Other videos will be added next week: Dr. Craig Pearson’s introduction, as well as Dr. Bevan Morris’s impressive introduction to Jim Carrey. In it he told a story about Judd Apatow, who, early in his career as a young standup comic, was opening for Jim Carrey. After seeing Jim perform and the response from the audience, Judd decided to quit comedy. He said “Jim Carrey is funniest man on earth. This is something we can all agree on. We can debate forever number two but Jim will always be the king.” Until that video is available, I share this story so you’ll more fully appreciate the humor in the Valedictorian’s opening remarks.
About six months later, November 13, 2014, Jim Carrey was on The Ellen Degeneres Show promoting his film Dumb and Dumber To. One of the things Ellen asked him about was the Commencement speech he had given and what it was like for him. Jim spoke glowingly about MUM and the students, and that he had learned TM. They actually showed a clip of it. Here is the 1:40 minute segment, which starts at 6:36 of the 8:20 interview. After the show over a half-million people visited the MUM YouTube Channel. To date over 60 million people worldwide have seen Jim’s inspiring talk. I later found a transcript of it.
Doug Llewelyn, left, interviewed Fairfield Mayor Ed Malloy, center, and Fairfield Iowa Convention and Visitors Bureau executive director Rustin Lippincott last week in Los Angeles for the television show, “Moving America Forward.” The two men were interviewed as part of the show’s episode on Fairfield’s entrepreneurial spirit. The episode will air later this year at a time and channel to be announced. Llewelyn is perhaps best known to television audiences for hosting “The People’s Court” with Judge Joseph Wapner.
In the past few years, Fairfield has been in the national spotlight as numerous television programs and magazines have publicized what makes this town such a great place to live.
This year appears to be no different. That’s because Fairfield will be featured on a television show called “Moving America Forward,” hosted by William Shatner. The show will focus on the town’s entrepreneurial spirit and how this affects the residents’ quality of life.
Fairfield Mayor Ed Malloy and Fairfield Iowa Convention and Visitors Bureau executive director Rustin Lippincott flew to Los Angeles last week to be interviewed for the show. Their interviewer was Doug Llewelyn, who is most famous for hosting “The People’s Court” with Judge Joseph Wapner, which aired from 1981 to 1994.
The episode about Fairfield will air on YouToo TV this spring. After it airs on television, viewers can see it on the website YouTube.
Lippincott said he and Malloy chatted with Llewelyn for a few hours before taping began to give him an idea of what Fairfield is all about.
“We touched on what it’s like to live in Fairfield, and we covered the areas that make us a great place to live,” said Lippincott.
Fairfield will be the first town “Moving America Forward” has featured on its show, which normally highlights the accomplishments of individual business owners rather than whole cities. Lippincott said the show’s producers heard about Fairfield through the Smithsonian Magazine, which in 2013 named Fairfield the seventh-best small town to visit.
“Fairfield was recognized for fostering the environment that helped these businesses grow,” he said. “What makes this a unique recognition is we have 9,000 people but we have accomplished so much. That is, at its core, why we were recognized by ‘Moving America Forward.’”
Malloy said he began talking to the show’s senior producer Ruth Collins last year, who informed him Fairfield was a candidate for a spot on the show.
“She said they had done some research on our city and they found it fascinating, with all these different elements such as the entrepreneurship, sustainability and arts and culture,” he said. “She said, ‘We’d like to know more,’ so we sent them links to some of our websites.”
Collins said Fairfield was chosen from a pool of 70 candidate cities.
Malloy said Fairfield is often referred to as “Silicorn Valley,” a play on “Silicon Valley” near San Francisco, for the numerous technology and computer companies that were born here. He said many of those businesses were started in the late 1980s by software engineers educated at Maharishi International University, now known as Maharishi University of Management.
“Everyone who came to study and wanted to stay had to bring their own livelihood with them,” he said. “Because there were so many people who had a background in computers, there were a good dozen to 20 companies that were developing software. It became a phenomenon that these companies were originating from a small town in Iowa.”
Malloy said a financial journalist was doing a story about the entrepreneurial boom in Fairfield at the time, and referred to this technological enclave as the country’s “Silicorn Valley.”
