June 5, 2025 • 10 mins
We spoke with Publicity Chair Katie Daigle about Cromwell Creative District, encompassing the area from Riverfront to Downtown Main Street, promotes economic vitality by celebrating our vibrant history, bolstering our current resources and revealing opportunities for future growth through creative programs, tours, and special events.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning, Thank you for listening to Community Access. My
guest this morning is publicity chair Katie Daegel from the
Cromwell Creative District. Good morning, Hi, thanks so much for
having me. I love Cromwell. I feel like Cromwell is
at the center of it all, and whenever I drive through,
I get a little bit of like farm land, and
(00:23):
it's just like country, but yet you also have city.
So like I remember going down this one long street,
I'm like, where is a nail salon? Does this town
a nail salon? But it does. You just got to
keep going further, so there's something for everyone there. It's
absolutely beautiful.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Yes, And that's actually a perfect segue into what Cromwell
Creative District is all about, because we are a really small,
completely volunteer run nonprofit, but our whole goal is to
revitalize downtown Cromwell. So kind of that old school Main
Street area which you can, you know, easily get to
(01:03):
on and off Route nine, but people are typically going
to the more busy areas, like you mentioned were.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
The nail salons and the walmart and the roadhouses. But
down on Main Street, you know, it was kind of
a forgotten area. Five or ten years ago, and there's
just some people in town who are really invested in
the town and really wanted to try to help make
that area more exciting, more like you know Main Street
in Middletown, which has every possible thing you could want
(01:31):
to eat and do, you know. So that's our mission
and we really try to partner with.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
The businesses down there. We are very pleased that there
are there's only i think one empty location right now,
so we you know, we improved the empty storefronts from
years ago. And so the way we try to help
and revitalizes through fun at events, different activities, and we
(01:58):
do some public art installations. So if you do come
down to Cromwell, maybe during the Travelers Championship, you just
go a little further down to Main Street and you'll
see a bunch of murals that we've done. Some of them,
you know, are volunteers who are artists, have hand painted.
Some of them were done by professionals. There's quite an array.
(02:20):
So we're just trying to spread the word about, you know,
how much Cromwell does have to offer. So I'm really
glad you started out with that.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Well, yeah, I was just being honest honestly, I had
to go to a Birdie's for charity event there at
the TPC. So tell me you have events in order
to continue to embrace the history and the heritage that
this town brings.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Yes, so we do. So We've got the beautiful riverfront.
We want people to know that we have parks there
and you can come fishing, you can do boating. We
have a farmer's market that happens throughout the summer months
every Friday at our beautiful Frisbee landing with the view
of the river in the background. And like I said,
(03:02):
all of the local businesses along Main Street and in
that area. So we hold events down that way, including
the farmer's market that the town now has taken over,
including things like fun little things like a spring rock
hunt we just finished so have. We partner with the
other nonprofits in town and we all paint rocks. We
(03:22):
hide them all around the parks and we put them
along the storefronts to try to just increase foot traffic
to those businesses in that area. And people really give
a lot of positive feedback about it. Some of the
other things that we have. Actually, one main thing we
have coming up is actually a town wide tag sale,
(03:43):
so not just for downtown. We want to offer it
to the entire town. So if anyone's listening and is
one of those tag sailors, you know we're coming up
on that season. September sixth is going to be Cromwell's
Tag Sale Day. It's going to be rain or shine,
So that's the date and from eight thirty to two thirty,
(04:03):
any residents, any businesses will be able to put stuff
out for sale and they keep their own profits from
the sales. But Cromwell Creative District is doing all of
the kind of publicity and planning for that, and we'll
have maps so if people want to come and try
to hit as many tag sales as possible, we'll have
(04:25):
a town wide tag sale map that shows all the locations.
And we did it for the first time last year.
It was really successful. Everybody loved it. I was surprised.
