Teresa Gilles, 55
Executive director of Main Street Amherst
Nineteen years ago, when I was a stay-at-home mom, I was approached by a business owner to join Main Street Amherst. A year later I was the director.
Main Street Amherst became an official Main Street organization in 2002 and we’ve been growing since then.
Amherst is an incredible community that loves working together. We have great relationships with everyone from the city workers to the school district. The board is made up of nine volunteers and they’re the perfect team to help make things happen.
We have a building that is vacant right now but we’re looking to get it filled in the next year. We have a such a historic downtown, so any vacant openings tend to go quick.
I'm so excited to get back to the “new normal.” Despite the pandemic shutting things down, our main street gained two businesses. I’m excited for things to begin to open back up so that way our community can get back out there and help our businesses grow.
Our annual Wine and Chocolate Walk is my favorite part of living in Amherst. My mom went to one of the first wine and chocolate walks 13 years ago and we’ve been hooked as a family since.
Everyone helps each other out in our community. After one of our businesses caught fire and was torn down last year, everyone came together to help them.
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