Keeping Kennett Square Welcoming and Beautiful with Daniel Embree

Liam Dempsey: Welcome to Start Local, where we talk with business owners, leaders of nonprofits and other members of our community focused on doing business in and around Chester County, Pennsylvania. Each episode will provide insight into the local business scene and tell you about opportunities to connect with and support businesses and nonprofits in your local area.

Joe Casabona: The Southern Chester County Chamber of Commerce promotes trade, commerce, industry, and sustainable economic development while supporting a diverse and growing marketplace. The Chamber is proud to partner with the Start Local podcast to raise the profile of businesses and nonprofits throughout Chester County. Learn more about the chamber at sccccc.com. That’s sccccc.com.

Liam Dempsey: Hey. Welcome to Start Local. I’m Liam Dempsey, and is our normal run. I am happy to be here with my co-host Erik Gudmundson. Erik, how are you today?

Erik Gudmundson: Liam, I am doing very well. Summer is officially here, and we’re kicking it off. So Liam, how are you doing today?

Liam Dempsey: I am fantastic. As we’re recording this, it is super way hot outside, everybody. So we are trying to stay cool by hanging out in the podcast studio with Daniel Embree. Daniel is the Executive Director of the Kennett Collaborative. Hello, and Welcome Daniel

Daniel Embree: Hi. Thanks for having me.

Erik Gudmundson: Daniel, it’s nice to have you here in the studio and we’re looking forward to asking you some questions today.

Daniel Embree: Sounds good.

Liam Dempsey: Daniel, we’ve long been aware of the many doings of the Kennett Collaborative, Erik, more than I have given given his focus and the fact that he used to live at the southern end of the county for a long time. But not all of our listeners are going to be as familiar with your organization. Can you give us a brief overview of the Kennett Collaborative? Just tell us a little bit about it. Give us the context for what we’re going to be talking about today.

Daniel Embree: Sure. So at the core, we’re a nonprofit organization that wants Kennett Square to be a beautiful and welcoming place. And so everything we do is about that. What can we do to make it beautiful and welcoming. We do that through mostly events and programs we would call place making events and programs. So things that create a sense of place that kind of define what it means to live here or to work here or to visit.

Erik Gudmundson: And at a high level, tell us about the latest visions and goals for the Kennett Collaborative. And I’m curious how those goals have changed recently or maybe even since the start of 2025. We live in some interesting times.

Daniel Embree: Yeah. So when I describe Kennett Collaborative as wanting to make Kennett Square beautiful and welcoming, sometimes people will kind of push back and say, well, it’s already beautiful. It’s already welcoming. And so that’s one of the things we talk a lot about here at Kennett collaborative, is how do we maintain that? So how do we keep it relevant as the world is changing around us and, you know, with roots and revitalization. This is a place that has experienced revitalization. So what now? What’s next? 

So I think a lot of what we’re working on right now and our goals for the past couple of years have been about sustainability. How do we take these traditions and make it so that they can continue for another generation? We have this memorial day parade that’s been happening for 77 years. How do we make sure it’s happening in another 77 years? And how do we identify which traditions need to continue and which ones could be reinvented or made way for things that are new and exciting?

Liam Dempsey: We understand that Kennett collaborative is focused on supporting the businesses and the organizations in  Kennett Square. Yet you’re not a business improvement district. There are definitely other business improvement districts in and around Chester county. You’re a registered charity. Talk to us about why the organization positioned itself as a 501c3 and not as a bid.

Daniel Embree: That’s a great question. We do a lot of things that business improvement districts do. And so I think it’s fair to kind of ask us, well, why aren’t you a bid? You know, I’m not exactly sure why when the organization was kind of first put together, that wasn’t the direction they took. But I can tell you why I appreciate that it wasn’t. And what I kind of like about the way we are set up. 

So a business improvement district has boundaries, very defined boundaries, and they’re serving the businesses that are inside those boundaries. We’re benefiting the businesses here in  Kennett Square. But one of the  real blessings of being a kind of independent nonprofit is we can think about Kennett as a big tent and  we don’t have to get caught up in, are you past what number block, on what street? And have you paid your dues and all of that? So we don’t collect dues from the businesses. Many of them do support us through sponsorships, but not all of them.

And I’m very proud of the fact that you wouldn’t know which ones do and don’t by the content we’re creating. We’re very much of the opinion that what we do kind of lifts all boats together. And we’re here to promote  Kennett Square and all of the businesses that are here and that we want to be here.

