The 2023 Small Business Saturday Cookie Crawl was right out of a Hallmark Movie!

Families and Friends enjoyed a fun day of shopping and cookies!

The 2023 Small Business Saturday Cookie Crawl took place on Saturday, November 25th from 10 am - 1 pm in Downtown Augusta. The Cookie Crawl was started in 2020 as a safe way to get people back downtown into our small businesses while still keeping in line with social distancing. The funds raised from selling the tickets go to community organizations that help the less fortunate in Augusta during the Holiday season. This year - we had 23 businesses participating in the event. Tickets were sold in person for $10 and Online for $12 - but you had to get your tickets in advance. We kept with the tradition that we only sell 150 total tickets - so each of the businesses knew exactly how many cookies they needed. We sold out once again this year - so if you want to participate next year - make sure to get your tickets early! The participating businesses had a TON of specials for the day - so lots of options to get your Christmas shopping done! Each participant collected one cookie from each of the participating businesses - so you would have ended up with 23 delicious Christmas Cookies! But aside from the yummo factor - this event helps us to remember all of our amazing small businesses downtown. These are the businesses that support and sponsor all of the events that you love and the youth sports teams you kiddo's play on. They do so much for the community - this event is a great way to make sure they are seen! But the deals didn't end with the Cookie Crawl - you still have plenty of time to visit all of the downtown businesses before Christmas and check off your shopping list. After all - who wants to fight with the crowds in Wichita when you can get what you need locally?

It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Saturday was the absolute best weather we could have hoped for to Kick off the Holiday season. With a gentle snow falling - it was the perfect backdrop to get you in the mood for Christmas. The wind stayed at bay so you could just sit and watch the beautiful snowfall. It isn't often in Kansas we get a beautiful snowfall without the blustery winds that accompany it.

What in the world is this music?!?

As you can guess - no event ever goes perfectly as planned - although there were a few hiccups - it was still an amazing day. My laughable boo boo was when I received a phone call from a friend participating asking me - What in the world kind of music do you have playing down here?!? I am not sure what exactly was playing on the downtown speakers at that very moment - however - I may have forgotten to request that Christmas music be playing for the day. Luckily - our 2022 Volunteer of the Year - Andrew Ebert was able to remedy the situation for us in about a minute. Whew - you just gotta roll with the punches!

$1000 Raised to support our community.

It is important as a community that we help each other out. That we show each other love, support, and compassion and help out when we can. I often hear - I don't have the time or I'm just too busy. And while I can agree with that - we make the time for things that are important to us. That is why we decided to donate the proceeds from the ticket sales of the Cookie Crawl to two Augusta Organizations that help out our city and rarely get recognition. We donate $500 each to Core Community Augusta and Bright Futures Augusta. These funds make sure that children in Augusta who may not have a Christmas are able to get presents and the food and clothing they need. So I ask of you this Holiday season - what is important to you - and what can you do to make your community a little bit better?