Pharmacy innovation meets family values in Shawano
Growing family traditions, one pine tree at a time
September 22, 2025
SHEBOYGAN FALLS – For the second consecutive year, the Sheboygan Falls Chamber-Main Street has been recognized with Gold Tier status by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC).
Per its website (wedc.org), Wisconsin Main Street is a community development program administered by the WEDC that targets Wisconsin’s historic commercial districts, providing the various Main Street communities with technical support and training to help them revitalize their business districts based on guidelines developed by Main Street America.
Tammy Meyer, executive director of the Sheboygan Falls Chamber-Main Street, said to achieve Gold Tier status within the Wisconsin Main Street program, a community must demonstrate excellence in the four foundations within the Main Street America program: promotion, design, organization and economic vitality.
“We have to demonstrate excellence through the high marks we receive on our annual accreditation assessment with the WEDC and with Main Street America,” she said. “That includes our board’s active participation in ongoing training and learning initiatives offered by the state, and they must participate in events our local chamber sponsors.”
Furthermore, as chamber director, Meyer said she must be active in the state’s revitalization network and meet the program requirements for reporting and training.
“We do everything we can to help our downtown and our community by keeping our storefronts open and vibrant,” she said. “We also work hard to not only make Sheboygan Falls a place people want to visit, but a place where people want to live.”
A bit of reflection
Meyer said Sheboygan Falls became an accredited Main Street community in 1988 (fiscal year 1987) when the Wisconsin Main Street program began, and has received accreditation every year since.
“We were one of 10 Wisconsin Main Street communities at that time,” she said. “Currently, there are 37 Main Street communities, and 10 of them have achieved the Gold Tier status. Last year, there were 12 communities that achieved Gold Tier status. We’ve gotten Gold Tier status both years. As a side note, only three of the original 10 communities remain as Main Street communities today. We are proud to be one of them.”
In 1995, Meyer said the Sheboygan Falls Chamber was also honored with being one of the first-ever winners of the Great American Main Street Award (GAMSA).
As a result, she said it was also recognized as a Great American Main Street by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1995.
Criteria for winning the GAMSA, per mainstreet.org, include:
- Strength of the Main Street program in spurring community transformation
- Commitment to historic preservation
- Innovative programming
- Implementation of cross-sector partnerships
- Community outreach and stakeholder engagement
- Ensuring their downtown districts are for everyone
Winners, Meyer said, represent the diversity of communities in the Main Street America network – small towns, mid-sized communities and urban commercial districts from every region in the country — and demonstrate the power of the Main Street Approach™.
Since the inception of the Great American Main Street Awards, Meyer said 115 Main Street programs have been honored.
Communities are only allowed to win once.
“It’s a national award, and it’s only given to five organizations annually, so it’s really quite an honor,” she said.
Meyer said the chamber is also accredited with Main Street America.
“Part of the accreditation process looks at whether we’re maintaining our buildings and [if they’re aesthetically pleasing in the community],” she said. “We have a wonderful public-private partnership that revitalized our downtown and brought back the beauty of the cream-style brick and the overall beauty of all of our buildings.”
Chamber events attract wide audiences
Meyer said the chamber hosts several events each year, some of which are designed specifically for the downtown district.
“They’re put together with the idea of bringing people into the downtown district to help make it viable,” she said. “Our board gets involved in those events, and we work to get the stores and the community, as a whole, involved.”
Two such events, Meyer said, are right around the corner.
“Our Ladies Nite Out is always held on the third Thursday in October,” she said. “This year it’s Oct. 16. This is our 19th year of doing this event. We have about a 90% participation by our downtown merchants, plus many other chamber members who are not in our downtown district but who like to take part in this great event.”
Prior to that night, Meyer said the chamber pre-sells $10 tote bags full of goodies.
A total of 350 tote bags are distributed, and Meyer said they have sold out every year but the first.
“On that evening, there are a minimum of 350 ladies in our downtown who are shopping, checking out the restaurants, all the retail and the various other downtown establishments, as well as the other vendors who are there,” she said. “It’s a very busy event and one that is very popular. And people don’t need to have a tote bag to participate.”
Meyer said the event also features a raffle with all the proceeds going to the Sheboygan County Cancer Care Fund.
“To date, I believe we have donated $13,000 to them,” she said. “Last year, we raised the most money yet for them – $2,000. It seems to be increasing every year, which is awesome.”