Erik Gudmundson: And for those who are familiar with the Kennett region over the years, it used to be known as historic  Kennett Square, if I’m not mistaken. And so going back to 1987, you, know, what different names have you been known as? Are there any others? And I’m curious why your current name, Kennett Collaborative, was selected.

Daniel Embree: So, I think I’ve finally stopped saying that I work for Kennett Collaborative, formerly known as Historic Kennett Square. Although we still use HKs a lot, especially when I’m talking to kind of former board members for people in town. 

Muscle memory is a funny thing. The organization was formed in… We got nonprofit status in 1987, but I think we were actually formed in 1986 as the revitalization task force. The  Kennett Square Revitalization Task Force. And that’s a very descriptive name with a very descriptive mission to revitalize Kennett Square. 

And it was very much kind of a product of that time period, I think in many ways, Kennett square was ahead of the pac in recognizing that small towns can have a number of different futures, and you can actually play a role in determining that future by making strategic decisions and planning and things like that. 

So, for first 10 years or so, it was really a revitalization task force based very much on kind of developing and redeveloping spaces in the kind of downtown area. And very much, it kind of grew very much out of a main street tradition. If you’re familiar with Main Street America or the pennsylvania downtown center, Very much that type of philosophy or theory of change. 

Sometime around 1998, I think it went through its next phase, kind of early 2000s, took on the DBA, Historic Kennett Square. And that was really a great name and very reflective of the place that we are dedicated to. And again, when we’re talking about place making or creating that sense of identity in a small town, Historic  Kennett Square captures that.

But, one of the things that we noticed, that my predecessors noticed is that it can be confusing when you’re talking about, oh, this or that was put on by historic  Kennett Square, because there’s a borough of  Kennett Square. And so what was happening was people were kind of not recognizing that we existed and that we needed to raise funds and support our activities and things like that, because it just seemed like it was this place where things just happened, and it must be the taxpayers or something like that. So we changed our name in 2021. At the end of 2021 to Kennett Collaborative. And this has been a really great opportunity for us to reintroduce ourselves to the community. We’ve been here for almost 40 years doing these things kind of quietly, behind the scene, and collaboratively with our partners. Collaborative is a word that you’ll probably hear me use a ton just because of how it means to work together with people and organizations.

But that’s kind of the genesis of the name change there and history of how for a lot of people we may seem new to town, but we’re actually, we’ve been around for quite some time.

Liam Dempsey: As a nonprofit, then you don’t have the benefit of levying fees or duties as a business improvement district is. But you still run a lot of events and have a lot of offerings for the community. How are you paying for that? How does Kennett Collaborative as a nonprofit fund itself?

Daniel Embree: So about, so breaking down our finances, we’re  I mean, in short, we’re funded by people like you, right? We’re the, I won’t turn this into a PBS drive here, but we’re a nonprofit, and 75%. So, the vast majority of our money, 75% comes from our earned income. So this is the actual activities that were doing..

A lot of that is tickets, so when you buy a ticket to one of our festivals that’s supporting our programming throughout the year, some of its vendor fees. So, if you’re attending one of our festivals or a lot of our events are kind of free to the public, but they have people there that are selling food or merchandise or talking about their organizations, and they’re paying us a small fee to be there. 

And then some of it also comes as rental income. We own the building where our office is located. That is here right in the center of town. And so there are tenants in the building that support that through earned income as well.

So that’s ¾, then the rest 19-20% comes from community donations and support. Mostly sponsorships from local businesses, but also individual donors. And some, a lot of those are small gifts that add up to make a really big difference. And then about 5 or 6% comes from local municipalities, which is the borough of Kennett Square and Kennett Township.

Erik Gudmundson: Well, as people who live and work in Chester county we’re grateful that there are so many different organizations supporting our local communities. And by that I mean chambers of commerce, local governments, of course, business improvement districts, organizations like Rotary International, Square Roots Collective, Mushroom Festival, and of course, Kennetth Collaborative, they’re all working to support and improve the local community and the specific local communities where they’re directly based as well. 

I would imagine that navigating the coordination between all those organizations and all those causes can be challenging at times. How do you manage that? How do you get through and work and collaborate so that all the people here within the community are benefiting?

