“Welcome to the Renaissance ... as soon as we get rid of this idea of Utopia, the better off your sacred places and people will be ... every place is broken, but every place is sacred.”
- Ryan Weaver, Salisbury local
Staff Writer
The city of Salisbury, Md. held its first annual Ignite Salisbury event at the newly restored firehouse in Downtown Salisbury on Thursday, Nov. 14. The event allowed local citizens to share what they are passionate about, what they are interested in and how they believe the people of Salisbury can make their home a better place.
With over 100 audience members, the room was full of energy as locals mingled and anticipated the upcoming speeches.
At 6 p.m., audience members were told to take their seats as Chad Brown took the podium and the red carpet, introducing himself as the night’s host and emcee, although City Council President Jacob Day was the original host.
Chad Brown opened by discussing how the night was aimed towards recruiting “a bunch of locals who are interested in and care about Salisbury in the hopes to start a conversation.”
To do this, the “Ignite” team put together 13 speakers who each had five minutes to tell the audience what moved them about the community, to give the audience just enough of their story so that they became inspired to want to keep that particular conversation going.
Brown said, “we want you guys to be inspired.”
The night began with Salisbury University professor, and owner and founder of VizionCreative, Jesse Campbell, who spoke about Salisbury’s culture, how that culture developed and how important it was to keep this culture growing.