At Monday’s City Council meeting, Lucas Obert was hired to fill the intern position for Main Street Coon Rapids (MSCR). Obert was one of four candidates who applied for and were interviewed for the new internship program that runs the end of May through September.

“We had four excellent candidates for the internship position,” said MSCR Executive Director Katie Mason who interviewed the candidates along with MSCR Board Members Quinn Wurzer and Courtney Schroeder. The three then recommended Obert to the City Council for the position. “I wish we could have hired them all, but in the end, Lucas possessed all the skills necessary for the internship. He has also been a very dependable volunteer for several Main Street projects.”

Obert is the son of Shannon Obert of rural Coon Rapids and Jamie and Andy McAlister of Coon Rapids. As a sophomore at Coon Rapids-Bayard High School, he is very active in several school activities: student council, track, basketball, Knowledge Bowl, speech, choir, band, Spanish club and musical productions. In addition to school activities, he volunteers at his church and has been very involved in MSCR regularly volunteering to write business anniversary stories, fill the planters, work at events and assist in the office.

The City and MSCR are partnering to offer this summer internship opportunity. This is a new position that will report to the Mason. The internship was created to offer skills training and job experience to high school or college students. It will consist of 20 hours a week from late May through early September.

“As our Main Street program has grown and evolved, we are now at a point where we can bring on a part-time intern to assist in some of our programing,” said Mason who works with numerous volunteers to spearhead and assist with downtown revitalization efforts. “Lucas will handle some duties currently being done by volunteers and myself. It will be a great learning opportunity for him and free up the MSCR board and myself a little bit to tackle some new strategic projects.”

Job duties will include updating the city’s online calendar of events and downtown property inventories, as well as redistributing shopping and dining guides to businesses and recreational kiosks. He will assist with events like the Downtown Dash and Dine and the Main Street Block Party and supervise the Farmers Market on Saturday mornings.

Marketing will be a big piece of the job as Obert will use Canva to create social media posts and videos to promote retail events and business spotlights. He will also assist in submitting small grant applications and other writing assignments. This August, MSCR and Whiterock are considering hosting an exhibit booth for one day at the Iowa State Fair. Obert will prepare promotional materials and give-aways for the event and spend the day with MSCR and WRC staff at the fair.

The other large project that MSCR is working on this summer is a Ready to Recruit program through Main Street Iowa. This program builds on the market study completed last year to create a targeted downtown business recruitment plan. Obert will assist the task force in that program.