By JESSIE HORTON
September 3, 2023
When the Stephenville Downtown Merchants organization was formed in August 2017, the idea was to get people downtown to shop more often and to help other local organizations thrive.
With that in mind, the current leadership of SDM has stepped up and planned fun new events downtown and used the money they raised to help the Cross Timbers Fine Arts Council and the Erath County Humane Society just to name the latest two!
According to Julie Lowrance, they were able to donate about $500 to the ECHS following the ET Festiville and the Wine Walk they cosponsored with the CTFAC netted approximately $2,500. That isn’t all the Downtown Merchants have done by a long shot, but those are the most recent events.
Keeping that desire to help others at the forefront of their purpose is important to SDM, Lowrance said. And they’ve taken it a step further by becoming a 501-c non-profit organization. This will allow them to do even more during and between events to help out around the area.
So now, not only will the many members of the Stephenville Downtown Merchants organization be working on events to bring shoppers to our fabulous downtown, but they will also be raising money to help local organizations help those in the community in their time of need.
“We all volunteer our time already,” Lowrance said with a smile. “While running businesses and families, it’s a lot, but definitely worth it. We’re trying to create something downtown that draws people in and we hope by drawing them in, we can use that to help others, too.”
They’ve already got lots of great events scheduled including the monthly Ladies’ Night Out and events during Parents’ Weekend in September and Homecoming at Tarleton State in October. Then they have Holiday Open House on Friday, November 17, and the always popular Christmasville, which will be on Small Business Saturday, November 25.
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