Your Invitation to the Come to Crawford Celebration
The partners of CometoCrawford.com invite the Crawford County community to a FREE celebration on September 17, 2022, from 11 AM to 2 PM. It will be held at The Barn on Jericho, a beautiful, brand-new venue in Taswell, Crawford County. The event is being held to cheer the successful launch and subsequent attainment of the initiative’s goals.
The celebration reflects the mindset of the organizations involved to focus on the good things going on in our community and helping those things to grow and expand. Collectively, these organizations serve the public and they hope to see lots of families join in celebration festivities. The partners of this project are the Community Foundation of Crawford County (CFCC), Crawford County Economic Development (CCED), Crawford County Tourism Commission (Tourism) and are also supported by the Crawford County Chamber of Commerce (CCCC). The CometoCrawford.com website and accompanying Facebook page serve all Crawford County residents. It is a one-stop website that provides easy access to contact listings, resources, events and activities and much more for businesses, people, churches and nonprofits; and it is accompanied by a Facebook page for promotional purposes.
Morton Dale, board president for CCED, said, “We were happy to collaborate and now to manage the Come to Crawford project, which is loaded with a lot of contact information and resources for our community. The site’s information is continually updated, which makes it accurate and reliable. The CCED will oversee its continuance. The CCED is always working toward a better future for all of Crawford County, and this tool certainly helps to accomplish that.”
There will be public announcements throughout the event. Kicking off the event at 11 AM, Sharon Wilson will be honored posthumously. Mark Stevens, Tourism’s board president said, “Sharon was an amazing advocate for Crawford County. We are so happy to finally be able to honor her publicly. Sharon passed away while our community was battling COVID, and we could not honor her appropriately at that time.” Members of her family will be on hand and a brief electronic presentation will show highlights of Sharon’s life in Crawford County. “We all still miss her.”
“The site promotes various activities all over the county, helps businesses who need an online presence, and encourages families to come to Crawford County to enjoy our rural way of life,” said Mark Stevens, Tourism’s board chairman. “Well over 100,000 people travel to various parts of Crawford County each year to take advantage of outdoor recreation, making tourism a vibrant facet of life in our community.”
Free features of this family-focused event are: music played by one of Crawford’s own, DJ, Shawn Scott; carnival-like food served and prepared from outdoor tents by the Boys and Girls Club; indoor and outdoor family-friendly games; and community announcements. The event will climax with two half-pot raffle drawings at 2PM.
Tickets for the $100 and $10 half-pot raffle can be purchased at the CFCC office at 4030 E Goodman Ridge Road, Marengo, IN between 8:30 and 4:30, Mon-Fri., or at the event leading up to the drawing at 2PM, cash or check only. Proceeds from the raffles benefit the renovation of the CFCC building, and will ultimately serve the people of Crawford County.
For residents, the CometoCrawford website can be a source of pride in our people and what we have to offer here, while not changing the rural nature and beautiful, geographic landscape that makes Crawford County special.
CometoCrawford.com was funded by a grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. through the Community Foundation of Crawford County, and required significant community input prior to its launch. Community discussion topics and survey results included broadband (high speed internet / fiber optic cable); lack of internal communication between organizations; inability for the general public to know how or who to contact for their concerns; overlapping community events and activities; a central place to post/advertise community needs, childcare deficits; transportation; addiction treatment and recovery; and small business web presence.
“Based on surveys, the input of residents, and the Crawford County Leadership Institute team, along with the size of the grant available, the community website and calendar was selected as the project,” said Angela Leonard CFCC board chairman. “It addresses many of the needs identified through community citizens and area community leaders. The CFCC is proud to have served in securing this project for our community; and in the augmentation of responses and feedback prior to implementation that made this initiative a true community project.”
“Crawford County is scheduled to see the installation of fiber optic cable, so this project comes at the perfect time for our community. Fiber can’t come to Crawford fast enough!” said CFCC executive director, Christine Harbeson. “The website and calendar provided a branding opportunity for Crawford County along with the subsequent marketing of it, and provides a one-stop-shop to access various sectors within Crawford County. Harbeson continued, “While we are celebrating in September, we know the growth for CometoCrawford and the community has just begun. Come celebrate with us.”
Lilly Endowment Inc. is an Indianapolis-based private philanthropic foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly, Sr. and his sons Eli and J.K. Jr. through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. Although the gifts of stock remain a financial bedrock of the Endowment, it is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff and location. In keeping with the founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education and religion. The Endowment funds significant programs throughout the United States, especially in the field of religion. However, it maintains a special commitment to its founders’ hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana.