5 Points Merchants Group continues its mission to reconnect residents, and merchants by rebuilding community events to promote community growth as we move past this difficult time of COVID.
Leader
Dorrie Smith-Richie
Location
Perrysville Ave Pittsburgh, PA 15214
COVID-19 has become an unknown and unimaginable intrusion on us all. We never forecasted this virus and how quickly it would disassemble all that we've worked diligently to achieve thus far. Yet, as we begin to navigate through this pandemic, learning to embrace and respect the new normal, and being responsive to the COVID protocols. We now have a unique opportunity to rebuild and continue to succeed in our mission. Our continued work will enable us to keep the spirits of our businesses and residents up in these challenging times. We'll work on ways to engage residents with us, so they can also play a contributing part in keeping their community strong.
But we can not do this alone. With your donation, you are helping us to rebuild more vital business corridors, enabling growth in those communities and residents. Most importantly, bringing the resident back out safely after a long pandemic hibernation period. It's time for us to live again.
Our events bring our residents, their families, friends, and many others out for an enjoyable time.
Here's a brief list and links of some of our annual events, which are totally FREE to the public:
The 5 Points Business District aka 5 Points Merchants Group (5 PM Group)was formed in 2017. The organization consists of the business owners and two residential representatives of Observatory Hill. With empty and boarded-up storefronts in our business corridor, the group focus was to change its negative perception of Observatory Hill becoming a community on the decline by bringing back vitality to the business corridor. In 2018, we officially became a 501c3 non-profit. The organization decided to broaden its mission and focus and reach out to their bordering communities facing the same issues with their business corridors. We started planning sessions on how we could become the organizational business hub and include those communities as a part of The Five Points Merchants Group when COVID-19 brought those plans to a halt and our non-profit to its knees.We've lost most of our members and volunteers, and we are also in jeopardy of losing contracts since it was challenging to meet timelines due to the pandemic. We now are faced with an uncertain future. We are in dire need of funding to continue with our mission and build capacity in order for us to continue serving our businesses and our residents. The 5 Points Merchants Group stages many annual community events that give our business owners an avenue to showcase their companies and it draws attention to new businesses.