“The purpose of the video is to promote Marion to potential businesses, residents and visitors by communicating the spirit and essence of our community and making them want to spend time here or eventually become a part of it,” said Marion CAN DO President Craig Thompson. “Through slice-of-life scenes in and around the Marion area and an emotionally delivered narrative, the video does a great job of capturing the friendly and inviting hometown feel of our community, and the pride that our citizens have in it. “

The 80-second video was created, edited, produced and directed by Badertscher Communications, Inc., a local marketing communications firm. Badertscher, which was the original creator of the “You’ll Feel Right At Home” slogan in the late 80s, had recently refreshed the graphics for the theme and designed a landing page for the youllfeelrightathome.com Web site as a pro bono project. The landing page contains links to a variety of Marion area organizations.

“The volunteer committee composed of local business leaders and marketing professionals was the driving force behind getting the video produced,” said Steve Badertscher, president and creative director at Badertscher Communications. “Everyone brainstormed and came up with lots of great suggestions for scenes that they felt would embody Marion’s “You’ll Feel Right At Home” spirit. We also had had tremendous cooperation from many members of community at large, whose participation enabled us to capture the fabric and vibrancy of our town in a realistic and believable fashion. Their enthusiastic cooperation helped us convey the kind of warm welcome and positive attitude that visitors to Marion area are received with.”

Marion CVB Director, Diane Watson adds, “Our hope is the site will become the prime link to many different resources and services of the Marion community. There will also be many different web sites of local businesses and organizations with a button link directed back to the “You’ll Feel Right At Home” site.”

Katie Chivington, Director of Community Relations for United Church Homes states, “I was excited to be a part of the marketing group. Growing up in this community and now raising my family back in this community, I feel it is very important that we have a strong marketing message to grow Marion forward.”