By: Russell Swanson, Executive Director, VDID, Main Street Vineland

On the Ave is a regular column written by Russell Swanson of Main Street Vineland.
VINELAND, N.J. — This is my last column for the year, so, I wanted to take this opportunity to offer some year-end reflections and comments.
Since my last round of “thank yous,” we have our remaining events for the year and, like my earlier column in which I gave thanks, I want to give a general shout-out to all those who made those events possible and a success. The Christmas Parade was one of our largest and was absolutely spectacular. Everyone came together to make it run smoothly and I want to thank all of those — staff, volunteers, sponsors, the media, the City departments and others — who made it all come together flawlessly.
Our Christmas Tree Decorating Contest brought the Vineland Board of Education and its component schools, Main Street Vineland, and our downtown merchants together to add holiday cheer to storefront windows. I wrote in an earlier column about the value of partnerships and the Vineland Board of Education has been a strong, stalwart partner in the 10 years that we have been doing this.
By the time you read this, we will have joined with Jewish Federation of Cumberland, Gloucester & Salem Counties this past Monday evening for their annual “Chanukah Live” Menorah Lighting on the 600 block of Landis Avenue — the largest Chanukiyah (Chanukah menorah) in South Jersey.
As the holidays wind down and we get into January, Main Street Vineland doesn’t go into hibernation. Though we don’t have big events during the cold months, we’re hard at work planning all the events, projects, and initiatives that will be in store when the harsh weather breaks. It’s a time for meeting, organization, and laying the groundwork so that, when the time comes, we can be off to a running start. We’ll be giving you a schedule of events in a future column, as we continue to finalize them and will continue to update you as time goes by. So, as I’ve said before, stay tuned!
In the meantime, whatever your faith is and whatever your cultural background is, have a happy remainder of the season and we’ll see you throughout 2020.
For more information on Main Street Vineland, call (856) 794-8653, visit TheAve.biz or check them out on Facebook. You can also e-mail rswanson@vinelandcity.org.
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