Grayling Main Street awarded $42,000 grant to serve 12 Downtown Grayling businesses.

In July 2020 Grayling Main Street was awarded a $42,000 Match on Main, MoM, grant to provide Covid-19 relief support to downtown businesses.  Fourteen local businesses were included on the original grant application, 12 of which were ultimately awarded funds.

Match on Main is a grant program designed for Michigan Main Street communities, that continues to evolve to meet the needs of small businesses.  In the inaugural round of MoM, downtown Grayling’s, The Curator, was selected to receive funds.  This grant was designed to serve new or expanding businesses.  The goal was to activate underutilized or vacant spaces in Main Street Communities.  This meant support in several areas, from interior deign and renovation, to initial product cost.  

The funders of this grant, Michigan Economic Development Corporation, MEDC, quickly transformed the first round of MoM 2020 into an opportunity to provide relief and support to our existing downtown businesses across the state.  Their rapid response to the needs of small businesses made a huge impact here in Grayling.  The shift from focusing on new businesses, to helping existing businesses through the pandemic positioned Grayling Main Street to serve our local businesses in a meaningful way.  We do not have local grant programming to support small businesses, and rely heavily on competitive opportunities from other entities.  MoM, is a process and application we are practiced in, and have been successful with in the past. 

We were pleased to receive funding for more than 80% of grant request.  So pleased, we took the money gun out to celebrate as we delivered checks!

Congratulations to all the recipients, we are humbled and proud to serve Grayling’s local businesses.