We've got a brand new representative of the downtown Racine Corporation.
We're just breaking her in now.
Good morning.
She's still got the Styrofoam wrapping all around her.
Fresh out of the box.
Katie Humphrey is here.
Thank you for being here.
I'm glad to be here.
Look at your DRC shirt on.
Now, normally Katie is here for one of two reasons, either the Bell City Brassworks or the Racine Concert Band.
Now you're here for the DRC.
I mean, how many organizations are you going to rep?
Actually,
the shirt
I'm wearing
is Racine Founders Rotary Clock.
Well, there's
another one I could come back for.
Yeah.
So you're always involved.
That's good.
Yeah.
I get involved in nothing.
I'm glad there are people like you that get involved.
Well, you're kind of
involved
in everything.
I'm not involved in anything.
Trust me.
I don't like to get involved.
Well, you're a great advocate for everybody.
Well, let's talk about some of the events coming to downtown Racine.
Before we get started, what's that window thing you were talking about?
Well, this is a new thing this year.
It's a project in partnership with the Wisconsin Main Street and the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation.
So it's called the Makers Gallery Window Installations.
And the idea is to create some innovative placemaking, meaning ways to dress up places that maybe would look a little empty.
and breathe new life into them, into the empty storefronts, while also showcasing artwork and merchandise from Racine-based artists and small businesses.
Yeah, you don't want empty storefronts.
It doesn't look good.
No, no.
And there's some really creative people that are able to make the windows look amazing.
One of them is right next door to the DRC office.
And it was the first one of the project.
And that one is an installation
showcasing Madame D's vintage clothing and jewelry, which is a business that's in the 16th Street artist areas.
And it's a really cool, funky vintage bridal shop.
So some of those wedding dresses are in the window, which give people's attention.
We have people coming in all the time thinking that's really cool.
So there is an artist, Samir Nirenas, who put the display together.
And then there's a QR code that people can learn more about the business.
You know, who is it?
Dimples?
Who's on the other side of the street?
Dimples
is across
from us.
They do some nice window work.
They really do.
That's a lot of work.
My dad, he had a shop in Brooklyn, New York.
It was a pump.
It was nothing consumers can go in and get stuff.
It was meant for skyscrapers and stuff.
But they had a storefront across the street from the shop.
They owned a
like a warehouse, but had a store, had a window front, and they fixed it up.
Now, it wasn't meant for consumers to come in, but people used to stop by and look at it of what they meant, manufacture.
But he did dress it up because he said it didn't want to look like the building was abandoned.
The whole neighborhood looked like it was abandoned, but he didn't want that window to look like that.
Yeah,
that's where a window shopping came from, right?
Yeah, yeah.
You know, I also grew up, before we get to the events here, we used to go into Manhattan when I was a kid.
And it was Lord and Taylor had the living windows they used to call it.
Oh, yeah.
And people used to line up for blocks just to walk by.
And it takes them all year long.
And they'd have these animated windows of Christmas and different stories.
They'd go from window to window to see the story being told.
It was called the living windows.
And we used to go there as a kid.
And we went to the radio city and music hall and watched a movie, whatever they had there.
But the windows are...
That's an important part.
Yeah.
And it's important
to change them up, right?
To make everything look fresh.
All right.
So first Friday, you guys lucked out the other day.
And I'll tell you what, because it was pouring rain in the morning.
It was thundering.
It was just awful weather.
And then by afternoon, the sun came out, things dried up, and it
was a beautiful
evening.
It was a beautiful evening.
And we were especially
nervous about it because that was the night that we unveiled our
public
art project.
The butterflies.
No,
not the butterflies.
This
year it's our giant postcards.
Postcards,
okay, postcards.
And there's 25 of them, or there will be.
Those are those
greetings from the postcards.
Yes, exactly.
And there's, this is also the 25th anniversary of the public art project.
We are the longest running public art project in
anywhere.
I have one of the lighthouses in my living room.
We
bought one.
That's very cool.
An extra special feature this year is we're making actual postcards out of the public
art postcards
so people can collect them, use them to send to their friends and you can get a free one if you participate in our scavenger hunt.
