Organized by the K-State Research and Extension, the First Impressions program helps community members to see their community through the eyes of a first-time visitor. A visitation team explores your community’s residential, retail, local government entities, schools and other points of interest. The team evaluates appearances, access to services, friendliness and other community attributes.
The City of Great Bend participated in the program and paired up with the City of El Dorado. Great Bend staff members, including Community Coordinator Christina Hayes, went to El Dorado to judge their city while El Dorado representatives did the same in Great Bend.
"I am excited to see what we were doing great and what we need to work on," said Hayes. "That's a good opportunity for us to potentially to use it for our city's strategic plan or CVB plan. This is the first time we've done this program. I'm excited to see all of that come to fruition."
Hayes has seen the first draft of the report for the surprise visit from El Dorado and will have a presenter outline the information to the Great Bend City Council soon.
First Impressions is aimed to increase awareness of a community’s strengths and highlights areas of concern.