Tigerton Main Street, Inc.

Other Projects and Activities

Tigerton Main Street has sponsored several other projects and activities throughout the years along with all of the community improvement projects they have been involved in. Some of these have continued to be regular and ongoing and others served their purpose and were not continued.

One of the first major projects that Tigerton Main Street sponsored was the Tigerton’s Incredible Mountain Bike Race (TIMBR). This was an off-road bike race that followed a trail through several acres of Tigerton Lumber Company land. Turnout for the event was very good, and after a few years, the course was moved to the Embarrass River ATV Park to avoid the hazards of having to use county highways to get to the woodland trails. Eventually, the turnout for the event dwindled and it was cancelled.

Tigerton Main Street, Inc. publishes the quarterly newsletter “Tigerton News and Views”. This newsletter features articles about Main Street activities as well as things going on in the community. The “Tigerton Main Street Corner” is a weekly column that appears in the Marion Advertiser/Tigerton Chronicle section. This is a weekly spotlight on things going on in the community and the intent is to bring to light the positive things that are occurring every week in our town. We also publish a brochure, which lists our area businesses and what services are available in Tigerton. These are available in the kiosk at the Embarrass River Travel Center and also at the Embarrass River ATV Park, as well as in area businesses.

The Annual Village Cleanup has been around since 1994. Volunteers gather downtown and then spread out around the community picking up trash. Over the past few years, this has been incorporated with National Join Hands Day and several other improvement projects have been added each year, including raking the yards of elderly in the community. Throughout the years, several volunteers have also showed up armed with paintbrushes for painting projects at local businesses.

The Farmers’ Market continues to be held every Saturday morning from June through September at the Legion Park shelter from 9 am to noon. This event was originally started at the Clinic parking lot, but due to the lack of tables and restroom facilities, it was moved to the Legion Park. Admission is free for both vendors and customers. Starting in 2008, if the Legion Park is booked, the market moves downtown to the 1905 Village Hall.

Main Street is also responsible for window decorations that have graced the front window of the former WCW-TV4 building for several years. These decorations are changed seasonally and really help to spruce up the appearance of the vacant downtown storefront. The building is in the process of being restored. It will be great to have the building occupied by an operating business.

Tigerton Main Street also holds a yearly “Volunteer Recognition Dinner” to recognize all the volunteers from the previous year. We have had several other activities in conjunction with this dinner including a blind auction, games and other fun things. Besides recognizing and honoring our volunteers, it also serves as a fund-raiser for Main Street.

The 4^th of July Block Party was started in 2003 as a way to raise money for the restoration of the 1905 Village Hall. It started out small and has grown each year to include a kiddie parade, silent auction, games, live music, and of course, lots of good food and refreshments. In 2007, the re-dedication of the restored 1905 Village Hall was held in conjunction with the Block Party. All proceeds from this event go toward maintenance or improvements at the 1905 Village Hall. For the re-dedication, we also offered helicopter rides as well as having a “coin drop” of specially marked tokens for the children. These tokens enabled the finders to have free treats or free play at the game booths.

The Party continues to grow each year, with more kid’s games being added in 2008. The 2009 Party brought Tigerton its first bike rodeo with free helmets being given away to all participants. The helmet giveaway was made possible by a grant from the Central Wisconsin Electric Cooperative’s Operation Roundup. Live music and performances were also provided throughout the day along the street.

For several years, Tigerton Main Street gave monthly awards during the summer for outstanding yards and for improvements at local businesses. This was discontinued a few years back because most people and businesses in the community had already been recognized. This program probably will be brought back in the future.

Hot Summer Nights is a free live entertainment program that is held during the summer at the Gazebo Park. It features live performances that run for about an hour on select Friday evenings in the summer. We are planning to move this to the 1905 Village Hall in the summer of 2008, to take advantage of the facilities and so we won’t have to worry about the weather. No performances were held in 2007 due to road construction. In 2008, the performances returned and, if the event of bad weather, were held at the 1905 Village Hall. They have since continued, with refreshments also being offered to all who attend.