During their interview with Llewelyn, Malloy and Lippincott mentioned not only the town’s strong IT sector but also its many other strengths such as manufacturing, tourism, education and agricultural economy.
The taped interview with Llewelyn lasted 15-20 minutes. Although Shatner is the host of the show, he was not on set for the interview. He introduces the clips and provides commentary throughout the show.
Malloy was filmed answering a set of questions about Fairfield. Shatner will be filmed asking those questions, and the two clips will be spliced together to make it appear Shatner is talking directly to Malloy.
Lippincott said the answers he and Malloy gave to the questions were not scripted, although the producer had an idea of what they would say from talking about their town with Llewelyn that morning.
In addition to the interviews with Malloy and Lippincott, the segment on Fairfield will include still photographs and silent camera footage of noteworthy places and events in town to be shown during the interviews. Malloy said he and others submitted videos to the producer, and the producers will get more video footage on their own later.
Even if residents miss the opportunity to watch the episode when it’s broadcast on television, chances are they will be able to view the video later. That’s because three Fairfield entities pooled their resources to purchase the video to use as a promotional tool once “Moving America Forward” is done with it.
Rights to the video cost $11,700, and the three entities who chipped in to purchase it were the city of Fairfield, the Fairfield Economic Development Association and the Fairfield Iowa Convention and Visitors Bureau. The three entities will own the video collectively.
Malloy said he felt the asking price to purchase the video was a bargain. He said he is glad the city will be able to show the “Moving America Forward” segment on the Fairfield Media Center’s public access cable channel, FPAC–9.
Reprinted with permission from The Fairfield Ledger
Related articles on Fairfield, Iowa’s entrepreneurial spirit:
On the first Sunday in November 2013, the Des Moines Sunday Register published an Opinion piece about Fairfield, a city of around 10,000 in southeast Iowa. Written by editorial columnist Rox Laird, it praises Fairfield’s ability to work together as a community to manufacture dreams. Laird tours the town with Mayor Ed Malloy, who points out many cultural assets, creative entrepreneurial businesses, and green features for energy self-sufficiency, part of an overall plan for the city. They visit a new and unique net-zero classroom building housing the Sustainable Living Center on the campus of Maharishi University of Management in the north part of town.
MUM obtained permission to make this wonderful article available as a reprint. Here is a PDF of the article: Fairfield defines community action, also available on the MUM website link.mum.edu/GreenFF. A photo of the Fairfield Arts and Convention Center replaces the Register file photo in the article. The same photos of the Sustainable Living Center and Mayor Malloy appear in the reprint along with FACC and MUM logos and contact information at the end. For additional information, I’ve listed some articles at the bottom related to some of the topics mentioned in the Op-Ed piece.
Laird: Fairfield defines community action
Jefferson County town shows how to ‘manufacture dreams’ through civic collaboration
Nov. 3, 2013 3:45 PM
Shops on the square in downtown Fairfield, a mixture of classic Main Street Iowa and international fare. / Register file photo
Fairfield, Ia. – Drive around this Jefferson County seat with Mayor Ed Malloy and you begin to understand why this town is considered unique in Iowa.
The obvious reason is the presence of Maharishi University of Management that is a magnet for Transcendental Meditation devotees from around the world, which is evident as Malloy wheels around the downtown square. It is lined with unusual shops, art galleries, bookstores, restaurants offering international fare, imported chocolates and teas. A monthly First Friday Art Walk draws a cross-section of the community and people from around the state.
Just off the square, across from the Jefferson County Courthouse, sits the community center and the Stephen Sondheim Center for the Performing Arts. It is home to what is described as the only professional live musical theater company in the state and attracts a variety of performing arts events.
A couple of blocks on is Malloy’s oil trading company, housed in an office building built according to the ancient Indian principles of Maharishi Vedic architecture that seeks harmony with the energy of the sun and nature for the well-being of occupants. Many examples of Vedic design can be seen in Fairfield and in Maharishi Vedic City, incorporated in recent years.