So you can go around and get an entry form from the office and go around to all the different art pieces and
There's a quiz, which I happen to create.
And if you answer all the questions, we'll actually only have to get 15 of them answered.
You bring it back to the DRC office and you get a postcard.
15 out of 300.
Out of 25.
I didn't know how many questions you had.
Well, that's kind of neat.
So how do you get involved with that?
You just pick a
perform and they're also on the website.
OK.
We're
seeing downtown.com.
The DRC office is at.
425 Main Street,
right in the heart of everything.
Okay, let's talk about some of the events here taking place.
We talked about First Fridays, which is June 5th.
June 11th coming up is the Haymarket.
Right, so this is our first one of the season.
We have, you're getting me on the spot here, four of them.
There's two in June, two in July, two in August, that might be six then.
So it's every other Thursday during
the summer.
And it's a really cool night market.
There's a lot of really interesting vendors there.
In fact, we're full up with vendors.
We can't fit another one of them, for at least these first couple.
There's live music.
It's just a super cool vibe to hang out on a Thursday night.
and just enjoy downtown, just relax.
There's a lot of food trucks, so just go on down there, have your dinner, do a little shopping, listen to music, and just enjoy yourself.
And the reason it's called Haymarket is because back when, before cars and everything, that's where they sold hay.
They brought their wagons in, and I have a postcard of that where they actually show the Haymarket wagons, the Hay wagons coming in there.
You don't think of it as that, but you know what's the constant in all those pictures?
The statue, the monument statue, monument square.
And that's where
you know how you know where you are.
The
monument square is changed in configuration a few times.
When I
first came here, it was ponds there.
Water ponds.
That's what I grew up with.
Then they filled it in and they made it a whole marketplace there.
But now it's an amazing venue.
And it's been made very pedestrian friendly, very, very comfortable.
And, you know, it's, it's just a great vibe.
It's a great place to hang out.
Okay.
So that is, uh, that's the Haymarket on June 11, June 13th, the mini club, mini golf pub crawl.
Man, I can't, for an announcer, I'm, that's pretty dangerous.
Again, mini golf pub crawl.
Yeah.
So you can grab a friend, you can.
Oh, you got to have a friend now.
Well,
you don't have
to have a friend.
Now I got to go find a friend.
Yeah, right.
So there are individual tickets.
There are two sums.
There are four sums.
We'll put you in a four or some if you if you if you nobody's free that day.
But it's super fun.
You go around to the different sites.
Each of the locations have a little putting green in there.
They do funny things.
They do interesting things.
It's just off offer for the fun of it.
And there's, you know, it's just a way to just
You do it on your own pace.
Start wherever you want.
You don't have to be like a golf course and go in order.
You can go however order you want.
Let me write this down.
First, I've got to step one, find a friend.
Actually, I'm wrong.
It's two sums or four sums, so you do have to have a friend.
I know.
I've got to find a friend.
Oh, no.
All right, we're talking to Katie Humphrey from the...
from the downtown Racine Corporation, and we're talking about some big events coming up to not only Monument Square, but downtown Racine.
And we mentioned the Haymarket, which is June 11th.
The mini, we got the, oh, is that June?
Are we in June?
Yeah, we're in June.
Okay.
They got the mini golf club, mini golf pub crawl.
Yeah, we probably need to talk about that a little more.
First of all, I gotta get my, I gotta get my head in.
Mini golf pub.
Crawl.
I want to say golf club.
Actually, there's no club in the title.
I know.
Sixth annual mini golf crawl.
Pub.
There's no pub.
Yeah, sure.
There's no pub.
I got mini golf pub.
Oh,
OK.
I don't have that on my piece of paper.
I see that.
I see that.
Is mine wrong?
No, maybe just.
I
don't
know.
OK, let's
talk
about it.
So again.
$20 per fur to some $35 for a foursome and you get a golf ball and a scorecard.
But more importantly, you get to have a lot of fun and you get to be up for awards.
So there are awards for best team name, best team costume, best score and worst score.
That'd be my
shot at that
one.
