The city of Camas has been announced as one of the top-20 finalists to be featured on “Small Business Revolution – Main Street,” an online show that focuses on revitalizing the main streets of small towns by offering funding and professional advice for a makeover of six small downtown businesses.
Each season of the show, produced by small business financial and marketing consulting firm Deluxe Corporation, which is based in Saint Paul, Minn., begins with a contest to narrow down the list of contending cities. The winner becomes the featured city in the upcoming season. Camas is among the finalists for the show’s fourth season, which is scheduled to air in the fall of 2019. It’s one of two West Coast cities among the top-20 finalists for the fourth season; the other is Arlington.
“We got nominations from small towns across the country, and we got a great nomination from Camas,” said Deluxe spokesman Cameron Potts. “We’re excited to have them in the top 20.”
Previous winners were Wabash, Ind.; Bristol Borough, Pa.; and Alton, Ill. The show airs on Hulu, YouTube and the website smallbusinessrevolution.org.
It was started in 2015 to celebrate the company’s 100th anniversary, initially as a way to try to spread the word about the company’s services, but it quickly evolved into a revitalization project, Potts said. The show initially focused on a specific main downtown street, but Deluxe eventually opted to widen it to include any business in the downtown area.
“Small businesses, especially in small towns, are under siege because people can buy online or from big box retailers,” Potts said. “Helping revitalize small businesses really brings a community together, and we’ve seen that over and over when we do this.”
The 20 towns for the fourth season were announced Tuesday, chosen by the show’s producers at Deluxe from almost 12,000 nominations received during the October nominating period. The producers will spend the next several weeks conducting outreach among the small businesses and communities of each town and interviewing interested town leaders.
In its profile of Camas, the show’s website notes the city’s location on the Columbia River, its proximity to Portland and its top-ranked school district. The town also has great community involvement and is about the right size for the show, Potts said — and is already in the midst of its own downtown improvement efforts that can serve as a starting point.
“($500,000) sounds like a lot of money, but it goes fast,” he said. “So we’re looking for where we can come and help put a community over the top.”
The show’s producers contacted Carrie Schulstad, executive director of the Downtown Camas Association, to learn more about the city. Camas was nominated by staff at the downtown Attic Gallery, Schulstad said, but she didn’t know that at the time, so the initial call came as a surprise.
Then there was about a three-week wait until the company notified the top-20 finalists.
“I hadn’t really thought much about it (in the meantime), so when I got the email, we were just absolutely ecstatic,” Schulstad said.
Schulstad said she sees a number of opportunities for projects and local small business that could be helped by a boost from the show, and she’s excited to campaign for Camas as the contest moves into its next phase.
“There are a few buildings that could use some renovation love, and some businesses that are poised to grow with a little bit of support,” she said.
If any city projects are up for inclusion, she said, it would also be great to look at extending the aesthetics and amenities on downtown Camas’s Fourth Street over to the adjacent Third and Fifth Streets.
The list will be narrowed down to 10 candidates in a Dec. 11 announcement, followed by a period in which the show’s producers will visit each town in person. The top five finalists will be announced in mid-February, kicking off a weeklong public vote to determine the final choice.
The winner will be announced at the end of February, and then small businesses in the winning town will be able to apply to be featured on the show, which will film from March to August of 2019. The winning town will receive $500,000 in funding, divided among makeover projects at six local businesses.
Schulstad says she’ll be encouraging Camas residents to help the city during the upcoming selection phases by sharing photos of the city on Deluxe’s Facebook page and using the hashtag #mycamas in their posts about the city on social media.
“That will really help them see our community pride and what our vibe is,” she said.
