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TORONTO -- More than 25 Toronto businesses have teamed to promote the many goods and services offered in the Gem City and to attract visitors with an event Saturday involving a food truck, bounce house and outdoor vendors.
Abby Lemasters, owner of Tri B's Coffee Shop, said the event, which will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., is part of a celebration of National Small Business Week designed to raise awareness of the variety of businesses operating in Toronto.
The event coincides with Toronto's citywide yard sale, which runs today through Sunday.
Lemasters said the timing "worked out perfect because we wanted to do something in the spring."
She said in addition to several brick-and-mortar businesses, the event will include booths for several local entrepreneurs, including some who participated in the Women's Business Expo coordinated by her and others in the fall and some new ones.
The vendors will be found outside the coffee shop on Clark Street and inside Meraki Made, another North Fourth Street business whose owner, Haley Clark, has spearheaded Saturday's event with Lemasters.
Clark Street will be closed between North Fourth and Fifth streets Saturday to accommodate the event, which will include a bounce house and food truck there operated by Movin' and Groovin' Productions.
In addition to the many businesses operating booths, participants include the Swearingen Bat Co., which produces custom-made baseball bats, and Cosmic Flow, an alternative and holistic health service in the Gem City Plaza on Franklin Street.
Just Peachy Photography will be operating a photo booth at Cosmic Flow, which is an example of the special activities or sales the participating businesses have been encouraged to feature.
To help spread word about the event and the new businesses, Lemasters has videotaped interviews with some of their owners and posted them on the event's Facebook page at Gem City Days Small Business Event.
Those attending the event are encouraged to bring a non-perishable food item for the Helping Hands Food Pantry and be entered into a drawing for a prize basket.
Lemasters expressed thanks to Cornerstone Christian Church, which has agreed to make its parking lot at Clark and North Fifth streets available to visitors while the nearby section of Clark Street is closed.