TOLEDO, OH (Toledo News Now) - Tuesday marks the 100th anniversary of the unveiling of "You will do better in Toledo" as the slogan for the Glass City. A group of people celebrated the anniversary by showing their Toledo pride.
City officials, young entrepreneurs, members of local organizations and non-profits all packed into Wesley's Bar and Grill Tuesday night to celebrate Toledo. They want to start a new positive in the city, saying there's plenty to be proud of.
On Dec. 17, 1913, the new city slogan was unveiled in front of 8,000 people. Out of 7,000 submissions, the Toledo Commerce Club chose "You will do better in Toledo," and it was brightly displayed on the Valentine Theater.
Eventually, the slogan and sign began to disappear, but it popped up again about two years ago on T-shirts sold by John Amato, owner of Jupmode.
This year, Amato and Josh Wagy of Smash Toledo had the idea to celebrate the anniversary as a sense of pride for Toledoans.
"This is a reminder of that," Wagy said. "They were trying to do it 100 years ago, there's no reason why we shouldn't be doing it now."
"Last year, we had '419 Day' and that was a building block for today," Amato added. "It's truly been amazing the way people have embraced this, and that's one of the great things about Toledo is how easily people will get behind a good idea."
For Wagy and Amato, it's about much more than a sign.
"There's so many up-and-coming entrepreneurs in this city, and so many like-minded individuals that want to do great things, and this slogan is just a perfect time, perfect place to like, let's push this, let's really be positive in the town," Wagy said. "We need to put out there that, on a national level, Toledo is really awesome, and we can be awesome and we will be awesome."
"At this moment, who knows what is possible? Anything could be possible," Amato said. "If we can do this, if we can gather all these people together to proudly say, 'You will do better in Toledo,' what else can we do?"
