Bristol Borough revitalization featured in 'Main Street' online series

BRISTOL, Pa. (WPVI) -- About 250 people gathered in the gym of St. Mark's School in Bristol Borough Thursday night to watch the first two episodes of the series that features their community.

Back in February, the Bucks County community won a nation-wide voting contest to be featured in Deluxe Corporation's Small Business Revolution "Main Street" Season 2.

Along with the show came a $500,000 revitalization for the borough's downtown.

"Things like the poles downtown, a different sound system down by the docks so they could take advantage of the new day docks coming in, and then it was physical investments in the businesses as well," said Small Business Revolution Co-Host Amanda Brinkman.

Six businesses were chosen by the show's producers out of more than 100 applicants to be featured on the show.

One of them was Annabella's, an Italian restaurant that's been around for 14 years.

"We didn't really have an intentional marketing strategy so they helped us with that," said Alison Angelaccio, co-owner of Annabella. "They gave us social media training so we were better at what to post and when to post, so we could be more intentional about that."

The vintage clothing boutique Polka Dot Parlor is another featured business that received a physical makeover and marketing help.

"They flew us out to Minnesota and we had to present our books and we had to present our questions," said Paulette Kasmer, of Polka Dot Parlor. "We had to have answers to their questions so they could make a proper plan for each individual business."

Aside from the show, a multi-million dollar project was completed this summer at Bristol Wharf -- an 80-foot pier and two floating docks. Officials said 2017 has been a big year.

"From the contest itself, there's just been an enormous burst of confidence," said Chair of the Borough Economic Development Committee Bill Pezza. "We knew we had a good town - now people are really feeling good about themselves."

There are eight episodes in the series. The first two episodes are available now at smallbusinessrevolution.org. An additional episode will be released each week.

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