Sep 23, 2021 | News
We are so happy to welcome another nonprofit partnership with Venice MainStreet. The Long Walk Home is a veteran-owned-and-led 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to helping veterans and their family members make the transition from military to civilian life.
The Long Walk Home is dedicated to enhancing the dignity, honor and quality of life of service men and women by providing a comprehensive program of re-entry services related to medical and mental health, re-socialization, personal finance and career development.
Ron Zaleski founded The Long Walk Home to help veterans and their families successfully transition, through awareness and support. In 2010, Ron walked across America barefoot to bring awareness to the fact that 22 veterans commit suicide every day. Ron still continues to walk barefoot through Venice, Florida with a sign that reads “We Can Help Save 22 Lives Today.”
Help A Veteran Make Their Transition: Be a Mentor
The Long Walk Home mentor program works with veterans one-on-one, online or in person, to help guide them through “The 10 Challenges To Service.” Each challenge is designed to help the veteran regain his/her purpose in civilian life.
To learn more about how you can get involved, visit TheLongWalkHome.org.
(305) 399-5354
Email: help@thelongwalkhome.com
Sep 22, 2021 | News
We are delighted to have another nonprofit join Venice MainStreet as a partner. The Venice Area Pregnancy Care Center (VAPCC) is a non-profit charity run entirely by volunteers that assists families with children in Venice and South Sarasota County. Its mission is to help parents with children that are in need, to provide safer, healthier, and happier lives for their children. This is done by providing the following items: clothing from newborn to size 5T, baby furniture, cribs, swings, high chairs, strollers, baby food, cereal, and formula. VAPCC provides two packages of diapers, per child, once every four weeks to parents. Through grants from local organizations, VAPCC is also able to provide new car seats. Expectant mothers must be within one month or less away from their due date to receive services.
VAPCC welcomes donated items such as diapers, onesies, blankets, cribs and receiving, sleepers, hats, bibs and booties. They also accept baby formula, baby food and baby cereal. Other valued donations would be bassinets and pack & plays. NOTE: VAPCC does not accept used cribs, car seats, or stuffed animals.
For more information, call 941-485-1776, email vapcc4u@gmail.com or visit VAPCC.org. Located at 301 Bayshore Drive, Venice, FL 34285.
Sep 14, 2021 | News
Annual Downtown Venice Art Fest
Poster Design Contest Theme: Venice Renaissance
Submitted entries due on or before October 4, 2021
Venice MainStreet, Inc. is holding a contest for its Annual Downtown Venice Art Fest official poster design. The artist selected by the Design Committee will be awarded $500 for their design and a booth at the future festival ($500 value, for a prize package worth $1,000). The winning design will be featured as the official poster, which will be showcased on merchandise* and in advertising**. The winner must be available for an unveiling event on the evening of Thursday, October 28, 2021.
Guidelines:
• Original (unframed) artwork must be delivered to Collectors Gallery & Framery at 114 South Nokomis Avenue, Venice, FL (call ahead 941-488-3029); deliver on or before October 4, 2021.
• The winner must also submit a high-resolution editable, working digital file (for poster and merchandise production).
• Finished poster size will be 22” x 28” (original does not need to be the same size).
• Image must follow a theme of “Venice Renaissance” (Copy that will be incorporated into the poster/merchandise will include “Annual Downtown Venice Art Fest”).
*the design may be showcased on other merchandise, such as t-shirts.
**the design will be utilized in advertising done by Venice MainStreet, Inc. Any advertising done by Howard Alan Events may not include the design.
About the Downtown Venice Art Fest
The Downtown Venice Art Fest is one of the area’s largest and finest art shows. Tens of thousands of visitors kick-off the season with this Howard Alan event that takes place along Venice Avenue in beautiful, Historic Downtown Venice. For more information, please call Venice MainStreet at (941) 484-6722. Find out more about Howard Alan Events at www.artfestival.com.
DOWNLOAD APPLICATION HERE
Sep 10, 2021 | News
Another new business opened in Venice! We are so happy to welcome Modern Mobile Denture Repair (MMDR) as a Venice MainStreet Partner. MMDR is a local, veteran-owned family business with a passion for helping the community one smile at a time. With their mobile services, they come to you! If you prefer no contact, they can accommodate that as well.
MMDR can clean and repair your dentures onsite so you will be eating and smiling again in no time. Remeber that repairing is a fraction of the cost of replacing dentures. Denture cleanings are recommended twice a year, just as the American Dental Association recommends for dental cleanings. With a cleaning your dentures will receive 3 stages of deep cleaning to remove plaque, stains and bacteria to return them to a brand new appearance. As a veteran-owned buisness, MMDR offers all veterans and spouses a 10% discount. Call 941-716-6578 to schedule your denture services today!
