By Alaina Denean Deshazo | The Selma Times-Journal

The Ted Henry Brick Courtyard at the Selma-Dallas County Public Library was packed with people Thursday afternoon for the Courtyard Café.

The annual event offers people a chance to come together, enjoy a lunch and hear about local businesses.

Thursday’s event was catered by Charlie’s Place. Queen City Market and Sincerely G were there to represent local shops and businesses.

“This is just a fun, fun event for Selma,” said Jan Parker, program director.  “It’s awesome because it gives Selma something to do, a unique experience. It’s not just go to a restaurant and sit down. It’s come together, let’s sit together, let’s talk, let’s get to know people we might not know and lets learn about the things that are going on in Selma.”

Gail May and her husband Wayne recently opened up a stationary printing business out of their home after retiring from education.

“We do printing for invitations, we have raised ink cards, we do notepads, any type of stationary products,” Gail said. “A lot of our friends were going over to Montgomery and Birmingham to purchase cards, and we … decided to at least pursue this and research and try to make a decision as to whether we could do it or not. Every person that we talked to just applauded us and said yes, definitely.”

Roger Jones, a local artist, painted a watercolor of the library’s courtyard and the May’s had it printed on cards to sell at the event.

“Today’s Courtyard [Café] is awesome because they had Roger Jones come, one of our local guys, and paint a water color of our Ted Henry Brick Courtyard, and it’s so special because the courtyard is in honor of him, and now in memory of him,” Parker said. “We’re just so happy to have that.”

Parker said they were happy to also have Queen City Market there to show off all the new products they have in store.

“Queen City Market is a great, great thing for Selma. These girls are so talented and they are expert decorators. They have also started selling clothes. So anything that you want, a gift, something for your home, they [have],” Parker said. “They have unique items. They are just very much on top of it.”

Parker said having the event is something they enjoy doing to promote downtown and bring the community together.

“We just want to promote all downtown businesses because it’s just very important that we keep Selma alive,” Parker said. “We have a wonderful city.”

Gail said she was excited to be asked to come to the café, and she enjoyed being able to show off her items.

“We were thrilled,” Gail said. “We’ve been to these events before and loved it and it’s awesome for us to be able to present to our local community and our friends.”

For more information about Sincerely G, email gailmay@charter.net or call 875-4746. To contact Queen City Market, call 407-9854.