Town Talk Church Point
Town Talk Church Point
Church Point's Holiday Magic: The Bells and Buggy Town Transformation
How does a quaint town like Church Point transform into a bustling holiday hub reminiscent of a 90s mall? Join us as we chat with Mayor Spanky, Hannah, and Allison about the magic behind the fifth annual Bells and Buggy Town event. This holiday shopping celebration has grown exponentially, featuring over 54 businesses ranging from familiar storefronts to charming pop-up shops. Hear the behind-the-scenes tales of organizing such a beloved community event, with special mentions of key contributors like Amelia Lyons, who breathe life into this festive transformation. We promise you’ll gain insights into the strategic blend of tradition and innovation that makes this event a cornerstone of the Christmas season in Church Point.
The spirit of collaboration and community shines brightly as we explore entrepreneurial ventures and innovative projects that are reshaping Church Point. Our discussion highlights the anticipation building for the Bells and Buggy Town event on November 23rd, and we share how you can stay connected through the "Bells and Buggy Town" Facebook page. From stories of new business endeavors like a beauty bar and an event venue to the triumphant establishment of a skate park and splash pad, this episode is a testament to the power of community spirit. Tune in to discover how Church Point is thriving through collaboration and the shared vision of its residents.
Welcome to another Town Talk podcast. It's Chris, mayor Spanky, we have Hannah and we have Allison. Because, mayor, it's Bells and Buggy Town time.
Speaker 2:It's that time again.
Speaker 1:Are you ready for a busy Church Point business?
Speaker 2:Saturday that's right, I'm ready. And that starts the Christmas season.
Speaker 1:Yes, so the event is this Saturday, November 23rd.
Speaker 3:So this is the fifth annual Bell and buggy town event. We started this a few years ago. For those of you who don't know, me and hannah met at cafe maison one day and we were like, let's give back to the town, let's keep everyone shopping local, because you don't realize how many people rather support local than go to the big box stores. And we just took that idea and ran with it and, you know, made some friends along the way that have helped out tremendously, absolutely. So. It's an event throughout the town that many of our businesses participate in. This year we have over 54 local businesses participating.
Speaker 2:Nice.
Speaker 3:That's including businesses that have storefronts and local merchants that have pop-up shops. They will be set up at Cafe Maison Evolve and the Movement Dance Studio, as well as the Beauty Bar.
Speaker 1:So that's going to be more than ever right now. Yeah, I'm sure it has grown by leaps and bounds since y'all started five years ago, right? In what ways has it grown from when y'all started to what's going to happen this Saturday?
Speaker 4:I feel like they always had a lot of businesses participating. Correct me if I'm wrong. I feel like it was always above 50, right, I think?
Speaker 3:so I think so.
Speaker 4:But the ways that we've grown is that everyone just has such a great time, so the word is spreading, so they're like let's head out to Church Point for the weekend.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, so you have the baby this year.
Speaker 4:I do Wait. Who had?
Speaker 1:a baby. Somebody had a baby last year right Me, me.
Speaker 3:I had a newborn last year.
Speaker 1:You brought a baby. You brought a baby. We got another baby next year.
Speaker 3:And then another one on the way, and then another one coming. Man, it doesn't stop.
Speaker 1:We're going to have residents in.
Speaker 2:Church Point for a very long time.
Speaker 4:Y'all stay over here. We're just a supporting Church, point again and again. No, so when we started five years ago, allison and I were she wasn't quite married yet, I had just gotten married and we started growing our family, and so I took the lead some years and then Allison takes the lead.
Speaker 4:It depends on who's more busy in life and so last year Allison had the newborn baby for this podcast, for the Town Talk podcast, and then this year I have the baby on my lap. So if you hear the oohs and the aahs, that's the baby.
Speaker 2:We're growing the Church Point population. That's right. It's working out good.
Speaker 3:This year. I have to give credit to Amelia Lyons that has Cajun Country. She stepped up a lot to help us out Huge help. That girl is a business owner. She knows how to make ends meet. She knows the ins and outs of everything, so we definitely appreciate her helping us this year too as well.
Speaker 1:And Mara. What about you? We talked about it last year. We can discuss again this year. What does it mean to you and mean to the town to see events like this?