We had people come from all over the state. You know,
people are very serious about their tag sailing, so it
was it was really fun. So we're going to try
to do that for the town every year. So that
(04:48):
I wanted to make sure to plug and I also
want to just mention, you know, Cromwell is the home
of the Travelers Championship and we're really really proud of that,
and the Problem Creative District is really really grateful for
this Birdie's for Charity fundraising opportunity. I think this is
the third year we've participated, and that fifteen percent bump
(05:12):
or match, i should say, is just so helpful. There's
no other place that I know of for nonprofits to
get a fifteen percent match, and that's something we can
get every year thanks to Bertie's for Charity and what
we've done with the funds raised from Birdie's for Charity
over the last last year and again this year, we
(05:32):
have implemented a mini grant for businesses out down So
we do one thousand dollars per mini grant and we
get applications from the businesses and then we have a
third party who's you know, people from out of town
who don't have any you know, biases, to look through
the applications and choose a business that they think is deserving.
(05:56):
And so we've had last year we had a really
cool business called made by Morgan Nicole. She gets all
kinds of blankets and sheets and she repurposes them into
a beautiful clothing bags, all kinds of cool stuff. She
wanted to buy something called a surger. I'm not a sewer,
(06:16):
so yeah, so she and it's a really expensive machine.
So she used our thousand dollars towards that purchase, and
she gave us such great feedback about it. She said,
it's really enhanced what she's able to do. So we're
just so happy to be able to offer things like
that and really small businesses. So that's one thing that
(06:40):
Birdiees has allowed us to do. And I'll just mention
one other thing. There is an empty building right now
downtown in the district. The town used to use it
as a garage for their municipal trucks. It's been sitting
unused for a few years and Chromo Creative District went
to the town and said, you know, instead of knocking
that building down, could you please let us try to
(07:02):
raise the funds to revitalize it. It needs some work
done and repurpose it for all of the nonprofits so
that we have a blank space for meeting space which
is lacking for events, maybe you know, pop up events
for artists, all kinds of things that it could be
used for. So the town has agreed to let us
(07:22):
try to raise fund to help with that project. And
that's another thing that we're using our Birdies for Charity
fun funds that we raise for. So I'm really really
hopeful that that will come to fruition in the next
few years. And just want to thank Birdie's for Charity
again for this wonderful matching opportunity.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
What kind of feedback have you received from the residence
in town after you've done all of these amazing things.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Lots of positive feedback. I mean we had, you know,
we have. It's really cute. We watch some of these
kids grow up. We have a lot of times with
the rock Hunt we will do like a selfie contest
and see how many rocks you can find and send
us pictures. And so you see the same people each
year coming out and doing it and saying, well, Yay,
the rock Hunt's starting again, you know, something we look
(08:13):
forward to every year. But even with like some of
our mural projects, they have incorporated the community. So another
thing that we got great feedback on was this Paint
by Number mural that we did a few years ago,
where we had a local resident who was an artist
designed this mural. It was kind of a mystery to
(08:35):
no one knew what the final product was going to
look like. But she designed a mural. She made it
a huge paint by number design and then cut it
up into three hundred and sixty different squares. So we
had residents come out. You did not have to be
an artist by any means, and you just paint this tile.
(08:55):
It might be two colors, you have no idea what
it was going to end up looking like. And then
we had it all put together and hung on actually
the side of that vacant building that I'm talking about
that we want to revitalize, and it came together as
this beautiful image of several different animals, very colorful. And
so now there's a whole bunch of people in town
(09:17):
who have helped paint that mural who aren't even artists.
So people were really excited about that too. We had
a big reveal for it because you know, as we
were painting, no one knew what the final product was
going to look like. It's just a lot of fun.
We have a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Well, it's just so nice to hear. It makes you
want to move there, honestly, and honestly if my radio
gig falls through, I'm coming for your job, as you
have the best job ever. I'm speaking with Katie Dagel.
She's publicity year for the Cromwell Creative District. If you'd
like to make a donation again, especially for Bertie's for charity.
For every dollar, Webster Bank will give fifteen cents, so
(09:57):
they're not only getting a dollar, they're getting a dollar fifteen.
