New chamber coordinator embraces event work, city
Maranda Mahr graduated May 12 and started her new job May 14 as the Chamber’s Program and Event Coordinator. She says she feels lucky to get a job in River Falls and in her specialty.By: Debbie Griffin, River Falls Journal
- Maranda Mahr
Maranda Mahr graduated May 12 and started her new job May 14 as the Chamber’s Program and Event Coordinator. She says she feels lucky to get a job in River Falls and in her specialty.
“It has so many of the different elements I wanted in a job,” she said. “When I saw it, I knew it was perfect.”
Mahr studied marketing communications at UW-River Falls. Her resume showed heavy event planning and oversight through the Office of Student Life.
Her experience includes work as a traditions programmer with the Falcon program office, organizing alumni and student events.
She said about the work, “I thought that was a fun thing.”
Mahr said the River Falls Chamber seemed to appreciate that she’d worked with large corps of volunteers and with committees.
She also brings hands-on experience managing multiple parts of an event, as opposed to one part or aspect.
She learned about the job through an email from her university advisor, feeling like it was a good fit and right up her alley.
About a month before graduation, Mahr learned through a phone call that she’d landed the chamber job.
She excited about working in River Falls and about already having some contacts established here.
The new coordinator also looks forward to having fun on the job, much like her well-known predecessor, Nick Carstens. She’d met and worked with him on a few different events, including for college homecoming.
Mahr said her first week on the job involved three different chamber events: The Ambassador golf outing, a Leadership River Falls banquet, and the monthly business breakfast.
Next she dug into the city’s celebration of its agricultural heritage, Town ‘N Country Day, for which she did some front-end work. She’s also been helping people and businesses who call, email or walk in the front door.
Now Mahr prepares for the chamber’s biggest annual event, River Falls Days.
Rows and rows of manila envelopes lined the counter, ready for Mahr to deliver to local business sponsors and partners -- all containing the correct amount of buttons, tickets, maps and other information.
She’s helped organize activities that will fill several days, assisted in promoting the event and worked closely with many organizations in preparing for the big festival.
Mahr grew up in Stanley, about an hour and a half drive east of River Falls. She’s pleased to be within a reasonable driving distance of her home town and says River Falls reminds her of Stanley in several ways.
She came here to attend college, with the goal of graduating within four years and finding a job in which she’d work with events.
Mahr said she enjoys the small-town feel of River Falls and now knows it pretty well, which was another goal of hers. She wanted to be knowledgeable about the community where she works.
She likes to hike in Glen Park, does a lot of bike riding around town and agrees the Kinnickinnic River is a treasure, as is the city’s natural environment.
The coordinator says there are also a lot of fun activities both on and off the UWRF campus to keep busy and have fun, such as live music in the park. She says the people in River Falls are “super friendly” and seem easy to work with.
Mahr appears happy with her new position and content in River Falls: “It has even more to offer than my own hometown,” she said.
Reach Mahr at the River Falls Chamber of Commerce and Tourism -- 715-425-2533 or info@rfchamber.com.
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