Fairfield is a town of contrasts, where you can see a BMW parked on the street next to a pickup truck. The native population has increasingly accepted immigrants who brought a different culture and an entrepreneurial spirit that invigorates the city’s economy. Fairfield has earned a long list of plaudits in numerous “best of” categories, including the April Smithsonian magazine’s list of “The 20 Best Small Towns in America.”
Fairfield lives green
Among the striking things about Fairfield is its ethic of self-sufficient sustainability. This manifests itself in many ways, such as a cooperative organic food market and a solar-powered radio station run by volunteers. Solar panels sprout from roofs and from freestanding structures. The city of Fairfield has an energy efficiency coordinator, whose salary is shared by the city and by Iowa State University’s extension service.
In the city’s industrial park, Sky Factory uses backlit photography to create outdoor scenes for ceilings of hospitals and medical clinics. The plant has set aside space next to its parking lot for an array of solar panels and a garden tended by employees.
On the opposite side of town, a mostly off-the-grid subdivision called Abundance EcoVillage captures energy from the wind and the sun, and draws air for heating and cooling from the Earth.
This conservation ethic runs deeper in the community than these outward symbols of alternative and renewable energy sources. As a participant in Alliant Energy’s Hometown Rewards program, Fairfield took on a challenge beginning on Earth Day in 2012 to reduce its overall energy consumption by 4 percent. It hit that and exceeded it: Fairfield residents shaved electric and natural gas consumption by 8.5 percent and businesses cut theirs by 8 percent.
Working with Alliant, which provided marketing and technical support, the city held workshops for residents and business owners, some 4,500 participants pledged to meet energy savings goals by doing laundry in cold water and installing compact fluorescent light bulbs. A fund was created to make loans for new windows and insulation.
The total savings of 10.2 million kilowatt hours of gas and electricity is enough energy to power 1,077 homes for one year, according to Alliant, which independently verified the energy savings. Besides the savings on power bills, Alliant dangled a carrot in the form of a grant of nearly $19,000, which the city put toward installation of solar panels on the roof of the Fairfield Library this summer.
Alliant Energy spokesman Justin Foss attributed the success of this impressive energy savings to the level of community engagement, working at a neighbor-to-neighbor level creating peer pressure that came from an active group that led the charge.
“This is a program that works really well for Fairfield,” Foss said. “You can’t do that in every community.”
A foot in both worlds
Ed Malloy is perhaps the best example of how Fairfield has melded small town Iowa values with the exotic culture inspired by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Malloy is an immigrant from New York, practices TM and lives in a spacious and handsome home built to the exacting Vedic principles. He moves comfortably among traditional and nontraditional Fairfield, which is evident from his support by voters for more than a decade.
Malloy says Fairfield’s can-do culture begins with setting ambitious goals, but achievements are celebrated by the entire community, not just the strong core of Transcendental Meditation followers fed by Maharishi University.
In Fairfield, Malloy said, “people go out and manufacture their dreams. When we all share the pride, that’s when everything changes.”
Classroom building is a lesson in sustainability
Fairfield, Ia. – Maharishi University of Management here set out three years ago to build a new classroom building for its sustainable living program that lived up to the department’s mission. The finished product may be the greenest building in Iowa.
The building is constructed of compressed-earthen blocks manufactured by students on site and load-bearing timbers consisting of full-size aspen tree trunks. It generates more energy than it consumes. It collects and treats rainwater from the roof for drinking and flushing. Daylight supplies two-thirds of light in classrooms and offices during the day. Passive and active solar energy is stored in 600 tons of earthen blocks and a 5,000-gallon water tank, which is supplemented with wind-generated electricity. It has a greenhouse for growing plants indoors and edible landscaping outdoors.
The Schwartz-Guich Sustainable Living Center is performing exactly as intended. In fact, it is “exceeding our expectations in energy efficiency in cooling and heating seasons,” said Lawrence Gamble, professor of sustainable living at MUM and an irrepressible evangelist on the subject of renewable energy and natural resource conservation.
Standing beside the center’s electric meter outside the building recently, Gamble pointed to the spinning wheel that measures electric consumption. The wheel was going backward, however, meaning the building was returning power to the electric grid. In fact, according to Gamble, the center produces about a third more energy than it consumes. And it consumes less than a quarter of what an ordinary building of the same size would consume.
