09/02/2026
We made a little magic on Main Street Saturday night. ✨
Looking back on the 7th Annual Dinner on Main, it isn’t the beautiful tables, the incredible meal or even the unforgettable live auction that we’ll remember most.
We’ll remember what happened when Springboro sat down at the same table.
From the moment cocktail hour began, Main Street was alive. Keith Lykins set the tone with classical and flamenco guitar as guests mingled over locally made w**e created by Dr. Gary Beall in collaboration with Crooked Handle- Boro, personally served by Gary and Julie Weber Beall, while Crooked Handle owners Kristy Moore and Jason Moore welcomed guests from their tap truck.
Music, laughter and conversation spilled down Main Street. It was joyful noise.
When the dinner bell rang, guests gathered beneath the chandeliers and twinkle lights at three long community tables. After welcomes from Springboro Arts Council President Julie Beall and ArtFest on Main Festival Chair Kimberly Harrison Loesche, Pastors Joe Royer and Terry Carlisle—whose churches sit at opposite ends of our historic district—met in the middle of Main Street to bless the tables and everyone gathered around them. And yes, there was plenty of humor involved. 😂
Chef Katie Easton and the Get Dished! team served an extraordinary four-course, farm-to-table dinner. Creating a restaurant-caliber meal in the middle of Main Street takes talent, ingenuity and grace under pressure—and for the third year, Katie brought all three. At an event devoted to the arts, we’re proud to celebrate her for exactly what she is: a culinary artist.
We’re grateful to Greg's Prime Meats for its continued and generous support of Dinner on Main, and to Sierra of Skye’s Sweets for the beautiful citrus olive oil cake that finished the meal. When Katie, Sierra and the Dished! team greeted our guests after the final course, the applause and cheering said everything.
We also recognized Jack and Dawn Hanson, chefs of the very first Dinner on Main seven years ago—a full-circle moment, especially now that Jack serves as Festival Chair of Oktoberfest Springboro.
Around those same tables were people behind ArtFest on Main, Oktoberfest Springboro, Christmas in Springboro and the Springboro Springboro Juneteenth Jubilee—different organizations crossing lines all weekend to help one another succeed.
So much of what our guests experienced was made possible behind the scenes. Heather Brown, a cornerstone of the DOM team, was everywhere she was needed. Darlene M. Hicks has been there since our very first dinner. Erica Strevel and Mark Anderson, our “Team Twinkle Light,” spent two days helping transform the tent and kept right on helping. David Hale created the gorgeous florals and greenery throughout the evening, then traded flowers for whatever needed doing next. When Wendy and Mike Kull heard extra hands would be helpful, they came to work.
After leading ArtFest volunteer efforts all day, Brian Retterer and Heather Powell still had more to give. Through DOM sponsor Ticket Committee, Brian also customized the technology that kept our ticketing, registration and presentation running smoothly.
Perhaps no moment captured the spirit better than Jesse Gaither of Minuteman Press of Centerville, who arrived as a paying guest, saw a need, left his seat and spent most of his own dinner helping serve everyone else.
Sometimes community really does look like an empty chair.
Then Jim Brown, President of Springboro Community Theatre and our returning auctioneer, took the microphone—and that community spirit developed a decidedly competitive personality. 😂
We weren’t auctioning things. We were auctioning future memories.
Bidding wars broke out. Friends cheered. Family members bid against each other. One gentleman signaled his bids with a deliberate stroke of his mustache. And a Gatlinburg mountain-mansion stay became so competitive that, through the generosity of its donor, we offered it twice.
Birdie Bay Golf owners Dan Hoelting and Andrew Hudock, longtime DOM supporters, contributed an extraordinary private experience for up to 40 guests before their new Springboro business has even opened. They’re already showing us what kind of community partner they intend to be.
When the final bid was called, our live experience auction had raised nearly $17,000. One of our goals this year was to fund lighting and a permanent bronze dedication plaque for Springboro’s new mural. Thanks to the generosity in that tent, we accomplished that goal and so much more.
Fundraising has never been this much fun.
There were countless other hands behind this evening, and we are deeply grateful to every person who carried, poured, served, set tables, hung lights, cleaned up, sponsored, donated, bought a ticket, placed a bid or simply asked, “What can I do?”
And to our guests: thank you. You brought the laughter, applause, generosity, friendship and joyful noise that made the evening what it was.
Dinner on Main has always been beautiful. But Saturday reminded us that the most beautiful part has very little to do with chandeliers, flowers or a perfectly set table.
It’s the people.
Community wasn’t simply the theme of the evening. It was what happened on Main Street that night.
For one unforgettable evening, Springboro sat down at the same table. 💙
