City offering educational tours of the town this summer

By Harry Loomis

Whether you’re new to the city or a lifelong resident, the St. Joseph Convention & Visitors Bureau is offering tours to learn more about the community.

The Show Me St. Jo! Experience will take place May 20, July 9 and Sept. 11. The tour will cost $25.

“We do pick those dates to really not be on top of something else major,” said Christian Mengel, director of communications and marketing for the Convention & Visitors Bureau. “Our first one is going to be on a Monday. The reason why we’re doing that is because we wanted to be more available for like Downtown businesses and employees that, historically they told us, we’d love to do this and we’d love to take this tour, but we have to work.”

This tour of the town has been going on for over 20 years. The idea for the event is to allow St. Joseph residents to learn more about their town.

Over the years, a wide variety of guests have taken part.

“Last year we did three of these. And the one consistent thing that I saw across all three was that everybody admitted to learning something new or at least visiting somewhere they hadn’t been before,” Mengel said. “We had people who are here, as few as like two or three weeks, like brand new to the town. And then we had people who were lifetime St. Joe residents that have never lived anywhere else.

“I like to use the example of it’s like speed dating but for the attractions,” he continued. “So you’re there just long enough to really get a feel for do you want to come back or like have interest enough to like, want to see more down the road? And people are like, ‘absolutely.’”