Community Collaboration and Richmond's Revitalization with Dakota Collins

From the quiet streets of a neighboring Richmond town, Dakota Collins rose to become the bridge connecting Earlham College to the pulse of its community. Journey with us through Dakota's transformative path as Director of Community Relations, where his mentorship from local leaders and passion for mutual growth fuel a strategic plan benefiting both the institution and its surrounding locale. Discover the far-reaching impact of the Lilly Endowment grant and how Earlham's internship programs foster an interconnected ecosystem of learning and development, shaping the future of Richmond right before our eyes.

Richmond's downtown is on the cusp of a renaissance, and Dakota Collins is at the forefront. Listen as we explore the Revitalize Richmond initiative, designed to inject new life into the heart of the city with a dynamic array of businesses, entertainment, and social spaces. We'll reveal the insider details of a full-time business coach's role, the strategic selection of new ventures, and the promise of adventure with the Whitewater Gorge Activation plan. As we unveil the blueprint for a vibrant Richmond, you'll be captivated by the potential transformation of the local housing market and the unfolding narrative of residential development.

In our final chapter, we celebrate the bonds of support that forge success. Dakota's story is one of collaboration and encouragement, from the unyielding backing of family and his partner, Mariah, to the spirited camaraderie within the Earlham team. It's these relationships that turn work into joy and ambition into reality, fostering an environment where community thrives and innovation ignites. Join us for a heartfelt exploration of the relationships and passion that ignite the spirit of Richmond, and leave inspired to cultivate the same magic in your own community.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:08

Welcome back. Thank you for joining us. It's another episode of Our Community. I'm your host, local realtor entrepreneur, alfredo Diamond. Today I'm here with a special guest, director of Community Relations at Earlham College, mr Dakota Collins. Welcome, dakota.

Speaker 2: 0:24

Thank you, I'm really excited to be here with you.

Speaker 1: 0:26

Hey, I'm glad to have you here. I've been looking forward to this one. So thanks for your time here. So we'll go right into it. Dakota, you know, just kind of tell us about you a little bit, where you're from, where you went to school, kind of how you landed here.

Speaker 2: 0:37

Yeah, absolutely so. I'm actually from Richmond originally. I grew up in a small town technically just south of Richmond called Boston. It's got like 125 houses. There's not a ton of people there, but that's also sort of my little hometown. But I came up through the Richmond Community School Systems. I went to Garrison and then Test and RHS Sort of started getting involved in my community a little bit in high school and then decided to stay in town and go to Earlham and so I went there and majored in psychology and business and politics and once I graduated I decided to still stay in my beloved hometown and I worked in local politics and government for a little while before going back to Earlham to do fundraising, gift development, alumni relations for them. And then within the last couple of years I've started transitioning to more of this community relations role, which is really exciting for me personally because I'm able to take the college that I love and help unite it with the community that I love.

Speaker 1: 1:36

Yeah, so I can tell you're passionate about that. So is there anything in particular, any individual that kind of mentored you or led you down the situation?

Speaker 2: 1:45

led you down this path. Oh, my goodness. So so many people helped sort of guide me to where I am, both through direct means of mentorship and just sort of being these aspirational people, those people that you want to be when you grow up.

Speaker 2: 1:58

So I really got to know closely Pat Heining and Mary Jo Clark when I was in high school, and Mary Jo and her husband Lynn really helped guide me to and through Earlham, and Pat's always been a constant support, and so they've just always been these mentors, like they've been for so many people in our community, helping build my leadership skills, helping me discern the right direction for my life, and I owe so much to those three people.

Speaker 1: 2:26

Shout out to Mary Jo Clark there Amen. So in your day-to-day job, what does it consist of? So, what do you actually do as the Director of Community Relations? What does that look like? So?

Speaker 2: 2:36

Earlham has had community relations-like roles in the past. Ava Stewart, who a lot of people know, did it for a really long time. He really became the central public figure for Earlham. Everybody knew Earlham as Avis, but then he transitioned to do vice presidency for institutional advancement and then became interim president and then retired. And so as he started taking on those other roles our presence in the community sort of diminished and nobody took that up. So Earlham hasn't really been at the table for a while and we've been segueing back into it. So it's kind of a renewed role and we're still figuring it out a little bit. But my day-to-day is really working with our community partners to unite the Earlham communities and the Richmond communities. So how can Earlham be financially supportive of nonprofits? How can we help get internships and community service learning opportunities through our students to help local organizations? Any number of things. And that eventually got us into looking at this huge grant that we were able to apply for.

