New friends and a new plan for El Dorado!

Last Thursday a group of 29 “young adults” gathered at the Coutt’s Museum for an evening of socializing and talking about what they would like to see happen in El Dorado.  The term ‘young adults’ is incorrect wording for this group, but we have not yet figured out how to classify ourselves.  We had a mixture of people in attendance who were business owners, teachers, downtown employees, and even college students.   It was a great way for everyone to meet new people and find out what others are involved in.

As the attendees arrived, they were instructed to look for five question boxes that were set up around the room.  Each one had a different question for them to answer.  The questions were:

1.      What are your top three favorite things about El Dorado?

2.      What are the top three things that you would like to see change in El Dorado?

3.      What events would you like to see in El Dorado?

4.      What organizations/clubs are you currently involved in or would like to be?

5.      How is the best way to market/communicate with you?

The top answers to the question regarding their favorite things about El Dorado were: downtown, friendly people, and the lake.  Young adults in our community love our downtown because of what it has to offer.  Those of us that are in our 20’s to early 40’s do not remember the downtown in “the good ol’ days”, so we do not compare to what it used to be.  We see what has happened in the past ten years and love what it has become, which was very obvious in the responses to this question. 

The answers to the question regarding what they would like to see change were very thought-provoking and different from one person to another.  The most duplicated answers were regarding more shopping/dining options, but when you looked further, these were some of the other answers that we should all take notice of. 

·        Bridge generational gap between seniors and younger populations

·        Safe and inexpensive activities for middle school and high school students

·        Local businesses involved in evening activities in coordination with each other

·        Organizations and city leaders working together more

·        Community pride from a larger percentage of the population, especially younger people

·        The divide between the socio-economic classes

·        Break the division between major players in the community. (i.e- city, college, hospital, refinery, school district)

As you can see, these were answers that this group really thought about before responding.  They raised some interesting issues that we will be exploring as we continue to meet.  The entire list will be made public later this week via email.  If you would like to be on the mailing list for this, please call 321-3088.

We do plan on holding another similar event in November and plan on hosting a band to provide live music.  There will be an effort to name ourselves so that we can promote the activities better.  A couple of the major responses to the questions will be discussed in greater detail in a group brainstorming session as well.  In addition to this, we will be making an effort to support the El Dorado High School up-coming drama, Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat.  Plans are being made to attend the production as a group to show support to our local high school students.