Sep 9, 2021 | News
We are excited to welcome a new business to downtown Venice! The Island Bookshop opened this September and is nestled on charming Miami Avenue West, next to Mother’s Cupboard Spice Shoppe, in the Merchants of Venice building.
The Island Bookshop’s owners, Aimee Odette and Michael Rank, who are both university professors, recognized the need for a bookstore on the island of Venice. To them, “A bookstore is an extension of home, the anchor of a community.” Their love for books and building community led to their bookshop idea and long-standing dream.
The bookshop carries new books as well as art, photography, and pottery from local residents. “As a small community-oriented book shop, we provide literary and art experiences for our customers of all ages, children to adults. As residents of Venice Island, we are especially proud to showcase the work of various local writers and artists in the community, our home,” says Odette.
In the near future, The Island Bookshop will offer writing and reading classes, writer’s groups, children’s groups, local author’s events, and community outreach. For more information visit TheIslandBookshop.com, call 941-416-5511. Located at 206 West Miami Avenue, Venice, FL 34285.
Sep 3, 2021 | News
We are so happy to have Epiphany Cathedral Catholic Church join Venice MainStreet this year. Its beautiful cathedral is located in the heart of downtown Venice within the historic district. Epiphany has over 2,500 registered families and countless seasonal visitors. It has a ministry for almost every spiritual need and groups that celebrate many different styles of prayer. The campus includes a religious gift shop and parish library. Visit EpiphanyCathedral.org for information about its ministries, faith formation, upcoming events and more.
Weekend Mass Times
Saturday Vigil 4:00 pm, 6:00 pm (Spanish)
Sunday 7:30 am, 9:00 am, 11:00 am, 12:30 pm (Polish) & 5:30 pm
Weekday Mass Times
8:00 am
Location
310 Sarasota Street
Venice, FL 34285
(941) 484-3505
Photo credit: Epiphany Cathedral
Sep 1, 2021 | News
Restart of Venice Farmers Market 9/4
Post Date:09/01/2021 9:46 AM
From Venice City Manager Ed Lavallee:
City staff met with Venice MainStreet this week, and conferenced with Sarasota County Health Officer Chuck Henry to develop a COVID-19 safety protocol for the Howard Alan Craft Festival, scheduled for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sept. 4-5. The plan includes regulation of traffic patterns for patrons, masks for all vendors, masks strongly recommended for attendees, sanitation stations, signage, and access control to facilitate social distancing. The event will be monitored for adherence to the codified plan and patron compliance, and will culminate with a post-event review.
Similarly, the Venice Farmers Market has developed a very good COVID safety plan for the Saturday morning market near City Hall. The plan has been reviewed by our staff and meets or exceeds all standard safety features. The market will resume this weekend, on Sept. 4, from 8 a.m. to noon. City staff has worked closely with the Farmers Market management to ensure a safe re-entry into the public forum.
Aug 27, 2021 | Event, News
September 4th-5th, 2021
Open 10am-4pm
Free to the public
For the health and safety of visitors, this event will have limited capacity. Please register your anticipated attendance time, which will help us know when we may have to close the gate. FOR FREE TICKETS: CLICK HERE
This event has been approved by the City of Venice as of 8/27/21. Please see the notice below from Ed Lavallee, Venice City Manager:
SPECIAL EVENTS SAFETY PLANS
At the Venice City Council meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 24, the City announced a suspension of the issuance of special event permits pending a reduction in the risk of contracting the COVID-19 virus. The suspension was based on statistics reporting the increasing rates of contagion and positivity rates for the Delta variant of the virus. Under the circumstances, the prospects of attracting large groups of people to a confined area increases the risk of infection.
Following the Council meeting, City staff met with Venice MainStreet to discuss conditions that would allow scheduled events to go forward. Venice MainStreet, the sponsor of numerous special events, including a downtown craft festival scheduled for the first weekend in September, produced a safety protocol previously used for a similar event in June.
City staff contacted the office of Chuck Henry, County Health Officer, for advice and guidance on the development of safety protocols for a public event. Mr. Henry offered the services of his office to review any special event safety plans, and indicated that he had provided similar services to other communities in the past. We agreed to work with Venice MainStreet, to add a suitable COVID safety plan for the craft festival and submit the plan to Mr. Henry’s office for input. Today (8/27), the City received a positive review from the County Health Officer indicating that the plan was complete, and looked very good. They suggested one minor change – to reduce the patron maximum capacity by a small margin.
Accordingly, the staff has endorsed the application and forwarded it to the Mayor for execution. The Mayor has indicated he will execute the contract.
