WESTFIELD — The Downtown Westfield Corporation (DWC) will be looking to launch several new initiatives this spring, including one designed to get local residents up and moving.
Mike Ferdinand, chair of the Promotions Committee, said last week that the organization is hoping to coordinate the start of its new season with the kickoff of the town’s recurring pedestrian thoroughfare, Open Quimby Street, in late April.
“We are proposing an event called ‘Spring into Fitness,’” Mr. Ferdinand said during the organization’s monthly meeting on March 20. “We have nine different fitness businesses interested in participating, who will each conduct a 25-minute class. The idea is to bring people downtown for the day and we would hold classes for the next nine or 10 consecutive Saturdays.”
Spring Into Fitness will be a free event. Attendees will be invited to bring their own yoga mats. Spring Into Fitness will continue through the summer months at Foundation Park, where local businesses will offer one-hour trial classes on Saturday mornings.
The next event series will be a cornhole tournament that will take place during the month of June.
“We plan to purchase two cornhole boards and bean bags to have an event as part of a larger tournament that will include a prize in gift cards to downtown businesses,” Mr. Ferdinand said. “We also plan to have music during or at the end of the tournament. We also have local businesses bringing sandwiches and stuff to Precision Park. It will be every Saturday and Sunday in June.”
Chair Jeff Kirshenbaum said the group’s Organization Committee had recently met to solidify and narrow some of its initiatives, fund-raising efforts and recruiting tactics.
“I think we could get valuable feedback from other organizations if we use social media. We want to make sure we are doing things in the right order and the right people are communicating,” Mr. Kirshenbaum said. “We want to set some guidelines.”
During the Executive Director’s Report, Samantha Horning discussed the town’s parking strategy and mentioned that there are some organizational changes needed to bring the town up to date.
“With the One Westfield Place development, we are taking a look at the parking to recommend where to build based on the parking,” Ms. Horning said.
The next meeting of the Downtown Westfield Corporation is scheduled to be held on Wednesday, April 17.
