Get to Know Megan Tsui

Megan Tsui is the Director of Red Wing Downtown Main Street, and she spends her days crafting a big world and a tiny world.

The big world is Red Wing. As Director, Megan oversees events like the Holiday Stroll, and runs the programs like the Restaurant & Retail Challenge that help businesses start, and thrive, in the city’s historic downtown. It’s something she’s been trained to do since birth, really.

That’s because historic river towns are all she’s ever known. She has lived in Red Wing since 2008, but that’s only after growing up and going to college in Northfield. It’s also because before becoming the director of Downtown Main Street in 2016, she worked as a business consultant, so she knows what small businesses need to succeed. Combine the two, and Downtown Main Street is the perfect place for her.

But this is about the tiny worlds that Megan creates.

First, there’s the tiny world of the staff at Downtown Main Street. As Pam Dusbabek, social media and marketing manager for the organization, says, Megan values “collaboration over competition.”

For Megan, it isn’t about being better than all the people who are helping businesses in Red Wing, it is about playing to the strengths of downtown. And to play to the strengths of downtown, Megan wants to play to the strengths of the people. That means getting the most knowledgeable people to serve on committees and getting staff members to focus on the projects and tasks they care most about, so they put passion and fun into their work.

But, again, this isn’t about that tiny world that Megan creates. This is about the tiny world she makes with her hands. Megan’s favorite thing to do is make miniatures.

It started as a pandemic hobby but has now become a part of Downtown Main Street’s operations. In the past year, Megan has made 13 miniature awards for staff and volunteers. “The way I show love now is through miniatures,” she says.

For Downtown Main Street’s treasurer, Tom Pasch, she used a toy bridge and some handmade signs to show how Tom has helped connect Downtown Main Street to the Red Wing community.

Among other things, she uses found items, clay, toys, paper cutouts, to make her miniatures all of which help the awards feel more personal. Like the “Boots on the Ground” award that went to Tari Carpenter and used toy boots and a toy mailbox Megan found, clay for the sidewalk, and little Downtown Main Street logos that she made on the computer.

Making these miniatures gives her what she calls a “joy clench” where she can’t help but squeeze her fists because it is so exciting. She’s excited to make the miniatures and the recipients are happy to receive them, which is all a part of Downtown Main Street’s goal of bringing connectivity and joy to downtown Red Wing.

“We don’t feel it enough,” Megan says of the ‘joy clench.’ But if she can feel it making the miniatures, and everyone in the organization can feel it occasionally too, then they can work together to make sure that people feel it when they attend the Holiday Stroll or Fairy Fest. And if people feel joy when they are downtown, then downtown will be better for everyone.