By JEN SAMUEL | jsamuel@dailylocal.com | Daily Local News
PUBLISHED: September 19, 2021 at 2:27 a.m. | UPDATED: 9/19/2021 at 7:45 a.m.

COATESVILLE — Thousands of people united in the city to celebrate the fifth Coatesville Invitational Vintage Grand Prix.

People from across the Mid-Atlantic region came to the valley for the day’s festivities, which City Manager James Logan said the Grand Prix is the biggest community event of the year, excluding local school and student annual celebrations.
“It was a great event,” Logan said. “It’s a big event. It’s a fast event.”

Action began at 8 a.m.
The crux of the Grand Prix began at 9:15 a.m. when the drivers and owners of more than 50 vintage cars dating from 1900 to 1975, and vintage motorcycles from 1930 to 1975, competed individually while driving through a course which ran 2.2 miles through city streets.

Milwaukee Mile Sponsors included Brian Hoskins Ford and Coatesville Youth Initiative, said Lisa Thomas, event manager. She noted that, despite COVID, sponsorship for the Grand Prix doubled in 2021 compared to in 2019.

Organizers canceled the city’s annual Grand Prix in 2020 due to the pandemic shutdown, as previously reported.

“In addition to the Mid-Atlantic area,” Thomas said, “there were vehicles from New York State, Massachusetts and Virginia.”

Several thousand people attended the Grand Prix in Coatesville on Saturday, Thomas said.

“There were so many favorite moments from the day,” said Thomas, who works at Mid-Atlantic Equestrian Services. “The best part about the day was that there were so many people getting together in the City of Coatesville after the impact of Hurricane Ida and how many cars came to support the City of Coatesville, that was really the best.”
The Grand Prix is set to return next year, a few hours after dawn, on Saturday, September 17.

Read full article at:

https://www.dailylocal.com/2021/09/19/city-soars-with-triumphant-return-of-coatesville-invitational-vintage-grand-prix/

Sponsorship Opportunities Open for Coatesville’s Biggest Regional Event September 18

COATESVILLE, PA — As community events re-emerge after year-long shutdowns, the City of Coatesville’s biggest attraction, the Coatesville Invitational Vintage Grand Prix, will return Saturday, September 18, and the City has engaged event and sports marketing professional Lisa Thomas as Event & Sponsorship Director to manage its growth.

“As the region is opening up after COVID-19, the entire Coatesville community is looking forward to one of the country’s only Vintage Grand Prix events,” says Thomas. “In addition to featuring incredible vintage cars and motorcycles winding through the downtown streets of Coatesville, the event provides the opportunity to showcase the City’s exciting transformation. We invite interested individuals, organizations and companies to get involved with sponsorship opportunities at every level. We also hope to engage more of our local small businesses while building on our relationships with area organizations including Coatesville’s 2nd Century Alliance, the Western Chester County Chamber, and the Coatesville Rotary. This is an event that shines a spotlight on Coatesville, and it provides the entire community a sense of pride for their city.”

Full Article My Chesco

For 30 years, US News and World Report has been an expert resource offering statistical rankings on the nation’s top regions for real estate, schools, healthcare, automobiles, investments, and vacation destinations. Ocala Horse Properties is proud to announce that US News and World Report has just released its annual rankings, and Ocala has made the top 10 list in several key categories!

The city of Ocala, with its vibrant and revitalized downtown, is the hub of our expanding community – one that offers a diversity of dining and entertainment choices. Poised on the edge of our beautiful horse country, Ocala offers the best of both worlds for those who like to live with access to a growing urban environment and diverse wide open spaces. Living in Ocala means you can enjoy a multitude of outdoor activities by day, and an abundance of entertainment options by night.

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We live in Chester County, Pennsylvania - an area rich in  land conservation, wide open spaces, approximately 45 minutes from the Main Line and Philadelphia.  Kennett Square is a small town, known as the "Mushroom Capital of the World", our little town  thrives on the long standing relationships that allow our small businesses to thrive. 

Our community members are loyal to the locals, and during these difficult times, we  look within to help our businesses survive and even flourish.  One such business is the Center for Change Kennett Square.  Owned by Winden Rowe, a brilliant mental health therapist and writer, who's focus is around stress and trauma. 

In the past several months Winden has endured a fire in her building,  relocation and Covid - which has had a huge impact on  the mental health field.  She has risen to the occasion, moving into a sweet cottage in the same complex, so her staff and clients would have a comfortable home.  Instead of shrinking during covid, she worked with other area counselors, mediators, wellness providers and attorneys to offer more services to their clientele!

Winden came to Brand Farm several months ago in need of help with branding and positioning of her new business model through the launch of her new website.  It took a couple months to meet with all the new staff, take photos, edit content and ultimately design the Center for Change KSQ's new wordpress website - but in the end this was a very rewarding project.

We are so appreciative of Winden's use of our small business services to help with her brand - ultimately helping with ours.  Once again a great reminder of the importance of keeping it local!

https://thecenterksq.com/

Written July 2020 for Ocala Horse Properties

The greater Marion County region is home to wide open agricultural spaces, with a plethora of options for outdoor recreation and entertainment. The beauty of our region is that residents can enjoy a day in the great outdoors, and an evening of dining in downtown Ocala!

These are certainly unusual times, but the team at Ocala Horse Properties is proud of our Ocala community and how we have rallied around local businesses. We are fortunate that our local restaurant scene offers up an array of outdoor dining options, ranging from casual cocktails and finger foods to upscale French cuisine.  So for those of you who want to take a night off from the kitchen or backyard BBQ, we’ve taken a poll, and the following our some of Ocala’s local favorites!

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Author:  Bill Thomas

Could a global pandemic be the best chance traditional brick & mortar retailers have in a world ruled by E-commerce?  

With stores shuttered and consumers confined to their keyboards, a parade of box trucks has been the only lifeline to America’s consumerism. The experience goes something like this: shopper checks out - confirmation received - truck arrives - dog barks - box opens - contents match packing slip - order fulfilled. 

But wait... something’s missing. 

The fulfillment we seek isn’t found in a sequence of logistics mapped in a wireframe. We humans are hardwired to inform our decisions through our senses - sight, touch, smell, sound and taste. There’s no App for that. The hidden price we pay for the convenience of shopping on-line is the emotional cost of being cut out of the deal.

About that packing slip that bribes you to take a customer survey, it’s no match for a sincere ‘thank you’ from a store owner and the satisfaction you get for supporting the vitality of your community.

As America reopens, consumers will be seeking something Amazon can’t deliver - a personal connection to their brands and community. 

Notice to store owners - now is the time to pull every address, email, phone number and digital marketing algorithm. Connect with each and every customer in a uniquely special way. Don’t ask them for their business (too self motivated), don’t guilt them into supporting you (too hat-in-hand), just invite them to be human again. For one golden moment, your most valuable product isn’t displayed on a shelf or hanging from a rack. 

Let’s hope this opportunity doesn’t come again.