For the upcoming craft festival, the addition of defined safety protocols adds a significant risk reduction to patrons and workers. We are appreciative of the collaboration of Venice MainStreet and CEO Kara Morgan to codify the safety plan. Based on the conversations with the County Health Officer and experience of the special event coordinators, like Venice MainStreet, the City has a safety protocol template to apply to future event applicants and will use a similar review process for future special event applications. As special events vary significantly in size and dimension, the necessary safety protocols can be scaled to match the appropriate level of health and safety standards.
Also under review for September is a special events road race application. Although smaller in scale, the applicant has included a very well-developed and protective safety plan for participants and workers.
For future events, based on discussions with event coordinators, incorporating elements of former successful special event safety plans, and adopting the recommendations of the County Health Officer, the City has models that can be used in consort with special event applicants to design a safe and protective event venue.
Venice City Manager Ed Lavallee
Aug 27, 2021 | Event, News
The 12th Annual Downtown Venice Labor Day Weekend Craft Festival will now take place on September 4th-5th. Other Venice MainStreet events might still be subject to cancellation. Please check our annual calendar of events to stay informed.
The following updated statement was issued on August 27, 2021 by Venice City Manager, Ed Lavallee:
SPECIAL EVENTS SAFETY PLANS
At the Venice City Council meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 24, the City announced a suspension of the issuance of special event permits pending a reduction in the risk of contracting the COVID-19 virus. The suspension was based on statistics reporting the increasing rates of contagion and positivity rates for the Delta variant of the virus. Under the circumstances, the prospects of attracting large groups of people to a confined area increases the risk of infection.
Following the Council meeting, City staff met with Venice MainStreet to discuss conditions that would allow scheduled events to go forward. Venice MainStreet, the sponsor of numerous special events, including a downtown craft festival scheduled for the first weekend in September, produced a safety protocol previously used for a similar event in June.
City staff contacted the office of Chuck Henry, County Health Officer, for advice and guidance on the development of safety protocols for a public event. Mr. Henry offered the services of his office to review any special event safety plans, and indicated that he had provided similar services to other communities in the past. We agreed to work with Venice MainStreet, to add a suitable COVID safety plan for the craft festival and submit the plan to Mr. Henry’s office for input. Today (8/27), the City received a positive review from the County Health Officer indicating that the plan was complete, and looked very good. They suggested one minor change – to reduce the patron maximum capacity by a small margin.
Accordingly, the staff has endorsed the application and forwarded it to the Mayor for execution. The Mayor has indicated he will execute the contract.
For the upcoming craft festival, the addition of defined safety protocols adds a significant risk reduction to patrons and workers. We are appreciative of the collaboration of Venice MainStreet and CEO Kara Morgan to codify the safety plan. Based on the conversations with the County Health Officer and experience of the special event coordinators, like Venice MainStreet, the City has a safety protocol template to apply to future event applicants and will use a similar review process for future special event applications. As special events vary significantly in size and dimension, the necessary safety protocols can be scaled to match the appropriate level of health and safety standards.
Also under review for September is a special events road race application. Although smaller in scale, the applicant has included a very well-developed and protective safety plan for participants and workers.
For future events, based on discussions with event coordinators, incorporating elements of former successful special event safety plans, and adopting the recommendations of the County Health Officer, the City has models that can be used in consort with special event applicants to design a safe and protective event venue.
Venice City Manager Ed Lavallee
______________________________________________________
The following statement was issued on August 24, 2021 by Venice City Manager, Ed Lavallee:
SPECIAL EVENTS NOTIFICATION
24 August 2021
• As the COVID-19 Delta variant continues to plague our community, we are once again faced with conditions warranting elevated health and safety protocols. We all are aware of the increased hospitalization of COVID-related patients
• Last week, Venice City Hall reinstituted former COVID health measures including the following:
o The wearing of masks for City employees when engaged in business with the public
o Increased placement and use of sanitation stations in public buildings
o Frequent full-room fogging and sanitizing of public buildings
o Staff and other internal meetings to be virtual when possible, on Teams or Zoom
o Remote and virtual working options for selected City employees
• In line with our interests in protecting the public from unnecessary exposure to the highly contagious virus, we are once again suspending the issuance of special event permits. As much as we regret what appears to be a step backwards in our fight against the virus, we believe that in the interest of public health and safety, this caution is necessary
• It would create an unwarranted risk to the health and safety of our residents and visitors to attract large crowds to mingle in a confined environment largely unregulated with regards to face masks, vaccinations, and other sanitation protocols. This suspension of permits applies to all special events scheduled for public property in Venice.
• As soon as the risk of exposure and contagion diminishes to a safe level, we will be contacting our event holders to offer the opportunity to reschedule their events. We appreciate the patience and understanding of all of our business partners and special events patrons.
Venice City Manager Ed Lavallee
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