Pictured: left to right
Keri Christensen -Harbor Executive Director
&
Tink Morris - Harbor Board Member and Senior Director of BeautiControl Cosmetics

CLAYTON -- At its first Friday night dance party, DPM Studios had only six people show up. These days, it's more of a party, with 30 people packing into the East Second Street dance studio.

DPM, a studio that teaches "Dancing with the Stars" style dance, won the award for outstanding new downtown business at the Downtown Development Association's annual awards dinner earlier this month.
Owner and dance instructor Raquel Williams had to send her husband to the Clayton Steakhouse to accept the award because she was busy teaching dance.
While Williams was the one to win the award, she said it didn't have much to do with her. The DDA has been reaching out to her since she opened the studio in April, 2010, asking her to participate in the dancing in the street event this past summer and coordinate a flash mob at the Harvest Festival with Clayton High School Students.
"They've been a real supporter of me in general, and I do what I can to support them in any way I can," Williams said. She added that a runner up for the award, beauty salon "My Girlfriend's Place," volunteered alongside her at nearly every event she helped the association with.
"Someone had to win it, but really I had so much help," Williams said. "I see it more as the community helping me."
Williams chose to open the studio in Clayton when she saw the high-dollar competition in Raleigh. Her business model, which does four-week group dance classes, individual competitive dancing lessons and wedding dance lessons, was different from the thousand-dollar package deals at studios in Raleigh.
"I didn't want to be compared and I didn't want to have to explain myself about my business practices," Williams said. "There's nothing out (here), it'd be harder to get business, but at least it's a place to grow a brand new community."
Williams said that DPM is the only studio in Johnston County that offers the kind of dance classes she does and competes as a studio.
Just last week, a group of DPM dancers went to Washington, D.C. to compete in, "D.C. Swing Experience."
In business for a longer time than DPM Studios, Pizazz, a thrift store whose profits go to Harbor, Inc., won the award for outstanding downtown business.
Pizazz sells used women's clothing to support Harbor Inc., Johnston County's only shelter for victims of domestic and sexual violence.
"It is so exciting. The community just has so responded to us and be so incredibly supportive, I don't even know how to thank them," said Katy Buchan, the store's manager.
Buchan ended up managing the store after she walked into the Smithfield location to volunteer and got hired. She said she feels guilty for getting paid to help Harbor, but her husband reminds her that her heart is still in the same giving place.
"It's fun to have pretty windows and it's nice to have great merchandise, but it's the reason we do it that sets us apart," Buchan said.
She said that now that they've been opened for six years and moved to a more prominent location on the corner of Main Street and Church Street, people are beginning to recognize what they're there for.
"The ladies downtown not only shop, they bring people to shop and bring people that need the resources that Harbour has to offer," Buchan said.
She puts out signs almost every day listing what exactly the store might need. If they're running low on jewelry, she'll write that on the sign, and people will respond within three days to bring in whatever they can to help.
Buchan said that people who can't necessarily write a big check to help an organization can volunteer at the store or bring in old clothes to donate.
'I think people are starting to catch the vision of what we do and why we do it," she said.