Forum Fifty Fifty founders Shawn Adams and Evan Holley are winners of 2022’s Game Changer Award.
Morgan McIntosh, executive director of Downtown Poplar Bluff, Inc., and board chairman Beverly Roach presented the award Thursday during the first annual Dining for Downtown at the Black River Coliseum.
“This award is presented to a person, business, property owner, board member, volunteer — anyone who has show great initiative in the revitalization of Downtown Poplar Bluff,” McIntosh said.
The Downtown board unanimously chose Adams and Holley for their entrepreneurship and determination to preserve and improve their Vine Street location.
“Not only did they bring in two businesses and save a building, they also did the work — I’d say 95% of it — themselves,” explained McIntosh.
Those businesses are Backroom Boards, a skate shop, on the first story, and the Forum Fifty-Fifty concert venue upstairs.
“I was certainly shocked. I mean, we had no idea. And so we heard that last year’s award went to Larry and Lisa Hafford, they certainly have kind of set the standards here in Poplar Bluff downtown as to how to really be a Game Changer in the area,” Holley said. “So to receive this award, it’s certainly an honor. We’re very proud to have been recognized but certainly couldn’t have done it without a lot of help.”
Adams added, “I didn’t really even consider it. There has been so much (going) on the last year, I didn’t think our little part of it made such a huge impact. That’s awesome to hear.”
The Game Changer plaque will be proudly displayed in the coming days.
“It will be going in the display window for a little while but to make sure it doesn’t get faded, we’ll probably move it up behind the bar,” Adams said.
The proceeds from Dining for Downtown’s sold-out ticket sales, a raffle and auction are slated for downtown beautification projects, according to McIntosh. The board hopes to extend downtown’s iconic strings of lights further down Vine Street.
“I get asked all the time when we’re going to finish the lights on Vine Street,” McIntosh noted.
So far two blocks are lit, at $10,000 each, and completing the project will take another $30,000-$40,000. The board will keep fundraising through future Dining for Downtown events, then begin other projects when the lights are all up.
Poplar Bluff’s response to this first-ever Dining for Downtown bodes well for the future of the event. McIntosh and the rest of the board hope to make the dinner a yearly feature.
“We want to bring it back every year because we hope every year to have ... something positive to announce,” she said.
Approximately 200 tickets were sold for the event.
For more on upcoming progress in Downtown buildings and other speakers from Thursday’s events, see the Daily American Republic online Friday and in print Saturday.