Final Early Bird Holiday Shopping Passport Winner Announced

Jody Cunningham is the lucky winner of the Peterborough Downtown Business Improvement Area’s (DBIA) third Holiday Shopping Passport early bird draw of $500, announced on Monday.

Amanda Bedford, DBIA Marketing & Communications Coordinator (left) with Jody Cunningham (right) at Gertis, celebrating the final early bird prize win. Photo courtesy of Peterborough DBIA.

Her winning passport was drawn on Dec. 20 at the Peterborough DBIA office with Tim Wales, owner and operator of Birdhouse Tattoo, a new business at 372 Water St. Cuningham’s winning passport was completed at Gerti’s at 225 Hunter St. W.

“Local, independently owned businesses are the heart and soul of any town. The downtown community is like one big friendship. Everyone treats everyone like family and supports one another,” said Cunningham. “My mother worked for a local downtown business for 20+ years, my elder siblings and myself also worked for businesses downtown Peterborough so it became like a second home to me. I will always support local businesses here in Peterborough and all the cities I visit.”

During the Holiday Passport season, shoppers receive a stamp for every $10 spent participating downtown business. After 20 stamps, passport holders can complete the contact form and drop it off at participating businesses to be entered into the draw.

They are available at over 140 participating shops, boutiques, salons, restaurants, and cafes downtown for free. Each completed Holiday Shopping Passport are entered into a ballot to win $1,500 in Boro gift cards.

The final grand prize draw for a $1,500 downtown shopping spree will occur on Wednesday.

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The Art School of Peterborough Victorious In Annual DBIA Downtown Holiday Window Contest

The Art School of Peterborough has been crowned the winners of the Peterborough Downtown Business Improvement Area’s (DBIA) annual Downtown Holiday Window Contest announced on Wednesday.

Raine Knudsen (left) and Jenni Johnston (right) celebrate their win in front of the Art School shop window, holding the handmade ornaments distributed to community members throughout the holiday season. Photo courtesy of the Peterborough DBIA.

During the holidays, Downtown Peterborough shop windows were transformed into magnificent displays reflecting this year’s theme, Aurora Borealis.

“With snowy decorated little pine trees and hand painted polar bears under the illuminated arctic sky. In celebration of the Holiday season, the Art School is offering ceramic crescent moon ornaments made by our staff and students, inspired by the Aurora Borealis to remind us how bright and colourful our local Peterborough community is,” said Raine Knudsen, The Art School of Peterborough receptionist. “These ornaments are offered as free (or by donation) to give back to our incredible local community. The Art School wishes you a joyful, rejuvenating, and bright New Year, and winter ahead.”

The winners for 2023 are:

• First place – The Art School of Peterborough, 174A Charlotte St.

• Second place – Lavender Moon, 181 Charlotte St.

• Third Place – Hi Ho Silver, 392 George St. N.

“The Art School of Peterborough is overjoyed and so grateful to receive first place for this year’s window contest. Thanks so much to our community; our students and instructors, coworkers, and neighbours for sharing the love and support,” said Knudsen.

The top three winners will receive cash prizes of $1,000, $500, and $300 for their winning windows. Locals voted online for their top three holiday window displays throughout the contest period from Nov.20 until Dec. 31.

“Every year, the downtown shop owners put so much love and creativity into the holiday window contest. It really sets the tone for the shopping season and enhances the downtown experience with colour, whimsy, and charm,” said Hillary Flood, DBIA vibrancy manager.” This year’s theme was Aurora Borealis and our businesses pulled out all the stops to capture the spirit of the Northern Lights. It’s always incredible to see Peterborough rally behind our window contest and the community engagement in our program saw a significant increase this holiday season with 3,897 votes casted to help determine this year's top window display.”

The window displays for this year’s contest can be viewed on the voting website.

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A Cappella Chorus Group The Aces of Harmony to Serenade Downtown During Late-Night Shopping Event

Local award-winning a cappella chorus group, The Aces of Harmony, is serenading downtown streets from 5 - 7 p.m. during The Boro’s late-night shopping event this Thursday.

Photo courtesy of the Peterborough DBIA.

The Aces of Harmony has been part of Peterborough’s music scene for over 50 years. The a cappella chorus sings close harmony in the barbershop style. During the late-night shopping event, they will sing classic holiday tunes to create a cheery atmosphere downtown for seasonal shopping.

“We love Peterborough and really wanted to do something for the downtown business community this holiday season,” said Diane Martin, director of the Aces Harmony. “We’re so excited to partner with the Peterborough DBIA to bring our harmonies (and holiday cheer) into the downtown core and to bring smiles to people’s faces as they enjoy a night out shopping and dining.”  

