CWU Students Attend National Main Streets Conference As Part of Documenting Ellensburg's Main Street

April 23, 2010 - PRLog -- Central Washington University students Matthew Ballantyne and Stefanie Burger will be attending the National Main Streets Conference in Oklahoma City May 2-5.  Burger and Ballantyne are members of CWU’s Public Relations Student Society of America chapter which has partnered with the Ellensburg Downtown Association to document the 300 block of Ellensburg’s Main Street.  

“We’re very appreciative of the CWU Student Affairs Office and EDA for making this trip possible.  This will help us give a focal point within the film that the audience can follow from, not to mention the opportunity we are receiving professionally,” said Stefanie Burger.

The Ellensburg Main Street 2010 project will include in depth documentaries of 9 businesses located on the block.  Students will photograph the block and the businesses while also conducting interviews with the 9 business owners, employees and customers.   The photos, videos and interviews will then be shared online via several websites including NPR’s Mapping Main Street, the Kaufman Foundation’s Build a Stronger America, and CNN’s i-Report.  The students will also be working with the American Independent Business Alliance and the National Main Street Center to identify other opportunities to share their portrait of Ellensburg’s Main Street.  The project will culminate with a feature length documentary of Ellensburg’s Main Street and the businesses that occupy it.  

While in Oklahoma City the two students will meet with project advisors, Jeff Milchen, co-founder of the American Independent Business Alliance, and Doug Loescher the Director of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Main Street Center.  The students will also have the opportunity to meet with other conference attendees and interview them about the importance of Main Street in communities across the country.  

Timothy Bishop, Executive Director for the EDA, sees this as an exciting opportunity for the students.  “We worked with the PRSSA students last year with great results so we were glad to have the opportunity to partner with the club again this year.  This is a great project for the students and we’re thrilled to have individuals like Milchen and Loescher giving their time to mentor this project. To have two of the students working on this project attend the NMSC is a tremendous opportunity for the students.”

The EDA was able to cover the cost of the conference registration and travel costs were covered by CWU’s Student Affairs office.  

“As a student, an opportunity such as this really builds confidence.  It gives me the opportunity to put together a complex project that has a measurable end result, and the chance to show what I am capable of in the real world,” says Matthew Ballantyne.

The PRSSA students have started a blog about the project at www.ellensburgmainstreet2010.blogspot.com and a facebook fan page that has attracted more than 250 fans from across the country.

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This is campaign-styled project involving Central Washington University's PRSSA chapter (led by Stefanie Burger and Matthew Ballantyne) in cooperation with the Ellensburg Downtown Association.