What’s next for O’Fallon’s Vine Street Market under new special events manager?

In six years, the ever-evolving Vine Street Market has become a regional destination and the largest farmers’ market in southern Illinois. And the new special event manager, Samantha Sorrick, says she’s thrilled to be a part of its operation.

Sorrick said she is eager to dive into all the summer plans as well as start some new programs.

She will oversee the market and the special events in the downtown district.

“My goal is to continue the Vine Street Market legacy, and it has been run so well. Sarah (Burton) set up everything this season, and Kamil Molczyk, the assistant market manager, worked closely with her. He has everything running smoothly,” she said.

The market specializes in handmade and homegrown products from within a 100-mile radius, and now offers a wider variety, a kids activity area, demonstrations and food trucks. They oversee vendor stall assignments, traffic flow routes and event timelines.

An Alton native, she recently moved to O’Fallon and was already familiar with the farmers’ market when she started June 12.

“I love going to farmers’ markets. I like Vine Street Market because it has a local feel to it. Local people come here, and there is a close-knit feeling among the vendors. They are super- passionate about what they do,” she said.

Sorrick earned a bachelor’s degree in biology with an emphasis on biodiversity from Webster University in 2015 and plans to finish her master’s degree thesis at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

She recently worked as the program coordinator for campus activities at Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Missouri, for a couple years. Before that, she was the teen programs coordinator at the Missouri Botanical Garden for three and a half years.

The city’s district coordinator acts as a special event planner – to collaborate, organize, supervise, and execute 12 community events to help awareness efforts, manage them and assigned individuals as well as coordinate volunteers.

The coordinator directs marketing and advertising plans, assists with social media content, and builds relationships with the downtown district, chamber, and local businesses and community.

One of her passions is environmental education, and she has been involved with monarch butterfly conservation and education in recent years.

While an outreach and education intern at The Audubon Center at Riverlands in West Alton, and at the Missouri Botanical Garden, she developed and held public programs on monarch butterflies, conservation, native plants, citizen science, and native pollinators.

She partnered with schools and parks, and led students in creating and planting new native pollinator habitats in public spaces. She led participants in Monarch Watch’s tagging citizen science project multiple times.

“It’s a really cool project, and I hope to do something locally, to get the kids at the market excited about nature,” she said. “I’m really excited about developing some outdoor programs.”

Working with children on the Pop Club project has developed into one of the market’s many success stories.

“I love that we get to teach the kids where their food comes from,” she said.

She said they have designed new signs at the market to identify how local everything is.

“It’s a point of pride for the vendors, and we’ve received good feedback,” she said.

“This is so fun – I know I am grateful to be a part of it. I want to build on the successes and keep up the momentum.”

O’Fallon Station Development

The O’Fallon Parks and Recreation Department oversees O’Fallon Station and the Vine Street Market, which has been a major part of the downtown revitalization.

The cooperative effort began after years of little attention and investment. Key initiatives included the city commissioning a downtown action plan and establishing a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district for the area.

Then, through the Destination O’Fallon economic development initiative approved in 2016, O’Fallon Station was constructed for $1.5 million.

Designed to create a central gathering place in the heart of the community, city leaders hoped a pavilion would make downtown attractive to residents and visitors. It opened for limited events in the 2018 holiday season, but officially was ready in spring 2019.

It was funded through an increased hotel-motel tax. In November 2016, the council approved a rate hike from 5% to 9%, with the additional 4% of revenue funding the downtown and Family Sports Park expansion projects. Overall, the improvements totaled around $9.5 million.

The downtown district businesses formed a committee in 2018 to promote downtown better. With its focus on increased commerce and activities, foot traffic has grown.

Once the market opened in May 2019, the number and quality of vendors exceeded expectations. Andrew Dallner, director of the parks and recreation department, said even though the market is affected by the weather, on comparable days, this year’s market is experiencing about an 8% increase.

Dallner said he marvels at the spirit he sees among the downtown merchants.

“Working with such a dedicated group of business owners in the downtown district is nothing short of amazing. They have such great energy, drive and enthusiasm for making the O’Fallon community a great place to live and work,” he said. “We value our relationship and look forward to its continued growth in the years to come.”

He explained that the revitalized district grew beyond the merchants’ committee’s ability to coordinate special events and the market needed more than a part-time coordinator, so a new position was created in 2022.

Sarah Burton, the city’s horticulturist and Vine Street Market coordinator who had spearheaded its creation, assumed those duties.

She left the position earlier this spring to become the program director for the Land Connection in Champaign, Ill., which offers farm and food business training, farmers markets, food access programs, Illinois FarmLink, and local food education.

The city employee position is jointly funded, with the chamber contributing to the coordinator’s salary every year.

Chamber Director Debbie Arell-Martinez said hiring someone to focus on event planning made sense, and so did pooling resources. She said the coordinated strategy has been successful.

“O’Fallon’s downtown is really special, and it continues to get better and better,” Mayor Herb Roach said.

In 2019, a regional award recognized O’Fallon’s cooperative effort in revitalizing and transforming the downtown.

The East-West Gateway Council of Governments presented one of its Outstanding Local Government Achievement (OLGA) Awards to the city, O’Fallon-Shiloh Chamber of Commerce and O’Fallon Downtown District -- the Exemplary Collaboration, Partnership or Regional Initiative Award.

The Gateway Council stated: “With the support of residents and taxpayers, the city’s downtown area has been transformed into a flourishing hub of community activity and commerce. The proof is in the receipts: over the past eight years, sales tax collected in downtown O’Fallon has increased by 177% and the food and beverage tax collected has increased by 134%.”

Then, the global pandemic shutdown hit in 2020, but by all accounts, the market and downtown have successfully bounced back in recent years.