Besides employing nearly every imaginable green building technique, the Sustainable Living Center design follows the principles of Maharishi Vedic architecture, an ancient design philosophy from India that puts buildings in harmony with nature. It is hard to imagine a building that does a better job of meeting that goal.
Terrific look around Fairfield by Rox Laird. It’s been fun over the last two decades or so watching Ed Malloy develop as one of the most effective and most congenial leaders in Iowa. The whole extended Fairfield community has been very well-served by him — and he has frequently contributed his talent and insight to state-level initiatives, too.
Remember the fuss four decades ago when the Maharishis took over the old Parsons College? You’d thought the Soviets were coming in. I am disappointed that the Beach Boys never set up their planned recording studio there.
Composer and singer/songwriter Jane Roman Pitt and Iowa landscape photographer Ken West, both of Fairfield, officially presented the music video “Iowa Gold” to Gov. Terry Branstad Wednesday afternoon in the State Capitol Building in Des Moines.
A tribute to the richness of Iowa’s farm culture, people and rural landscapes, “Iowa Gold” was produced solely for noncommercial use to promote the beauty of Iowa and the state’s scenic byways.
Rep. Dave Heaton lauded “Iowa Gold” as “so beautiful, both in sight and sound, that says so much about our state.”
Barbara Sletto, director of the Heartland Youth Choir, which was scheduled to perform “Iowa Gold” 2-3 p.m. today on the Budweiser Stage at the Iowa State Fair, praised the song.
“The words are great and the melody is very singable — the song is great,” she said.
Pitt said she was inspired to write her “love song to Iowa” because the state embodies the principles on which America was founded
“The freedom to own land and the choice to live in cities or open spaces,” she said. “And Ken’s beautiful landscape photos reflect the feelings of pride for our state that I tried to convey in the song.”
West described “Iowa Gold” as a song Iowa school children or anyone can relate to with contemporary lyrics easy to sing.
“We hope our video inspires the next generation to appreciate and care for the land they are inheriting,” West said.
Pitt is a recording artist, songwriter, and composer. She is winner of the grand prize at the International Amadeus Choral Competition and her “Midnight Lullaby” CD received a “Parents’ Choice Award,” an award that honors the best material in children’s media.
West’s images have been featured on Iowa Public Television’s “Iowa Outdoors” and at the National Center for Nature Photography, which is America’s first and only center devoted exclusively to nature photography.
More information on both artists can be found on the Iowa Gold website at www.iowagoldsong.com.
“Is this heaven? No, it’s Iowa.” (Field of Dreams) But as Jane Roman Pitt would answer, “Yes, it’s Iowa.” And this is her version, along with Ken West, of what makes their new music video Iowa Gold a heaven on earth.
Fairfield singer/songwriter Jane Roman Pitt and Iowa landscape photographer Kenneth West combined their talents to create a beautiful music video called Iowa Gold. Jane wrote and sang the song. Ken contributed his photographs and produced the video. Tim Britton engineered and produced the music. Musicians were Arthur Lee Land, guitar; Lauryn Shapter, violin; Paul Fauerso, piano; Tim Britton, bass; and David Hurlin, drums. The result is this beautiful video, pleasing both to the eye and ear; heart and mind.
Iowa musician Jane Pitt and photographer Ken West have collaborated on the amazingly beautiful video, Iowa Gold. Jane is an award-winning musician and Ken’s award-winning photography has been featured on IPTV’s Iowa Outdoors and at the National Center for Nature Photography, America’s first and only center devoted exclusively to nature photography. Ken’s photographic work is featured on the Iowa Byways website.
Ken and Jane are offering use of this video to us. The Iowa Gold video can embedded into any Audio/Visual presentation directly from YouTube. Iowa gold can also be enjoyed at either Jane or Ken‘s websites. There are no fees or contracts for the use of this video. It is their simply their gift to the Governor, Mrs. Branstad and the state of Iowa. The song was officially honored by the Iowa State House of Representatives, and has been enjoyed by schoolchildren throughout the state.