Speaker 2:Just anybody that's been to it should know what I'm about to say is church point on that day becomes like the mall used to be in the 90s.
Speaker 4:That is a greatness logic killing. You're so right, you know like it's just people everywhere a whole more town.
Speaker 2:It is yeah exactly, and that's people come into town, they're calling me, like what is going? On over here like it's like just shopping man in church, point, yeah, they're doing it. But I have to give credit to youtube for seeing that vision, you know, a long time ago and and the other thing that made me feel you know how these years just fly by.
Speaker 2:When she said we were sitting in cafe me's all five years ago, I was like cafe me's almost been over five years ago. I was like Cafe Maison's been open for five years.
Speaker 3:It's been open for seven.
Speaker 2:I thought that was like last year, I know.
Speaker 3:I know it flies.
Speaker 2:It flies by but, like I said, this event's an awesome event for Church Point and like I said, if you haven't seen it or you haven't came to it. You need to come because it's like you know you see so many people. You just want to pull over your vehicle and say I want to see what's going on.
Speaker 1:I want to see what they're doing. You know, One thing that I really liked about it was the fact that you didn't really have to be a brick and mortar storefront owner in Church Point. Like there's spaces for people who might do accessories or jewelry or t-shirts, whatever it is, and that's those pop-up shops y'all are talking about too right.
Speaker 4:So me, I own Lili and Me and we do a pop-up shop in Cafe Maison we always have, so I don't have a brick and mortar store, and it's nice to spread the word even further. And so if you do have an online store and you want to participate, and you don't have a brick and mortar store, we have tons of areas that you can do a pop-up shop at. So keep that in mind for next year. Reach out to us. The deadline is always October 1st.
Speaker 2:We aim for like a month before.
Speaker 4:So reach out to us so we can get you involved for next year, so we can continue to grow and shop local.
Speaker 3:I have to say, though, somebody's going to have to start building some more buildings around here because we're running out of room. Like she said, the word spread so fast it's. I mean, you have people from iota, bruce or coming in and doing pop-up shops. These little pop-up events are so big these days. Yeah, so yeah, somebody start building some buildings, because we're running out of room.
Speaker 4:We need to find some space, man yeah I'm trying you know the um another thing too with this.
Speaker 1:I find it like, you know, we have the Christmas in the point, we have Candy Cane Lane, but this is like the weekend before, so it's the weekend before Thanksgiving, so the town's buzzing with this and then Thanksgiving's going to happen on the 28th.
Speaker 1:And then right after that. Then the Candy Cane Lane's going to open up the lights and all that stuff, which we have a podcast coming up with that, but that's going to be even bigger this year. So you know, between the Candy Cane Lane and Bells in Buggytown, it really kicks off the holiday season here in Church Point. We're putting Church Point on the map, that's for sure.
Speaker 4:It's where people say let's go to Church Point and take the kids and the family.
Speaker 2:It's such a great, wholesome experience.
Speaker 4:And I know when we got out of church last Sunday we saw that the road was starting to get blocked off and those lights were going up.
Speaker 4:We're so excited. You know the kids are like, oh, mom, they're starting Christmas. We're so excited. And I wanted to mention the reason that we do Bells in Buggytown the week before Thanksgiving. I know everyone's like, oh, but wait, don't forget Thanksgiving, we're not. The reason we do it is because we want everyone to shop local before Black Friday, because Black Friday rolls around the following weekend and everyone wants to. You know, hit those sales. So we're hoping that we can get everyone to do their christmas shopping before black friday yeah, you're right, because most of the shopping is done by the end of thanksgiving yeah, right, you know like so if you do it into the christmas season, everybody bought everything, right?
Speaker 3:a lot of our businesses participate and they offer discounts too, just like you would get on Black Friday, sire Monday. So I mean, why not support your local Then, like I said earlier, your big box stores, because I always look at it as who you go to when your kid needs a fundraiser Right, something for a fundraiser or a sponsorship. You want to go to those small businesses and I'm really big on supporting small businesses.
Speaker 4:I just keep it close Right because you have a small business, yeah, I have a small business.
Speaker 3:I know it.
Speaker 1:I have two you know Now, I think last year and every year there's some kind of giveaway or like a card being punched if you visit. Explain that to everybody if they're not familiar with it.