Speaker 1: 3:48

Yeah, and I want to talk about I'm so excited to talk more about that I want to know you know how we, you know how they all work and where those funds are going, so to be in the community. You know, I hear things at Earlham like what's the current state? What's going on at Earlham right now? I mean, what's the current state of Earlham? Can you talk about that?

Speaker 2: 4:04

Yeah, so it's always in flux, but I think things are really good right now. Okay, a lot of people know we had some financial problems in the past. Those aren't necessarily gone, but things are looking in a positive direction.

Speaker 2: 4:25

COVID really diminished our student body significantly. So we're probably hovering around 800 students right now, which is pretty low for us. But thanks to Ann Houtman, our current and outgoing president, and the board of trustees and the whole cabinet that's been working on this, we have a strategic growth plan that we're hoping will get us to around 1,500 students within the next seven years. So we're going to be pretty aggressively adding about 60 students a year to our incoming class, hoping to really grow that significantly, Because we've determined that's around about the size that we need to be operating at our best, most efficient capacity.

Speaker 1: 4:59

Okay, I know there's a big initiative between business owners, higher education partners to attract and retain local talent. So let's kind of I think we can segue right into what we really wanted to get into here. Can you just kind of share some of the projects, some of the grants and things that we've been awarded and how those funds will be allocated and their purposes? Absolutely on how those funds will be allocated and their purposes.

Speaker 2: 5:23

Absolutely so. Back in February or March of last year, the Lilly Endowment released a funding opportunity to all four-year colleges and universities in Indiana and the purpose was that these colleges should develop programs that were for the mutual benefit this is their language the mutual benefit of the college and the community around the college. Funding was up to $25 million. The catch was they would only fund 30% of the total project. So if you wanted to apply for $25 million you had to find $56 million from other sources, and that's a lot of money right there, and so there are a lot of institutions that really struggled with that. So we knew that we really wanted to do this.

Speaker 2: 6:13

Richmond has been named one of the number one reasons that prospective students decide not to come to Earlham or they don't retain through four years of Earlham, and that's been a problem that we've recognized but have never had a means to help fix. But with this funding opportunity we were able to finally again come back to the table with the community and say, all right, where can 25 million really do the most good? So we brought together the City of Richmond, the Economic Development Corporation, wayne County Foundation and Forward Wayne County Reed Health as the largest employer and of course representatives from Earlham to form sort of this steering committee. And we asked exactly that question when will $25 million do the greatest good, provide the mutual benefit for the college and the community, and where can we find related to that project that other $56 million?

Speaker 1: 7:08

Okay.

Speaker 2: 7:08

And so those people were so invested in this and so supportive. I was making calls and, hey, would you be a part of this, would you be? Willing to come to this meeting and it was yes, yes, yes. How can I help? Absolutely when and where. So that was really inspiring to see all these community leaders come together to support. And so we got 3,000 pages of different studies, strategic plans, master plans from these organizations, stuff that they had been doing for five, 10 years, and they said okay here you go.

Speaker 1: 7:39

Oh, they're ready to go, they're ready.

Speaker 2: 7:40

They've been waiting for this opportunity, and so we took all that in sort of broke it up and had further waiting for this opportunity. And so we took all that in sort of broke it up and had furthering conversations with them. And there are lots of areas of need in Wayne County. But when looking at those three primary questions we landed on downtown revitalization is where 25 million would do the most good and we could find that cost share.

Speaker 1: 8:01

Now let me back up a second. So was it? Is it 25 million per college or city?

Speaker 2: 8:07

Yeah, it's 25 million per college so all colleges have the opportunity to apply for funding and I think they awarded in december about seven of them.

Speaker 1: 8:19

Okay but as far as richmond goes, earlham, earlham got the grant. Okay, so there's about 56 million dollars. How we have we hit the goal for the the other 31 000, 31 million well, we exceeded it.

Speaker 2: 8:32

We found 83 million.

Speaker 1: 8:34

So this project, from this funding and this collective group effort, there's actually $83 million at disposal.

Speaker 2: 8:43

Well, there's 83 in what we call cost share. That's not a part of the grant, and then the $25 million from the grant. It's over $100 million that's going to be invested in downtown Richmond over the next five years.

