A monthly celebration of downtown Chehalis focused on the city’s dining, shopping and entertainment scene kicked off on Friday with a plethora of activities.
The new events titled “Fourth Fridays” will, as its name suggests, take place on the fourth Friday of every month.
Annalee Tobey, executive director of the Chehalis Community Renaissance Team, was excited to kick off the event, which she hopes will raise awareness about the experiences and merchants available in the city.
“It’s a great start and having the opportunity to have the movie downtown and the live music in the evening will certainly compliment the daytime activities,” she said. “We want to encourage people on their own time schedules to get downtown and kind of experience how great our local businesses are. We don’t want to be the best kept secret.”
The first event of its kind for Chehalis offered a showing of “The Princess Bride” at The Chehalis Theater, live music by Kaitee Carney at Studio K Portraits, game tournaments at Diversified Games, classes at the Ewe and I and beer tasting at M&K Town Store.
Several shops throughout the downtown corridor, including re:Design, Twin Cities Trading Post, Brunswig’s Shoes and Book ‘n’ Brush, also offered special deals throughout the day.
The event will highlight the services provided in Chehalis, from restaurants to entertainment.
“We want people to know that you don’t have to go to Olympia to find great products we have here,” Tobey said, providing the example that North Face products are available at Bartel’s Clothing and Shoes. “We want to raise awareness and get folks downtown.”
Tobey was hired as CCRT’s first executive director. With a new downtown office on Boistfort Street, she said the organization will be much more visible.
“Now with me in place as the director, I have so much more time that I’m able to devote to Renaissance and to these projects,” she said. “We are really hoping to take it to the next level this year and accomplish more than we ever have.”
A similar event titled “Third Thursdays” is held in Centralia every month. Tobey said she thinks the two events will complement and promote one another.