Here is Jane’s description of the video, which you can also see and Like on her IOWA GOLD Facebook page.
“The song ‘Iowa Gold’ came to me as I was driving through the Iowa countryside one day. I’d just been visiting a big city, and my appreciation of the simple beauty and richness of the landscape flowed out in this song. Award-winning photographer Ken West has perfectly captured the beauty of the Iowa landscape with his collection of photographs of Iowa’s Scenic Byways, commissioned by the Resource and Development Councils of Iowa. … I hope you enjoy this love song to Iowa!”
For highest quality select 720p HD setting and expand to full screen.
This music video is intended solely for noncommercial use promoting the beauty of Iowa and its scenic byways. Use of this music video, including resale or other commercial use is strictly prohibited. This music video may not be reproduced by any means, whether in its entirety or in part, without the written permission of Jane Roman Pitt and Kenneth West.
In 1911 “The Song of Iowa” by S.H.M. Byers became Iowa’s official state song. The lyrics “You asked what land I love the best, Iowa, tis Iowa, The fairest State of all the west, Iowa, O! Iowa, From yonder Mississippi’s stream…” were set to the tune “O Tannenbaum.” Songwriter Jane Roman Pitt thinks Iowa can do better. She has written a song called “Iowa Gold,” and now Pitt and photographer Ken West have put together a video that showcases Iowa at it’s best. The video is part of their campaign to make “Iowa Gold” the state’s next official song.
The Des Moines Register’s Kyle Munson’s mentioned Jane Pitt and her song, Iowa Gold, in his report on the opening day of the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines. The Heartland Youth Choir sang the first choral rendition of the song. Here is an excerpt from Kyle’s report, Munson: Weather receives early blue ribbon:
Then there’s Jane Pitt from Fairfield. She wrote the song “Iowa Gold” 25 years ago during a drive from Detroit as she relocated to Iowa, inspired by our state’s “surprisingly rolling hills.” A quarter-century later she was able to relish the first public performance of her folk-tinged song as sung by the 32 young voices (grades 1 through 12) of the Iowa Heartland Youth Choir.
Could this become a new state song? (The official state anthem, Samuel Hawkins Marshall Byers’ “Song of Iowa,” was written more than a century ago to the tune of “O Christmas Tree.”)
“It’s a beautiful thing,” Tina said. “It’s a great privilege. It’s really an honor to be with my daughters today.”
The Class of 2013 is made up of 334 students who represent 54 countries. This includes 251 graduates and 83 undergraduate degrees.
“They graduated their largest class in history which really underscores the trend the university’s going through right now,” Mayor of Fairfield Ed Malloy said. “They really are on a growth path.”
“I’ve been to a lot of commencements and I don’t think I’ve ever been on a platform where I’ve had as many different nations represented as there are here,” Iowa Senator Tom Harkin said.
Senator Harkin delivered a humorous, yet moving commencement speech. He says the most important thing to remember in life is to be apart of something bigger than yourself.
“Get involved in something,” Harkin said. “Think about the pebble you throw in the pond that makes waves that get bigger and bigger and bigger. Even if you’re a pebble, even if you’re not a senator or a governor, that doesn’t make any difference, you can start something in a community.”
The Morales-Rivera twins plan on taking Senator Harkin’s words to heart, furthering their media and communications education in the fall to obtain their master’s degrees.
“We’ve always loved movies and simply the world of media,” Coral Morales-Rivera said. “We want to change it and bring it to be more self-conscious of the beauty of life.”
For more information see the MUM press release announcing the MUM 2013 Awards Ceremony the night before and today’s graduation. An archive of it can be seen on Livestream. An archive of the graduation will be posted at a later time on the MaharishiUniversity YouTube Channel.
Students and volunteers raise the walls on Heather Caldwell’s tiny house. / KTVO’s Kate Allt
FAIRFIELD, IOWA — We often say that bigger is better, but a tiny house movement sweeping the country is proving otherwise.
Fairfield has several tiny houses, most of them about the size of a typical college dorm room. Wednesday, students in the Sustainable Living program at Maharishi University started construction on the newest one — a 12-foot-by-20-foot home designed by student Heather Caldwell.