Speaker 1: 8:56

So I heard that there's another round of those grant funds coming available. How are we looking to obtain those? And I think it's another $25 million possibly.

Speaker 2: 9:05

Yeah, so we aren't eligible to receive that since we received the first round. The only other institution in Richmond that was eligible to apply is IU East, but they go through a completely different process because they're under the umbrella of IU, and so IU Central gets to determine which three of their campuses gets to apply, and I don't know the information on that.

Speaker 1: 9:30

I'm so glad to have you here because you've got the answers to stuff.

Speaker 1: 9:33

I want to know what's going on with this money. So you know, I was on a phone call with a prospect yesterday and you know they've got this land and they heard about the funds available and I just didn't know quite how he got a letter actually. So can you just kind of talk about how these funds will be dispersed over the next five years? Who's actually eligible, how much they can receive, how much they have to put into it to get the funds? You kind of share that?

Speaker 2: 9:56

Yeah, absolutely so. The way this funding opportunity works with this particular funder, we had to submit a complete budget of how we were going to spend this money over five years, so the plan for spending the money was done before we knew if we were getting the money. That's what the funder required, so this isn't one of those grants that other people then get to apply for a grant from Earlham to get funds. We've basically got it all spent on paper and now we actually have to go through and implement these projects.

Speaker 1: 10:28

There's a business plan, yeah, basically.

Speaker 2: 10:31

We put together, really with the body of the proposal, all the appendices, the letters of support. It was about a 60 page proposal that the college put together for this.

Speaker 1: 10:41

Wow. So over the next five years we're going to see these priorities. Are the projects in the plan already through? Like city council? They're already approved. I mean, what does that look like?

Speaker 2: 10:51

Some of them yes, Some of them no. They're all on sort of their own independent timelines. When we look at the big project, the full over $100 million it's broken up into three primary pillars. We've got activate, build and connect, and each one of those has little subprojects within it that I can go through and talk about. And they're all, I think, just so exciting because it's what our community has been waiting on for so long. Okay, you know, anybody that's been in a lot of community meetings about downtown knows that we've always had this conversation Is it the chicken or the egg? Do we bring people downtown to live first, or do we bring the amenities and they'll bring the people? And we've gone around and around about it. This is one of our opportunities to do them both at the exact same time.

Speaker 2: 11:39

So we're really excited about it.

Speaker 1: 11:40

So what kind of projects are we looking at to kick that off? What's that going to look like?

Speaker 2: 11:45

So let's first go into Activate, because I think those are the most exciting projects right there.

Speaker 2: 11:50

We know that we need additional businesses in our downtown area. We need entertainment-based businesses, shops and restaurants, and so we really want to support current and budding local entrepreneurs people that either have started a business and they might need a little bit of support or guidance, or people that are looking to start a business for the very first time. Okay, so we're going to partner with Main Street Richmond, the local advocate for the Main Street downtown areas, and they're going to hire a full-time business coach, somebody that's in the office and in the community every single day, talking to business owners. What can we do to support you? Do you need some marketing advice? Do you need advice on advice? Do you need advice on getting new loans or developing a business plan? This person is also going to be out at the farmer's market talking to those vendors. Maybe it's time for them to finally open up a storefront.

Speaker 2: 12:45

Yeah, so this person's going to be really engaged with the community, trying to support and bring in more entrepreneurs.

Speaker 1: 12:52

Okay, okay.

Speaker 2: 12:54

But, as you know as an entrepreneur, entrepreneurship is risky right, especially when you're first getting started. So in addition to supporting local entrepreneurs, we also want some bets that are a little bit sure. People that have experience running businesses or a particular business have a good business model already. So Main Street Richmond is also going to be contracting with an outside firm and that firm's job is to look regionally for independently owned businesses in Muncie, in Indy, in Bloomington, wherever around and say this business is primed for a second or third location in a new market.

Speaker 1: 13:38

Okay.

Speaker 2: 13:39

Talk to those entrepreneurs and say let's talk about how you can open up this additional location and let's make it in downtown Richmond. Wow, so we'll be bringing in some of those businesses that you might know from Oxford or Carmel or wherever, and bringing those in to downtown Richmond.

Speaker 1: 14:00

So are there already businesses that are identified, then?

