Maybe you’ve noticed, there’s a new fortuneteller on East Center Street.  For ten bucks she’ll look at your palm and deliver the news that’s yet to happen in your life.  If she hits it right, you’re likely to drop another sawbuck to get more details.  And, if she misses the mark—well, nobody’s perfect—and she still has your Hamilton. 

But there’s more than one fortuneteller here in Marion.  In fact, they’re all around us, predicting the future with remarkable accuracy.  One of them is Mike McNamara.  Mike runs Alco Cleaners at 465 South Sefner, just off Mount Vernon Avenue—which is exactly what he was doing one Saturday a few weeks ago.  A stranger walked into his shop, a week’s worth of shirts in his arms.  Could Mike get them cleaned and pressed in the next few hours?  That’s an awfully quick turnaround, thought Mike.  But something about the gentleman, perhaps his foreign accent, gave Mike pause.  Sure, he could make an exception, he said, and get the laundry done quickly.  That’s when Mike learned that the man with a European accent was scouting our city for a new industrial plant. 

Mike turned the shop over to his employees and spent the next several hours with his new customer.  He showed him Marion’s Airport Industrial Park.  He took him to visit Howie Smith, president of the Wilson Bohannan Company.  Howie welcomed the foreign visitor into his home and told him about the craftsmanship his employees bring to the design and manufacture of the brass padlocks that come out of the plant on Buckeye Street. 

At the end of the day, the visitor’s shirts were cleaned and pressed and the vice president of a significant European manufacturer left Marion, Ohio favorably impressed with the community and the people here.  I was unaware of the visit until informed of it several days later.  When I spoke with our visitor by phone, he was on his way back to Europe, to connect with others who will be involved in the decision on whether to build a new plant in the U.S.—and more specifically, thanks to some timely hospitality, whether to build it here in Marion. 

Mike and Howie are every bit as much fortunetellers as the madam on East Center--in fact, more so.  They saw the future clearly as they hosted their foreign visitor.  It is a future where several hundred new jobs are created in a new plant at one of our community’s industrial parks.  They saw more people working, bringing their time and talents to new jobs here in Marion.  They saw the positive benefits for their community in those new jobs; parents better able to care for their kids, a stronger tax base, a richer cultural and social environment.  And they acted to make sure that future becomes a reality.

As I mentioned, we’ve been in touch with our visitor, sent him some information and are waiting to hear about arrangements for another visit.  The odds of that next visit happening were improved dramatically when two Chamber members took part of their weekend to host an unexpected visitor. 

You never know when the opportunity to craft, not only your own, but the future of an entire community will arise.  In the not too distant future, when several hundred people go to work in a new plant here in town, take a moment to thank Mike McNamara and Howie Smith for their hospitality and positive attitude.  It doesn’t take a crystal ball to see the future--just a little imagination and an open door when strangers come to call.