College business fraternity takes on local Main Street project

A possible approach for other organizations and neighborhood associations with colleges in their communities...

From Timothy Bishop, Executive Director, Ellensburg Washington Downtown Association:

CWU Alpha Kappa Psi chapter takes on Downtown Revitalization as community service project

Central Washington University's business fraternity, Alpha Kappa Psi, has joined forces with the Ellensburg Downtown Association. AKPsi will help with efforts to propagate the website Save Downtown, in order to raise funds to support the efforts of the EDA to revitalize Ellensburg's Downtown using the Main Street approach.

Evan Masters, the student President of the Fraternity, has said, "I am very excited about working with the Ellensburg Downtown Association. I personally love downtown Ellensburg and I think that a partnership between the AKPsi and the EDA is only natural. Hopefully, our relationship will grow to a regional or even national level between the two organizations."

Ellensburg based Internet Service Provider Kvalley computers & Internet and
Central Washington University student, Nicole Evans, worked with the Ellensburg Downtown Association in order to develop this innovative effort to raise funds to help revitalize this small central Washington community's downtown. Together they launched Save Downtown on November 1st.

"This is just a great example of how communities can use the internet as a tool and tap into an online community that is much larger than the geographic boundaries of our own city," according to Chris Schmidt owner of Kvalley computers & Internet who is also a EDA Board member. "Communities use the internet everyday to market themselves, so why not use the same technology to build support for the revitalization of our downtown."

The site is intended to serve as a fundraising site for the EDA, a local 501C-3 nonprofit organization whose goal is to revitalize Downtown using the Main Street four point approach.

The site will offer individuals the opportunity to make a donation of as little as $10 to the EDA. In return, those who make a contribution can list their name, home town and business link on the website. Others can then search the site to see who is listed. "It's a great win win for everyone," according to Schmidt. "

The EDA gets to reach out to a larger group of people who may support our efforts even if they no longer live in Ellensburg, and for as little as $10 they can have a link to their own business or individual website. Eventually, the site could not only help revitalize downtown but also become an online community for former and current residents."

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Ellensburg, Washington is the community I wrote about a few weeks ago, "College bus system opened up to entire community."

Index Keywords: college-town-interaction