We’re a few weeks into a new year, which means time is almost out for your chance to score tickets to the deeply popular Main Street Portsmouth in Bloom event, the Annual Ellen Vetter Memorial Chocolate Walk.

The event witnesses hundreds of shoppers taking on the challenge of walking a trail of stores and service providers engaging in the event where they hand out chocolate treats in a way that many consider it to be “adult trick or treat.”

PORTSMOUTH- “This event is aptly named after one of the Main Street Portsmouth in Bloom founders, Ellen Vetter,” President Sue Burke explained. Burke, being a founder herself, was best friends with the late mover and shaker. “Ellen was a chocolate connoisseur. She owned B Sweete Chocolaterie and probably gave away as much chocolate as she sold! She was always encouraging her customers to sample something new.”

The event has been ongoing for over a decade and has brought in over 3,000 people to shop and eat. It is one that over 30 businesses happily participate in and Director Emily Uldrich says that this year is expected to sell out like previous years.

“It is amazing to me how popular the Ellen Vetter Memorial Chocolate Walk is,” Uldrich said. “It’s an amazing celebration of Ellen Vetter’s life and her contribution to revitalizing our community in an amazing way to bring people downtown to explore. It is exciting to see how much joy it brings the people.”

The event has 300 tickets available and they usually sell out very early. The group will re-release tickets for people who do not make the deadline of 1 p.m. to begin the walk, however. This is to guarantee participating businesses receive the promised traffic they expect and plan for.

The event is important to many of these small shops, which experience a boom in sales in November and December and then have a slow quarter one.

“February is not really the time people think about taking a stroll through downtown. It’s a new year and we’ve wrapped up Christmas shopping,” Uldrich said. “It is kind of a downtime for small businesses, unfortunately. This is a fun way to engage and get in touch with our community.”

Recently, the group has been encouraging guests to visit every participating business by offering raffle prizes for individuals who get a stamps at each location on a passport.

“I can’t believe how popular that program was during the Cookie Crawl,” Uldrich said. “People took it seriously and were motivated to get the stamps from all of the participating businesses. We are excited to bring that program to the Chocolate Walk. It is a good way to support the local businesses by stopping at one, plus the businesses have donated some wonderful prizes to raffle away to those who complete their passports.”

The Annual Ellen Vetter Memorial Chocolate Walk will welcome people downtown on Saturday, February 10. The starting point is Port City Café and Pub, per tradition, and will last from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets are $10.

“Main Street Portsmouth in Bloom is dedicated to bringing people to a downtown that we beautify, and shops make worth visiting. The Chocolate Walk is only one of these examples, but it is definitely a favorite. We look forward to greeting everyone come February 10.

Reach Joseph Pratt at (740) 353-3101, by email at [email protected], © 2024 Portsmouth Daily Times, all rights reserved.