Marshall-in-Motion
Marshall In Motion is a local volunteer group of concerned citizens who formed an organization under the auspices of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs. This is part of a statewide program called Competitive Cities Initiative, which challenges local citizens to look at their town, analyze the strong and weak points and make efforts to build on the strong points and improve the weak points in a structured program. Marshall In Motion encompasses the entire Marshall School District.
In July 1997, a steering committee was formed to get the organization off the ground. In October 1997, the name Marshall In Motion was coined. Citizens were invited to a series of three community meetings in February, March and April of 1998. Seventy-three people attended, and from these meetings a list of approximately twenty priority goals was listed. These objectives were divided among six committees. In May of 1998, a local citizen, Amy Yargus, was hired to coordinate activities. The various committees met and discussed the issues assigned to each committee. By December of 1999, several of the goals were completed but the committee decided to disband for a while. In February 2001 reorganization took place with a new steering committee that set three major goals: Recreation, Tourism, and Economic Development.
During the summer of 2001, the City of Marshall was enrolled in the University of Illinois Rural Recreation Program. The university provided a graduate student in the field of Leisure Studies to become the local director. The city selected three high school students as assistant directors. Approximately 60 youngsters signed up for the program that provided supervised activities three days a week from 9 a.m. to noon for a period of 10 weeks. This program was so successful that the following summer the program was expanded to permit parents to drop off their children before the parent had to go to work. It was expanded to five days a week with a local director and trained local people to assist.
The second objective of tourism is being undertaken in cooperation with Marshall Main Street. Tourism is a program in which every citizen can become involved. All the necessary ingredients are already here; all we need is some promotion to encourage people to visit the area. In this regard, Marshall in Motion encouraged the development of a city web site. A web master (Paul Robinson) was hired and the city designated Roger Watwood as the city coordinator to collect and relay information to the web master. So far our web site has encouraged a club of 60 walkers from throughout Illinois to come to Marshall, enticed the Illinois Association of Family Camping and Recreation to reserve 28 campsites at Mill Creek Park, and attracted The Great Race to make a lunch stop in June 2003.
Marshall has six places listed on the National Historic Register, some that few town our size have. Our latest addition is the historic Harlan Hall, an 1870’s opera house, which is in the process of being restored.
Marshall has become a member of the scenic US 40 National Road Organization and being the first town in Illinois on the historic highway, we can expect to see more history buffs. Our community is also a member of the Route One Association, a group of towns on Illinois Route One aligned together to promote tourism on Route One. We feel that tourism in the Marshall area has the potential to expand with the combined efforts of key community organizations.
Concerning our third major goal of economic development, the City of Marshall hired Julie Bounds in 2002 to be the local Economic Development Director and plans are underway to expand in this field.
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Marshall in Motion has been beneficial to the City of Marshall and will continue to do so in the future.
Marshall Pride Award
Marshall Pride Award Winners