Meyer said last year they began adding a theme to the event to make it more fun.
This year’s event, she said, embraces a western theme: ‘Cowgirls Nite Out.’
Meyer said attendees are encouraged to wear western-inspired outfits – with bonus points for fringe.
The chamber’s other upcoming event, Meyer said, is Main Street Memories – a Christmas event held on the first Saturday in December.
“This is more of a family-targeted event in our downtown district,” she said. “There will be lots of activities for the kids, and Santa will be there. The merchants will be offering their pre-Christmas sales. Then, we end the day with our Christmas parade and our community tree-lighting.”
Meyer said the chamber’s largest fundraiser is the Ducktona 500TM & Family Festival and Car Show, which is always held on the first Sunday in July.
Flooding at River Park forced last year’s cancellation, and though it rained early on this year, Meyer said the event went on anyway, and the rain eventually stopped.
“Even though it rained, we had more than 6,000 people in the park at the event,” she said.
Not bad, Meyer said, for a community whose total population, according to the 2020 census, was listed as 8,210 people.
“It’s a huge, fun, free family event,” she said. “There’s a large car show, we have a kid-zone set up with bounce houses, other activities and entertainment. We have live music, we have free boat rides and there’s no fee to get into the park or for anything else, other than people do pay for their own food and drinks.”
In addition to the car show, Meyer said the main attraction of the event is the Ducktona 500.
“We dump 4,500 plastic ducks into the Sheboygan River,” she said. “The ducks are numbered one through 4,500. We sell raffle tickets, and the person whose duck is the first one to cross the finish line wins $1,000.”
Second-, third- and fourth-place winners, she said, receive $500, then $250 and $100, respectively.
Donning a duck-like costume, Meyer said each year, a lucky lady is named Miss Ducky and presides over the race that day.
During the race, Meyer said Miss Ducky is in a boat stationed near the end of the course and pulls the winning ducks out of the water.
“This year’s Miss Ducky was Kayla Lampereur Hohmann, COO at The Production Farm, which is a behavioral health institution here in Sheboygan Falls,” she said.
Beyond its signature events, Meyer said the chamber also sponsors Concerts in the Park, held on the second and fourth Wednesdays in June, July and August.
“Those also bring in people from around the area to enjoy our beautiful city and all it has to offer,” she said. “We have food trucks at the park, but people are welcome to eat at any of our local restaurants before or after the concert. Or they can go to a local restaurant to get their food to-go, then take it to the park to eat it during the concerts.”
Most of the events, Meyer said, are free to the public and family-oriented.
“Any money raised through raffle ticket sales comes back to the chamber so we can continue doing what we do,” she said. “Some events are sponsored by businesses in the community, so all the funds raised are for the chamber to pay for our day-to-day operations, or they go to our chamber’s foundation, which pays for many events. So, ultimately it goes back to the community, in one way or another.”
What does the chamber do?
Meyer said one of the things the chamber does is help beautify downtown with the streetscapes and planters.
“We also provide training and educational opportunities to our members and our community,” she said. “Being a Main Street community with Gold Tier status, some of the benefits we get and have access to – like educational assistance and other services – are passed along to our business members and our community.”
Meyer said some of the accreditation review board’s criteria includes whether chambers are keeping their community’s buildings revitalized and whether they’re keeping up their status of being a beautiful, historic downtown.
“They’re also looking at me and making sure that I am doing the training through Wisconsin Main Street and Main Street America’s programs to educate myself so I can, in turn, educate my building owners,” she said. “We continue doing things to maintain the vitality of our downtown. We’re doing that through our various events and participation of our board in events that help keep us as a viable downtown.”
Meyer said the chamber’s involvement in the Wisconsin Main Street and Main Street America programs definitely keeps her busy, but that it is her dream job, even though at times she feels “fun-stress.”
“But, I also could not do this by myself,” she said. “My program assistant, Julie Nigh, is a huge help to me with all of our events and in the office. And all of our volunteers make these events possible. For Ducktona alone, we need more than 150 volunteers. I’m very grateful that we always have enough volunteers, chair people and chamber board members to help make that event successful.”
Even though Sheboygan Falls is growing as a community, Meyer said the chamber, other organizations and residents work hard to maintain that small-town image and feel.
“Julie and I always say to people, ‘Go to Milwaukee, go to Sheboygan, go to Green Bay – they’re all very close – but then come back to the calm and the quiet in Sheboygan Falls,’” she said.