And then there are additional prizes through some drawings and stuff.
But it's just a super fun way to just kind of explore downtown, walk around, have some fun with your friends.
You come up with a theme, get dressed in funny ways.
There's some great outfits that come about.
And there is a VIP package available too, where you can get some food and beverages from downtown establishments and a swag bag.
So go on our website.
Um, downtown racine.com and you can get your tickets right there.
Okay.
And that's coming up June 13th, June 19th through the 20th is Harbor Fest.
That's a biggie.
And that's not us, but we're, we're happy to promote, promote it.
Yeah.
That brings a lot of people to the downtown area.
It does.
It
does.
Kind of a classic.
I remember I saw Joan Jett there several years ago and I was like, wow, right here.
I'm going to tell you something you don't know.
What's that?
My brother is an optometrist.
Yeah.
And he used to make Joan Jett's contact lenses for her.
Really?
Because she lived, well, when my brother lived on Long Island, she was a neighbor there.
And she used to come to him for years for every time she went on tour at a stock up on contacts.
Very cool.
She only sees because of my brother.
Wow.
You heard
it here first.
And because you know me, I know my brother, that puts you two degrees away from Joan Jett.
That's
right.
I could just.
Ring her up right now.
You don't know me, but I'm two degrees away from you as she hangs up the
phone.
Right.
I saw you perform 25 years ago.
June 20th, we got the lighthouse run downtown or something.
That brings a lot of people to downtown.
That's a classic.
Yeah, lighthouse run.
I used to go past my house.
I didn't go past my house anymore.
They bypassed.
They've been not going past Rosen's house.
I used to put, you know, I used to put out there, I used to put a hose out, like a sprinkler head.
Oh, I bet that was popular.
And it was like a Rube Goldberg type of setup, but people used to go by on a hot morning and they used to go under my, like a spray.
Right, right, like a mister kind of thing.
A mister, yeah.
I had a mister head on the hose and used to come through there and cool off and everything.
No more, don't go past my house anymore.
We got the Haymarket coming up on June 25th, and this is what.
It was Haymarket Square.
That's right.
What's the Haymarket about?
That's right.
So it's a wonderful night market, just a great place to hang out, grab your kids, grab your friends, meet new people, you know.
Oh, we got to meet new people now?
Again, you have to get out there, Don.
Circulate a little bit.
Meet new people.
Oh, come on.
I want to meet.
I got all the people I want to know in my life, or I got to add to it.
All right.
So that is Haymarket.
And that's coming up June 25th, what day of the week is it?
You know, there is Thursdays Thursdays
every other Thursday during the summer.
Music on the monument the next day, June 26th.
Right.
So that we're getting that going.
So that's another great vibe on both Saturdays and Saturdays all summer long.
We've got live music down there and we've got some really good acts coming.
And
June 27th is Saturday sounds as you mentioned on the monument square.
Oh man, you gotta pray for a nice weather though.
Isn't that horrible when you hear rain in the forecast?
You start sweating out.
You
know what though?
We're from Wisconsin and we know how to deal with weather.
Yeah, you're wet.
You're dealing with it.
Let's see.
And then July 3rd, the day before the 4th of July, first Friday, red, white, and blues.
Right.
What's that about?
Well, like, like it sounds, you know, we've got some blues acts.
We've got, you know, it's right before the fourth.
We're all in that mood.
And, you know, we've got our 250th national, whatever that's called with 200.
I don't know what the word is, 250th
birthday
birthday.
We'll go.
We used to know at Susque Centennial, we could do by Centennial.
We had that, but I don't know what 250th
birthday.
birthday.
I
could have danced right around
that, but I went through it instead.
And the big one is on the 4th of July.
The 4th of July parade.
This is like national.
People know about this parade because it goes on.
It's the best.
It's a three day parade.
It starts on the 4th of July, ends on July 7th.
It is a long parade
though.
It is a long parade, but it's wonderful.
The people that put that together do a fabulous job.
On July 9th, get the hay market.
It's back again.
And that's originally what it was called Haymarket Square.
That's right.
