The Jacksonville Main Street Downtown Summer Concert Series returns after its annual two-week hiatus on Friday night.
Central Illinois Country Musician Eric Burgett will take the stage.
Main Street Executive Director Judy Tighe says she’s excited to hear what the Warrensburg-Latham area native has in store: “He’s based out of Nashville now. According to his Facebook page, he’s going to have some folks from, I think, his neck of the woods that are coming to visit. So that will be really nice.”
Tighe says the two-week break allows Main Street’s volunteers to reset and organize other opportunities. One such opportunity is a promotion with the downtown area’s businesses to help benefit the Jacksonville Area Food Center.
Holly Cakes Bakery kicked off the food-raising event a few weeks ago on WEAI’s Sunday Morning Blues Brunch announcing where her business is giving discounts to patrons who bring in canned goods and non-perishable food items to help benefit the Food Center.
Tighe says more businesses are joining in on the effort: “We’re working with a lot of the downtown businesses, and they want to help people do good, so let’s fill the food bank. That’s the gist of what they are trying to do. You take in any non-perishable food items into participating businesses and they’ll give you a prize or a discount or whatever they are choosing – but you are going to get a little something for doing good. Everybody wins. The idea is that we want to help pack the Food Bank. The promotion will run now until the end of August. Participating businesses will have posters up. I don’t think we have all of the posters out yet, so be watching for some kind of flyer in their window that says ‘Let’s Pack the Food Bank’ and then, you can take some non-perishable items in and see what kind of fabulous prize or discount you get. We just want to help the Food Bank continue the good work that they do for our community.”
Tighe says a flyer will start popping up as well as more details within the next week.
Tighe says the list of downtown events will continue well into the Fall so everyone should keep heading downtown to see what’s happening. The events are all expected to lead up to Jacksonville Main Street’s 25th Anniversary celebration on September 7th, where Jacksonville native and award winning singer-songwriter William Fitzsimmons will perform.