiana Arts Commission and Senator Andy Zay to our Wabash Cultural District celebration and ribbon cutting ceremony while simultaneously launching the inaugural Wabash Cultural District Coupon Booklet, exclusive to businesses residing within the district. During the warmer First Fridays when sections of the district were so packed with family-friendly activities and attractions, we were able to activate Paradise Spring Park with food trucks, vendors, live music and kid-friendly opportunities.

Carly, while being a full time student at Indiana University Kokomo, executed 20 weeks of the Downtown Wabash Farmers Market for her first year as Market Coordinator. In 2022, she helped more than 45 local vendors bring in more than $150,000 in sales. (If you’ve been following our messaging, that’s $100,500 that stays in the local economy with every 67¢ on the $1.)

The Downtown Wabash Trick-or-Treat Extravaganza had gorgeous weather for the coveted candy dump of a LITERAL TON of candy, which brought more than 4,000 people to the Downtown Wabash district. Despite the bitter cold and questionable travel conditions during our annual holiday kickoff event, Jingle Jubilee brought families into Downtown Wabash from states like Arizona, Illinois and Michigan.

I sit here to write this reflection on 2022 and wow, everything has blurred together. A few things I will never forget that came out of the Downtown Wabash, Inc. office in 2022 are the team environment we’ve cultivated, the constant drive to be a socially responsible organization and the impact we have on Downtown Wabash, as well as recognition received from our regional, state and national partners and fellow Main Street organizations.

I’m humbled by the work we’ve achieved, goals we’ve reached, people we’ve met and stories we’ve heard in 2022. If these are the lasting memories of 2022, I’m thrilled to see what memories come out of our office in 2023.

Cheers to a great ride in 2022 and cheers to the new year! I’m excited to continue to share the stories and mission of this organization with you in 2023.

Much love,
Morgan