Over 35 businesses are participating in the late-night shopping events. A map has been created to locate the participating retailers. When purchasing at participating locations, shoppers will receive double the stamps on their holiday shopping passports.

Parking is also free in Downtown Peterborough after 6 p.m. and holiday shopping is free for two hours prior to that time.

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Winner of First Holiday Shopping Passport Early Bird Draw Announced

Tony Jeffery has won a $500 Boro gift card from the Peterborough Downtown Business Improvement Area (DBIA) first Holiday Shopping Passport early bird draw, announced on Monday.

Holiday Shopping Passport Early Bird winner Tony Jeffery (left) celebrating his win at Gentry Apparel with store owner Andrew Damiany (right). Photo courtesy of the Peterborough DBIA.

Jeffery’s winning passport was drawn at the Peterborough DBIA office on Wednesday.

“I’ve been filling out holiday shopping passports for a long time as I lived and worked downtown for many years. It feels so nice to win after being a long-term stamp collector,” said Jeffery. “Our downtown is so dynamic. It has always had so many unique shops, restaurants, and cafes with new places to discover all the time – not to mention it’s the perfect size for getting around. I’m so excited to win and treat my wife to a nice dinner and cross some more items off my shopping checklist.” 

During the Holiday Passport season, shoppers receive a stamp for every $10 spent participating downtown business. After 20 stamps, passport holders can complete the contact form on it and drop it off at participating businesses to be entered into the draw.

They are available at over 140 participating shops, boutiques, salons, restaurants, and cafes downtown for free. Each completed Holiday Shopping Passport entered them into a ballot to win $1,500 in Boro gift cards.  

The following early bird draw for a $500 Boro gift card occurs on Wednesday.

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Several Downtown Businesses Open Late For Holiday Shoppers For Three Consecutive Thursdays

Thirty-five downtown shops will be open late on Thursdays until 7 p.m. on Dec. 7, 14 and 21, announced by the Downtown Business Improvement Area (DBIA) on Monday.

A shopper browses candles at Luminary Emporium on Hunter Street. Photo courtsey of the DBIA.

This late-night shopping initiative is a merchant-led program in coordination with the DBIA that aims to encourage more downtown shopping during the holidays.

“We know that it's not always easy to make it downtown during the day so a large collection of downtown businesses have again organized a late-night shopping experience to provide a wider opportunity to shop downtown and support local this holiday season,” said Anthony Lennan, Ptbo Food Shop owner. “There are so many amazing shops and restaurants downtown, and we appreciate everyone who makes a point of supporting local businesses during the holidays and whenever possible.”

Parking is free in downtown Peterborough after 6 p.m. and two-hour free holiday parking is in effect before then.

There are 35 participating businesses for late-night shopping:

• Tragically Dipped

• Statement House

• The Neighbourhood Vintage

• By the Books

• East City Knife Co.

• Needles in the Hay

• Plant Goals

• Ptbo Food Shop

• Metaphorhome

• The Capital

• Iceman Video Games

• Couture Candy

• Hi Ho Silver

• Cork & Bean

• Tiny Greens

• Minhs Chinese Grocery

• Chumleighs

• Boardwalk Game Lounge

• John Roberts Clothiers

• Milk + Tea shop

• Rieker by Cheslers

• Grey Guardian Games

• erben

• Gather Home Goods

• Cottage Toys

• Pammett’s Flower Shop

• The Toy Shop

• Ritual Apothecary

• Wild Rock

• Rawscoes Sports & Collectibles

• Cozy 

• Dan Joyce Clothing

• Fallen Giants Simcoe

• Sugar me Right

“It’s vital that we continue to incentivize and reward folks for supporting our downtown- especially during the busy holiday season. We are excited to be offering holiday shoppers the opportunity to collect extra stamps on our holiday shopping passports during the Late Night Shopping events,” said Hillary Flood, DBIA vibrancy manager. “There is nothing more charming than shopping for the holidays in our historic downtown in December. We hope that this initiative will draw folks into the urban core for a larger experience with friends and family. Many downtown restaurants already open in the evenings, so having a large collection of shops open later also provides people with the flexibility to combine dining and shopping while they are downtown.”

The DBIA has created a map has been created to locate the participating retailers.

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Pescatarian Restaurant The Vine Captures Peterborough DBIA Mac + Cheese Champion Title

One Downtown Business Improvement Area (DBIA) title was not enough for The Vine as they have been crowned the Mac + Cheese Champion from the month-long Peterborough Mac + Cheese Festival.

This is the second DBIA food/drink title for the Vine less than one year in business. Photo courtesy of the Peterborough DBIA.

This win is fresh off The Vine’s Caeser Fest crown back in August, less than a year after the pescatarian restaurant’s opening with their Kimchi Mac and Cheese.

