By Logan B. Anderson

DOVER - The Downtown Dover Partnership announced recently that two downtown businesses were selected as winners of its regular window decorating contest.

Gary Knox of Forney’s Too and Evetta Blount-Jackson of Creative Vision tied for their creative displays in the fall Downtown Dover Window Contest.

The October theme was “Arts & Harvest” to complement Paint Dover 2022, an annual plein air (outdoor) painting event that takes place in the heart of downtown.

A team of judges representing Kent County Tourism, including President Pete Bradley, Rachel Rohm, Catherine Jenkins, and Debra Eashum reviewed the merchants’ creative seasonal storefronts and selected two outstanding artists to share the win.

At Forney’s Too, the windows showcased seasonal merchandise fitted with the store’s signature whimsical touch. In particular, the judges loved the new custom “302” wooden pumpkins and its organized incorporation throughout the arrangement.

In response to his win, Mr. Knox said, “even though I’ve been running Forney’s Too for the past 37 years, making fun, eye-catching window displays is still fun.”

Forney’s Too, at 102 W Loockerman St., specializes in unique gifts and collectibles and has been in downtown Dover for generations.
Judge Rachel Rohm said Creative Vision’s entry was impressive.

“Ms. Jackson’s eye for color and talent for setting imaginative displays brought a certain ‘WOW’ factor,” she said.

The owner, Ms. Jackson said, “the beautiful crisp leaves changing colors and falling off the tress is the sign of autumn, which happens to be one of my favorite seasons. I love seeing how the leaves are changing into gorgeous colors of red, orange, yellow, so creating this window display with the theme Arts and Harvest was truly a joy.”

Creative Vision is an event planning service at 146 S. Governors Ave.
Both stores participated in this year’s extended art exhibition, which showcased artwork from Paint Dover 2022 in shop windows through Oct. 31. This exhibition allowed for more of the community to view creations from the event, encouraged additional art sales, and created an engaging downtown visit with seventeen participating stores. The community can still view the complete virtual exhibition of the event at.

The contest themes are selected by the Downtown Dover Partnership Merchant Committee. The goal is to beautify the downtown district, to make strolling the area more enjoyable, to invite shoppers into stores, and to have the most beautiful downtown store windows in the region. Both winning merchants for the fall received $100.

For more information, about previous winners and upcoming contests, visit DowntownDover.com. If your workplace or group would like to be considered for the judging responsibility, call 302-678-2940 or email Jordan@DowntownDoverPartnership.com.