When residents, business people and all-around lovers of the city of Wayne gathered in February to raise downtown revitalization funds, each was asked to write his name on a smooth river rock with a silver pen, to be dropped into a bowl of water.
By the time 125 people walked through the door, the pile of shimmering, submerged rocks was beginning to make a point: the grassroots movement known as the
Ripple Effect is getting big.
"It started to give people a visual of the size of the effort," says Sherrie Brindley, who helped establish the group. "Now we bring the bowl to all of our events and have new supporters sign rocks. It's become kind of our motto - 'Be the pebble.'"
The Ripple Effect is a group of citizens working to better their city with a focus on downtown Wayne. What began as a conversation among a few social media acquaintances is now a budding revitalization non-profit that has raised funds and started beautification and walkability programs, all in the name of the city they love.
"When I was a kid, Wayne had a really neat downtown," says Brindley. "We came downtown to shop and to see people. Wayne is fortunate to have still have this asset as the only genuine, historic downtown in a large service area."
"We have this gem here, and it's worth saving."
Brindley explains that Wayne took a hard hit during the era of urban renewal, losing some historic infrastructure. The attempt at progress in fact slowed growth in the downtown, and not much has happened since.
"The city leadership has been about the same since it happened," says Brindley, "There haven't been a whole lot of new ideas since the 1960s."
Fortunately for Wayne, Brindley herself is an idea machine. As the former Plymouth Downtown Development Authority executive director, Brindley spent many years driving from her home in Wayne, where she was born and raised, to her job, where she kept downtown Plymouth bustling.
"I know what a prosperous community looks like," she says, "and I know what it takes to maintain one. I could move to Plymouth if I wanted, but I have five generations of family here. I decided I could more easily revitalize downtown Wayne than move my whole family."
After trying for years to bring ideas to city hall to no avail, Brindley decided to seek out kindred spirits online. A Facebook group formed around a proposed tax increase gave Brindley the chance to reach out and create a meet up.
"We met in a coffee shop and started talking," she says. "We decided to not wage a war against the tax increase, but instead identify some of our community problems and to focus on how can we fix them."
Thus, the Ripple Effect was born. And the ripples began to spread.
"If you're not a part of the solution, you're a part of the problem," says Jen Rickard, a resident and Ripple Effect board member. Rickard, 37, joined the effort in the hopes of making Wayne as nice a place for her children as it was during her childhood.
"We have a very identifiable downtown," she says. "Neighboring communities don't offer that. We have a beautiful river and incredible destination businesses. We have all the components to enable the city of Wayne to be thriving right now. I just don't think we're capitalizing on them."
Or at least no one was before. Since beginning their first informational meetings in late 2010, the members of the Ripple Effect have held fundraising events, launched a social media community and hosted social events with their sights on raising the visibility of their mission.
One of their most visible accomplishments has been an adopt-a-planter program, which is already having an impact on downtown Wayne. After budget cuts eliminated the city's ability to maintain outdoor planters, the group decided to see how many they could return to Michigan Avenue.
"We thought we'd get maybe 40 or 50 pots," says Brindley. One hundred and twelve planters later, downtown Wayne suddenly had a full-fledged beautification program underway - entirely supported by volunteers and sponsorship.
"It's turned out to be something that is really charming," says Rickard. "Every planter has a message written on it by the sponsor. Some are clever and some are personal. You'll be at a red light and you can't help but look over and read a message."
The group hopes that passersby will be unable to resist pulling over to see what else is going on in Wayne's downtown. The Ripple Effect has partnered with residents interested in promoting walkability to create
Walk Wayne. The initiative is working to create several walking maps, as well as promote Dynamite Park, an underutilized nature area within walking distance of downtown.
The secret of the Ripple Effect so far is all about communication.
"Communication was a huge problem in Wayne," says Brindley. "Until recently we didn't even have a local paper anymore. Without knowing what's going on, how can people get involved?"
The group that is working to preserve their historic community and family heritages has found a pointedly modern method of engagement. They combated the information gap by forming an online community with several outlets, including a source for local information with
The Wayne Pride News, a home for positive voices with their
For the Love of Wayne blog, and regular e-news updates now received by hundreds of subscribers. This online arsenal, along with the websites and social media pages for the Ripple Effect and Walk Wayne, have all been created and maintained by volunteers.
The new local news outlet,
The Wayne Dispatch, has partnered with the group to help spread the word about the positive growth in the community. Owner John Rhaesa is also a Ripple Effect board member.
"Right now we're doing small things," says Rhaesa. "We're raising visibility and letting people know there's a lot of work to be done for sure, but we're here to do it. We want our downtown to serve as a connection place. We want it to be bursting with people."
As the Ripple Effect continues to make waves through Wayne, the members are all simultaneously anxious to move forward with revitalization plans and wowed by the fact that they are beginning to attract volunteers willing to make them a reality.
"It turned out that all of us were trying to do things ourselves," says Brindley. "We have a councilperson, a newspaper guy, a realtor, and business people - and we couldn't make much progress because we didn't know each other. And now we're continually surprised to find people everywhere we look asking how to help."
The list of Ripple Effect goals goes on and on. They'd like to be a Michigan Main Street community. They'd like to offer assistance to businesses, facilitate communication with city government, host downtown events and more. The real vision, however, is much simpler:
"We want to see storefronts that are full and life on the streets," Brindley says. "We don't want all the reasons we love Wayne to be a secret anymore. We're pretty sure once people get to experience the Wayne that we know, everyone will want to live here. It's just that nice of a place."