“A lot of people believe that – in the tiny house movement – that we just consume too much, we’re living in spaces that are way too big, we don’t need that much space,” Caldwell said. “And so these people are building tiny houses to live in them. The thing that I’m interested in once I graduate is not only building tiny houses, but building a community, tiny house communities. So there’s a tiny house movement right now where a lot of people individually are building tiny houses and pretty soon we’ll see more tiny communities popping up and that’s what I’m majoring in.”
The building course is new at Maharishi University, but they plan to teach it for a long time.
“It’s a global movement, people are doing it everywhere and the idea is to downsize and simplify and to lower your energy demands and to be able to live off of renewable energy,” said Professor Mark Stimson, of Maharishi’s Sustainable Living Program. “One of the greatest things is — well, two things — to become self-reliant. It used to be in the old days in this country everybody knew how to build their own house, but since then we’ve gotten kind of specialized in all that. So this is sort of going back to that era of self reliance. And then the greatest part also is just the idea of living mortgage-free. If you can save a few thousand dollars or just salvage materials from places, you can build a very comfortable, snug home for very little money and not have to pay a mortgage for 20 or 30 years.”
Heather designed every element of her tiny house and will be moving on with two kids, four cats and a dog.
“I didn’t believe it at first,” said Heather’s daughter, Ellie. “It’s one of those projects our parents say they’re going to do and then they don’t do. But it’s happening, so it’s fun.”
Caldwell said one of the most challenging aspects is utilizing the small space available to make a fully functioning home.
“One of the big keys to tiny houses is finding multiple uses for the same spot,” she said. “Like the reading nook in the tiny house is also a guest bed and it also houses the dining room table which slips out from underneath and that’s our dining room table.”
Heather’s family hopes to move in in late June and will live in the tiny house for a year. On top of being smaller and more energy-efficient, Heather’s house is also being designed to be entirely off the grid, with solar-powered windows, composting and mud plaster.
To learn more on Heather’s house and to see progress over the next few weeks, visit her blog by clicking here.
To learn more about the Sustainable Living program at MUM, click here.
Women share personal, professional and spiritual journey at MUM. / Laura Simon
FAIRFIELD, IOWA — Students involved in Wise Women Lead at Maharishi University of Management say women empowering other women is a universal custom.
“We wanted to give women the opportunity to come together,” Tabitha Sedgwick said. “I think it’s very important and it’s sometimes missing in our society, especially in America.”
In honor of Mother’s Day, the MUM Wise Women Lead selected four accomplished women from all walks of life to share their experience, offering valuable words of wisdom.
“Mothers are what give life to creation on earth,” Sedgwick said. “They are the ones that bring all lives here, so we just want to be able to honor them and all women in the world.”
“The particular women we’ve chosen to speak today, their legacy is that they want to create other leaders,” Jessica Keen, Director of the MUM Women’s Institute and Faculty Sponsor for Wise Women Lead said, “and that is they want to pass along their knowledge and they want to empower young women to really step into their own.”
Among that group of speakers included Leslee Goldstein who shared stories of two women she met in Uganda who are helping other Ugandan women living in poverty develop skills like sewing, planting and money management as ways to make support their families, helping many get out of prostitution.
“Whatever wisdom or feminine wisdom is in the world, it’s not like we only want the American perspective,” Momone Maley said. “I think that reaching out to women who are from different cultures and understanding what wisdom they’ve been passed.”
Other speakers talked about health, attending law school in the 1960s and what it’s like owning a non-profit organization.
“This is how leadership develops, and it’s not something you can necessarily learn in a classroom,” Keen said.
Smithsonian Magazine has named Fairfield the seventh best small town in America to visit.
Fairfield will be featured in the April edition of the magazine along with the other small towns that made the top 10 list.
Smithsonian Magazine sent a writer to Fairfield for the weekend of Jan. 26-27. Fairfield Area Chamber of Commerce director Nancy Morrissey gave the writer, Susan Spano, a tour of the town when she came to visit.
