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Drury is next stop for Vision Committee
Nevada Daily Mail
With the visit to Drury University coming down to the wire, the Sheldon Vision Committee met Sunday to finalize their plans for presenting their town to the university's architecture students.
Vision committee members Robert and Marlene Moran told the group about some insights they gained during a recent visit to the students' professor, Jay Garrott.
"Garrott has 12 students, including two students from China and one from Southeast Asia," Robert said. "Garrott said he thought Sheldon had more enthusiasm than Webb City. You would think a bigger town hinged onto Joplin would have a lot of community activity and development resources, but that's not what he's seen. I thought that to be encouraging."
Sheldon and Webb City will present the history, assets and needs of their respective towns to attract students to make a vision plan.
Sheldon's presentation will include a video. After previewing the video made by Brianna Sheridan, the group expressed admiration and approval.
"I thought that was excellent," committee member Amanda Hall said. "We should buy TV time and put it on television."
Based on the presentations, the students will fill out a survey with their interests, background experience and preferences. Garrott will split his students into two teams of six for each town. The team will work with the community to create a plan for making improvements for the next 10 to 20 years.
"It will be interesting for the students from China," Robert said. "They may come from a village of a quarter million people, so when they say they live in the village down the road, it's more like Kansas City. They'll have a very different notion of the density of people and definition of a village."
Marleen said she discovered Drury's mascot is panthers with red and black school colors, which happens to be the same mascot and colors of Sheldon. She suggested the group make goodie baskets for each of the team members. She showed the committee two items to include in the baskets, PTO Sheldon panther polycarbonate cups and panther necklaces the Sheldon seniors are selling for $2.
"They may not really care about the sports," Marlene said, "but they've been at Drury for four years; they're panthers."
The team's first visit to Sheldon will be Jan. 25. Robert said he expressed his concern to Garrott that the vision committee and students wouldn't interact on the first visit.
"Garrott said that won't happen," he said. "He will make sure they're paired with the people from Sheldon so they are sure to talk with each other."
The six students plan to arrive at 11:30 a.m. at the Methodist Church. After brief introductions, the committee will put on a meal of various soups and desserts and then give a tour of the town and nearby areas such as Bushwhacker Lake and farms. Approximately 30 people in Sheldon have been invited to meet the students at 3 p.m. at the Methodist Church.
"They have a pattern they are following and we will no doubt fit into that pattern," Robert said. "Most people will not know where they want to be 20 years from now. But what we can do is have our planning in place so when opportunity arises we can take advantage of it. A student may look at our small town and be disparaged, but in fact the planning process is the same kind of planning process for Carthage or Kansas City."
After the first student and community meeting in January, the students will return to Sheldon four more times. The meetings have been scheduled for 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Feb. 17, at the Baptist Church, March 10 at the Christian Church, April 7 at the community building, and May 12 at the Methodist Church for the final presentation.