Awards

What are the Townie Awards?

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 PDC’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.

Application & Guidelines for the 2027 Application

The Townie Awards celebrate both the community and the work done by Main and Elm Street Managers across the Commonwealth. Please refer to the full guidelines coming soon to see where your community projects fit within the Main Street approach and the Townie Guidelines. Categories include Organizational Excellence, Physical Improvements & Design, Asset Enhancement, Anchor Building, Safe Clean & Green, Volunteer of the Year, For-Profit partner and Community Innovation and other prestigious awards. The guidelines and window to submit nominations for 2027 will be available in the fall of 2026.

Townie Awards will take place on Tuesday, June 22 at 6:00 PM at the Historic Hotel Bethlehem. Conference registration includes one Townie ticket. Extra tickets will be available for purchase during registration.

Benefits of Winning a Townie Award

2026 Townie Award Winners | Congratulations

2026 Townie Award Winners 1 (1)

VCED, Oil City Exchange & Oil City Main Street
Anchor Building
100 Seneca

DON Enterprises, Inc.
Asset Enhancement
Building New Castles-East Side Grove

Tailored Real Estate
Asset Enhancement
Franklin Street Social

Downtown State College Improvement District
Community Innovation
Calder Way Pop-Up

Meadville Community Revitalization
Physical Improvements & Design: Public Space Improvements
ARC Community Greenspace

Downtown Chambersburg Inc.
Physical Improvements & Design: Public Space Improvements
Spring Street Amphitheatre

Liverpool Main Street | Perry County
Physical Improvements & Design: Public Space Improvements
Cornet Park

Downtown Carlisle Association
Physical Improvements & Design: Public Space Improvements
Downtown Carlisle Beautification Efforts

Main Street Hanover
Promotions & Marketing: General Image & Identity
Explore Downtown Hanover Marketing Campaign

Downtown Inc
Promotions & Marketing: General Image & Identity
Why York-Imagine the Possibilities

Downtown Ardmore District
Promotions & Marketing: General Image & Identity
Downtown Ardmore District Re-Brand

Greater Honesdale Partnership
Promotions & Marketing: Retail Promotions
Girls’ Night Out

Erie Downtown Partnership
Promotions & Marketing: Retail Promotions
Downtown Autumn Soup Stroll

Erie Downtown Partnership
Promotions & Marketing: Special or Neighborhood Events
Pay-What-You-Can Farmers Market & Community Harvest Dinner

United Neighborhood Centers-Pine Brook
Promotions & Marketing: Special or Neighborhood Events
On & On 10th Anniversary Block Party

Spanish American Civic Association
Organizational Excellence
Sidewalk Stewardship | Clean, Green & Connected

Alec Hersh | Downtown Ardmore District
Outstanding Achievement by a Program Manager

James Wenger | PDC Board Chair
Outstanding Board Leadership

The Teri Foster Award

Every so often, an individual comes along who views downtown revitalization efforts not merely as a job, but as a labor of love. These rare individuals make a dramatic impact not only on an individual community, but on the entire field of downtown revitalization. This most esteemed award honors one of the Commonwealth’s most ardent supporters of local communities– Teri Foster.

Teri was born in 1953 in Somerset County PA. She was a 1971 graduate of Somerset Area Senior High School and earned her Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from The Pennsylvania State University in 1975.She then went on to receive one of ten annual Dow Jones Newspaper Fund Internships with the Richmond Virginia Times Dispatch. Teri returned to Pennsylvania in 1978 to begin her public service career at the Pennsylvania Department of Community Affairs (now the Department of Community and Economic Development).

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The Samuel Sloan Auchincloss Award

Established in 2018, the Samuel Sloan Auchincloss Award recognizes community revitalization programs in the commonwealth for outstanding achievements in Pennsylvania Downtown Center’s Townie award categories of General Image, Special Events, Retail Promotion and Transitional Marketing.

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