Tigerton Main Street was also responsible for the beginnings of the Woven Hearts Quilters Guild Quilt Show. This started as a Main Street activity and eventually the group spun off to do their own quilt show. This event continues, but as a semi-annual event at the Tigerton High School gym, usually in early June.

The local phone books are also the creation of Tigerton Main Street, Inc. They were published in response to requests from local residents that all they get is the large phone books that feature names from all the area communities, including Shawano, Clintonville, New London, Bonduel, Wittenberg and all others in between. They said they wanted a phone book that only had Tigerton numbers in it, so that is what we gave them. Our phone book features local advertising and only Tigerton and emergency phone numbers. It is published annually, so that the information stays current. We have a great demand for these telephone directories.

“Tiger Bucks” are a form of “money” that is good only at local Tigerton businesses. They can be purchased at the Tigerton Main Street office and are good at all Tigerton businesses.

Cash Night is an event that Main Street brought back after an absence of several years. This was originally done by the Tigerton Advancement Association is the 1970s and 1980s, but was discontinued. Main Street decided to give it a try again. This event is held every Friday evening between 6:30 pm and 8 pm. All people who have their names in our phone directory are automatically entered and anyone else can enter simply by contacting the Main Street office. Each week, participating businesses pay $5 to Main Street to fund the event, and two winners names are drawn. The fire whistle then blows sometime between 6:30 and 8 pm, and if the person whose name is called is in a participating business when the whistle blows, they win the cash for that week. The prize is a minimum of $50 in “Tiger Bucks” for first place and $10 for second. If no one wins one a week, that prize adds on to the next week. The prizes are awarded in a special kind of Tiger Bucks which can only be used at businesses participating in Cash Night.

From 1994 through 2006, Tigerton Main Street decorated the Gazebo Park for Christmas. Each year, a different theme was chosen and the park decorated in that theme. Several of the displays involved several community volunteers. This event was a big hit in the community as the light up was always held the Friday after Thanksgiving and included a whole community light-up. For 2007, the Tigerton Advance Association continued the tradition of decorating at the Gazebo and Main Street focused their attention on the Festival of Trees at the 1905 Village Hall.

The first picture from left to right shows people enjoying the Halloween Costume Dance, the next one is of one of the winning entries from the 4^th of July kiddy parade. The third picture is of some of the homegrown produce available at our weekly Farmer’s Market. The fourth picture is of one of the Christmas Light-ups that have been held each year at the Gazebo Park in downtown Tigerton. The last picture shows some volunteers redoing the landscaping around the Community Center as part of our annual Village Cleanup for National Join Hands Day.

In 2006, Tigerton Main Street also held a Halloween Costume Dance and a Christmas Ball for the first time. The turnouts were not quite what we had expected. We received several favorable comments about both, and we will take a serious look at whether to make these annual events.

In 2006, Tigerton Main Street, Inc. came up with a new slogan for our community that will be used on our correspondence. After holding a contest to get ideas, we selected the slogan “Tigerton Rocks” for our literature. This was chosen for its dual meaning. The village of Tigerton is built on the granite bedrock ledge along the Embarrass River (just ask the construction crews that were working on the new bridge and road in 2007) and the glacier was very generous to us when it receded millions of years ago, leaving us with many large rocks all over. Also, the word “rocks” refers to something that is active and full of energy. We felt this was a very good representation of the commUNITY of Tigerton. (If you are wondering why I write commUNITY that way, it is to symbolize the way our commUNITY pulls together to get whatever needs to be accomplished, done!)

They year 2008 brought about the first “Winterfest” to the Embarrass River ATV Park in January. This event features horse-drawn sleigh rides throughout the park, a sledding hill, snowshoeing trails, snowman building contests and many winter activities. There is also a bonfire to keep everyone warm as well as lots of hot food and refreshments. To cap off the day, a soup contest is held at the 1905 Village Hall, with lots of good hot soup for everyone. AS long as the weather cooperates, this should become an annual event the hopefully will continue to grow.

There have been several other activities that Tigerton Main Street has sponsored throughout the years, but this is a good representation of what we have done. All of our activities are centered on getting people involved in our community or just enjoying the displays or events. Either way, we feel all of these activities benefit our community.