Guthrie Center Revitalization and other town community members will learn whether or not Guthrie Center has received the coveted Main Street Iowa designation from the Iowa Economic Development Authority next week.
While they await that announcement, we caught up with a few Guthrie Center high school students who were highly praised for their involvement in the town’s skit presentation a couple weeks ago. In that presentation, students participated in a jeopardy-style game that was actually created in a Microsoft Office course taught by long-time instructor Bev Mills, and Mills says it took much work and collaboration to pull off the successful skit.
“We had 43 to 45 in-time hours just creating it, practicing the lines and going through what was expected of each student. We only had five minutes to set up, so someone had to remember the bell, the paper, the table, the computer and the flash drives and all of that. They all worked very well together.”
Student Bryce Patterson played the role of Alex Trebek as he led the jeopardy portion of the skit, and he summarizes how he feels the presentation went.
“It went pretty well, we all participated nicely. We all put a lot of time and effort into it and I think it went pretty well.”
Fellow student Gunner Imerman was the presentation’s tech guru, as he worked to make sure the powerpoint was aesthetically pleasing and functional. Gunner describes what his confidence level was like on the way home from Des Moines.
“I felt pretty confident. It seems like the (Main Street) committee really enjoyed our powerpoint and our entire skit, so I think we did pretty well.”
Whitney Bates is confident in what her hometown presented, too.
“I had confidence going in, and we did our best and showed them what Guthrie Center is.”
All the students involved believe a possible Main Street Iowa designation would be huge for the future of Guthrie Center, saying it would bring in new jobs and better education. Their instructor, Ms. Mills, agrees that receiving a Main Street Iowa selection is important.
“Hopefully it will bring more jobs, and our goal is to keep these young people in town so they don’t have to move to the city to keep themselves challenged… because then it would be a challenge just to keep these small towns going.”
The IEDA is expected to make an official announcement next Thursday, February 6th, regarding which towns have been selected for Main Street Iowa this year.