PCCVB commits $28,500 to aid in promoting local tourism

Greencastle Summer Music Festival Director Chris Flegal (left), and board members (from left) David Greenberg, Stu Fabe and Eric Edberg receive $3,000 from Putnam County Convention & Visitors Bureau board members Kit Newkirk, Gail Smith, Marilyn Culler, Todd Lewis and Laura Hatton in support of the 2019 GSMF series.

Courtesy photo

The Putnam County Convention & Visitors Bureau (PCCVB) intends to contribute $28,500 to support Putnam County non-profit organizations with missions or programs that encourage tourism.

“All non-profits need reliable financial support,” PCCVB Board Member Kit Newkirk said. “This program focuses on amplifying work being pursued by community volunteers and staffs, increasing their ability to tell their own stories and allowing more opportunity for them to attract visitors to the county. The support is designed to help fund promotion and marketing, with the intent being for guests to extend their stay and enjoy more things here through the outreach of the organizations themselves.”

“We become so used to amenities here that we can overlook them,” CVB Grants Committee member David Kirsch said. “We’ve all told people there’s not much to do here, especially in the winter, and to highlight how untrue that is the CVB produced a 38-page Visitors Guide, filled with things designed for residents and guests to enjoy. The upside to tourism development is that, as we increase and improve amenities for guests, those amenities are for residents to enjoy as well.”

The PCCVB Board reviewed a list of non-profits in Putnam County, honing it to 16 whose missions or programs relate to tourism.

“A one-page application was all we requested,” Newkirk said. “The CVB intends to become more of a collaborator in these organizations’ success at tourism-related promotion, so the program is intentionally simple.”

Nine organizations have responded to the offer, which does not require a financial match and has no deadline.

The Bainbridge Improvement Society, DePauw School of Music, Greencastle Arts Council, Greencastle Civic League, Greencastle Summer Music Festival, Main Street Greencastle, Putnam County Comprehensive Services’ Greenlight Studio, Putnam County Fair & 4-H Club Association, Putnam County Museum, and the Putnam County Playhouse have received a total of $19,500 in support so far.

This initiative adds to the CVB’s two matching-grant programs. One is for up to $2,500, designed to help non-profit organizations promote programs and events to out-of-county residents, and another, for up to $20,000, helps non-profits create or expand assets that impact visitation from outside Putnam County. Two recent examples are support for the Robe-Ann Park bandshell and an expansion of People Pathways, both designed to be as beneficial to those visiting as they are to local quality of life.