Vincennes/Knox County VTB

Today Rockport Analytics in conjunction with Indiana Destination Development Corporation released a summary of the economic impact of the eclipse, highlighting: The total economic impact of the eclipse is approximately $148.5 M. Taxes generated by visitors totaled $45 million during the eclipse period. -Federal Taxes: $18.4 M; -State Taxes: $14.4 M; -Local Taxes: $12.2 M. According to the press release, Indiana welcomed over 3.5 M visitors to the state for the eclipse, representing a 45% boost to regular visitor volume and a 41.1% boost to regular visitor spending. The complete study is available at https://lnkd.in/gWbnEBMs. Below, is a view of the eclipse on Main Street in downtown Vincennes, as captured by photographer Matt Poe.

The June newsletter is out, with lots of upcoming events! https://conta.cc/3RcD6G7

Some great footage of our beautiful Town and attractions!

We're creating a summer activity/festival list! What are we missing? June 7-8 VFW Auxiliary Yard Sale at VFW Post 1157 June 8: Vincennes Kiwanis Pickleball Tournament at Gregg Park June 9: Kids Yoga at Fox Ridge June 14-15: Heaps of Jeeps at Highland Woods Park June 20: Third Thursday Open Mic Comedy at Vincennes Brewing Company June 21-23: Grumpy Old Men the Musical June 22: Rainbow Over the Bridge at Patrick Henry Square June 25: Ha-Ha Comedy Duos June 29: Electric River Jam at The French Commons June 29: Girls Night at Knox County Barn Market June 29: Mud Day at Ouabache Trails July 4: Independence Day parade and Fireworks at George Rogers Clark July 5: First Friday Art Walk July 6: Pottery Workshop at KCARC 1972 July 8-12: ARTventures Camp July 12: One Day Broadcasting Camp at Vincennes PBS July 18-20 Red Skelton Comedy Convention July 23: Ha-Ha Comedy Duos Aug. 2: First Friday Art Walk Aug. 2-3: Watermelon Festival Aug. 3: Pottery Workshop KCARC 1972 Aug. 15: Third Thursday Open Mic at Vincennes Brewing Co. Aug. 16: One Cause program at Flaget Aug. 17: Vincennes Dancing with the Stars at Highland Woods Aug. 27: Ha-Ha Comedy Duos Aug. 31-Sept. 1: Salute to Veterans of WWII Sept. 6: First Friday Art Walk Sept. 7: Pottery Workshop KCARC 1972 Sept. 19: Third Thursday Open Mic at Vincennes Brewing Co. Sept. 21: Festival Latino Sept. 24: Ha-Ha Comedy Duos Sept. 26-29: First City Music Festival Sept. 28: Sandborn Fall Fest

****The city shared this beautiful letter the mayor received about our eclipse festival, and we loved it! Best wishes to Dan and Kelly!*** Dear Mr. Yochum, A month has passed since?my wife and I visited your fine?city to observe the solar eclipse. It seems like yesterday--we had?an amazing experience and have?been meaning to write to share it with you. I teach middle school Science online in Bloomington, Minnesota. As I was preparing my students for the partial eclipse here, a student shared that her family was headed to Indy to observe the total?eclipse there. It struck me--why not teach live from the eclipse? With my principal's blessing, my wife and drove?days later to Bloomington (the one in Illinois) and planned to observe from southern Illinois. On the drive the morning of April 8, my wife came across a welcome letter you'd written online, encouraging folks to head to Vincennes for the event of a lifetime. She read it out loud...the sincerity and enthusiasm impressed us. It was clear that you wanted?people to come to Vincennes, so we changed our plans en route. We arrived later in the morning?and decided on the park adjacent to the George Rogers Clark Memorial. Beautiful! Music from the band playing downtown. We met the nicest people there. I taught two classes in the midst of the eclipse...my students couldn't stop asking questions (which I loved). In only a few minutes, they had located Vincennes on Google Earth, researched its history, and identified the Memorial building. They also found the live feed from the TV station only a few hundred yards from us, and some claimed they could see where I was! Of course, the eclipse was incredible. After it ended, we walked around the town, shopped and ate, and found ourselves doing everything we could to avoid leaving. In short, we loved Vincennes! On our way back to the car, we struck up a conversation with a gentleman who told us about the Spirit of Vincennes Rendezvous and urged us to return. We sure hope to! You have a great city filled with terrific residents. We appreciate all the planning that went into "Dark Side of the Wabash" and making our eclipse experience even better and more memorable than we could have imagined. And you even made us think about Red Skelton for the first time in a very long time! Thank you, Dan and Kelly (last name/address removed for privacy reasons.)

Send your events before June 1, to get them into our newsletter. This month: -32 people clicked to find out more about KCARC's Pottery Class -33 people investigated our link about the WWII Reenactment at the Indiana Military Museum -27 people wanted to know about creating a dragonfly craft at Ouabache Trails -45 people clicked through to the comedy showcase information -44 people followed the link to find out more about Rendezvous -11 people were curious enough to want more on the reptile event! Moreover, 30 percent of the more than 23,000 people on our list regularly open our emails! We'd love to list your event on our site and help promote it!

Have you joined our newsletter? This month is full of upcoming events for May, and shout out to Olivia Worland in our office, who makes the newsletter as beautiful as it is informative! https://conta.cc/3xY7iOp

We had a bus tour of 50 adults and the organizer couldn't find a restaurant that could accommodate them, so she asked for a map of downtown restaurants. We put our restaurant members on the other side, but this is a cute marketing piece from Swank & Company Design. Grouseland and Towneplace Suites are also getting a few. If anyone else needs some let us know!

So far, the VTB has given grants to: -Vincennes VFW for their campground -State Historic Sites for events -Disc Golf tournaments through -Red Skelton Museum for Events -Knox County Chamber of Commerce for inflatables during the eclipse -Indiana Military Museum sponsorship for expansion, and a separate grant for re-enactments -Bicknell Freedom Fest for fireworks -Freelandville Baseball sponsorship -Cal Ripken Tournament Sponsorship It's been a great year for mini-grants, however, if you have a request it's better to apply near the beginning of the year!