Doors key to promoting town of Washington

WASHINGTON — The Millbrook – Town of Washington Business Association (MBA) has a contest in the works that opens the doors to participants’ imaginations. It is all about doors.

The “Doors of Washington†contest will run through Feb. 22, ending on Washington’s Birthday.

“The idea came up last year with the thought of why don’t we try to promote Washington, because we are the town of Washington and Washington’s Birthday is in February and February is a slow time of year,†MBA President Paula Redmond said. “So we’re trying to encourage people to participate in this. We’re kind of hoping people will take pictures of their own doors or if they do know of a really great door they would like to photograph they do need to get permission from the owner to photograph it.â€

The goal is to put together roughly 20 great doors and make a poster out of it, calling it the “Doors of Washington.†The deadline for the contest is Feb. 21, the day before President George Washington’s Birthday. The winners will be picked on the 22nd. Contestants will need to include their name, phone number and the location of the door when they send their photos, which should be e-mailed to edcapers@gmail.com (as jpegs). The doors will be chosen based on their beauty, architecture, color, door knockers and how they represent the history of the town of Washington.

“Once you start something like this you start looking at people’s doors to see if there’s anything unique about them,†MBA member Doug Capers said, “Yeah, I have been doing that myself. I’m not fixated on that but I do happen to glance at some doors and think they’re nice.â€

Redmond is hoping other people will do exactly that — considering doors for the contest — herself included.

“Being in real estate, I do know of a lot of great doors, so I will be participating, yes, and I hope other Realtors will be also. It applies to everybody, residential or business,†she said, adding that people can enter more than once. “I think it will be fun and I hope we can make a colorful poster out of it.â€

The poster will be the end result. It will be used to help promote the town of Washington and the village of Millbrook — both sold as a stand alone poster and also used in advertisements for the area.

â€We’re just trying to generate people in the hub of what’s going on and to promote Millbrook and getting people to talk about and just have some activity going,†Redmond said. “This is just one piece of advertisement or flyer we can use in the future. But in the future we also want to make more of Washington’s Birthday, into a month or week for an annual event.â€

Ideas for such an event include getting restaurants to feature cherry specials on their menus, possibly to be judged in a contest to promote the eateries. One year there was a winter carnival in the village with ice sculptures, although there’s no word if that is under consideration again. The whole concept is to promote the town and village in as many ways possible.

“We want to try to get something revolved around Washington’s Birthday and this is how we’re starting,†Redmond said of the doors contest. “I hope other people will pick up on it next year. It’s a slow time of year now, and we want to get people going into the businesses.â€

That’s where the business association really comes into play. It’s been an essential part of the community’s commercial base for decades, and continues to play that role with events like the “Doors of Washington.â€

“Our role is to promote business and try to increase traffic and increase people coming into our businesses, and it’s more of an awareness and that’s what we’re trying to do here,†Redmond said, adding that those in the MBA all volunteer their time and energy.

To learn more about the contest call Redmond at 914-456-9154. To enter photos of doors in the town of Washington (and this includes those in the village of Millbrook), e-mail them to edcapers@gmail.com. Winners will get a free copy of the poster.