Just a few months into 2020, it was clear that this was going to be a year like no other. After weeks of shutdowns and stay at home orders from the government, our state slowly started to wade into the uncertain waters of phased reopening amid a global pandemic. No one knew what to expect; but with determination and creativity, local Roxboro and Person County businesses and organizations alongside schools, local government, civic groups and churches pulled the community through a tough year.
We saw our community band together in support of the "Keep Roxboro Running" campaign, created to support small local businesses during the pandemic.
Though COVID-19 restrictions prevented the annual Personality Festival from happening in person this year, we saw the creation, by our Chamber of Commerce, of "Person in a Box", a portable version of the festival that brought together components from all over town, and included coupons, vouchers and gifts to further support locally owned shops and restaurants.
Thanks to the hard work of our local groups we all were able to enjoy the Shop Small Weekend, which can only be described as a wonderful county-wide, socially distanced celebration which included food trucks, a scavenger hunt and plenty of fun!
The team at Uptown Roxboro were able to hold a few Rox-n-Roll Cruise-ins, adapting to the current rules and also kept the spirit of Jingle on Main alive with a virtual tree lighting, window decorating and lights in Uptown, to name a few. The Recreation, Arts, and Parks Department joined in on the holiday fun by creating a lit story walk and drive-able map of holiday lights in Person County for all to use as their guide.
With both Hyco and Mayo Lakes, Person County happily served as the perfect destination for an isolated getaway. The county hosted an influx of visitors from nearby cities, and several states away, all here to vacation safely in the beautiful outdoors and to enjoy camping, boating, fishing, hiking trails and disk golf courses.
We all enjoyed a season of food trucks, drive in movies, outdoor adventures, shopping local, eating local, but more importantly, we were able to come together as a community, embrace the year's challenges and support each other along the way.
To all of our past and future visitors, our long time locals and the newest Personians, thank you for a wonderful year. We here at the Person County Visitor and Information Center appreciate you, and look forward to continuing to serve you in 2021.
Happy New Year!
Marley Spencer and Hosanna Blanchard
Person County Tourism Development Authority Staff