Go to their website Cromwell Creativedistrict dot org. You can
find out more about these events and everything else that's
coming up. Katie, thank you so much for being here
and for serving the community.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Thank you for the opportunity
Good morning, Thank you for listening to Community Access. My
guest this morning is publicity chair Katie Daegel from the
Cromwell Creative District. Good morning, Hi, thanks so much for
having me. I love Cromwell. I feel like Cromwell is
at the center of it all, and whenever I drive through,
I get a little bit of like farm land, and
(00:23):
it's just like country, but yet you also have city.
So like I remember going down this one long street,
I'm like, where is a nail salon? Does this town
a nail salon? But it does. You just got to
keep going further, so there's something for everyone there. It's
absolutely beautiful.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Yes, And that's actually a perfect segue into what Cromwell
Creative District is all about, because we are a really small,
completely volunteer run nonprofit, but our whole goal is to
revitalize downtown Cromwell. So kind of that old school Main
Street area which you can, you know, easily get to
(01:03):
on and off Route nine, but people are typically going
to the more busy areas, like you mentioned were.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
The nail salons and the walmart and the roadhouses. But
down on Main Street, you know, it was kind of
a forgotten area. Five or ten years ago, and there's
just some people in town who are really invested in
the town and really wanted to try to help make
that area more exciting, more like you know Main Street
in Middletown, which has every possible thing you could want
(01:31):
to eat and do, you know. So that's our mission
and we really try to partner with.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
The businesses down there. We are very pleased that there
are there's only i think one empty location right now,
so we you know, we improved the empty storefronts from
years ago. And so the way we try to help
and revitalizes through fun at events, different activities, and we
(01:58):
do some public art installations. So if you do come
down to Cromwell, maybe during the Travelers Championship, you just
go a little further down to Main Street and you'll
see a bunch of murals that we've done. Some of them,
you know, are volunteers who are artists, have hand painted.
Some of them were done by professionals. There's quite an array.
(02:20):
So we're just trying to spread the word about, you know,
how much Cromwell does have to offer. So I'm really
glad you started out with that.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Well, yeah, I was just being honest honestly, I had
to go to a Birdie's for charity event there at
the TPC. So tell me you have events in order
to continue to embrace the history and the heritage that
this town brings.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Yes, so we do. So We've got the beautiful riverfront.
We want people to know that we have parks there
and you can come fishing, you can do boating. We
have a farmer's market that happens throughout the summer months
every Friday at our beautiful Frisbee landing with the view
of the river in the background. And like I said,
(03:02):
all of the local businesses along Main Street and in
that area. So we hold events down that way, including
the farmer's market that the town now has taken over,
including things like fun little things like a spring rock
hunt we just finished so have. We partner with the
other nonprofits in town and we all paint rocks. We
(03:22):
hide them all around the parks and we put them
along the storefronts to try to just increase foot traffic
to those businesses in that area. And people really give
a lot of positive feedback about it. Some of the
other things that we have. Actually, one main thing we
have coming up is actually a town wide tag sale,
(03:43):
so not just for downtown. We want to offer it
to the entire town. So if anyone's listening and is
one of those tag sailors, you know we're coming up
on that season. September sixth is going to be Cromwell's
Tag Sale Day. It's going to be rain or shine,
So that's the date and from eight thirty to two thirty,
(04:03):
any residents, any businesses will be able to put stuff
out for sale and they keep their own profits from
the sales. But Cromwell Creative District is doing all of
the kind of publicity and planning for that, and we'll
have maps so if people want to come and try
to hit as many tag sales as possible, we'll have
(04:25):
a town wide tag sale map that shows all the locations.
And we did it for the first time last year.
It was really successful. Everybody loved it. I was surprised.
