MMSP Award More Than $17 Thousand To Downtown Businesses

The grants were from Main Street’s new Business Resiliency Fund, established this spring as a direct response to the pandemic.

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(Madison, Ind.) - Madison Main Street awarded grants totaling $17,225 to assist 39 different downtown businesses with rent and mortgage payments in May and June, according to Austin Sims, Main Street executive director. The grants were from Main Street’s new Business Resiliency Fund, established this spring as a direct response to the pandemic.

“Most of our businesses have been forced to adapt to new business models,” said Valecia Crisafulli, board president. “We hope these grants helped them make this unexpected pivot.” Crisafulli credit- ed the Community Foundation of Madison and Jefferson County for providing seed money for the fund, along with the City of Madison and the Duke Energy Foundation, and many additional businesses and individual donors.

The Business Resiliency Fund will become a permanent fund with Madison Main Street, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Sims said, to allow the organization to respond to other unexpected emergencies beyond the pandemic, such as fire, flooding, tornados, and other disasters. Main Street will solicit donations annually to support the fund.

Madison was one of the first three original Main Street pilot communities in the United States in 1977. Madison Main Street is designated by Indiana Main Street as a nationally accredited community in the Main Street America program.

The local organization spearheads many projects that assist businesses and bring people downtown, including Music in the Park, Girls’ Weekend, and the Main Street Loft Tour. For more information, call or e-mail Austin Sims, executive director, 812-274-0195, madisonmainstreetprogram@gmail.com.