Moonlight & Roses recognizes accomplishments of 2023
(Seguin) – There was a little color and creativity added to this year’s Moonlight & Roses event in downtown Seguin.
That’s because the Seguin Commission on the Arts decided to partner with the Seguin Main Street Program for its annual awards presentation. Together, both groups presented four art awards and four downtown awards.
The awards presentation was held Friday night at the Memorial Rose Garden in Walnut Springs Park.
Kyle Kramm, Main Street and CVB director, says each year, the city recognizes those movers and shakers making a difference in downtown. He says the first and top award of the evening was this year’s Downtowner of the Year.
“That went to Gift & Gourmet for their expansion into 110 W. Nolte St. The Seguin Main Street Advisory Board saw that the addition of that — the full gourmet section — was a great asset to the community and so they wanted to recognize that and so that’s why they got our Downtowner of the Year,” said Kramm.
Kramm says next on the list was this year’s Volunteer of the Year.
“That went to Gregg Woodall who is our previous board chair and he took over an expired term and so he served more than six years on the Main Street Advisory Board and so we wanted to recognize him for his years of service and his willingness to help out at downtown events and just be very involved in the whole community as well,” said Kramm.
Kramm says a local bar and its transformation over this past year also made the list of this year’s top winners.
“Our third award for downtown went to Bar Seguin for the Downtown Beautification Award. They really transformed their property of going from Seguin Coffee to the addition of Bar Seguin and so it just added this great ambience to the north side of the downtown district,” said Kramm.
Kramm says wrapping up the list of awards for Main Street was this year’s Partner of the Year.
“Then, our final downtown award was our Partner of the Year Award which the Main Street Advisory Board presented to the Seguin Commission on the Arts because of their Squirrel Trail. While the squirrels are spread out all over Seguin, predominantly they are in or near downtown and so the Squirrel Trail has been a great addition to downtown in bringing lots of people to come and check out downtown,” said Kramm.
Next up, was the presentation of this year’s Arts Awards.
Kramm says the first award was presented to a young active member of the arts community.
“Our Youth Award was presented to Sophia Saucedo and she is a senior at TLU where she is involved with different programs there but she also volunteers and works at Teatro de Artes leading different classes there. When she was in high school, she was also part of the mariachi group as well,” said Kramm.
Kramm says also recognized for its contributions to the community was this year’s Art Organization of the Year.
“Our second award was Art Organization of the Year and that went to the Texas Theatre for all the art community activities that they host at the theater,” said Kramm.
Kramm says the evening also recognized local artist Robin Walker as this year’s Outstanding Contributor to the Arts.
“That was to recognize Robin for her years of service on the Seguin Art League Board as well as the Seguin Commission on the Arts and just the overall projects that she has done for the community like she has done several squirrels. She has also been on the Sip n Stroll mug twice so that is why the arts commission chose to recognize her,” said Kramm.
Kramm says wrapping up the evening was a special recognition of local business CARSTAR Shanafelt.
“It was in recognition of their donation of their labor and time for this Seguin Squirrel Trail project. Most of the artists have been taking their squirrels to the Shanafelt to get the clear coat added and Shanafelt has been providing that to us at no charge so we just wanted to recognize them for that,” said Kramm.
This year’s event also included live music by the Dirty River Jazz Band plus rose arrangements from area florists and picnic baskets for folks to enjoy while on the grounds.