We had people come from all over the state. You know,
people are very serious about their tag sailing, so it
was it was really fun. So we're going to try
to do that for the town every year. So that
(04:48):
I wanted to make sure to plug and I also
want to just mention, you know, Cromwell is the home
of the Travelers Championship and we're really really proud of that,
and the Problem Creative District is really really grateful for
this Birdie's for Charity fundraising opportunity. I think this is
the third year we've participated, and that fifteen percent bump
(05:12):
or match, i should say, is just so helpful. There's
no other place that I know of for nonprofits to
get a fifteen percent match, and that's something we can
get every year thanks to Bertie's for Charity and what
we've done with the funds raised from Birdie's for Charity
over the last last year and again this year, we
(05:32):
have implemented a mini grant for businesses out down So
we do one thousand dollars per mini grant and we
get applications from the businesses and then we have a
third party who's you know, people from out of town
who don't have any you know, biases, to look through
the applications and choose a business that they think is deserving.
(05:56):
And so we've had last year we had a really
cool business called made by Morgan Nicole. She gets all
kinds of blankets and sheets and she repurposes them into
a beautiful clothing bags, all kinds of cool stuff. She
wanted to buy something called a surger. I'm not a sewer,
(06:16):
so yeah, so she and it's a really expensive machine.
So she used our thousand dollars towards that purchase, and
she gave us such great feedback about it. She said,
it's really enhanced what she's able to do. So we're
just so happy to be able to offer things like
that and really small businesses. So that's one thing that
(06:40):
Birdiees has allowed us to do. And I'll just mention
one other thing. There is an empty building right now
downtown in the district. The town used to use it
as a garage for their municipal trucks. It's been sitting
unused for a few years and Chromo Creative District went
to the town and said, you know, instead of knocking
that building down, could you please let us try to
(07:02):
raise the funds to revitalize it. It needs some work
done and repurpose it for all of the nonprofits so
that we have a blank space for meeting space which
is lacking for events, maybe you know, pop up events
for artists, all kinds of things that it could be
used for. So the town has agreed to let us
(07:22):
try to raise fund to help with that project. And
that's another thing that we're using our Birdies for Charity
fun funds that we raise for. So I'm really really
hopeful that that will come to fruition in the next
few years. And just want to thank Birdie's for Charity
again for this wonderful matching opportunity.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
What kind of feedback have you received from the residence
in town after you've done all of these amazing things.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Lots of positive feedback. I mean we had, you know,
we have. It's really cute. We watch some of these
kids grow up. We have a lot of times with
the rock Hunt we will do like a selfie contest
and see how many rocks you can find and send
us pictures. And so you see the same people each
year coming out and doing it and saying, well, Yay,
the rock Hunt's starting again, you know, something we look
(08:13):
forward to every year. But even with like some of
our mural projects, they have incorporated the community. So another
thing that we got great feedback on was this Paint
by Number mural that we did a few years ago,
where we had a local resident who was an artist
designed this mural. It was kind of a mystery to
(08:35):
no one knew what the final product was going to
look like. But she designed a mural. She made it
a huge paint by number design and then cut it
up into three hundred and sixty different squares. So we
had residents come out. You did not have to be
an artist by any means, and you just paint this tile.
(08:55):
It might be two colors, you have no idea what
it was going to end up looking like. And then
we had it all put together and hung on actually
the side of that vacant building that I'm talking about
that we want to revitalize, and it came together as
this beautiful image of several different animals, very colorful. And
so now there's a whole bunch of people in town
(09:17):
who have helped paint that mural who aren't even artists.
So people were really excited about that too. We had
a big reveal for it because you know, as we
were painting, no one knew what the final product was
going to look like. It's just a lot of fun.
We have a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Well, it's just so nice to hear. It makes you
want to move there, honestly, and honestly if my radio
gig falls through, I'm coming for your job, as you
have the best job ever. I'm speaking with Katie Dagel.
She's publicity year for the Cromwell Creative District. If you'd
like to make a donation again, especially for Bertie's for charity.
For every dollar, Webster Bank will give fifteen cents, so
(09:57):
they're not only getting a dollar, they're getting a dollar fifteen.
Go to their website Cromwell Creativedistrict dot org. You can
find out more about these events and everything else that's
coming up. Katie, thank you so much for being here
and for serving the community.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Thank you for the opportunity
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