Since moving back to Otsego and working at the Community Shoppers Guide, I have been volunteering with a few local organizations. I was looking for something consistent that could help support our businesses and keep people coming to downtown Otsego. We just couldn’t seem to make things happen. Then about six years ago, we found the Main Street program. We found this program was much more complete esource providing us support in so many areas. The Main Street program strives to foster a strong sense of community that has helped communication between our downtown businesses and the Otsego community. As a result, we have many local volunteers assisting with our events, sharing the load and offering valuable input. We often work side by side with city government and our Department of Public Works personnel. Their support is a key to our success. We have filled almost all of our storefronts in our downtown. I believe this has a lot to do with the Main Street program. People in the community see positive things happening downtown and want to be a part of the excitement. We still have plenty more we want to do, but I don’t think we would even be close to having the downtown business success and community involvement and awareness if it wasn’t for the Main Street program.