Good Turnout for Initial Teutopolis MAPPING Meeting

Approximately 125 people turned out for the first meeting of Teutopolis for Tomorrow. The turnout has necessitated a change in meeting place for future meetings.

Subsequent meetings will be held at Community Support Systems Community Day Service Building, located at 223 Harvester Street, just south of Teutopolis Junior High School.

Gisele Hamm and Linda Lee from the Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs at Western Illinois University provided background information about the MAPPING program, and gave examples of other rural areas that have gone through the MAPPING program with success. In addition, they showed demographic information about Teutopolis, historically and now.

One activity included groups of participants brainstorming any positive and negative events that have taken place in Teutopolis from the 1940s to present day. Also, each participant completed these two sentences: "I love living in Teutopolis BUT..." and "I love living in Teutopolis BECAUSE...". These were starting points for the group to begin thinking about traditions Teutopolis citizens value and areas that are in need of improvement.

At the end, participants were asked to come up with two goals for Teutopolis, thinking many years down the road. These goals will be the starting point for the February 10 meeting, focusing on "Where Do We Want to Be?"

If anyone or any businesses are interested in being a sponsor for the MAPPING initiative, they can contact the group via e-mail at teutopolisfortomorrow@gmail.com.