TROY – The City of Troy and the Troy/Maryville/St. Jacob/Marine Chamber of Commerce hosted their second First Friday event. On Friday, June 6, 2025, community members came out to downtown Troy to visit with vendors, check out the local businesses, enjoy live music and more. These events, hosted on the First Friday of every month from May to September excluding July, invite the community to have a fun night while supporting local business owners. “It’s so amazing to see everyone downtown celebrating tonight,” said Carol Sparks, chairman of the Chamber of Commerce board. “It’s great, absolutely. When you think about the local community and the local economy and all the things that can happen here, it’s great to see new business coming, new people coming to town, and just supporting what’s here and growing what we have.” Sparks and Dawn Mushill, president of the Chamber of Commerce, noted that the idea behind First Friday came from the Chamber’s 40th anniversary celebration last year, when they brought live music, vendors and more to downtown Troy for the day. The event went so well that they decided to sponsor the inaugural First Friday events this year. Business owners have responded, too. Doug Orcott, owner of The Red Door Cottage in Troy, shared that last month’s First Friday event brought in over 100 people to his store in the span of two hours. He believes events like First Friday have “revived” the feeling of a homecoming or festival. “It’s the most that we’ve ever had, and our vendors loved it. It made our whole month,” he said. “These things are really important to the town, the downtown area.” During the First Friday event on June 6, families and Troy residents could enjoy music by Shotgun Creek, food vendors, craft vendors and caricatures by Jim of Jim’s Caricatures and More. Jim spent the evening providing free caricatures, and he noted that it was a lot of fun playing around with people’s features and creating pictures of them. “The whole idea about caricatures is you draw them and you try to pull a little bit out of place,” he explained. “You just kind of look at a person’s face and you try to figure out what’s a little bit different about them. Are their eyes more close-set? Are they farther apart? Do they have a smaller nose? A larger nose? How is their smile? Is it big? Is it barely there? You just look for all the differences.” The businesses and residents who stopped by Troy’s First Friday event had a positive experience. But Mushill noted that while the event is a lot of fun, it highlights the greater goal of the Chamber. The Chamber aims to support local businesses and connect business owners and entrepreneurs. They hope these events are a fun way to get community members involved. “It’s all about helping other businesses,” Mushill said. “They come and we have events and we talk about, ‘How can we help your business. Where are you struggling?’ We might have four bankers in there, but all four bankers are willing to sit down and have a conversation and help.” For more information about the Troy/Maryville/St. Jacob/Marine Chamber of Commerce, including their upcoming events, visit their official website at TroyMaryvilleCoC.com.
