Tues. June 28, 2005
The Downtown Business Improvement District (BID) is supporting the city’s Department of Employment Services Summer Youth Employment Initiative with seven hospitality aides that began training on June 13. The new aides will staff the Downtown BID’s mobile information kiosks at key locations throughout the summer, welcoming visitors, answering questions, distributing maps and encouraging full enjoyment of Downtown sites, events and attractions. The students are DC residents matriculating from area schools and attend colleges across the country:
- Vernikca Banks, Benedict College (Columbia, SC)
- Samuel Bolomope, Capitol College (Laurel, MD)
- James Davis, Middlebury College (Middlebury, VT)
- Montreal Ellerbe, St. Augustine College (Raleigh, NC)
- Chrystina Hawthorne, North Carolina State University (Raleigh, NC)
- Eniola Layen, Tuskegee University (Tuskegee, AL)
- Delonte Antonio Ray, North Carolina A&T State University (Greensboro, NC)
Weather permitting, three kiosks are deployed daily from June through August, based on the events of the day and pedestrian traffic in key areas. The red, white and blue cart-like kiosks can be found near Metrorail station entrances at Metro Center (12th and F Streets) and Archives/Navy Memorial/Penn Quarter; at concerts in Franklin Park (every Wednesday and Friday through August 19); the Farmers’ Market on 8th Street (Thursdays); and the MCI Center during major events. The wooden carts have the BID logo on the front and sides and a large red and white umbrella that provides shade for hospitality aides and patrons while making the cart more visible from a distance.
In addition to the hospitality aides, the Downtown BID employs three other DC residents as summer interns working in the program areas of Marketing (Reggie Snowden, Florida A&M University), Economic Development (Tara Comstock-Green, University of Pittsburgh) and Transportation (Emily Privot, Wesleyan University). The Downtown BID is pleased to welcome all of these talented young people.
The Downtown Business Improvement District is a private, nonprofit organization that provides safety, hospitality, sanitation, homeless, economic development, transportation and streetscape and marketing services to Washington’s center city. Our mission is to help raise downtown to world class standards as a commercial, cultural and residential destination. The BID promotes Downtown DC as the site of the world’s best museums, cultural attractions, restaurants, shopping and entertainment.