Speaker 2: 14:04

Not quite. So the first job of that outside firm is to come in and do sort of a landscape analysis. Gotcha, what buildings do we have available, what amenities do we have available, what amenities do those buildings have and what's the market mix of businesses that we need? How many restaurants do we need, and what types of restaurants? How many shops, how many?

Speaker 1: 14:23

different types.

Speaker 2: 14:24

Yeah, so they're going to do this study and then they're going to focus on attracting exactly those businesses. So it's not just going to be casting a wide net and seeing what happens. We're going to be targeted and specific.

Speaker 1: 14:35

Okay, okay, so so. So, no one's really received any funds yet, or been any letters or anything like that. No, okay, that's all here.

Speaker 2: 14:42

And I think I think the most important thing is that all of the funds that we're receiving will go to our community partners to do the work that they're already trying to do. Okay, so we know who is going to get funding out of. Revitalize Richmond is what we're calling this project, revitalize Richmond and so, like Main Street, richmond is going to receive these funds to do those two different projects, gotcha. So every dollar that we spend will go through a nonprofit that's working to do these projects already, and that was the most important thing in our planning process. We've got so many people in our community already doing amazing things. They know what they're talking about. Instead of trying to recreate the wheel or sort of do our own thing as the college, let's empower our community partners to do what they're already the experts at.

Speaker 1: 15:35

Wow, that's a great approach. So step two. So what's that look like?

Speaker 2: 15:41

Well, within Activate, there's the business side, and then a lot of people have probably already heard about the Whitewater Gorge Activ plan, this plan, through the richmond parks and recreation department, to take our whitewater gorge and turn it into more of a destination, an adventure hub, all of these incredible things. And it's that that plan has already been developed and has already started. Yeah, they've already started doing some parking initiatives, improving accessibility. They've taken out the weir dam, um, so Revitalize Richmond is going to be funding a small part of that as well, most specifically, a river walk, kayaking and canoeing opportunities, a zip line.

Speaker 1: 16:26

I heard that, yeah.

Speaker 2: 16:27

Yeah, a zip line and some shoreline improvements so that when you are down by Star Jeanette you can actually see hey, there's a river right there. This is a great opportunity to go kayaking, canoeing, get in the river. So we're going to take some of those trees down, especially the invasive species, put in some more natural things and really reveal the river there.

Speaker 1: 16:46

That sounds amazing. You're making Richmond more of a kind of a destination.

Speaker 2: 16:50

Yes, absolutely, that's exactly what we want.

Speaker 1: 16:52

But we also need housing. So what's that look like Are? You involved in this project that I keep hearing about with Elder Beerman.

Speaker 2: 16:59

Can you touch on that a little bit, so that goes to build that middle pillar, and so we know that we need housing in downtown Richmond. We need housing across the area, but that sort of apartment downtown urban living is what a lot of people are really vying for. And so the Elder Beerman project is one of those projects that was already underway and we were able to use the funds being spent on that for our cost share because it fits within the concept of our project. So it's not being funded by Revitalize Richmond directly, but it is allowing us to unlock more dollars. So we're taking that. As a lot of people know, that's going to put in about 150 market rate apartments right downtown with high level amenities. It's going to be really cool. But we wanted to take it a step farther, because 150, two housing studies have told us that's not enough.

Speaker 2: 17:56

And so we're working with the EDC and looking for some other private developers that are going to come in, look at more historic properties and do some renovations on those to put in some additional apartments in the downtown area. And then we're working with Richmond Neighborhood Restoration. They just recently redid the secret ingredient building, put in four just incredible apartments. We want them to do that three to five more times in downtown, with some of those smaller level buildings, put in apartments on the second and third stories and then white box the first floor, so the entrepreneurs that we're attracting can move right in, not have to worry about putting in a sprinkler system or fixing the floors or whatever. They can just focus on their business. Yeah, yeah, and so all in all, we're looking at adding about 300 apartments in downtown Richmond.

Speaker 2: 18:49

Oh really yeah.

Speaker 1: 18:50

And so is. There is everything. You know all the you know developers, the investors. I mean, does it all have to be like you know big, you know big development companies? Can it be like just an investment, private investment groups? Is that possible to put something together like that, or not?

