October marked Great Bend Alive’s last "Fridays on Forest" of 2024 and 714 people were tracked in attendance, Great Bend Economic Development Director Sara Arnberger told the Great Bend City Council on Monday. Arnberger’s report and recent announcements from GBED include plans for holiday promotions, as well as programs for entrepreneurs.

This was the fourth season for Fridays on Forest, which turns a downtown block into an outdoor entertainment district.

“I just want to give a thank you to the citizens for supporting this and of course, for you guys (on the city council) all supporting this initiative as well; it’s been a really fun one,” Arnberger said. 

A feedback form can be found on the GBED website (GBEDinc.com) or social media platforms, including the Great Bend Alive Facebook page.

“If you’ve got great ideas or any feedback for us, we would love to hear that as we jump into Season Five next year.”

Downtown window decorating

Arnberber said the GBED team has taken on the Christmas Window Decorating Contest, which Rosewood Services sponsored for the past three years.

“We’re really excited to see our downtown light up. So there is still a week to get your information in if you would like to decorate a window, or if you have a downtown storefront that would like to participate.” Let GBED know using the online form: https://forms.monday.com/forms/c14f3d0f29baa61c2a2b5431d771fb53?r=use1.

Note: the deadline for contacting them is Friday, Nov. 8.

Judging will begin Nov. 21 and end Nov. 29. A judging panel from outside the community will evaluate the downtown windows and name Judges’ 1st and 2nd place awards. Ballots will be available for the general public to select a window for the People’s Choice award.

At the Nov. 7 Great Bend Chamber Coffee, Lee Ann June with GBED said more than 30 windows were signed up.

Downtown Tour app

“One addition that we have to that this year is with our Great Bend Alive tours app. We will be doing an app tour of all of our decorated businesses. So that way, when you’re downtown looking at Christmas lights, you can follow along and make sure you hit all of them and then see the decorated stores and themes along the way.

Back in August, GBED launched its downtown tours app, Great Bend Alive Tours. Since then, they have seen a strong consistent participation number. Now GBED would like to launch an app tour that takes the user to each downtown business, retail or otherwise, and highlights what it is and what it has to offer. Businesses are invited to send Lee Ann June a short blurb about the business along with a business logo, picture(s), and/or video for people to see. The goal is to have this ready by Shop Small Saturday. 

This can be found on the GBED website at www.gbedinc.com/tours, where it can be viewed on a browser. There are also links there to Google Play and the Apple App Store.

Opportunities for entrepreneurs

“We are excited to kick off our 2025 entrepreneurship season. It’s a little crazy to say that (in early November), but we’ll start the very beginning of the year, Jan. 8, with our Ice House Entrepreneurship Mindset six-week class that was very well attended last year,” Arnberger said. “We will follow that directly with our 10-week Costarters Core entrepreneurship class. Think of Ice House as step one, and Core is step two. We really want to support and encourage entrepreneurship here in Great Bend and we feel that these are two really great classes can contribute to that success.”

Both sign-ups can be found on the GBED website.

Workforce Summit

“Finally, our last big event of the year is our Workforce Summit that is coming up Nov. 13. This is the third year for that and we’re really excited about this one. We’ve taken feedback from businesses that have attended every year, and feel like we maybe have the right sauce this year. We will start the day with three employer breakout sessions. We’ll move into our keynote lunch with speaker Philip Kelly, and then we’ll finish after lunch with a new employer panel discussion, and then in with the job fair. Just a reminder to everybody that’s attended the past, it’s all new content every year.” Sign-up can be found on the GBED website. The Job Fair is open to the public at no charge and runs from 4:30-6 p.m. at the Great Bend Events Center.

State accepting HEAL grant applications

The next round of applications has begun for Historic Economic Asset Lifeline (HEAL) grants. The HEAL program by the Kansas Department of Commerce is designed to bring downtown buildings back into productive use as spaces for: 

• New or expanding businesses

• Housing

• Arts and culture

• Civic engagement

• Childcare

• Entrepreneurship

Interested parties can find it and more details about the grant at https://www.kansascommerce.gov/community-development/heal/.