Daniel Embree: The best we can. You’re right that it’s a challenge. I think it’s a real blessing but sometimes a curse too that this part of the state has so many organizations that are all trying to build community and make it better.

I think it’s really unique to the culture of this place that so many people have kind of gotten together and created these institutions and support them and volunteer at them. More than any other place I’ve lived, this community just has so many of those types of kind of community-driven rather than profit-driven institutions. 

And it’s wonderful, but it also gets challenging. How do we work together? How do we not step on each other’s toes? For me, so I’m going to use that word collaborate again because it’s right there in the name. I mean a lot of it is collaboration. These aren’t strangers that are working at these other organizations. we’re peers, we’re colleagues, we’re friends. We get together and we talk about what we’re doing. And when we’re throwing out dates for an event or a meeting or something like that, we’re talking amongst ourselves to see what days on the calendar are available. There’s none, just FYI. And yeah, we, I, you know, the other thing I’d say we do about it, for me for Kennett Collaborative, I like to think about and talk to a board about what are the things that we do well and then that kind of becomes our lane. And so what do we do? Well, let’s do more of that. That let’s do it even better. And just naturally, there are certain things that we do really, really well that other organizations don’t do well, and they do other things well that we don’t do. And so you kind of, these lanes start to emerge, and we kind of carve out space I think for our various programs and events and things.

Liam Dempsey: So the king of Kennett Brewfest and Winterfest, the one and only Jeff Norman, he recently announced that he was stepping down after, was it 27 years of running those two events. We talked to Jeff last year so folks interested in that conversation can navigate over to our website at startlocal.co  and find our interview with Jeff. But Jeff stepping down, Daniel, is absolutely the end of an era. But I’d like to ask you, what has Jeff’s leadership and his support meant to the many businesses and organizations in  Kennett Square over so many years? What has it been for them?

Daniel Embree: So, we love Jeff. And he did announce his retirement, but he’s not retired yet. He’s doing one more Brew Fest for us this October. Not the last Brew Fest by any stretch, but one more from him. And we’re so lucky for that. So that will make 28 years of Brew Fest under.

Liam Dempsey: Yeah, thanks for clarifying that. Thank you. Thank you.

Daniel Embree: Yeah. Jeff’s amazing, as you know, because you got to interview him already. I can think of very few people who have had as long of an impact on this community as Jeff Norman, and he’s probably one of the kind of more understated heroes of this town, flying under the radar. There’s no building with his name on it. It’s not his personal wealth that he’s invested. It’s just a lot of time. And really, I admire Jeff quite a bit. He’s found a way to make an impact on a community and to have fun doing it, which I just , that’s so awesome. And I hope to be able to say I’ve done something like that. When I get to retire, I want to be like Jeff Norman in that way.

Erik Gudmundson: I’m really happy to hear you say that there will be more Kennett Brew fests, and I’m sure Jeff would be thrilled to hear that there’s a good succession plan in place, or at least a succession desire in place. So on that note, can you offer any insight as to what that succession plan is going to look like? Who’s going to lead the events, and are there any changes that might be coming to those events at this time?

Daniel Embree: Sure. So Brewfest is Jeff’s baby. Jeff Norman would not step down if he thought that Brewfest was not going to not just continue, but continue to be as it is each year, bigger and better than the year before. So, this is certainly a surprise to a lot of people that Jeff is stepping down, but it’s not a surprise to us, and we’ve known for some time two main facts. One is that Jeff Norman is completely irreplaceable, and two, that we don’t have Jeff forever. So, with that in mind, over the past couple of years, we’ve been really working hard to you know, institutionalize and kind of grasp hold of his wealth of knowledge and insight and bring collaborators in. 

And I think the big shift is that we’ve been really investing in our staff. It’s nice talking with Liam the other day about kind of volunteerism and what it means to be a volunteer in 2025. I think that there’s been a shift in volunteerism, and volunteering is still a huge part of the DNA of southern Chester County. It’s a big part of our culture. But what it means to volunteer, what kind of commitment of time, I think that’s all those sorts of things have kind of changed. As you know, our modern society has changed. So that means that staff is going to play a much bigger role in events like Brewfest on the kind of planning end and the setting that up. 

And certainly the volunteers, they make it happen on the day of the event, and we could not do it without them. And we have this great volunteer committee that meets every couple of weeks to kind of knock out these big kind of ideas and make all these decisions about the event. But we’re really grateful to be investing in our staff right now to kind of make sure that we can institutionalize, make sure that Brewfest is around for another 30 years at least.