Speaker 3:So what we do is we have a stamp card and it has all the merchants participating and every time you buy something from that merchant you get a stamp. Well, once you get 10 stamps, you turn in your cord and at the end of the day, all cords are turned into us and we have a drawing and the gifts are usually valued at over $2,500,.
Speaker 3:I think, and someone wins all of that, so it's super nice. They'll go from gift cards local businesses donate to actual gift items, so it's really fun and every year the winner has been super grateful, like calling them and the reaction from them is the best part of this whole experience, because you're making someone's holiday season.
Speaker 4:Yes, so definitely tune in. We do have a Bells and Buggy Town Facebook. We will go live to announce the winner, and it's so great because when we call them you get their reaction firsthand.
Speaker 3:We go live, we keep it on speaker and there's a lot of people that come actually to the cafe for the drawing just to see like they wait for that moment, and it's so fun to see everyone's reaction. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So how can people get more information if they do need? Like who's participating in all? That Is that all on the facebook page?
Speaker 3:that's all on the facebook page, our personal pages. We share it on there. We do have a banner we're putting up to in town that has like the date time we're doing everything, but mainly our facebook page, I think, is our main source of yeah, like I said that, the facebook page is bells and buggy town.
Speaker 4:You can go to that on Facebook and you can see all the vendors. We're going to do a release of all the vendors that are participating.
Speaker 1:I mean, I think the biggest thing is to know that it's Saturday, november 23rd and starts at what time 8 am.
Speaker 3:8 am To 3 pm.
Speaker 1:Because if you're anywhere in town at that point you're going to find something or someplace, or see everybody around town and you're going to think oh wait, what's going on. Oh yeah, bell's in Buggytown yeah.
Speaker 3:Start your morning off with a coffee.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 3:Hit midday, get your margaritas from the new Mexican restaurant we have Cajun's. We have several little restaurants in town that offer specials too and go back to the shop and refuel and head out.
Speaker 2:One thing.
Speaker 2:Food special and drink special and shopping. One thing I'd like to add, though. I'm sitting here kind of pondering it all in and I just caught a feeling like this is exactly what I set out to do when I say that five years ago, an idea started in cafe maison. Two people came up, started. This years later. It's a screaming success. While we're talking, one person in here is opening up an event center and the other is opening up a boutique, and if you wanna talk about that a little bit, but do you see the full circle in it? The full circle is, you know, you start these things and it starts to build. And here we are.
Speaker 4:I got chills. I know me too. Let me just say you've done a phenomenal job in the town. We are so grateful to Mayor Spanky we really are. And Allison tell us about the beauty bar that's opening on Bells and Buggy Town.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so it just so happened. I guess it was in God's timing that I decided I think last night actually that I was going to have my grand opening on Bells and Bucky Town.
Speaker 2:Why not You're not doing anything else? I'm not doing anything else that day Might as well.
Speaker 3:So yeah, the beauty bar will be opening that day. It'll be a tanning salon slash gift item gift shop. I actually have a couple girls in there, that's two estheticians that'll be in there doing facials. You know, to husbands, to get your wives a gift, it's the perfect gift facials. Mama wants to relax. Great stocking stuffer right A gift card to the beauty bar. Okay, you hear that, rob, that's new.
Speaker 4:I would like a gift card, honey, yeah. So, um, yeah, that's awesome, I'm so glad and it's rewarding. I know you see that you put into the community and to the town of Church Point, and now look at you so that's great To think about it.
Speaker 3:Five years ago I was just moving here dating this little venable dude. Here I am married to, married two kids later, two businesses later and it's I mean it's awesome. I love this little town. I'm from Mamu, so it's it's very close to Mamu. I have to say it's small town very get that same feeling and I love it.
Speaker 1:I feel at home here.
Speaker 4:What about y'all's?
Speaker 1:venue Hannah.
