Biloxi will once again celebrate its architectural charm and culture again this year, with a monthlong celebration in May.
The celebration will include a number of public events — the unveiling of the restorations at the White House fountain and Magnolia Hotel, the 150th anniversary of Biloxi Public Schools, and preview tours of the Pleasant Reed House and Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art — but city Historical Administrator Bill Raymond wants individual residents and business owners to also have their time in the spotlight.
“We want to recognize people who have worked and are working to save historic homes and businesses and have played a role in preserving our cultural heritage,” Raymond said. “What we are asking is for people to nominate their neighbors, neighborhood businesses or even themselves, so that we can call attention to the great work that’s going on in Biloxi.”
Specific dates and times will be announced shortly for this year’s Preservation in May, but the call for nominations is underway now. To read details and print a nomination form, click here.
News and notes
Summer camp registration: The city will hold registration on Saturday morning for its Summer Playground and Enrichment Program, the most affordable summer camp on the Coast. To learn more about the registration, which takes place at the Biloxi Community Center on Howard Avenue, click here.
Volunteer recognition: To see the list of top honorees from the city’s volunteer recognition awards earlier this week, along with dozens of photos from the event, click here.
Weekend preview: To see the events taking place this weekend — including the Coliseum’s crawfish festival, Confederate Memorial Day at Beauvoir — click here.
The state of Biloxi: So what’s happening these days in Biloxi? At the moment, more than $50 million in public improvements projects are underway. Get the word on the state of affairs, plus hear about other upcoming events in this week’s City Desk webcast. To listen to the 14-minute program, click here.
All-star work: Constant Contact — an industry leader in email marketing, event marketing, and online surveys — has presented the City of Biloxi an All-Star Award for best practices in the use of email marketing throughout 2009. The city, which uses Constant Contact to help transmit its Bmail news updates, was named a Constant Contact All-Star for its frequency of emails, rate of emails being opened, reducing the number of bounced emails and having a impressive click-through rate on emails being sent. Last year, Biloxi transmitted more than 900,000 Bmails to its local and worldwide audience.