The First Friday shopping event for the month of March will focus on Women's History Month and will take place from 5-8 p.m. Friday in Downtown Bloomington. Inside Out: Accessible Art will be partnering with the Humane Society of Central Illinois for the event.
The City of Bloomington will be hosting another First Friday event in honor of Women’s History Month. The event will be taking place from 5 – 8 p.m. on Friday in Downtown Bloomington.
The First Friday events have been taking place on the first Friday of each respective month with a different theme. This month is celebrating female entrepreneurs, who own over 50 small businesses in Downtown Bloomington, according to the Bloomington-Normal Area Convention and Visitors Bureau website.
“First Fridays usually end up getting us a lot of foot traffic,” said Kathy Stoyak, a volunteer at Crossroads Fair Trade Goods and Gifts. “We’re excited to help celebrate women’s entrepreneurship and we’re hoping that we’ll get even more people in here than normal because the weather is going to be so nice.”
Many businesses in Downtown Bloomington are holding special events to coincide with the First Friday celebration. Customers can expect to see some collaboration between local businesses, alongside some deals.
“We are hosting a pop-up table in our shop from Compassionate Crumbs,” said Ruben Granados, owner and manager of Bloomington Spice Works. “The focus is going to be flavored spun sugars with flavoring from our store. We’re excited to hopefully see some more people out and about as everything sort of shifts back to normal from COVID.”
While the objective for businesses is to turn a profit, there will also be non-profits holding special events on this Friday, such as the previously mentioned Crossroads Fair Trade Goods and Gifts, who will be hosting a 20% off sale and a collaboration with Two Sisters Lavender. Another example is Inside Out: Accessible Art, who are working with the Humane Society of Central Illinois.
“We have a gallery set up entirely of animal paintings,” said Joan Maney, an artist at Inside Out: Accessible Art. “Ten percent of all sales goes to the Humane Society, along with an artist donating a painting where 100% of the sale goes as a donation to them as well. We know that being a non-profit right now is difficult with COVID, so we hope that through our collaboration we can help each other.”
Regulators authorized AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine for use in adults throughout the European Union on Friday, amid criticism the bloc is not moving fast enough to vaccinate its population.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former FBI lawyer was sentenced to probation for altering an email that the Justice Department relied on during its surveillance of an aide to President Donald Trump during the Russia investigation.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Tony Evers lashed out Friday at rival Republicans who tried to repeal his statewide mask mandate, saying killing the order would be a ridiculous move comparable to abolishing speed limits.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — As some conservatives in South Carolina celebrated getting a bill that would ban almost all abortions in the state past a legislative barrier and likely becoming law, they said they are not finished trying to end all abortions.
A Moscow court on Friday put the brother and several allies of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny under house arrest for two months as authorities sought to stymie more protests over the jailing of the top Kremlin foe.