Spano visited numerous businesses and attractions while she was here. She went to the ICON Gallery, Maasdam Barns, Maharishi University of Management’s Sustainable Living Center, Sky Factory, Creative Edge Mastershop, Café Paradiso and many other places.
“Having spent a full day and a half with Susan Spano, I was convinced that we were going to be chosen as one of the top 10 small towns to visit in 2013,” Morrissey said. “Susan was charmed with the warmth and intimacy of Fairfield, fascinated with Fairfield’s sustainability lifestyle and entranced by our diversity, infusion of culture and entertainment and strong appreciation of our history.”
Morrissey said her only regret from Spano’s visit was that she did not get to visit Carnegie Museum. A combination of rain and freezing temperatures made travel difficult that weekend and the museum could not be open.
Morrissey created Spano’s itinerary for the weekend. She said it was difficult to decide on which sites to visit since Spano had limited time and because most of her tour was done on a Sunday when many establishments are closed.
Spano stayed at the MainStay Inn, where she had breakfast with a number of leaders in the community. Morrissey said Spano liked that, since it was a change of pace from the formal presentations she had received from community leaders in other towns.
Ken Chawkin, the media relations coordinator at Maharishi University of Management, was with Spano as she toured M.U.M., including the Sustainability Living Center. She met with David Fisher, chair of the Department of Sustainable Living, and Jon Lipman, who has designed all the buildings on campus since 2000. Those two gave Spano a presentation on what the Sustainability Living Center was all about.
“She was very impressed with the Sustainability Center,” Chawkin said.
The Smithsonian photographer, Charles Ledford, took a photo inside the Maharishi Patanjali Dome, which appears on the Smithsonian’s website above its article on Fairfield. Chawkin said Ledford was very appreciative of being allowed into the dome. Ledford also took photographs at Eco Village and inside Café Paradiso. Chawkin said Ledford got to hear a local Celtic band practice. Tim Britton even played a special tune for Spano when she visited the café.
The Fairfield residents Spano spoke with were interested to know if Fairfield would make the top 20 or even the top 10 list.
“She told us at breakfast that Fairfield kept coming up highly in their selection criteria,” Chawkin said. “Ours was the only town where she sat at a table to have brunch with people. She felt that was very warm and friendly.”
Fairfield Mayor Ed Malloy was with Spano for part of her tour.
“Susan was openly impressed with Fairfield,” he said. “She was not hiding her enthusiasm about what she was seeing.”
Malloy said he and other Fairfield residents were hopeful they could make a positive impression on Spano to propel the town into the top 10.
“The news that we’re No. 7 is thrilling,” he said. “It acknowledges all the work we’ve been doing to promote our community, and it helps us stay current in defining how Fairfield is a great place to live and raise a family.”
Malloy said some members of the tour group were worried the bad weather that weekend wouldn’t give them the opportunity to put the best possible face on the town.
“To get that objective verification that we make that big of an impression on an outside organization or person is wonderful,” he said. “We really are a small town with limited resources.”
One resource that is not in short supply in town is friendly people. Malloy said visitors to town can sense the warmth of the city’s residents.
“The friendliness and compassion we have for our community shines through to people from outside,” he said.
Terry Monmaney, executive editor of Smithsonian Magazine, said he started the search for the best small towns by consulting with the geographic information services company Esri. Esri contains information about the services and amenities of virtually every town in the country.
“We asked Esri to look at towns under 15,000 people and check them for a couple dozen different cultural features or assets, such as museums, performance stages, parks, galleries, amusement parks and the like,” he said. “That resulted in a list of a few dozen high-scoring towns ranked by the number of assets.”
Smithsonian Magazine then narrowed those results further to achieve a ratio of the number of “cultural assets” per capita, which was mostly responsible for determining a town’s ranking.
“For the overall list we were looking for geographic range, editorial mix and what might be called freshness,” he said. “Fairfield met all those criteria and then some.”
Posted with permission from The Fairfield Ledger.
(I forgot to mention that “Stretch” Ledford, the Smithsonian photographer, had also visited MUM’s organic greenhouse and took some amazing photos of Steve McLaskey with an armful of vegetables he and his wife Susie had just picked.)
The Uncarved Blog 