09/29/2026
To our El Reno community,
We love this community, and we care deeply about the future of downtown El Reno, its businesses, its history, and the people who continue to believe in it. That is what makes this message so difficult to share.
Some decisions are hard because we care so deeply about what is at stake. This is one of those decisions. After many thoughtful, honest, and at times difficult conversations, the Board of the Historic Downtown El Reno Foundation (formerly El Reno Main Street) has made the decision to enter a period of organizational transition.
As part of that transition, the Foundation will not host Spooktacular this year or the Christmas Parade this holiday season.
These decisions were not made lightly. For many years, events have been one of the most visible parts of our organization. But events were never intended to be our mission. Our purpose is to support the long-term economic vitality of downtown El Reno. Events were meant to be one tool to bring people downtown and support local businesses, not the primary reason our organization exists.
Downtown revitalization requires partnership. It takes engaged property owners and business owners, sustainable funding, professional resources, community participation, and meaningful public-private support. That responsibility cannot rest on one nonprofit organization or a small group of volunteers. Over the past several years, we have worked to strengthen the Foundation while also taking an honest look at our mission, capacity, funding, and impact.
We have reached a point where continuing to operate in the same way simply because it's what we’ve always done would not be responsible stewardship. Sometimes being a good steward means having the courage to stop doing what’s always been done so there is room to determine what should come next.
During this transition, our Board will focus on responsibly preserving the Foundation’s assets and resources, evaluating what role the organization should play moving forward, and identifying what conditions would need to exist for the Foundation to return to a more active downtown economic-development role in the future.
We remain hopeful about downtown El Reno. We believe downtown matters, and we believe there can be a future where an organization like ours once again plays an important role in a coordinated, well-supported effort to strengthen it.
For now, that means making some hard decisions.
To everyone who has volunteered, sponsored, served, invested, participated, and supported this work over the years: thank you.
This transition does not erase what has been built. We hope it helps protect it and leaves the door open for a stronger, more sustainable future.
Sincerely,
Historic Downtown El Reno Foundation Board
Casey Trejo, Board President
