We are SO excited to announce our May grant recipient: The Juneteenth Festival in Carroll County!
On June 18, this AWESOME event will bring the community together in downtown Westminster to raise awareness of African heritage throughout our county. Activities will include gospel music, food, vendors, a financial awareness workshop, and a panel discussion: “An Honest Talk About Being Black in Carroll County.” We’re thrilled to support this first-of-its-kind event in Westminster. Admission is FREE.
Founded in July 1994, the Downtown Westminster Farmers’ Market has become a staple in Carroll County during the spring, summer and fall. Featuring vendors from the county and surrounding areas, the Farmers’ Market provides the perfect opportunity to support local businesses.
You can visit the market every Saturday until November 20th between 8am-12noon at the Conway Lot on Railroad Ave.
Durell Paige is creating a space for custom clothing, skateboards, and unique items for creatives who don’t have a storefront to sell it in. AYO Boutique hopes to be an experience, not just a shopping location, by building an inventory of custom brands from all over the nation. Expanding from their first location in Baltimore, Durell hopes to bring the same community-based approach to this second location, right here in Westminster.
Their grand opening is on March 6th. Be sure to support this new #Blackownedbusiness right here in our neighborhood. Congrats AYO–we are cheering you on!
January, 2021: Hey, Westminster! trustees Jason Stambaugh and Erin Benevento surprised Katie Kirby from Together We Own It in Westminster with a $1,000 grant, including a $100 gift card to Cultivated.
Hey Westminster! is excited to encourage Together We Own It to continue their incredible work with children and families to break the cycle of poverty, trauma and mental illness and move forward by providing a stable and supportive environment, full of opportunity.
Katie responded: I felt like I was on an episode of Ellen for a minute when these two showed up last night! But seriously, I am incredibly grateful to be selected as the first Hey, Westminster recipient.
You don’t answer your 5th grade teacher’s question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” with, I want to run a nonprofit! I grew up in Westminster. Graduated from Westminster High School in 2014. Contributed very minimally to my community for most of my life. Then I left. I moved to a new town and engaged in my new community through a lens of building hope in a neighborhood that felt stricken with trauma but was held together with resilience. I learned so much about the power of community while I was there. I felt like I had a voice for the very first time in my life. I was empowered to bring that voice home and influence my community in the way that the city of Salisbury influenced me.
This journey hasn’t been easy. I’ve burned and rebuilt bridges (yes, they can be rebuilt!). I’ve been called radical and scrappy (lol, I don’t think anyone that knew me from 0-18 would have called me either of those things). I’ve embraced radical and scrappy as driver of change and determined, though! I have stepped so far out of my comfort zone for so long now that I had to build an island out here.
All of this to say, I never imagined this. I don’t do any of what I do for this Ellen moment that I had yesterday, but I am incredibly grateful for this one because it gets at the real work we do. The strength finding that we do everyday. The resilience we find in everyday people that makes them so incredibly important to this community. I am honored to be recognized, but even more honored to use this $1,000 to continue building hope in our community.
January, 2021: Hey, Westminster! trustees Jason Stambaugh and Erin Benevento surprised Katie Kirby from 
Hey, Westminster 