Above: Starting clockwise from left: Kandi Menne, Fairmont Area Chamber of Commerce; Linsey Preuss, Fairmont Economic Development Authority; Andy Traetow, Fairmont Area Schools; Ned Koppen, Fairmont Area Chamber of Commerce; Stephanie Busiahn, Fairmont Education and Recreation; Tammie Hested, Minnesota Valley Action Council.

FAIRMONT — Through a group effort of several organizations, Area Career Exploration (ACE) is going virtual.

Kandi Menne, office manager for the Fairmont Area Chamber of Commerce, explained that each spring a half-day is set aside for high school sophomores around the county to learn about different area careers.

“This is an enhancement of that, kind of brought out due to Covid,” Menne said.

Typically businesses would set up booths in Fairmont High School’s gym and all of the sophomores from area high schools would come to learn information and ask questions. In 2020 and 2021, ACE didn’t take place due to Covid restrictions on gathering.

Tammie Hested, who’s with the Minnesota Valley Action Council, said even before Covid they were having early conversations about switching things up.

“Area Career was a Chamber event, but was made up of a committee from various areas of the city that were influential. That’s why there’s such a variety involved,” Menne said.

She shared that ACE started around 2009 by former chamber president, Bob Wallace, who had gone out to different communities, received funding and organized it with the school.

This time around, the following groups were involved: Fairmont Area Schools, the Fairmont Area Chamber of Commerce, Minnesota Valley Action Council, Fairmont Economic Development Authority and Community Education and Recreation.

“It was definitely a team effort,” Hested said.

Hested said the idea to house the information on a website came from Minnesota Valley Action Council-Mankato.

“They did it during Covid. They gave us rights to use the format so we saved money doing that,” Hested said, adding that they also had Covid grant money to fund it.

The chamber had a summer intern, Grace Higgins, who Hested said did most of the leg work on the project.

“Not everyone coud have done what Grace did. She was amazing,” Hested said.

Right now about 20 business have videos on the site that talk about their business and different careers within the business. Menne said their goal is to have all of the businesses that participate in ACE to have a video on the site, which is nearly 100.

“There will be different icons on the website and one of them will be called My Story. We want area grads to share their story. It’s a short video clip that explains why they chose to be back here,” Hested said.

The whole idea behind ACE is showing students, and the wider public, what careers are in the area.

“We hear it all the time, ‘there’s nothing here,’ but then ‘oh my gosh, I didn’t know this was here,'” Hested said.

Both Hested and Menne stressed that the site can be used by anyone to gather information, whether it’s someone who is new to town or anyone wanting to know more about the businesses in town.

They hope it will be utilized by students ahead of ACE day as well.

“Often times the sophomores come that day but they’re not very prepared. Hopefully they’ll have time to look at this ahead of time so they’ll know who they want to talk to,” Hested said.

Because there’s still value in holding a face-to-face event, all parties involved still want students to experience that. Menne said they’re still planning to have a career day in the spring.

“The website will complement that,” Menne said.

The goal is to have the website go live in November. Until then, the domain name hasn’t been shared, but all the organizations involved will have links to it on their own site as well.