The Kent Downtown Partnership last week gave out its \u201cCommunity Stars\u201d award to three local citizens who have contributed their time, energy and resources into developing and promoting downtown Kent.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an opportunity to thank those who gave so much,\u201d said KDP Executive Director Jacquie Alexander.<\/p>\n
This group of awards, which are given three times a year, went to Jesse and Kirstin Torres of Goju Karate Center, Dea Drake from the city of Kent and Greg Bartol of Studio B Custom Design.<\/p>\n
Bartol is an artist who works in metal, and who has created projects for a number of stores along First Avenue, including the sign at Earthworks Gem Design as well as window boxes at Wild Wheat, among others.<\/p>\n
This year, Bartol created for the KDP a series of signposts for the Spring into Art festival as well as the current sculptures and posts advertising the \u201cWine, Women, Wow!\u201d event.<\/p>\n
Bartol said he took each event as inspiration for the posts, which can be used again next year in anticipation of each event.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it makes the event that much more personal if it has some art with it,\u201d Bartol said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe loved the idea,\u201d said Alexander of Bartol\u2019s stands, adding that she was \u201cflabbergasted\u201d when she saw the finished products for the first time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re probably the only downtown that has such a thing!\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The Torreses chaired this year\u2019s Spring into Art event in March. Their work included gathering the entertainment, which featured everything from demonstrations by Goju as well as Polynesian Fire Dancers, Rock Bank, a home-school choir and the Bug Chef.<\/p>\n
More than 700 attended the annual event, according to the KDP.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt quickly became a very exciting event,\u201d Alexander said of the Torreses\u2019 involvement. \u201cThey gave lots and lots of time to it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey just brought us a brand-new Spring into Art,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Jesse Torres said he and his wife enjoy promoting their city.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe like Kent,\u201d he said. \u201cWe like where we live and we love the downtown area.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jesse Torres said the award was unexpected, but a nice honor and that they would continue to be involved.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re very grateful. We certainly don\u2019t do anything we do for accolades, but it\u2019s certainly nice to be recognized,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cIf regular people don\u2019t get involved, then a community can turn sour and we don\u2019t want to see that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also receiving an award this year was Drake, the city\u2019s multi-media manager. Drake was honored for loading the city\u2019s sound system for KDP\u2019s after-hours events and breakfast meetings.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe downtown is important for the city,\u201d she said, adding that she likes Alexander and everything the KDP does.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt made me feel good,\u201d Drake said about getting the award, which as in all the cases, was unexpected.<\/p>\n
Alexander said it was Drake\u2019s kindness in helping out with the sound system as well as printing for the KDP\u2019s newsletter, that led to her award.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing would be happening if these people weren\u2019t on board and making things happen,\u201d Alexander said of the winners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Kent Downtown Partnership last week gave out its \u201cCommunity Stars\u201d award to three local citizens who have contributed their time, energy and resources into developing and promoting downtown Kent. \u201cIt\u2019s an opportunity to thank those who gave so much,\u201d said KDP Executive Director Jacquie Alexander. This group of awards, which are given three times […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":223,"featured_media":14812,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14811"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/223"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14811"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=14811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}