From organizing community clean up events to hanging and maintaining flower baskets, the Marshalltown Central Business District (MCBD) relies on the hard work of its volunteers to make each of their endeavors successful. Nate McCormick is one of these unsung heroes, and he was recently recognized for his dedication at the Main Street Iowa Development Awards celebration in Des Moines on April 22.

McCormick, who is a former MCBD board president and currently serves on the organization committee, received the Outstanding Volunteer award at the annual event from Gov. Kim Reynolds, along with 42 other volunteers from communities all over Iowa.

They were honored throughout the evening for their leadership, and McCormick said being able to see the other volunteers — not only the ones receiving the awards, but all of them in attendance — was one of his favorite parts of the evening.

“I knew it was coming because they announced the winners a few weeks in advance, but I think what I didn’t necessarily expect was really standing up there on stage and seeing all of the awesome volunteers that were out there,” McCormick said. “There were probably 400 people out there that were part of their Main Street organization, and they’re trying to work on making their communities a better place and it was just an honor to be up there with everybody else who’s trying to work to make their communities and Iowa a better place to be.”

McCormick has been an active volunteer with the MCBD for about seven years, and he’s been involved with numerous projects benefiting the city. One of the first ones he was involved in was the transformation of the alleyway between Tremont on Main and Wax Xtatic Record Audio Stereo Shop from a street alley to a pedestrian walkway.

He has also consistently been a part of a project to hang flower baskets from the lamp posts in downtown Marshalltown.

“I’ve done a lot of flower basket watering over the years, getting up in the morning and driving through downtown early in the morning, so tons of fun,” McCormick said. “It’s quiet. You kind of get to see the sunrise and the town wake up while you’re out there making it look beautiful, so it’s just a good opportunity to kind of get your hands dirty and make the downtown area look great.”

McCormick said he initially got involved with the MCBD because he believes the downtown is an important part of what makes a city successful. All the businesses and restaurants create a sense of community, and they provide areas for families and friends to connect.

“I just think downtown is so critical to our ability to bring more people into the community, so I wanted to be a part of making that better and making it something that we can really be proud of,” McCormick said.

Looking to the future, McCormick is excited to see all the improvements going on right now in the downtown area, including the progress in the courthouse repairs, the redevelopment of buildings along Main Street and the State Street reconstruction project.

“I’m super excited about the State Street streetscape renewal next year,” McCormick said. “That’s going to be a beautiful picture of what downtown could look like. It’ll be a lot of work and it’ll be a lot of disruption for the time that it’s being done, but I’m really, really excited with the planning they’ve got there.”

McCormick said Marshalltown is a “unique” community where individual volunteers have the chance to make a big difference, and he encouraged anybody thinking of volunteering to bring their ideas to the table.

“There’s tons of support out there. If there’s something you’re passionate about, something that you want to go do, reach out,” he said. “It’s always been amazing to me in this community that it’s a big community with a lot of resources, but at the same time, it’s a small community where you can make something happen as an individual if there’s something you want to see, you really have a chance to make an impact.”

——

Contact Susanna Meyer at 641-753-6611 or smeyer@timesrepublican.com.