Speaker 2: 19:05

It might be. So we're looking at some options. We have a couple of developers identified that are already. They have a specialty in doing these things. So from our perspective, the most important thing is the quality and the accountability. And so sometimes when you've got that company, even if they're from outside Richmond, that still does work regionally, like in Indiana, and you can go and see some of the other places that they've done, where they've taken these large historic buildings that were not just vacant but dilapidated and turned them into these incredible living spaces. Those are the kind of companies that we want to bring in, because we know the quality of their work and that they'll be accountable to it I've seen some of the a couple of buildings that come down uh up on the other eastern part of main street.

Speaker 1: 19:55

So like this is the vision, overall vision of downtown. So like this elder building project, I'll call it that. But you know, I envision this brand-new building because they're going to tear down the existing structure and put back a new one. But then you've got the older kind of sides of the other properties. I mean, what's their goal? Like, are they going to try to go through and renovate each property and work with the business owners? I mean, what does that look like?

Speaker 2: 20:20

So it will be slightly more targeted. So we'll be looking at they haven't necessarily been identified yet, but we'll be looking at specific buildings that are high profile, high priority, that are in obvious need of a lot of work but can also fit a decent number of apartments.

Speaker 1: 20:36

Okay, and the third phase of the plan. What's that like?

Speaker 2: 20:41

So connect. And this is really a lot about connecting the Earlham campus with downtown, because in doing this we also talked to our students and our employees, and our students said we would love to go visit downtown and do more there if two things existed One, if there was more stuff to do which we're dealing with and activate, and two, if we felt more comfortable getting there, because if you're driven from downtown to Earlham or vice versa, it's mostly just down 40, which is fine if you're driving, but trying to walk down that sidewalk doesn't necessarily feel

Speaker 2: 21:16

safe and biking is really, really hard. So we're doing two things to help get Earlham students to downtown. That will also help the local community. One is that we are working with the city to do a rebranding plan for Roseview Transit, the public transit system. Help sort of rebrand it a little bit, maybe get a mobile app, rethink some of the routes, and then the second phase of that is to use a federal transportation grant to purchase an electric bus and we will rewrap it and refit the inside to feel a little bit more like a trolley and then that will go around downtown in the dep District and people can get on and get off.

Speaker 1: 22:01

You don't have to be Anybody.

Speaker 2: 22:03

Anybody can get on, and so you can go, like, to the Cordial Cork and have a drink and dinner and then go see a show at Richmond Civic Theater and just park your car once and just hop on, hop off of this trolley during the evenings and weekends. That's cool, but during the evenings and weekends. But for Earlham it will also come to Earlham's campus during that route, so it will go from campus to downtown, the Depot District, and make a loop back, and so students will also be able to hop on, come downtown, spend money, help the local entrepreneurs and then make it safely back to campus. So that's the first thing is public transportation, and then the second thing is putting in a multimodal path, really an expanded sidewalk that can also be used for biking down main street is that what's going on now?

Speaker 2: 22:46

that is not what's going on now it connects to what's going on now so the loop is coming in and it'll connect the already existing bike lanes through downtown.

Speaker 2: 22:56

But what you'll see from this is that going from, basically the entrance to the gorge, Star Jeanette Plaza, down Main Street all the way to Clear Creek Park, there will be an expanded sidewalk, no parking affected, Curbs going to remain in the exact same place. We're just making that sidewalk a little bit bigger, a little bit nicer, so the students and Westside residents can ride their bike directly into downtown. So it'll go from the entrance to the gorge to Clear Creek Park and then there will also be a connector down I believe it's Southwest 8th Street, right to the front of campus. So the students, instead of having to try to go down 40 on their bike or walking, can just cross 40 and then be on a much nicer, much safer street.

Speaker 1: 23:40

I can't wait to see that. Yeah, we're really excited for it. Now, just my past experience in telecommunications and stuff and I know how important Wi-Fi is for bringing people downtown you know thinking about like that, you know, the Internet infrastructure and is that going to be in place and we can have some great Wi-Fi downtown?

Speaker 2: 23:57

Yeah, that is a great question. That is not a part of Revitalize Richmond specifically.

Speaker 1: 24:02

Okay.

Speaker 2: 24:03

But being in a lot of other community conversations I know it's a priority.

Speaker 1: 24:07

Okay, okay. So with all that you know, with local business, education, employment, business development in mind, where would you like to see our community in the next five years?