Speaker 4:So my husband and I, rob and I bought the old Casey Hall building. I've lived there the last 30 years and in that backyard and my husband and I have always dreamed of building a house under those big oak trees behind the venue. And you know, we were going to humble ourselves to ask the Knights of Columbus you know, can we buy those, the back part of your property? And we started praying about it. And then don't you know that same week a for sale sign goes up in their yard. And so I called and was like no, I was, I was planning on buying this, I'm your girl, we want to buy it. And now we are headfirst diving in. We're going to open a venue. It always was a venue. They rented it out on the weekends and things like that, but we have it down to the studs right now. So the ceiling's open down to the studs. We're going to remodel it and have a real nice event venue there for parties and reunions and even weddings.
Speaker 1:The baby's ready to go.
Speaker 2:I don't like this podcast.
Speaker 1:And real quick. When do y'all plan on opening up the venue?
Speaker 4:So we're trying to do all the work ourselves right now. So, you know, that's kind of slow but, steady. We're hoping to open up in December, so we're hoping for holiday parties, Christmas parties and we can do a big opening and I'm so excited to offer this to town and meet a lot of faces and things like that. You know, yeah.
Speaker 1:And you know one thing I want to add before we wrap up and, Mary, you and I have talked about this on different podcasts and you know you talked about opening businesses, stuff like that how this started with an idea. You know, and there's one thing that people may or may not know about you is that you are very receptive to ideas in town.
Speaker 1:You know there might be a lot of talk on social media about this, that the other, but you know, don't talk about it Set up a real meeting with you, discuss ideas, and you are very open to that. I mean, that's how the skate park happened, that's how the pickleball court happened, that's how the splash pad happened. You know, like all of these things that happen in town happen because it may be somebody's idea. Maybe your idea and y'all are discussing it with other people, but that's how we make the town.
Speaker 2:That's how we do it. I mean, all these ideas turn into stuff. I mean, as you can see, I don't skateboard, so I'm not a skateboard king right here. You know, like it came from someone's idea that hey, you should go look at this town that has this thing, and and you just start researching. And there's no bad idea that you don't entertain you. You know, like you just try everything, yeah.
Speaker 1:And it seems like right now and I'm not saying that other towns or cities are mimicking what we're doing, but I think that there's a lot of towns and cities that want to do things Like you start seeing walk-in parks now.
Speaker 1:You're starting to see little central parks, You're starting to see pickleball courts I mean, obviously Latvia was working on their skate park for a little while but you're starting to see that Dog parks like those are legitimate things that might get laughed at by some people, but those are legitimate things that towns and cities all across the United States, or Louisiana or Acadiana, are trying to do at the moment.
Speaker 2:What I've been told by others in other towns is like we wait for you to do it because you take the beatings first and then, if it works, then we go and do it too. I've talked to quite a few. They're like we see what you go through, we ain't doing that.
Speaker 1:Spanky's our guinea pig. Let's spanky you first, and then we'll see what's going to happen, but you know what you take those dreams, you turn them into reality and we spread joy.
Speaker 4:That's why these towns are doing this following suit because they see there is so much joy here in this little town and they want to have the same.
Speaker 1:Yep, I mean you look at Pass-Thru-Kankton the other day. There's the walking trail in Kankton, there's's, I think, maybe a pickleball court or two, and I'm like pickleball court.
Speaker 2:We were the first on that and those pickleball courts are always someone's always there five of them.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think every week on facebook I see people posting about the pickleball courts on our community page.
Speaker 2:Every single town around here is either doing it or about to do it. I mean, it's, it's taking off, you know, and I just want to speak about Main Street.
Speaker 4:So much is coming up on Main Street. I mean they have the dance studio, they have Evolve, the gym, and they just started doing jujitsu classes. I mean my kid does jujitsu, one kid and then right across the street they're doing dancing and Main Street any night of the week is packed.
Speaker 2:There's no parking I mean it's booming. Well, like I said, I got those big scissors when y'all ready.
Speaker 1:We can cut a ribbon Some ribbons.
Speaker 4:I can't wait, me too.
Speaker 1:So, ladies, thank you for coming and spending some time, but you can find Bells in Buggy Town on Facebook. It is this Saturday. Just find some kind of spot in town. There's going to be somebody there shopping walking and you're going to see it.
Speaker 3:You're going to see a family member you didn't know would have been there, an old friend, an old classmate.
Speaker 1:Somebody's going to be somewhere, so thanks for coming by and thanks for tuning in to another episode of Town Talk.
Speaker 4:Thanks for having us. Thanks for having us.