Downtown Anniston was invaded Thursday morning by a pack of Weaver Bearcats who walked through the Model City learning about entrepreneurship and the history of what was once called Annie’s Town.
The field trip for 75 high school students was organized by Main Street Anniston director Karla Eden along with school officials from Weaver High, including Joanna Wooten, who teaches all of the business education classes and is the school’s Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) adviser.
The walking tour included the history of Anniston, Main Street Anniston and information about small business ownership, redevelopment and historic preservation.
Wooten said her class hears from representatives from different careers each week. Eden entered the picture because the kids wanted to hear from an event coordinator, and that was Eden’s job until relatively recently — before she became the director of Main Street Anniston.
“Karla saw that I was doing that and she actually messaged me and said she would come speak and then she said what if we did a tour of Anniston with Main Street events and then we could tie in more businesses and I said that would be great,” Wooten said.
Shortly before lunch the group of students crammed into Tyson’s Model City Glass to hear about the graphics and glass business.
Wooten said the trip up to that point had been fun and eye-opening for the students.
“It’s been great. We've seen a lot of interesting businesses,” she said.
Wooten said the kids went to a coffee shop, The Peerless, murals in west Anniston and the downtown courthouses.
“We went to Gina’s BBQ and some of them got to try a scramble burger,” Wooten said.
Sophomore Damerion Welch said he has seen the various downtown buildings but never knew they were important “back in the day.”
Welch said he was glad to have a break during the day even as he was learning about Anniston’s history.
“I’m learning about Anniston too, stuff I never knew about Anniston, there’s just so much history in Anniston, I never really knew that this was a very important city in Alabama,” Welch said.
Lena Johannson, student president of FBLA, said the group has learned a lot from Eden about different businesses and what it takes to start a business.
Johannson said she learned it’s not easy to start a business, as the process includes the securing of permits and an inspection from the fire marshal.
“There’s a lot of different steps and it was eye-opening,” she said.
Johannson, a sophomore, said a number of downtown businesses are generational including Tyson’s, a third generation enterprise.
Johannson said she learned things about Anniston.
“Anniston was a city within a city for the black community and also about how it was one of the major cities in Alabama for a very long time and it was the first to get electricity in Alabama so that was major,” Johannson said.
Johannson’s classmate Mia Anderson learned about the city’s economic potential.
“I like how many jobs there are, most people always say, ‘there’s limited jobs down here,’… There are opportunities everywhere,” Anderson said.
Eden said it is an educational experience for the students as a lot of them did not know about the history of Anniston and the current business climate.
“We’re finding it’s not just the youth that aren't aware of what’s in downtown Anniston, it’s their parents as well — so we’re hoping that these kids go back and tell their parents about all the things that are happening and all the businesses that are truly here in downtown Anniston,” Eden said.
