Presumpscot Place on Foster St, also known as the old Junior High School gym, was the venue for A Toast to Main Street. This Maine Downtown Center event held on Thursday November 9 saw Westbrook officially designated a Main Street America community - one of only 10 in Maine.  This is an incredible honor that shows how far Westbrook has come and that our city has so much to offer. The Maine Downtown Center's core program is Main Street, which is a proven Four-Point Approach® to downtown revitalization developed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1980 and is currently used in 44 states in over 2,200 communities.
 
L-R: Jim Born (Westbrook Planning Board - Retired),
Christine Johnson (W-G Rotary), Mike Sanphy (Mayor)
 
Special guest speaker was Ed McMahon, Senior Fellow of the Urban Land Institute in Washington, DC and Board President of the National Main Street Center. In addition, there were speakers from the Maine Development Foundation and Maine Downtown Center. Also, a delegation from the Gorham Dowtown Alliance was recognized with Maine Downtown Network designation for their efforts to revitalize Gorham’s downtown.
 
 
L/T: Ed McMahon       R/B: Gorham Downtown Alliance
 
At the event, a new organization name was announced for Downtown Westbrook Coalition – Discover Downtown Westbrook. Congratulations to the Board of DDW including President Deb Shangraw, VP Phil Spiller, and all Board members, including Becky Albert, former Rotarian Ann Peoples, and Executive Director Abigail Cioffi, our speaker this week.
 
Discover Downtown Westbrook Board
 
The event was sponsored by many local businesses and food was provided by a wide cross section of local restaurants including: Mister Bagel, Top Kabob, Bamboo Bistro, Westbrook House of Pizza, Stockhouse, Daily Grind BreaLu Café, Fajita Grill, Mast Landing Brewing, Yes Brewing, Profennos, Bakers Bench, Casa Novello, Black Dinah and Mainely Meatballs.  Local business sponsors included: Peoples United Bank, Central Maine Power, Lee Auto Malls, Bangor Savings, Northeast Event Design, University of Southern Maine, Acadia Insurance, Reny’s, Convenient MD, Waterstone Properties, Sappi, Idexx and Emerald Management, among many others.
 
  
L/T: Lynn Derocher Convenient MD   R/B: Josh Levy Waterstone Properties
 
Finally, a huge thanks to Scott Linscott who provided his photographic skills to document this fun evening.