A Five-Star Visit

Dear Mayor Marshall:
My wife and I recently returned home from a visit to Abilene that was part of the Kansas Tourism media day. We are travel writers for the Cedar Rapids Gazette and will file an article on Abilene in the next few days. Our visit was outstanding. The media event was well planned. We were impressed by Abilene's rich history and many good reasons to visit. Over our long writing career, we have visited and written about towns ranging from Morristown, NJ to Forks WA and have interacted with many Convention and Visitor Bureau staff, museum professionals, and community volunteers.
We left Abilene with these impressions:

Abilene is rich in history. For a small town, it's truly amazing what has happened there and what happens today.

Abilene citizens are enthused about their town and readily volunteer to help visitors enjoy their time in town. We have not seen such strong and effective volunteerism elsewhere.

I would appreciate it if you would thank Julie Roller Weeks and the CVB staff for their good work and the volunteers at Old Abilene Town, Dickinson County Historical Society and Museum, and the Abilene & Smoky Valley Railroad for their enthusiastic and effective work.

Keep up the good work in Abilene.

Sincerely,
Rich Patterson, Cedar Rapids, Iowa