And you brought back the name Haymarket.
Now, you don't just sell hay.
It's vendors and everything.
Actually,
we don't even have hay.
But if we
did,
it would be the place to get it.
Yeah.
July 10th, music on the monument.
Yeah.
Every week.
OK.
Yeah.
Just local bands and stuff.
Local bands.
Yeah.
July 11th, Saturday Sounds.
Yeah.
That's more music.
More music.
All right.
July 17th, Music on the Monument.
All right, Salmonorama coming up July 17th through the 26th at Festival Hall.
Yeah.
But it's right in your area.
Right, yeah.
Downtown.
Another classic Racine event.
And it brings people to the downtown area.
Absolutely.
That's pretty neat.
All of those events do.
July 18th, Saturday Sounds, another Haymarket on July 23rd, Music on the Monument, the 24th of July, 25th, Saturday Sounds back, another
Music on the monument on July 31st, then we head into August and we'll talk about that next time you get in there.
That's right.
We're a lot of stuff going down.
So if you don't remember all of those things on the list,
you don't
have to.
You can go right to the website and it's all there.
And we've got some great printouts too.
So if you want a prettier version, just come right to
the office.
What's the matter with my version?
Your version's pretty,
but for those that
want their very own.
My version used a lot of ink.
We used a lot of ink to make this baby.
That's, you know, I, you know what I love about it?
Most downtowns, not most, but a lot of downtowns across America, they gave up on downtowns.
They gave up and they're falling apart and they just, they look bad.
Not ever seen.
It's always been vibrant, new stores opening up.
A
lot of events, concerts.
We're lucky because we have Monument Square.
Without that.
Well, we also have some amazing businesses
and we
have some wonderful architecture downtown.
But they have that square to have events at.
It's very fortunate.
And we're so close to the lake.
I mean, the ambiance is definitely there.
And a credit to Kelly Cruz, our executive director, she's been with the DRC now, I want to say 10, 12 years, something in that range.
And she's increased the number of events exponentially since she's been around.
that's made a huge difference.
And we've been nationally recognized for her efforts.
So we're a Wisconsin Main Street community, and we're part of a national organization of Main Street communities.
And we're in the top tier of those.
And that's a credit to Kelly and all the hard work of the rest of the staff.
I mean, I'm a newbie, I take zero credit.
But there's a very active board, a lot of very innovative
local entrepreneurs that make up the downtown fabric.
And it's really worth it to come down and experience it because it is something very special.
And we'll see you with the other hats, the Racine Concert Band.
Right.
And you've also got the other band, which is the
Kenosha Pops
I play and Bel
City Brassworks
and
Racine Concert Band.
Yeah, we just finished up with Brassworks last weekend.
And I'm the incoming president of the
Rotary.
Look at you.
Busy, busy, busy.
Busy, busy.
What instrument did you play?
The French horn.
The French horn.
Yeah.
You think that in high school?
Yep.
See?
Yep, yep.
People say, well, why do you need to deal with the French horn?
You're going to be in the Racine Concert Band.
That's what you're going to be.
And you
know what?
You can keep doing it till you're super old.
We have a member.
So I've only just begun.
Yeah, we have a member of our band that's 98 years old.
He plays in all the groups I play in.
This name is...
Is he in the
Racine Concert Band?
Yeah, he plays in the Racine Concert Band.
He plays in the... 98?
Velcity Brassworks.
And he plays in Kenosha Pops.
You gotta point him out to me.
Yeah, Ralph.
We recognized
him there.
Where'd he play?
He plays trumpet.
98, huh?
Let's hope for all of us.
And he still, you know, walks in, walks out.
I mean, he's amazing.
Well, thank you very much for coming in.
Wonderful to be here.
First time, yeah.
Katie Humphrey with the Downtown Racine Corporation.
A lot of events going on.
If people want to see the list, where can they go?
You go right to racindowntown.com
or
stop in the office at 425 Main Street and you can talk to me personally.
So, what's it?
Racindowntown.com.
Dot com.
Okay.
Thanks.
We'll see you again next month.
Thanks.
Thanks.
