We posted recently about the visible and invisible work that Main Street organizations do. Van Ness Main Street’s annual meetings highlight accomplishments that most of us might not notice, but nevertheless make this neighborhood a better place to live, work and visit.
Key to that is supporting a variety of small businesses that serve local residents and attract visitors from other neighborhoods. Van Ness Main Street provided assistance to 107 businesses last year, including $38,000 in direct cash grants, and more than 800 support hours. And that was in addition to planning and hosting events that attracted 4,500 visitors, with the help of volunteers who committed a record 1,633 hours to the cause.
These stats and more were revealed at the VNMS 2024 annual meeting. Here’s a summary from the Main Street’s executive director:
by Gloria Garcia
On Thursday, May 9th, Van Ness Main Street held its 2024 Annual Meeting. This year’s was as energizing as in years past.
The VNMS board, stakeholders, partners, donors, and residents came together to celebrate our successes. We are so grateful to have an engaged community that supports and coordinates efforts to make our corridor the best on the avenue. And a big thank you goes to Saul Centers and Park Van Ness for hosting us in the beautiful Club Room and to Calvert Woodley for the delicious breakfast!
At our meeting, we welcomed University of the District of Columbia President Maurice Edington, who briefed us on his vision for the university.
Council member Matt Frumin also addressed the crowd on the importance of the Main Street program, and how VNMS led the way as Ward 3’s first, thanks to the Van Ness Vision Committee. Since 2016, VNMS has been joined by six other Main Street programs in Ward 3.
Our work is enhanced by our partnerships and funders. Our largest funder, the Department of Small and Local Business Development, was in attendance.
Van Ness Main Street Executive Director Gloria Garcia, and the DSLBD’s Jessica Mailander and Virginia-Marie Roure.
We were also thrilled to have Angela Kramer, executive director of Friends of Peirce Mill, and Steve McManus, the head of school at Edmund Burke.
We also cannot accomplish what we do without our amazing team of volunteers, and our programmatic work could not happen without our amazingly talented team – Cherie Lester on marketing and communications and Andrew Shapiro on small business support. We are a very high-functioning program because of our human capital and talent on our board, within our businesses, among our committee members, and all of our volunteers.
Van Ness Main Street, clockwise from the top left: Andrew Shapiro, Cherie Lester, and Gloria Garcia.
Key highlights of our meeting included the launch of our 2023 Annual Report, the presentation of a $5,000 ANC grant check for our pollinator beautification project, and the presentation of the Reginald M. Felton Spirit of VNMS Award to Zach Friedlis from Saul Centers.
Van Ness Main Street board members in attendance (left to right): Andrew Saul, Barbara Lardy, outgoing board member and Spirit of VNMS awardee Zach Friedlis, VNMS board Vice President Doug Loescher, Erin Bryan, VNMS President Carolyn Godavitarne, Jonquilyn Hill, and VNMS Secretary Beverly Ross.
Zach has just rolled off our board this year. He had served since the founding of VNMS, as part of the VNMS Vision Committee and on the board of directors. His work with Saul Centers helped transform the corridor with the addition of Park Van Ness, which is both a residential and retail anchor on the avenue.
We thank everyone who attended and for those that were not able to, please see our presentation and take time to read our Annual Report.
Thank you to everyone for your support of VNMS and our amazing community!
Forest Hills Connection is an editorially independent program of Van Ness Main Street.
Discover more from Forest Hills Connection | News and Life in Our DC Neighborhood
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.