Liam Dempsey: Well, I look forward to at least attending a few of those. I don’t know I’m going to attend for the next 30 years, but I’m looking forward to a few more of them. 

Daniel, let’s talk about your own career for a minute or two here. We know that you’re an artist and a writer, and we’ll get into that in detail in a bit. But your professional background has been in nonprofit leadership for artists and artist organizations, more so than Main street promotion and support. Tell us a bit about your career, and while you’re doing so, could you touch on how your career experiences might influence your leadership and your current role at Kennett Collaborative?

Daniel Embree: So, I just got back from the Main Street America Conference that happened to be in Philadelphia this year. So I got to go. And it was so inspiring meeting all these other people from around the country who do this kind of unique thing that I do that’s kind of hard to describe. It’s this, like, Main street idea. Is it economic development? Is it tourism? Is it marketing? Is it, what is it? 

And they all, all of these other people I met have the same difficulty in describing it. And they also got to where they are through very weird ways. You don’t grow up thinking oh, I’m going to be a Main street guy when I grow up. You want an astronaut or a firefighter or so. 

And even when you get to college, it’s not like there’s a degree in placemaking. I would love that kind of degree. I’d be super interested in it. But I don’t know if I would have been at 18, 19 years old. I certainly wasn’t aware of what that was. 

So anyway, my background is art, and that means a lot of different things. But when I was getting my MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, I had a professor, Ethan Murrow, who was teaching this business class and he came up to me kind of towards the end of the semester and he said, you know, Daniel, you don’t have to be an artist. And I was so offended by that. And I think he probably could see that on my face. And he’s like, no, no, no, no. He’s like, I mean, there’s people in the class here who have to be an artist because that is all they have. They make art and they have to be an artist.

But he’s like, you have skills that you could do a lot of things. And he was trying to compliment me on transferable skills. It took me a while to get past my initial being offended by that statement. But now, in looking back on the last, oh gosh, I’m not going to count the years since that moment, but I’m able to kind of see that that has actually been reflective of my career. 

So, my most recent stint before this one, I worked for the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, which is a wonderful national program that benefits young artists and writers, people who were like me as a teenager, who were kind of creative and maybe a little bit weird. And it gives them recognition, it gives them a kind of validation and an idea of where to go.

And in running a program like that, I was managing these kinds of programs administered by partners all over the country. I learned how to manage a staff. I was coordinating large communications and thinking of strategic messaging, working with kind of other leaders of the organization and the board of directors to kind of craft that. I had a lot of experience in crisis management and how to deal with these things that these kind of customer service things that bubble up. 

And I was really involved too in bringing programming that adds a lot of meaning and satisfaction to life in a non-profit space. So different than maybe the kind of social services. There’s really wonderful nonprofits out there who are dealing with food scarcity and housing, and like these kind of basic needs.

My career, I have been involved in institutions that are creating programming that come after that. So once your kind of basic needs are met and you’re able to kind of live, how do you turn living into thriving? How do you, How is there programming that makes life more worth living, more meaningful in that way? And that’s a lot of what I was doing there in that lane. And it’s also what I’m doing here with Kennett Collaborative.

Erik Gudmundson: Well, that perspective, I think, really sets you up for success in your role at Kennett Collaborative. No doubt. And that really leads me to my next question, because I’m curious to hear your perspective on it. When I think back to the time of the origins of Kennett Collaborative, 40 years ago, almost 40 years ago,  Kennett Square looked very, very different than it does today. How do you think Kennedy Square will look 40 years from now?

Daniel Embree:  Oh, I love and I hate this question. 40 years is such a long time. And I can say that as somebody who this year turns 39. So that amount of time is very much in my head right now, and what that can mean. So I’m going to tackle this question a couple of different ways.

One is that the trees that we plant today, in 40 years, they will be tall and offering shade and beauty, and they will be established big shade trees. And that I think it’s important to have that kind of perspective. One of the things I love about Kennett Square is it has this beautiful tree canopy that was built 40 years ago. So, we have to continue planting trees for the next 40 years. And I mean that literally, but also figuratively. So that’s one way I’ll tackle it. 

