Recently GoCenterville.com and Commercial Resources, Inc. (CRI) along with local partners rolled out the new Drake Tour project. "The goal of the project is to keep interested people informed of activities near the Centerville, Iowa area and to get input from those interested in helping make the GoCenterville.com – Drake Tour – a success" said Bill Burch, Owner of Commercial Resources, Inc.

There are several strategies that CRI used to promote the project and put Centerville, Iowa on the tourism map. Cheryl White of Commercial Resources, Inc. added the Drake Tour to the gocenterville.com website and placed an ad in the Des Moines Register Sunday edition in the Experience Iowa section. Cheryl wrote a grant to request funds from Central Iowa Tourism and submitted an ad to be published in three spring 2011 issues of Our Iowa magazine. She created the Drake Tour Brochure which includes a map identifying the location of the tour sites and a summary description of sites tourist will visit. In addition, Cheryl created "Ask me about Drake" buttons for staff to wear.

Pat McAfee, of CRI, participated in the cutting out and painting of 7 Drake billboards and coordinated the commercial construction of 4 Drake Billboards. Pat researched and contacted TV media outlets Channel 3, 8, and 11 about the Drake Project. Pat spoke to and emailed Drake Tour information to:

• 15 Iowa Tour Operators.

• 17 Travel Federation of Iowa agencies

• 12 State of Iowa government agencies

• 18 members of Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation

• 12 members of CenStates Chapter TTRA

• Editor of Our Iowa

• Editor of Midwest Living

• Drafted press releases to send to area newspapers

In preparation for the Drake Tour Opening event, Pat:

• Arranged for 2 tour buses

• Prepared the tour schedule for each bus

• Arranged to serve guests lunch

• Contacted various travel agencies within the state of Iowa

Pat is keeping a close eye on expenditures to make sure that they are able to accomplish their goal within the budgeted monies available.

CRI was thrilled to share that the seed money to jump start the activities was generated by thoughtful and interested local businesses who rented brochure spaces in brochure displays at Honey Creek Resort. They are grateful for everyone involved in making the project a synergistic success, and gave out a special thanks to Honey Creek Resort for giving them the opportunity.

GoCenterville.com and the Drake Tour Project are off to a stellar start. CRI is on schedule and exceeding original commitments and expectations.