Speaker 2: 24:18

Yeah, that's a great question. So I want to see a significant increase in the number of businesses downtown. And when people in our community and in the area around our community think of downtown Richmond, I want words like vibrant to come to mind. I want them to think about people walking up and down the street, going shopping, going to different restaurants. I want them to think of nightlife and entertainment and a great place to live because you've got all those amenities right nearby. And I think it's going to change the housing market in Richmond a little bit as these places become available to rent. They're a little bit higher rent. That's going to free up some other areas.

Speaker 2: 25:00

And did you know? 42% of the workforce in Wayne County commutes from outside of Wayne County? 42% 42% of people who work in Wayne County don't live here. Wow, and a lot of it is because they don't have a place to live that they're looking for. So projects like this, like the Elder Beerman Project, like some of the other apartments that we're doing, provide those living spaces that people want, and so what that will do is increase our population, increase the density, bring people into downtown who already work in the community, and so I think it's going to change the landscape of our community a little bit.

Speaker 1: 25:41

Now I'm not sure if you're involved in that or not, but if you have any information. I know there was a project for South 37th Street development that kind of got put on pause or shut down for now. Can you touch on that? Do you have any experience with that, or is that not?

Speaker 2: 25:55

That is not really in my ballpark. I will say I was a little disappointed to see it go away, just because I know our community needs that type of housing.

Speaker 1: 26:05

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 26:06

We have done we being mostly the EDC and some other organizations have done housing studies that have shown that downtown living and the type of development that they were doing on 37th street is what people are looking for. And so if it's not going to be at that site, it's going to have to be somewhere and it's going to have to be in somebody's backyard.

Speaker 1: 26:28

Yeah, yeah, I mean 42% work at the live away, but work in Richmond.

Speaker 2: 26:35

Yeah, wow, it's crazy.

Speaker 1: 26:37

Yeah, you know, dakota, what's, what's one thing about our community that you would love to see come back? That's a business, or you know some kind of experience. I mean, what would you like?

Speaker 2: 26:47

oh, I don't know, that's really hard. I would love to see I mean, I'm a little bit of a foodie, so I'd love to see not necessarily something come back, but just new and different restaurant experiences. Two of my favorite restaurants in town, you know 10, 15 years ago I never would have thought that we would have had, and that's the Thai restaurant, the Indian restaurant, and I'm so excited that places like that not only are opening in Richmond but are thriving in Richmond and so different types of food or just more expanded food. I know there's a couple different restaurants that are just on the verge of opening, maybe this summer. That I'm already very excited about.

Speaker 2: 27:25

But I think what we're also missing is sort of that entertainment piece. Like, we do a lot of festivals and events throughout our community. There's something to do basically every weekend in town if you look for it. But what we're missing, I think, is that constant. You always know you can go to this location and do X, y, z, no matter what day, no matter what time of year. It's always there, whether it's some sort of entertainment facility or a great speakeasy bar or a restaurant or something, that place that you can always go for that entertainment.

Speaker 1: 27:59

Yeah, yeah. Can you share a memorable moment or experience from your involvement in the community, something that just kind of you want to highlight, that kind of resonates with you?

Speaker 2: 28:08

Yeah, I, as I go through this, I hear a lot of people's memories about downtown and I don't know with me personally. It was always coming to Joanne's Bakery as a kid. Yeah, we got birthday. That was our place for birthday cakes, right, and so we go in and order the birthday cake, but we also had to get thumbprints or smiley face cookies or something, and so as a kid, that's my core memory of downtown.

Speaker 1: 28:34

You're making me bring back memories. We used to. They used to let us walk through the back with my grandfather. I remember walking through there and seeing him making the cookies and the donuts and that was just cool.

Speaker 2: 28:44

It's so more than that, yeah, we and that sort of experience that anybody growing up in richmond for decades, yeah, has those memories of going to joy ann's or a place like joy ann's, and that's what I want for the kids in our community right now to have that place that they remember fondly and hopefully when they're an adult and they're moving back after college and when their parents are aging, they remember it and it's still there and they can go experience again, because that's all a part of coming home.

Speaker 1: 29:14

Yeah, right, yeah.

Speaker 2: 29:15

And we want people. People have said oh, we need to make sure our high school students stay in town after they graduate, and I think that would be great. I would love to see more of them come to Earlham, even to IU East, and Ivy Tech stay. But if you don't, if that's not a part of your path, that's fine. I just want all of them to feel like they can come home to. Richmond when they're ready.