Another trend I think we’re going to see over the next four decades is regionalization and more collaboration. Here in Chester County, we have, I don’t know how many municipalities, but there’s a lot of government in Pennsylvania under this commonwealth system that is kind of focused on the smallest unit of government. And as our society and technology and all of that is changing, I think we’re going to have to see more cooperation across municipalities and more regionalization of services and of strategies. And that’s how we’re going to tackle some of the big problems that we’re facing and are going to face. 

I think I’ll get a little more specific. I think we’re going to see more housing density in Kennett Square, and that’s going to come with some changes. It’s going to mean more walking in Kennett Square, and that’s going to require us to change the way we do certain things on the roads. I will not be shy about saying that I’d love to see a day where we have a better solution for this kind of truck traffic in  Kennett Square. And I know that our borough council is certainly already really looking at that, trying to tackle that. 

You know, I don’t think that  Kennett Square is just going to be a bedroom community. I think that we’re going to continue to be the center of gravity for southern Chester county and all that that means for of tourism of being a kind of hub of small business. 

And I guess in the short of it, though, I will say in 40 years, Sam’s Sub Shop is still going to look the same and will still make the best cheesesteaks in Chester County.

Erik Gudmundson: They do make some amazing cheesesteaks as well as Italian subs. I’m going to endorse their Italian subs as well. And Daniel, 40 years from now, I hope we’re sharing a cheesesteak or an Italian sub and we have a chance to do this interview again and reflect on all your predictions you just made. But I like them.

Daniel Embree: Oh, that’s scary.

Liam Dempsey: Well, I’ve just got one more place to my must-visit list in Chester County. Gotta hit Sam’s. I’ve not been there yet, so thanks for flagging them up, Daniel.

I want to, I want to scale back from say, 40 years in the future, and talk maybe just recent times, host the Kennett Summerfest. This year I missed it because of a family conflict. I wasn’t able to get there. How was it? But then, more importantly, kind of from a management side, what did you learn and how’s it going to look next year?

Daniel Embree: I love Kennett Summerfest. Kennett Summerfest is one of my favorite events for a lot of reasons, but one is because it doesn’t have this long history and all these unchangeable traditions. So, my team gets to be really creative in how we approach Summerfest, and we have made it a little bit different each year.

And I think this year it finally hit its stride. So this was the fourth one, Fourth Kennett Summerfest. When it started the very first year, it was really just let’s do Brew fest in summer and swap beer for wine. And it was great idea, great place to start. But now it has become its own thing, and it’s new and distinct. It’s not just a summer wine version of Brewfest. It’s got its own vibe, it’s got its own audience. It’s uptown. It’s highlighting the kind of cuisine and kind of food and drink, kind of juggernaut that Kennett has become of this kind of like creative and artisan menu items and things like that. It’s kind of foodie culture here. So, it’s really, iit’s a lot of fun. We had, we sold more than 850 tickets this year. And, and it was really, we expanded the footprint. It was kind of on a space. It was more than double the size of last year. So it’s really just, it’s hitting its stride, and I can’t wait for next year.

Erik Gudmundson: Well, with all that talk in mind, I do want to go back to something you said earlier. You said, Do you have a master’s in fine art? And I want you to talk about your art and your writing a little bit. Tell us what you create, what inspires you to make art, and what themes or topics do you tend to explore through your art.

Daniel Embree: Sure. So for me, when I say I have an art background, it means a lot of different things. So quite, you know, for a while, I was talking about fine art that I was making and selling through galleries, and that was hanging on people’s walls. And that was a big part of kind of my, how I saw myself as a creator. 

And over the years, I’ve broadened what it means to be a creator. So I’ve gone from fine art sold through galleries to quilts that I make that I give to my friends when they have babies and my garden, and things that I make for myself. So, it’s a huge category of what it means to be a creator. 

A lot of my work has been about exploring my expression, myself, my identity, how I fit in, or how I don’t fit in to the different communities that I’m a part of. And those have been kind of themes throughout all these different mediums, from, you know, printmaking to quilt making. 

And I think, you know, another big theme is kind of making things beautiful. So I’ve seen it a lot, especially in the kind of early days of art making. I was taking things that were painful that I had experienced and trying to make them beautiful and to find meaning and to reinvent them and to take ownership of them. And so in that way, I think a lot of the work that I’m doing now professionally is more similar, even though it feels very different. It feels like I’ve had this career shift, but I’m still trying to make Kennett Square beautiful. I’m still trying to make things kind of feel nice to look at and to be a part of and to feel good and all of that.

