How can we, a board of nine members of Revitalize Gillett make the Gillett Community (school district by our definition) a great place for people to live, work, shop, and play.  It’s pretty obvious.  We can’t.  But we can be the coordinator for the full community.  We can furnish a facilitator for several groups within the community to come up with wants and desires.  We can and already have rallied volunteers to help with projects that need to be done.  We can and have helped develop new organizations that have an important place in the development of our community, such as the Historical Society.  We can and have offered consultation on projects that are designed to further the development of the community, such as the mayor’s task force to develop the low interest loan and city grant program that now exists for businesses in the City.  We can be and have been the organization that receives and distributes grant money for projects that further the development of the community, such as the grant we received for the promotion of the ATV Challenge event.  We can receive donations that are deductible to the donor, establish and manage a fund that makes awards to successful applicants in an award program to further the development of the community.

What do we need for all of this to happen?  We need involvement from the community, both the service Community and the participation Community.  We know that this community has a lot of pride.  It has been shown in the library project and most certainly was shown to us at the early stages of the formation of Revitalize Gillett and its acceptance into the Main Street Program.  We think it can be shown again.  That is the largest resource that we have and we think it will be shown in many ways.  We will need your effort, your talent, your time, and last but not least, some of your financial resources to make this program work. 

We have been too narrow in our focus in the past.  We have found that the downtown can’t be fixed without addressing the problems of the entire community.  We can only address those problems by recognizing what they are.  Solving one, if it’s the right one, will help in solving others.  We need your input and resources to help identify and fix what will help the community as a whole.

How can we put that together?

TO BE CONTINUED

Contact us at revitalizegillett.org or 855-1554/855-1888 with comments or suggestions.