Residents in Searcy will find out tonight whether their city will be the recipient of $500,000 and the star of a streaming series' upcoming season.
Searcy is one of six finalists in a competition to receive a $500,000 "marketing and business transformation" and to be featured in the fourth season of Small Business Revolution - Main Street. The city's residents will find out whether they won during a watch party Tuesday night at Harding University.
Small Business Revolution is a reality show starring Amanda Brinkman, Ty Pennington and experts from small-business marketing company Deluxe Corporation. In the show, Brinkman, Pennington and their team work with a different small town each season, providing marketing advice and other support to business owners in that community.
In its first three seasons, Small Business Revolution visited Wabash, Ind.; Bristol Borough, Pa. and Alton, Ill. Searcy hopes to be the focus of the show's fourth.
The race to become the top choice for this season's show began in the fall, when roughly 12,000 separate nominations were put forward, many by community leaders, according to a news release by Deluxe. Stephanie Mann, a spokeswoman for Deluxe, said she believes this is the largest number of nominations the corporation has received since Small Business Revolution began.
In November, the show's team visited their top 10 choices, which included Searcy. The small town endured in the competition, making its way to the top six. At one point, Searcy lead the vote tally, which began Feb. 12, but dropped to the No. 2 spot the following Monday, the day before voting ended. This led to a "tremendous push" in calling for votes, Amy Burton, executive director of Main Street Searcy, said in the final hours before polls closed.
"$500,000 is a shot in the arm for a small town," she said.
Voting ended at 10 p.m. Feb. 19. Residents in Searcy had to wait a full week before hearing tonight's announcement. But now, finally, the wait is almost over.
Searcy's watch party will begin at 5:30 p.m. at Harding University's Benson Auditorium. Viewers can watch Small Business Revolution - Main Street on Hulu, YouTube and SmallBusinessRevolution.org
NW News on 02/27/2019