ALTON - Win or lose, Altonians are excited about tomorrow's big reveal.
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The #MyAlton campaign will culminate with a great reveal Tuesday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. at Old Bakery Beer Company - the business originally behind the push for Alton to be included in the running for Deluxe Corporation's third season of Small Business Revolution - a show broadcast on Hulu involving assisting small businesses in American towns. The winning town will receive $500,000 for marketing and business development.
The Tuesday afternoon Small Business Revolution announcement of its season three winner will be live on Riverbender.com. Hosts Michael Gebben and Mark Ellebracht kick off the event with interviews discussing the efforts made to have Alton possibly featured on the show and will also interview people after the announcement.
Voting dictates the winner of the town for season three, and Alton has been in the lead through every update the show dropped during the eight days when voting was open. Since it ended on 8 p.m. Feb. 20, it has been a tense week in Alton awaiting the results.
On Tuesday, Feb. 20, during a live stream final push for votes hosted by Michael Gebben at the Riverbender.com Community Center, guests John Keller, the interim president of the Riverbend Growth Association and Alton Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive Director Brett Stawar said the two former winning cities were not in the lead when voting finished.
"Let's hope we can buck this trend this time," Keller said.
Alton Main Street Executive Director Sara McGibany said she's optimistic for the future of Alton, whether the 2:30 p.m. announcement Tuesday afternoon is in the city's favor or not.
"Win or lose, this process has been a great community building experience for Alton," she said. "It was very rewarding to have our residents, city government, area non-profits and local businesses all working together for the common good. Even if we don’t win a spot on the show we have demonstrated that Downtown Alton is moving in the right direction and that we can move mountains when we are all working in tandem."
The party will begin at Old Bakery Beer Company at 2 p.m. Tuesday. Lauren Patton, who manages and co-owns the brewery, said she saw the Small Business Revolution on Hulu, and entered Alton into the running for season three. Her head brewer was the first to get a response - a day before the deadline to enter. From there, Deluxe Corporation chose a top 20, and a top 10 from that. Producers, including host Amanda Brinkman visited each of the 10 towns to choose the top five, which came to a national vote.
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