Liam Dempsey: Thank you for that. I want to continue on that maybe that vein or that theme to talk about a blog post that you published earlier this month, and for folks listening in the future, it was June of 2025. Daniel, you published a blog post on the Kennett Collaborative website entitled The Unicorn across the Street. And having read it a few times now, I can say with all sincerity that it’s a touching piece on the welcoming nature of the Kennett community. I personally and strongly recommend that our listeners take the time to find the post and read it. We’ll link to it on our own Show Notes page. But to you, Daniel, the question in sharing so candidly about your queerness, what do you hope people will take away from your reflections?

Daniel Embree: Well, thanks for reading it. I’m glad people have read it. I will admit that when I wrote it, I was nervous about people reading it. I did get a little bit vulnerable. And there’s maybe, it’s maybe uncommon to get vulnerable in a work context or in a public context like that. So, thank you for sharing your response to it. 

I think for me, when I was writing it, there were a lot of things going through my mind. I was thinking about the kinds of things that I needed to hear when I was younger. So I was envisioning my teenage self. The SPOILER alert with the Unicorn across the street. I guess I should get this out here is I’m gay. Gay man. And so growing up, and the piece I kind of talk about that in the context of this historic building and block across the street from my office called the Unicorn Block, which is where the Unicorn Tavern once stood. So I kind of go back and forth talking about my own kind of struggles to fit in and accept myself as a young gay person with a tavern kind of welcoming guests and the fact that we here in Kennett Square have created a welcoming community. So that’s the too-long-didn’t read version of the blog post there. 

But you know, when I was growing up, I had a hard time accepting my sexuality. The context of how I was raised, it was very conservative and religious household. And it was also a different time. I’ve already shared my age here. So we’re talking about the late 90s and early 2000s. And it’s hard to remember, but at that time, there was no gay marriage. There was no even the acceptance of that looked very different. And so I really struggled within myself. And one of the reasons why I struggled is because I could not visualize gay people being successful and doing good things. And all the stories that I was told about gay people were dark and devious and dirty. 

And so I think it’s important, despite all the strides we’ve made in our society, to be more welcoming of people who are different. There’s still quite a bit of misunderstanding out there. And frankly, some bigotry and hatred, too, is still out there. And so I wanted to make sure that I was continuing to kind of create space for other LGBTQ people. 

I’ll actually say also on Kennett Square, and maybe the Brandywine Valley more broadly, has a huge LGBTQ population. I mean, there are a lot of queer people here, but compared to other places I’ve lived, it can be a very quiet LGBTQ population. And that’s all well and great, but I want to make sure we’re not invisible. And so, I do want to make sure that the young people who may stumble across things that they know, that the things that people love in this area, the beautiful spaces and the gardens and the programs and events, there are gay people involved who make many of those things happen. And I think that that’s important to know that. I think it’s important for there to be visibility on the fact that there are gay people who lead nonprofits and businesses, and just like there are of many people of all sorts of backgrounds.

Anyway, did I lose the question? Did I write?

Liam Dempsey: No, you didn’t. You didn’t. I think you answered it quite nicely, and I just wanted to take a minute to say thank you for putting yourself out there. There are, there is bigotry, there is hatred. And being so candid, or at least just so open about who you are can come at a cost. And I’m grateful to you for your leadership there. Thank you for that.

Daniel Embree: Thank you.

Erik Gudmundson: I’d like to take the opportunity to go back to something you shared with Liam in the pre-interview, and I wasn’t there for the pre-interview, so I’m curious to hear your answer from your own mouth as opposed to just listening to what Liam had to say. But I know this definitely struck a chord with Liam, and you spoke to him, if I understand correctly, about how Kennetth Collaborative works to build and sustain social infrastructure to help the local community combat loneliness. And that’s a pretty profound goal for an organization formerly known as historic Kennett Square. So, would you please explain what you meant by that and maybe put a sharper point on it? Or clarify a little bit.

Daniel Embree: Sure. And I could probably talk about this for three hours. So, please interrupt me with questions because it’s a topic I’m really passionate about. But we have a loneliness crisis in our nation, in our modern society. I think it’s the root of a lot of the problems that we are dealing with. 

And I think that  Kennett Square and maybe Chester county more broadly, but especially  Kennett Square is ahead of the curve on this issue largely because of organizations like Kennett Collaborative and the things that we do. So I’ll dive into that a little bit. 

