Marion hosts fifth annual Chocolate Walk

Downtown Marion celebrated its fifth annual Chocolate Walk event, featuring 17 local businesses, with all proceeds benefiting Historic Marion. 

The chocolate walk is an opportunity for local, small businesses to volunteer and pass out chocolate candies to the community. 

Dawn Conwell previously sat on the Historic Marion board and spearheaded this year’s chocolate walk. 

“It’s something fun that the community can participate in, also getting the community involved in supporting a not for profit,” Conwell said. 

This year, Historic Marion was chosen because they’re newly formed. 

“A lot of the people on the board either work downtown or are business owners downtown, and just really have a heart for, you know, making the downtown a better place,” Conwell said. 

Abby Hewitt, a staff member at Ashely’s Ice Cream, described some of Historic Marion’s initiatives. 

“They’re working on getting some new murals, benches, enhancing the green space, thinking about ways that they can improve the building facades and whatnot,” Hewitt said. 

Ashley’s Ice Cream gave out chocolate ice cream as their contribution to the event. 

“We’re actually giving out a miniature scoop of ice cream since that’s, you know, kind of what we do here,” Hewitt said. 

Julie Harbert and Gary Harbert both participated in the chocolate walk as a part of their Valentines celebration. 

“The chocolate cheesecake that we got looks really good, and all of it looks really delicious,” Julie Harbert said. 

The Hive Mind Market gave out Rob’s Kitchen chocolate cheesecake. 

Rebecca, the owner of Hive Mind Market, was intentional about supporting a small business during the event as a small business owner herself. 

“It was important for me to support a local maker, to help promote them and connect them with the community,” Rebecca said.