St. Charles group awards volunteer

Theresa Fawcett was recently was named "Volunteer of the Month" by the Downtown St. Charles Partnership for her efforts on their Economic Restructuring Committee.

Fawcett got involved with the Downtown St. Charles Partnership more than four years ago. Her job as the past economic development coordinator for the city of St. Charles directly related to her volunteer involvement. Fawcett served as the economic development coordinator for five years, and recently took a similar job in Texas, where she moved to be closer to her family.

Fawcett's career is focused on recruiting new businesses and retaining existing businesses, which is very similar to the goals of the DSCP's Economic Restructuring Committee. The committee's objective is to strengthen the community's existing economic assets while expanding and diversifying its economic base. The committee develops methods that help sharpen the competitiveness of existing business owners and recruit compatible new businesses to the downtown district. In addition, the committee works to convert unused or underused commercial space into economically productive property.

Fawcett was a team leader for the Business Incentive Program, which is one of the current action items of the Economic Restructuring Committee. The incentive program acts as both a recruiting of targeted retailers to downtown St. Charles, and a retention tool for existing businesses.

In addition, Fawcett was very involved in providing support to businesses affected by construction surrounding First Street. The Economic Restructuring Committee recently developed a Construction Zone Survival Guide as a means to identify and overcome the challenges of the construction project.