Newspapers generally deliver news, not make it.

Yet, on Saturday, the Cassville Democrat was front and center at the annual Cassville Area Chamber of Commerce Banquet as the recipient of this year’s Business Beautification Award for our facade renovation last summer.

While we are tremendously honored for the recognition, the kudos hardly belong to us. In fact, I had a hard time squaring away in my head accepting such an award when the initial idea and most of the work were done by others.

Most of what we did was sit back and say, “Yes, go ahead.” By the end of last year, a few folks in the community had mentioned the award and that we might be in the running for it. After about the third or fourth hint, I settled on the fact that even though we did very little heavy lifting, we couldn’t turn it down because without our willingness to take the chance, it wouldn’t have happened.

Back in late summer of 2024, I got a call from a guy whose name I’d heard, but wasn’t someone I knew. He wanted help drumming up attention for his goal of helping business owners complete facade renovations and possibly add neon signage downtown.

I was to be the middle man, as any interested parties were asked to contact me, then I would pass information along to the donor, who wished — and still wishes — to remain anonymous.

When some time passed and there were no nibbles on the hook, the donor turned to my wife, Jordan, and I. “Is there anything you’d like to do with your building?” he asked.

While we had grand designs on interior work, his goal was the facade, and to be fair, it needed some work, too.

Ten months after that simple question was asked, our building looked almost unrecognizable.

Gone was the faded tin from the 1960s and the backlit sign that was going out — which we had made overtures to a company to repair but hadn’t gotten far. I suppose that was for the best.

We looked at old photos of the building and tried to recreate a historic look, settling on the multi-colored brick and fresh new EFIS (similar to stucco). It was a decision we do not regret a single bit.

After the few weeks of working in a construction zone, the beauty of the finished product caught the eyes of many a passersby.

It breathed life into our building and our corner of the square, and, more importantly, it showed what the donor we were working with was able to do.

Now, the building across from ours housing Stumpff’s Barbershop is getting similar treatment. And, Sater Pharmacy, which put up new tin after its old facade was damaged by the May 2024 windstorm, is also going back to a historic look.

The work we agreed to not only changed the face of our building, but it paved the way for others to see the potential of the Cassville Community Foundation’s newly formed Downtown Restoration Fund.

Another fun part of the process was getting to meet new people. Along with the donor, who has become a good friend, we regularly have Carl Schell, our project manager with Schell’s Construction, ding our door and rest on our couch while we talk about the latest happenings.

Along with breathing new life, the project brought us closer to the community in general, and for that, we are very thankful.

it was a chance well worth taking, and we hope other business owners downtown take the chance, as well. We are sure they won’t regret it.

We’d like to extend thanks to the Chamber for the recognition, our donor for working with us so flawlessly and making the process incredibly simple, Carl for his management skills and continued friendship, all of the individuals who laid the EFIS and the brick, and the Community Foundation for providing the perfect vehicle for reshaping downtown into a greater source of pride for all of Cassville.

I also hope to not be asked to speak at a Chamber Banquet again any time soon. It was a fine evening, but I’ll gladly go back to my role behind the lens of a camera sharing the stories of others.

I have no doubt there is more beautification to come..

Kyle Troutman has served as editor of the Cassville Democrat since 2014 and owner/publisher since 2023. He is a three-time ISWNE Golden Dozen award winner. He may be reached at 417-847-2610 or [email protected].