The Local businesses of Lexington are gathering places for the community. In the past, adults sat at Tres Petite Creperie chatting in the morning sun. During lunch, toddlers would run around the green, and students would sit in groups on the grass. Students would stream into Avenue Deli for a group lunch or go into Candy Castle for a sweet treat during the afternoon. Throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, everyone saw their favorite businesses fade away and limit their hours. We (Grace Ou and Sarah Jensen) hoped to keep our favorite businesses in the center by founding Step up for Lexington. 

At the start of our journey, we talked to Eric and Jerry Michaelson, the heads of the Lexington Retailers Association. Together with mentors from the Lexington Economic Development office, the Lexington Visitors Center, the Concords Visitors Center, and many more, we created a robust team that fostered the creation of the Step Up For Lexington program. 

The goal of Step Up For Lexington was to bring more foot traffic to local businesses. The program followed a simple structure. Consumers would get a stamp with each purchase they made at a local business in Lexington. When they got all ten stamps, they’d turn in their stamp cards either to the Visitor Center or by email. Each week the Step Up For Lexington team would draw Stamp Cards, and the winner would receive a prize such as a gift card or gift basket. This style of the program was run over the summer of 2020 and continued into the summer of 2021, our sophomore year. 

This is the origin story of Step up for Lexington. The program has expanded to so much more–we now have a seat in committee meetings for planning the 2022 Discovery Day. We are very grateful to be surrounded by like-minded people who care about keeping Lexington local as much as we do!