Farmerville says “pick me”

HGTV could be coming to Farmerville to do a Main Steet makeover and more in the near future, at least if local business people John and Lisa Crow have their way.

The popular HGTV show “Hometown” hosted by Ben & Erin Napier of Laurel, Ms. are sponsoring a contest that will help makeover an entire town for some lucky community. The contest was announced on Facebook and Lisa contacted them, found out what was needed to enter Farmerville and got it done. That included making a two-minute video telling a story of Farmerville to inspire intrigue about the town and make a push for the makeover. The video featured several local residents and businesses.

“When we saw this opportunity, we brought someone in, shot the video and got the application turned in in short order,” Lisa said. “We didn’t have much time to make the deadline, so instead of trying to get a lot of people involved and it getting bogged down, we just did it ourselves. It was worth the money to take a chance on our town and the publicity we get from the video will help us win or lose.”

Lisa and John said they are sure there are hundreds of towns entering, but they hope that Farmerville is the winner. The Crows made arrangements for and paid for the video and application personally.

The lucky town that wins can renovate part of Main Street, parks, historic homes and buildings — almost anything that benefits the public appearance. HGTV had received 3,100 submissions as of Thursday. The deadline was Friday.

“There is one thing that our local people and organizations can do if you want to help,” Lisa said. “We would love to see people help us make our case on social media. Feel free to share the video on your Facebook, Twitter or other social media accounts. Please include a credit line at the end of your post, “Video courtesy of John and Lisa Crow/HGTV Home Town Makeover”