Organizers of the 3rd annual Community Resource Festival are proof of just what can be accomplished when folks and organizations come together for a common goal.
More than 100 vendors have signed up to participate in the event, which will take place Wednesday, April 16 at the Vance-Granville Community College Civic Center. From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., the public is invited to stop in to learn more about the businesses, programs, local agencies, nonprofits and more that are located in Vance and Granville counties.
In addition to helpful information, there will be food trucks, giveaways and plenty of time for networking.
Henderson-Vance Chamber of Commerce President Sandra Wilkerson summed it up this way: Community means together, resources are assets and festival means fun.
Wilkerson joined collaborators Jennifer Cufalo, with the Granville County Chamber of Commerce and Michele Walker, with Huff Consulting, LLC on TownTalk to discuss the event’s origin – and the possibilities it holds for the entire community.
“There’s nothing that makes me happier than collaboration,” Wilkerson said.
And the Community Resource Festival all about collaboration, Walker said. “It’s grown to huge heights,” she said of the festival, which began as an idea simply to gather nonprofit organizations from across the two counties.
As Wilkerson explained, once Walker brought the idea to the Chambers, the idea grew to include businesses and other service-related organizations. Stay tuned, Walker said, because KARTS is working to designate “hotspots” to pick up individuals and transport them to and from the festival. She’ll share more information as it develops.
The local Chamber has been fielding calls about how to participate in the festival, some from people familiar to the Chamber and some she doesn’t know.
“I’m excited to meet them (and) talk to them about what they’re working on,” she said. Part of the mission of the resource festival is to show the community just how much the two counties have to offer – it’s just a matter of knowing the resources exist.
“This festival is just a great way to bring programs and services under one roof,” Cufalo said. Through networking, small businesses nonprofits can join forces with one another to extend their reach into the community. “Not everybody has the same supporters or collaborators,” she said. “That little bit of knowledge you have and be huge for somebody else” to learn.
The Community Resource Festival has looked a little bit different each year, but the common thread she recognizes is the level of communication and sharing of information among businesses and to the public.
“One thing that we have to do – make sure we’re talking to one another. We have to communicate,” Walker said. And who says you can’t do that AND enjoy each other’s company at the same time?
To learn more, visit
https://business.hendersonvance.org/events/details/community-resource-festival-2191
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