“There’s no right or wrong way to make a mac and cheese and I think that's what makes this festival so special. The variety of flavour profiles you see in all the dishes are all unique and cater to different palettes. As a chef you can go traditional, or jazz it up and make it as crazy as you want,” said Tyrone Flowers, The Vine co-owner. “We’re so pumped to win and the thing is, mac and cheese is the ultimate comfort food and that’s what we specialize in here, so we are really proud to be recognized for that especially being a new business in the downtown.”

The Vine’s Kimchi Mac and Cheese winning entry. Photo courtesy of the Peterborough DBIA.

As this year’s winner, The Vine will receive a cheesy hand-crafted trophy, a sizeable donation to Kawartha Food Share in the restaurant(s) name and bragging rights for the year.

Second place was the El P’s Leek and Pesto Mac and Cheese followed by Crook and Coffer’s Croustade Macaroni au Fromage.

During October, 21 signature mac and cheese dishes were featured on local menus within the downtown restaurant scene for both dine-in and takeout as part of the month-long foodie competition.

Each participating restaurant competed for over 1,000 votes cast to become the Mac + Cheese Champion.

The winning recipe(s) from the previous year’s competition will be available online and a make-at-home recipe curated with local ingredients.

“Every year we see the chefs in our downtown business community take it to the next level and always surprise us with something new, exciting and drool-worthy,” said Amanda Bedford, DBIA marketing and communications coordinator. “We have an unmatchable culinary scene here in Peterborough and we’re so lucky to have that, everyone loves mac and cheese and I already can’t wait to dig into next year’s entries.”

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Brant Basics Winner of DBIA's Downtown Halloween Window Contest

Brant Basics was declared the winner of the Downtown Business Improvement Area (DBIA) best window for this year’s Downtown Halloween Window Contest, announced on Tuesday.

(From left to right) Katrina Favron, Kaitlin Burley and Kayla Peters celebrate their win in front of the Brant Basics shop window. Photo courtesy of the DBIA.

Days after the DBIA’s Spooktacular Halloween in the BOOOro, the annual spooky event included a dark forest-themed window decorating challenge for shop owners.

Over 20 businesses participated in the window challenge to creatively transform their shop windows into captivating displays.

Locals voted for their top three Halloween window displays throughout the contest period from Oct. 13 – 31, casting over 1,000 votes online.

K C Costumes and Studio East were runner-ups with 230 votes and 125 votes respectively.

The top three winners will be receiving $300, $200 and $100 for their winning windows.

“Our team is so excited to win this year’s contest! All the businesses who participated did such a fabulous job and we can’t wait to see the downtown light up again for the holiday season,” said Katrina Favron of Brant Basics. “We all came up with different ideas and worked as a team to transform our window, it was a such a fun project to work on together and we will definitely be treating the staff to a nice dinner from one of our amazing local restaurants to celebrate.”  

Brant Basics winning Halloween window display. Photo courtesy of the DBIA.

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‘Halloween in the BOOro’ Spooktacular Returns to Downtown Peterborough

Downtown Peterborough is going to get spooky this month as the Peterborough Downtown Business Improvement Area (DBIA) hosts their second annual ‘Halloween in the BOOro’ event many family-friendly activities.

Julia Murray, DBIA intern; Hillary Flood, DBIA Vibrancy manager and Jmaes Wallwork, Lift Lock Escape co-owner in front of a ghostbusters Ectomobile. Photo courtesy of the Peterborough DBIA.

Shop windows will have eerie displays beginning Friday.

This year’s window contest will challenge shop owners to embrace the haunting ambience of a dark forest.

Locals are invited to join in the festive spirit leading up to Halloween by voting online for their favourite dark forest-themed window display from 25 different businesses.

Voters can tour the downtown using the online Halloween window map. The DBIA will be providing cash prizes for the top three Halloween windows as a reward for the most creative shop owners.

• First place: $300

• Runner up: $200

• Third place: $100

The main Halloween in the BOOro event is on Oct. 28 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. with a variety of free family-friendly activities including trick or treating, late-night shopping and interactive Halloween scavenger hunt.

Shoppers are encouraged to dress up as their favourite character and go from door to door for a trick-or-treating extravaganza with over 40 locations scattered throughout the downtown core. To help families navigate their downtown Halloween adventures, a trick-or-treating map can be found online.

“You could tell everyone was having such a fun night out, both parents and kids,” said Holly Butler, Iceman Video Games manager. “It reminded me of when you see a trick-or-treating scene in a movie and there are kids just everywhere in costume.”

Trick-or-treaters will encounter a cast of characters ‘haunting’ the crosswalks. In keeping with the dark forest theme, families can expect to find witches, fairies and other woodland characters along George Street and a cast of water-based characters from mermaids to pirates haunting the intersections along Water Street according to a press release.