Our technology, on the one hand, our technology has made it easier than ever to be in touch with your loved ones. I mean, I have a very close relationship with my nephew in Houston because of FaceTime, and that’s wonderful. We’re able to stay in touch with people who are kind of our families, our close friends, our chosen families, like these kind of people at our inner core. It’s also helped us stay in touch with these kind of, I’ll call them fandoms. Right. So you can be in touch with very niche ways of thinking and your kind of national identities and politics and all these things. 

But one of the things that it has broken down or limited is our interactions with our kind of neighbors and the people who are close to us, but not in our inner circle. So you used to go to the store and you would talk to a cashier and that was somebody that, you know, maybe they believed differently than you did or maybe they come from a different background. But you were polite and you would have, you know, manners and you’d have this kind of social interaction. And then they replaced the cashiers with self checkout. And now we don’t even have the self checkout. I mean, we’re ordering everything online and it just comes right to our door and we never have to interact with a person. 

But if you come to the  Kennett Square Farmers Market, which is one of our programs that we do every Friday, you’re not just going to talk to a cashier. You’re going to talk to 25 cashiers because there’s 25 small businesses there. And as you’re, and in fact, they’re not just cashiers, they’re the people who grew the carrots or made the jam or, you know, they’re behind the product that you’re putting into your shopping cart. 

And so you’re going to have these kind of community building conversations with people who are from a Different background. And there’s vendors in that farmer’s market who believe a wide range of things, some of which I’m a fan of and some of which I’m not. But I love them all, and I think that that’s a really important aspect of our programming. 

And another popular program of Kennett Collaborative is Third Thursday, where we close down the streets on the third Thursday of the month, May through October. And you’re literally just having dinner with your neighbors. And it’s so cool. It’s so, it’s very local, the crowd, and it reinforces these relationships with people who are a little bit different, but they live in proximity to us, they work in proximity to us. And I just, I think that that is so important. It’s not just about not being lonely and having FaceTime with people. It’s reinforcing norms around being friendly, being polite, being able to disagree with people and coexist with people who are different. I mean, it’s so important, and I’m really proud of that aspect of our programming.

Liam Dempsey: Daniel, which is the most unique business in Kennett Square that you personally enjoy most and why?

Daniel Embree: I was getting nervous. I thought you were going to ask me what my favorite business was in  Kennett Square, and I think I’m contractually not allowed to answer that question. It’s a great question. I like how you phrased it a unique business, especially as if, if you do read the unicorn across the street. I really love how  Kennett Square is unique and different, not like other places. But yes, it is a little bit like asking a mother to name her favorite child.

I’m going to go with, so there’s a store in here, in  Kennett Square that I have actually loved since the very first time I ever came to  Kennett Square. It’s Shop Marche, and it was recently named one of the top retailers in the country by Home Accents today. And it’s really, it’s all the kind of owner, curator, creative genius. Behind Marche is Dina Johnson. And she’s just, she’s become a friend, but she’s just one of the most fascinating people that I’ve met here in Kennett. A very talented designer. And I love how in Marche, there’s this really nice blend of old and new design and repurposed design. You can see, you know, old, you know, antique things that have been reupholstered and reinvented, changed from one thing to another. And it’s, there’s just the exact right tasteful amount of weird, which is is so important. And I really love that. And it’s very easy to go beyond tasteful when you’re injecting that into your design. But somehow she just always knows exactly where that line is and pushes right up against it. It’s wonderful. So I love that shop, but there’s a lot of places like that in Kennett Square. I mean, I think it’s very emblematic of  Kennett Square.

We’ve become we’re probably  Kennett Square is more recently known for its food and beverage scene, for its great restaurants. And I love that about Kennett. But it’s also a really great place to shop for kind of home design, interior design. I mean, in addition to Marche, you’ve got Square Pear Fine Art Gallery. There’s Lou Antiques and Interiors, Gish’s Furniture, Carolescher Studio, Holly Peters Rugs, Clean Slate Goods, just to name a few there.

Erik Gudmundson: That’s a lot to keep track of in a small borough. That’s only one square mile. So is Kennett Collaborative hiring? Are you looking for volunteers? What’s your status on your workforce there?

Daniel Embree: Well, we’re always looking for volunteers. So, we’ll definitely have to get that in the show Notes. Kennettcollaborative.org/volunteer. You can sign up for resend emails, not too many, just every once in a while asking for for help on a number of things. We are in a great, we have a great team right now and I love our team. We have four people here that kind of make the magic happen, which is really wonderful. So we’re a small team and knock on wood, no openings right now.