Speaker 1: 29:36

Right, you guys. You remember the natural spring at Glenn Miller.

Speaker 2: 29:40

Oh yeah, oh yeah.

Speaker 1: 29:42

So I do these tours at IU East for interviewing candidates and things like that. So one of the places I kind of show them to give them that kind of home feel is this thing I can think of and show them the spring, and so just a little cool things like that.

Speaker 2: 29:55

That's awesome.

Speaker 1: 29:56

So what advice would you give someone who wants to get involved in local community efforts but may not know where to start?

Speaker 2: 30:02

Oh, that's a great question.

Speaker 2: 30:04

The one of the things that I love about Richmond is that, no matter what you're passionate about affecting in the world, you can probably find a way to do it in Richmond, and so internet searches and like Facebook searches, are always a great way to start.

Speaker 2: 30:17

Find those organizations that are doing something like that in the community that you're passionate about, and the people in this community are so kind and accepting and wanting of the help that all you have to do is reach out, and if ever you reach a roadblock, I don't care who you are, you can reach out to me directly if you're reaching any of those roadblocks, and I will help smooth the way, because we need more people involved doing things that they're passionate about. It doesn't have to be about downtown redevelopment or housing, it can be about anything, but find that little area, that little nugget of passion, and find that organization, and if you can't find it, start it. That's something that we can also help with. So reach out to me any time and we'll figure out how to get this organization started for you or connected to an organization.

Speaker 1: 31:05

That's amazing. You heard it right there. All right, dakota. So are there any upcoming events, projects or causes within the community that you're particularly excited about that you want to highlight other than the projects?

Speaker 2: 31:19

There are so many Like I don't even know where to start outside of the project. Well, I will say, tomorrow night we're going to the Richmond Symphony Orchestra's signature event. I'm really excited about that. The Richmond Symphony Orchestra is just one of those really premier organizations in our community that does such amazing things. They bring the community together and a lot of people have a tendency to think about the symphony and the art museum and all of our cultural institutions that oh, I don't understand music.

Speaker 2: 31:55

So I can't go to the symphony or I don't have money so I can't go to the art museum and truly appreciate it. That's entirely untrue, and the people that work in those organizations would say the same thing, and so the symphony gives away free tickets all the time. They just want you to come and experience that with them, and so I think anytime anybody has the chance to get out and do some of those cultural things. The Reed Center is a great new local organization within the former Reed Presbyterian Church, and they're doing just constant events that are free or cheap to the public. So check out their website too. They've always got stuff going on.

Speaker 1: 32:32

I gotta say I went to my first orchestra event last year, I think it was, and the highlight was Star Wars, I believe it was, and I had an amazing time. I really enjoyed that. It was a new experience for me. I gotta say I really did enjoy that time there.

Speaker 2: 32:49

Yeah, it's always a blast.

Speaker 1: 32:50

Yeah, and last Dakota. Again, thank you for being here, but you know, just give you an opportunity. You mentioned a couple of folks earlier on in our discussion. Is there anyone else that you'd like to give a shout out to a highlight?

Speaker 2: 33:00

family member, team member, friend team, member, friend and organization that you want to share. Man, I could go on and on about the list of people in this community that have helped me personally, or I just am so grateful for all of their work. I mean, you mentioned friends and family. So I would always like my mom has been just this constant source for me and she's fantastic and I don't know who I would be or where I would be without her. And then my partner, Mariah. She's always there and always supportive for me, and so she makes my life way easier, going out and doing all these things.

Speaker 2: 33:36

But then out in the community, my team at Earlham they're so fantastic, they're so much fun to work with Like I couldn't imagine working any other place, not just because it's my alma mater and I love it, but because of the team that I get to work with. Like I couldn't imagine working any other place, not just because it's my alma mater and I love it, but because of the team that I get to work with day in and day out, man Dakota, your enthusiasm and passion for the community and the projects and your involvement.

Speaker 1: 33:56

I think Earlham's in great hands with you and I also think you being involved in these projects, I can't look, I can't wait to see what happens for Richmond.

Speaker 2: 34:03

So thank you, we're excited too.

Speaker 1: 34:05

Hey, thank you for being here and it's been a pleasure. Yeah, happy to, it's been another episode of Our Community.