Sioux Falls, South Dakota – The Levitt shell’s success in Sioux Falls may be replicated in other Keloland communities.
Parkston hopes to receive funding from the Mortimer and Mimi Levitt Foundation. During the summer, Parkston hosts Amphithursdays. Every Thursday, the amphitheater at East Park in Parkston is packed with music.
Bands such as Wakefield, Ivory the Hegg Brothers, and Mogen’s Heroes have entertained audiences, bringing joy and excitement to this 1500-person town.
“There’s a lot of energy, our entire community comes out and supports it; I actually have three young children who look forward to it every week,” said Lindsay Weber, CEO of Avera Saint Benedict. Avera is involved because the grant program requires all applicants to have a non-profit sponsor.
Parkston is a finalist for the Levitt AMP grant. It would provide a matching grant of $28,000 per year for three years.
” There were over 300 applications for the first round, and we made it into the top 100, so we’ve already beaten out 200 communities for a chance at this grant. And now that we are the only one in South Dakota competing for this, we hope to gain support from across the state,” said Rob Monson, the Summer Concert Coordinator.
The Parkston group sought advice from Levitt staff in Sioux Falls and discovered the grant opportunity through that relationship.
“We want people to help us win this grant and support small towns in South Dakota,” said Bill Maxwell, President of the Parkston Commercial Club.
People can help Parkston by visiting levitt.org or texting the name Parkston to the number displayed on their screen.
“It is one vote per person,” Maxwell explained. “So we are trying to get as many people on board to just help us out with it and take ten seconds to text a vote for Parkston, and we all would greatly appreciate it.”
Parkston is competing with a hundred communities from other states. The town is one of the smallest, if not the smallest, in the competition, so they hope that everyone watching will support them in their quest to win the grant and then visit Parkston to enjoy AmphiThursdays.
The voting period runs from September 5th to 15th. You can go to Levitt-dot-org or text “Parkston” to 877-409-5525.
