The City of Plymouth is getting some promotional help, thanks to a video unveiled late last week. “Positively Plymouth” was commissioned by local business owners Randy and Eleanor Danielson.
The three-minute video highlights many of the city’s unique features, such as the Yellow River, the Plymouth Municipal Airport, and Centennial Park. Randy Danielson says it was a way for his family to give back to the city, “Plymouth is my home community; I was a native of Plymouth. And I think often times, when you live in a community for a length of time, you begin to overlook the great assets that the community has and the improvements that have been made with investments privately and also in the government sector. And I thought this was occurring here, so that can easily lead to a stream of negativity. So my wife and I, we just kind of discussed what we could do on the behalf of the community.”
They decided to hire video producers Chad Montgomery and Mitch Lawrence to create the promotional video. The footage was shot last summer, and the finished video got its public premiere during Saturday’s town hall meeting discussing Marshall County’s economic development plans. It was shown again during Monday’s Plymouth Common Council meeting.
One notable feature of the “Positively Plymouth” video is its use of drone footage to give the viewer a different perspective of the city. Danielson joked with the council about some of the challenges that presented, “Yeah, the first water one there, of the river, Chad lost his drone in the river. Never did find it, so if anybody does, please return it. And we did get permission from the airport to fly a drone that close to the runway.”
However, he says there were also challenges of a different sort, like deciding what parts of the community to include and which would be left out. Danielson stresses their goal was to avoid excluding anyone or promoting one section of the city over another. Instead, he hopes the video will help the city develop as one single community.
He adds that the video is designed to evolve along with the city, “It’s something that we want to keep fresh as things change. It’s segmented to the point where Chad and Mitch can easily update it, so we will continue to take care of that as time goes on and new things are added.”
Mayor Mark Senter and other city officials have expressed their appreciation for the Danielsons’ efforts. So did Common Council member Mike Delp, “I went home after Saturday and thought, ‘Wait a minute, Randy isn’t even advertising or anything here.’ So, I just appreciate it. This is going above and beyond, and I really enjoyed it. I’m sure everyone else will.”
In the week since the video was posted to YouTube, it’s already gotten more than two thousand views. Danielson adds that interest has been growing on social media since his business, Johnson-Danielson Funeral Home, posted the video on its Facebook page Monday. The City of Plymouth, the Chamber of Commerce, and some other agencies have plans to put the video on their websites in an effort to attract tourists and new residents to the city.
Click here to watch the video.
