By Beth Christian Broschart
The Parsons Advocate
THOMAS – Residents packed the Tip Top in Thomas last Friday for the premier of a new video ‘Mountains of Possibilities,’ a video aimed to encourage business growth in Tucker County. Anne Jones, Tucker County Development Authority Director, and Dan Hobbs, AmeriCorps member with the Tucker County Development Authority, also previewed the video Thursday during the Tucker County Commission meeting.
“We are very fortunate to receive matching funding from Keith Burdette at the West Virginia Department of Commerce to help market Tucker County to businesses and employees that may want to come here,” Jones said. “We were able to work with the Tucker County Development Authority, specifically with the marketing committee to put together this video.”
Jones said the concept of the video was to get a few representative businesses from Tucker County speaking in their own words to the kind of businesses they think would be happy located in the area.
“We asked them to talk about what it is like to bring a business to Tucker County, to start their business in Tucker County and to hire employees in Tucker County.
“The premier of ‘Mountains of Possibilities’ was standing room only,” said Jones. “It was so neat to see people like Jay Hamric there with his entire family including his mom and dad and sisters. They are such believers in Tucker County and its people and students. To have them there was just phenomenal.
“The idea came from marketing already in place to show potential tourists how wonderful Tucker County is,” said Jones. “We want to reach people and help them understand they can also have a business here and raise a family here. We received support from the state of West Virginia. They are aware of the wonderful opportunities here, too.
“What we did was identify the types of businesses we thought might want to come here,” Jones said. “We have so many types of businesses to choose from and we were able to have different representatives help – we had a business owner who was born and raised in the area, a representative from an internationally recognized manufacturer as well as someone who brought their already successful business to Tucker County.”
Jones said the whole idea of Mountains of Possibility is that tag line – there are so many beautiful places to live and work. “But the fact is, you really can start a business here,” Jones said. “It is affordable enough for somebody to come in, and there is a really good workforce here. It really is possible to start a business here.
Jones said there is possibility for businesses to move to Tucker County. “Like everywhere else, there is no easy place to run a business but the possibility is here – and if you work hard enough, you can do it,” Jones said. “That is where the tagline Mountains of Possibility came from.
“We have so many people who come through here – they come and they visit and they love it here,” Jones said. “They say they wish they could live here – we want them to know they can. You don’t just have to dream about it; you can make it happen.”
Jones said having the video and the updated website is just the first step.
“Next, we need to get this information out into the hands of people that might want to move here,” Jones said. “When companies come to look around Tucker County, we need to welcome them. So this is just the beginning.”
Jones said production of the video started in January, and filming took approximately two weeks. “We put the bid out for making the video, and were thrilled to have Verglas Media, Victoria Weeks, to do this video.”
“This was a great project, where we got out there amongst the community,” Weeks said. “We really just touched the tip of the iceberg with people’s stories. Along with this, we did a refresh of the website. We encourage everyone to share the video with as many folks as you can because it is great for us to see it, but we are trying to get it to go beyond Tucker County. Online, you will see where you can share your story about why you like it here in Tucker County.”
The website is online at www.tuckerwv.com. The video, ‘Mountains of Possibilities’ is available on that site as well.