“Halloween in the BOOro is another example of the DBIA utilizing the magic of experiential entertainment to draw families back into our downtown core,” said Hillary Flood, DBIA Vibrancy manager. “My team has put so much effort into this. The level of interactive programming and Halloween curation is going to be top tier.”

Trick-or-treaters are also invited to join in a Halloween quest where locals can try their luck at completing a self-guided Halloween hunt anytime between 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Oct. 28. The Halloween hunt will feature 13 ghostly stops along the way and a small prize at the end for those who complete the scavenger experience (while supplies last). Participants can join the scavenger hunt with or without a mobile device.

For folks wanting a more interactive digital experience, the scavenger hunt can be played on your mobile device by downloading Goose Chase a mobile scavenger hunt app. Once in the app, search “BOOro Halloween Hunt” or search game code GJR376 to join in on the hunt. Scavengers can get a head start on the hunt by going to the Boro mural located at Sherbrooke and George Street to unlock the first clue.

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Award-Winning Mac + Cheese Festival Returns to Downtown Peterborough For Third Straight Year For All of October

There are 21 Downtown Peterborough Businesses vying for the title in the third year of the Peterborough Downtown Business Improvement Area’s (DBIA) award-winning Mac + Cheese Festival, running all of October, announced at the Venture North Building on Wednesday morning.

Three mac and cheeses were sampled at the press conference: Heartburn City, Mind Your Carrots & Peas and Lactose Overload. Photo by David Tuan BUi.

The downtown businesses offer their mac and cheese dishes for all of October for take-out or dine-in. Classic macs, adventurous macs, handheld macs and even ‘mac-it-at-home’ options are available for this year’s festival.

The winning business will receive their bragging rights for the year, a hand-crafted trophy, the title of mac-and-cheese champion and a donation to Kawartha Food Share in their name.

New businesses entering the competition include The Vine, The Food Shop, The Pasta Shop and Sam’s Place Weinery.

Anyone can vote online for their favourite mac and cheese dishes throughout the month and use a Mac Map to locate which businesses are participating.

“We were so beyond proud to be chosen as the top mac of 2022, tying with Capra Toro for the winning prize,” said Amanda da Silva, The El(P) co-owner. “Being a newer business in downtown Peterborough, we’ve had such a blast participating in these foodie festivals. The culinary competition in this city sure is steep.”

The festival website has previous winning recipes and locally curated recipes for home chefs. Recipe cards include a hearty ‘local mac’ that utilizes local ingredients from The Ptbo Food Shop and recipes from previous champions: Sam’s Place and The El (P).

“Our Mac + Cheese Festival has been incredibly successful both locally and provincially and has even gone on to inspire other BIAs in the province to adopt similar events,” said Terry Guiel, DBIA executive director. “We won an award last year for ‘special events and promotions’ at the Ontario Business Improvement Area awards conference and our team is really proud of how these cheesy shenanigans continue to inspire not only local chefs but other cities in Ontario.”

At the press conference, three mac and cheeses were sampled at the event.

• Heartburn City: Pickled jalapenos, hot sauce and crushed Hot Cheetos

• Mind Your Peas & Carrots: Peas, carrots and hot dog slices

• Lactose Overloard (winner): Havarti, mozzarella, marbled cheddar, Tex-Mex and queso

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Motorcycles Rev It Up In the Inaugural United on the Highway Poker Run & Fundraiser

Motorcycle revved things up for the inaugural United on the Highway Poker Run that explored the historic downtown and toured through the Kawarthas on Saturday.

Motorcycle enthusiasts gear up to put up their kickstands and begin their Poker Run. The event was originally slated for July 15 but was rained out. Photo courtesy of the Peterborough DBIA.

Bikers gathered at the Venture North parking lot before touring around the Kawarthas. They made stops at multiple locations to draw cards and win prizes, with all proceeds going to the United Way of Peterborough.

“The best fundraisers are the ones that are interactive and fun for everyone involved. People have been very excited about being able to play this classic game while exploring downtown Peterborough and the Kawarthas,” said Terry Guiel, Peterborough DBIA executive director. “As a motorcycle enthusiast myself, I thought this would be a unique way to mix my passions for the downtown, motorcycles and also raising money for amazing local organizations in our community.”

Some of the prize packages include $500 and $1000 worth of motorcycle prizes, a downtown shopping spree and a plethora of other prizes.

The riders finished the tour in downtown Peterborough then experienced downtown restaurants, pubs, patios and retail stores.

“When the rubber hits the road, kind hearts and strong passions for the community are even more revved up,” said Jim Russell, United Way CEO. “We are so grateful to Terry and the team at the DBIA for driving this event, and for helping build a more resilient Peterborough. Bikers are very giving people and we want to thank everyone who is attending and who generously donated a prize.”

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