Chamber Business Connection Vol. 1, Issue 11 | Page 11

Grove City Girls Club
Organizing the Arts in the Alley Parade
For over two decades the Arts in the Alley Community Parade
signals the beginning of the Arts in the Alley Festival. It has been
one of many highlights of the festival, with thousands gathering in
anticipation of free candy, a chance to view antique cars, handmade
floats, brass bands and prominent figures of the community.
We sat down with Betty Potts of The Grove City Girls Club, which,
in partnership with the Chamber of Commerce, organizes and en-
sures that the parade runs smoothly.
Potts began by praising the partnership with the Chamber of Com-
merce. She explained that having multiple organizations share the
load of organizing has allowed the parade to grow. This year the
parade has an astounding 130 plus unique entries!
“Since we started doing the parade in partnership with the Grove
City Chamber of Commerce, it has just improved every single year,”
Potts said. “Our partnership with the Chamber has given us more
time to go out and get more people to sign up and register for the
parade - I’ve been on the phone the last couple of days doing that.
We have over 130 entries at this point, which is really, really good!”
This year’s parade is set to be the largest ever, and Potts praised
her volunteers, explaining that they make the parade possible. By
the day of the event, she says, everyone knows how to line up and
where to go.
“We so enjoy it, but it is a lot of work, it takes a lot of volunteers
to put this together. We’ve been doing it for a long time now and
we’ve got our people in place. We all know what our jobs are and
we get new volunteers each year to help us out,” she says. “It’s the
largest the parade has ever been, but it all comes together in just a
couple hours before it begins!”
The parade will begin at Southwest Blvd and Broadway,
travels south down Broadway, East on Columbus St, South
on Wilbur, and ends at Park St. Intermediate School.
CHAMBER BUSINESS CONNECTION
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