CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. — Downtown Chambersburg, responsible for promoting the city and the development of the city’s new amphitheater, is among 18 community organizations to receive awards during the organization’s annual statewide Townie Awards gala.
Angie Allaire, executive director, and Sam Thrush, former director, were on hand to receive the honor. The Townie Awards are a festive and venerable tradition designed to recognize the commonwealth’s core communities and individuals for creation and implementation of projects, programs and events that exemplify the goals of the group’s community revitalization mission.
Eligible communities consist of Pennsylvania Downtown Center’s nearly 200 member organizations, including Main Street and Elm Street programs, making the Townies a competitive award process each year.
Pennsylvania Downtown Center’s executive director, Julie Fitzpatrick, said, “The Townies are an opportunity for us to showcase our member communities and celebrate their incredible work in our commonwealth’s business districts and neighborhoods. Our Main Street and Elm Street community leaders work tirelessly to make our Pennsylvania communities places where we are proud to call home, start a business, build a family or retire. These award winners are true examples of why ‘Main Street Matters.’ We are thrilled to honor 18 incredible award winners.”
The Townie Awards are a part of an annual statewide conference, which is held in a different commonwealth community each year to highlight the respective city or town’s accomplishments in community and neighborhood revitalization.
The 2026 conference, Making Waves on Main Street | Big Bold Ideas That Push the Boundaries, held in downtown Erie, was attended by just over 300 individuals and included borough and municipal officials, experts in community planning and landscape architecture, and dozens of Main Street and Elm Street managers.
Attendees enjoyed a variety of classroom and mobile sessions, an evening aboard the Scallywags Pirate Ship, a good old street party in the heart of downtown Erie, and mobile tours highlight the work being done in downtown Erie, and neighboring communities of Corry, Meadville and those along the Route 6 Corridor.
Keynote presentations from Spud Marshall with My Creative Community and Erin Bares, President & CEO of Main Street America focused on the importance of storytelling in communities.
Founded in 1987, the mission of Pennsylvania Downtown Center is to advance the sense of place, quality of life and economic vitality of Pennsylvania’s downtowns, traditional neighborhood business districts and nearby residential areas.
