GEORGETOWN, Ky. — The city of Georgetown is encouraging its community members to shop local with the annual Love Your Downtown event. From Feb. 6-20, Kentuckians can pick up a passport guide filled with locations of locally owned businesses to visit.

Christy Hawkins, co-owner of Oh Sew Cute said supporting locals has always been important, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, local businesses need the help from the community more than ever.

“A lot of the shops down here were actually closed when it first started for a while and we're all local owned small business owners, so it's really important to shop local. We offer a lot of really unique items downtown,” Hawkins said.

Oh Sew Cute is just one of the 22 locally-owned businesses involved in the event. Community members can pick up a free guide at any of the participating locations. 

“Go around and visit all the stores. We've got some really awesome unique stores down here on Main Street. To get your passport marked, stamped or signed,” Hawkins said.

Once the passports are completed, participants will be entered into a drawing for a prize. Winners will be contacted and announced after the last week of the event. 

“Come and see the stores down here and see what unique items that we have to offer. You don’t actually have to purchase anything to get your passport stamped. It's a good opportunity to walk around downtown, get out of the house and see what we have to offer,” Hawkins said.

Hawkins said the Georgetown community has been extremely supportive throughout the pandemic, and it’s events like these that brings the community and local businesses together.

“It's been awesome. I tell you, on Small Business Saturday we were just overwhelmed with people coming in and it really made us feel great to know that the local community is supporting the small businesses down here, it really warms your heart,” Hawkins said.

Walking around the local shops and checking out the unique items in each store is worth the experience, even during a pandemic.

“Being in a small town, we don't have tons of people in the shops at once. So that's kind of nice to be able to not have so much of a crowd, like, going to Walmart or somewhere so I think it's a good experience even throughout all of this COVID,” Hawkins said.

For more information on the participating locations, you can go to the Love Your Downtown event page.