CITY OF NEWBERRY

PRESS RELEASE

For more infor­ma­tion, con­tact:                                            For Imme­di­ate Release

City of New­berry
Wendy V. Kinser, Grants Coor­di­na­tor
(352) 472‑3927, x128
wendy.kinser@ci.newberry.fl.us

The City of New­berry Receives Tourism Grant from VISIT FLORIDA

(New­berry, FL)  -  VISIT FLORIDA, the state’s offi­cial source for travel plan­ning, has awarded a $5,000.00 Mar­ket­ing Grant to The City of New­berry for the 2012–2013 Fis­cal Year, which begins July 1, 2012.

“The pur­pose of these grants is to help non-profit enti­ties and local gov­ern­ments stretch their tourism mar­ket­ing dol­lars in an effort to expand cul­tural, her­itage, rural and nature tourism activ­i­ties in Florida,” said Chris Thomp­son, Pres­i­dent and CEO for VISIT FLORIDA.

“We were quite pleased to learn that VISIT FLORIDA and Enter­prise Florida had selected New­berry from such a large num­ber of grant appli­cants, espe­cially when told this was their most com­pet­i­tive grant cycle to date,” said Keith Ashby, New­berry City Man­ager. “These funds will be used for devel­op­ment of Newberry’s first smart phone ‘App’ and online stream­ing pro­duc­tion capa­bil­i­ties which will help us bet­ter posi­tion and mar­ket the City of New­berry as a desir­able des­ti­na­tion for all our many fes­ti­vals, his­toric, cul­tural, rural, nature-based and sports tourism-related expe­ri­ences . Plus the City is very proud to point out that this grant project is part of a multi-partnership effort; we are work­ing closely with Visit New­berry Florida and New­berry Main Street Orga­ni­za­tion, Inc.”

VISIT FLORIDA, a private/public part­ner­ship, is Enter­prise Florida’s day-to-day oper­at­ing cor­po­ra­tion for tourism.

The City of New­berry is located in west­ern Alachua County and home to more than 100 busi­nesses and nearly 5000 res­i­dents. This small com­mu­nity attracts tourism in a big way. New­berry offers a vari­ety of activ­i­ties— home to Easton-Newberry Sports Com­plex with its internationally-known Olympic-level archery facil­ity; the newly built Nations Base­ball Tour­na­ment Park with its 16 play­ing fields; the pop­u­lar His­toric Lit­tle Red School­house and New­berry His­toric Dis­trict; five annual City-wide fes­ti­vals, includ­ing the famous New­berry Water­melon Fes­ti­val cel­e­brated since 1946.

Part­ner­ing with the City of New­berry for this grant is New­berry Main Street, Inc. (NMS), also a Vis­it­Florida mem­ber. First des­ig­nated a Florida Main Street Com­mu­nity in 2006, NMS is a non­profit serv­ing the New­berry com­mu­nity through its active down­town rede­vel­op­ment efforts. Also part­ner­ing with the City of New­berry for this grant is local busi­ness Visit New­berry Florida. Its VisitNewberryFlorida.com web­site is ded­i­cated to pro­mot­ing New­berry and sur­round­ing vicini­ties to bring tourism to the area.

Visit the City of Newberry’s web­site: www.ci.newberry.fl.us .

(For more infor­ma­tion, con­tact Wendy Kinser at 352–472-3927, ext. 128 or wendy.kinser@ci.newberry.fl.us .)