How Tourism is Driving Forsyth Township Forward
Summer in Forsyth Township has been filled with more than just great events and lots of fun! It has been filled with opportunity for growth and exposure for our rural community.
Over the past several weeks, our community has welcomed thousands of residents and visitors through a wide variety of events that have brought energy, excitement, and economic activity to Gwinn and the surrounding area. All types of action from concerts and festivals to community markets and family programs. Each event plays an important role in showcasing everything that makes Forsyth Township a wonderful place to live, work, visit, and invest. We know the importance of economic drivers like these summer events.
This summer has included the Big Three Summer Concert featuring Chris Cagle, Hayden Coffman, and Alyssa Palmer, the Great Lakes Rodeo celebrating its 20th anniversary, Gwinn Fun Daze, America's 250th Birthday celebration complete with a street dance, parade, and festivities at Peter Nordeen Park, the annual City-Wide Garage Sale, the weekly Gwinn Town Market, ORV safety education with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the Forsyth Snowmobile & ATV Club, and our Community Bike Check event, where families received free bicycle safety inspections, tune-ups, and bicycle helmets for local children.
While each event offered something different, together they told one story a community that is active, welcoming, and growing. We have so much to offer here. We are happy to welcome visitors to our community a well as encourage our members to get out and engage.
It's easy to think of these events simply as entertainment, but their impact reaches much further. Every visitor who attends an event contributes to our local economy. They stop for coffee before the parade, grab lunch after shopping the City Wide Garage Sale, fill up their gas tank before heading to the trails, enjoy dinner after the concert, browse local businesses, or spend the weekend exploring everything our area has to offer. Those individual purchases may seem small on their own, but together they create meaningful support for the businesses and people who call Forsyth Township home.
Tourism also creates something that cannot be measured only in dollars. Every visitor leaves with an impression of our community. They experience our hospitality, meet our residents, enjoy our natural beauty, and discover the incredible organizations and businesses that make this area unique. Those positive experiences encourage people to return. And even recommend Gwinn and Forsyth Township to friends and family. Encouraging visitors to continue investing their time and resources in our community.
Community events also strengthen the connections between those who already live here. Families spend quality time together. Neighbors reconnect. Volunteers work side by side. Local organizations collaborate. Business owners meet new customers. Partnerships are formed. These moments help build a stronger community improving the quality of life for everyone who calls Forsyth Township home.
None of this would be possible without the incredible dedication of volunteers, nonprofit organizations, local businesses, sponsors, municipal partners, and community members who generously give their time and resources to make these events successful. Forsyth Forward is proud to support these events in any way we can and remains committed to working alongside the organizations, volunteers, businesses, sponsors, and community members who make them possible. We are grateful to everyone who continues to invest their time, talents, and resources into building a vibrant community. It is this shared commitment that transforms a simple event into more.
At Forsyth Forward, we believe economic development begins with creating a place where people want to be and highlighting everything that we have to offer. When visitors choose to spend a day in Gwinn, attend a concert, shop at the Town Market, participate in a family event, or explore our trails and parks, they are doing more than creating memories. They are supporting local businesses, encouraging future investment.
Every parade attendee, every concert ticket sold, every market purchase, every garage sale shopper, every family enjoying a day at the rodeo, every child who received a free bicycle helmet, and every visitor discovering Forsyth Township for the first time contributes to something much bigger. Because in the end, every interaction matters.
Together, these moments create momentum. They strengthen our local economy, support the businesses that make our community unique, and remind us that when we invest, we can all move forward together!