Liam Dempsey: Fair. Fair. And now we know how to volunteer for sure. Daniel, you told us about Shop Marche and some of the uniqueness about it. But I wonder, is there a business or nonprofit in Chester county that more folks should know about?

Daniel Embree: This was another another tough question.

Liam Dempsey: Yeah, I do appreciate we’re putting you on the spot.

Daniel Embree: I love all of the Chester county institutions, of course, but one that more folks should know about. I’m going to go for one that I think is a little bit different from, you know, we have these wonderful organizations that work with, you know, providing social services. So cacs and the Garage Youth center and Young Moms and the United Way of Southern Chester county and these types of institutions. But I’m going to call out a nonprofit that I think is a little different than most, and that’s Camp Dream Catcher. 

So Camp Dream Catcher, it’s a camp and they also have other programs for kids who have been impacted by HIV aids. And so maybe that’s because they themselves have HIV. Maybe it’s because a parent, a loved one, somebody close to them in their orbit has had it. And it’s just a wonderful institution that is a different kind of institution than any I’ve ever come across. And it’s a really the folks involved there are just really warm people and they’re doing great work in the communities. Shout them out.

Erik Gudmundson: Well, thank you for doing that. There have been several guests that have mentioned Camp Dreamcatcher. 

Daniel Embree: Oh no. Oh no.

Erik Gudmundson: Yeah. No, no, that’s good. And Patty Hilkirk is certainly appreciative of getting those mentions. I have no doubt it’s a very wonderful nonprofit that doesn’t maybe get quite as much of light of the day as it deserves. And as we’re doing this interview and we have you in your office at Kennett Collaborative and we can hear the trucks rolling down the street. So Kennett is clearly a vibrant town, but how can the local community support work kind of collaborative to further enhance that vibrance?

Daniel Embree: Well, there’s a lot of ways to get involved and we already talked about volunteering and that’s certainly one of them. So a couple others. So come to our events. That’s for starters, shop the  Kennett Square Farmers Market every Friday. Kennett Brewfest tickets go on sale July 1st. So, this is going to be, you can imagine as Jeff’s last hurrah that it’s going to be pretty spectacular and pretty special. So we’re expecting a sellout. Don’t wait to buy your tickets.

And our next third Thursday event is July 17th. So, you know, come out and get involved. And third Thursdays are kind of free for everyone to participate, open to the public. But as you come to the events and support them and it helps to support our programming.  

You can also support us directly. So you can go to Kennettcollaborative.org/support and make an individual donation. And those are really important. They’re a key aspect of our fundraising and businesses, too. We can, you can sponsor us in a number of different ways on that same link.

We’re getting ready to launch a holiday campaign in July, which I’m really excited about. So, one of the things we do, and I don’t think a lot of folks know that that’s we’re the ones who do it, but the Kennett Square tree and the holiday decorations and all of that, that’s something that we, we do for the town. And so literally for this, this holiday campaign we’re starting in July. The more money we raise, the more ornaments we can put on the tree. It’s like that. The math is that direct.

Liam Dempsey: I love it.

Daniel Embree: So as someone who, I love the Kennett Square tree, the holiday tree. It’s one of the reasons I applied for this job. Please let me put more ornaments on it. It’s like I love making this tree extra special. We have, we’re the home of Longwood Gardens. And so the pressure is like always way up for making Kennett Square as spectacular as the home of Longwood Gardens deserves to be at the holiday period. So you could help us out at Kennettcollaborative.org/support.

Erik Gudmundson: Well, Daniel Embree, Executive Director of Kennett Collaborative, aside from bumping into you at an upcoming event or festival in  Kennett Square, where can listeners connect with you?

Daniel Embree: Well, do come out and bump into me, but you can also get in touch on our social media. So Kennett Collaborative on Facebook or Instagram and you’ll be talking to our team directly there. And I’m very, I see every message. I’m able to connect directly on those channels as well.

Liam Dempsey: Daniel, thanks so much for joining us today. Always a pleasure spending time with you. Really appreciate it.

Daniel Embree: This was fun. Thanks for having me on.

Erik Gudmundson: Thank you also to my co-host, Liam Dempsey. I’m Erik Gudmundson.

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