Peoria Area Convention and Visitors Bureau (Discover Peoria) is excited to announce the addition of three new businesses to its campaign, Black-Owned Peoria. This campaign features 22 Black-owned businesses located in the Peoria area that focus on tourism and/or the hospitality industry.
To help encourage the public to discover the 22 businesses for themselves, Discover Peoria is running a raffle all month long. The first 28 visitors to any one of the 22 businesses who make a purchase will then have the opportunity to win a great prize package. At the end of the month, the Discover Peoria team will collect all the tickets and contact the winner.
The three new Black-owned and tourism-related businesses are:
- Drip 4 Sell: Focuses on selling high-end, on-style clothing for both male and female audiences, owned by Cameron Polansky.
- Jerk Hut: A father-daughter duo offering authentic Caribbean cuisine, owned by John Sims and Jamie Sims.
- wRap City: Specializing in unique wrap creations with a theme that honors Peoria’s basketball history and love for rap music, owned by Branden Jackson.
“With the start of Black History Month, this is an extremely important time to increase awareness amongst Black-Owned businesses in central Illinois,” said J.D. Dalfonso, President/CEO of Discover Peoria. “Black History Month is the moment to pay homage to the achievements of those in the Black community and what better way to showcase these historical achievements than with new additions to our Black-Owned Peoria campaign. With the coordination of this on-going campaign, we hope to shine a light on the significance that Black culture provides for central Illinois’ future.”
“Anytime, but particularly February, is a great time to heavily focus on the value of Black history as our country moves in the direction of recognizing the contribution of Black people more fully,” said Daurice Boneta, Community Engagement Coordinator of Discover Peoria. “The goal of this campaign is to accurately represent the Peoria business community and the solid future it helps create in central Illinois. By including Black-owned businesses, we bolster the entire Peoria community--hoping to keep audiences engaged far beyond February.”
Discover Peoria has created a featured section on its website dedicated to the Black-Owned Peoria campaign. All 22 interviews, photos and business listings, as well as a downloadable map, can be viewed at discoverpeoria.com/black-owned-peoria.
Due to personal reasons of the business owners, Angel’s Place and Knockout Kings Boxing are temporarily closed and are currently not a part of the Black-Owned Peoria campaign for February. Discover Peoria hopes to see them both reopen soon.
The campaign will continue indefinitely, with highlighted elements taking place throughout 2021 to help bring awareness to Black-Owned Peoria throughout the year.
