At a recent state conference, St. Cloud Main Street was nominated and won the Florida Trust Organizational Achievement award which acknowledges achievements in historic preservation. In total, St. Cloud Main Street brought home three awards for our community from the Florida Main Street Preservation on Main Street Conference.
St. Cloud won the Sunshine Booster Award for nominating the downtown streetscape project on Pennsylvania Avenue, which followed the similar project on New York Avenue. One of the crowning points was the $100,000 Cloud Cash infusion the city entrusted St. Cloud Main Street to sell to the community, resulting in a $200,000 infusion into the participating downtown merchants to ease challenges of the construction street closures. This award recognizes outstanding place-making projects in the Main Street district.
The Celebrating Main Street award recognizes outstanding special events and efforts that celebrate local Main Street districts. St. Cloud Main Street won for their Storybook Adventures program, which encourages families to walk through downtown reading children’s book pages and invites them to meet the author on the weekends, with 20 families receiving a free autographed book courtesy of St Cloud Main Street and sponsors.
“This year’s winners have shown a remarkable commitment to preserving the distinct heritage, traditions, and culture that make their historic downtowns attractive places for commerce,” said Secretary of State Cord Byrd. “The Department of State is proud to showcase these success stories in the preservation and revitalization of Florida’s historic downtowns.”
St. Cloud’s Main Street Program began in September 1999, designed to encourage ongoing economic development in conjunction with historic preservation.
