The West Virginia University Mountaineer Parents Club, in collaboration with Main Street Morgantown, has been granted an $8,000 Governor’s Economic Restructuring Innovation Award.
With the grant money, WVU and Main Street Morgantown will launch a new event during the city’s annual Arts Walk called the “Art of Food.” Foods will be provided by the newly formed Downtown Morgantown Restaurant Association. The event will be held at the new Morgantown Market Place on Oct. 5 and will kick off Fall Family Weekend – an event-filled weekend for WVU family members and students.
“We hope the new location will encourage WVU students and their families to visit the vibrant downtown Morgantown area, introducing them and other community members to its over 40 different businesses, including unique boutique stores, restaurants and one-of-kind businesses,” said Main Street Morgantown’s Barbara Watkins. “Our goal is to create life-long relationships between our businesses and customers from the expanding WVU market.”
The Main Street Morgantown Arts Walk has occurred for the past 11 years and has partnered with the Mountaineer Parents Club for Fall Family Weekend for the past four years, attracting more than 10,000 people.
“Each year, Fall Family Weekend attracts more than 5,000 families from 35 states,” said Sabrina Cave, assistant vice president for WVU Student Affairs Communications. “We are hopeful that the ‘Art of Food’ event will encourage all families to visit the downtown area, leading to the development of a strong, long-term customer relationship.”
“Downtown Dollars” will be provided to the first 300 families that register for this event. Each family will receive $10 that can be utilized over two weekends.
In addition to the economic benefit of this grant, sponsors believe this grant will continue to improve Main Street Morgantown’s relationship with WVU, The City of Morgantown Parking Authority and the Downtown Morgantown Restaurant Association.
For more information, please contact Sabrina Cave at Sabrina.Cave@mail.wvu.edu or Barbara Watkins at Barb@downtownmorgantown.com.
-WVU-
ta/07/09/12
CONTACT: Sabrina Cave, Mountaineer Parents Club
304-293-2506, Sabrina.Cave@mail.wvu.edu
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