Templeton’s theme for RAGBRAI this year is “Templeton hit me with their best shot.”

The town of about 362 people put its best foot forward when about 12,000 RAGBRAI riders passed through on July 23, thanks to assistance from the University of Iowa’s John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center (JPEC), which helped the community promote its businesses. Holly Warner, a member of Templeton’s RAGBRAI committee, said JPEC students assigned to Templeton have helped with marketing and advertising, coming up with low-cost activities, and coming up with the RAGBRAI slogan.

“It has been really helpful,” Warner says. “They bring along some different experiences and different ideas that we don’t think of in our small, rural area.”

This marks the fourth year that Iowa JPEC students have assisted RAGBRAI pass-through towns. Led by Bob Walker, faculty adviser for the program and a lecturer in the entrepreneurial center, where students receive three credit hours for the two-part course. When the RAGBRAI pass-through towns are announced, Walker offers towns the assistance of UI students to help promote them. This year, eight towns asked for help, up from four the year before.

Iowa JPEC students are working with Riverside, Kalona, Hills, Sully, Templeton, Montezuma, Moorhead, and Atalissa this year. Two or three UI students are assigned to each of the communities.

In the spring, Walker directs the students to have face-to-face meetings with RAGBRAI representatives in their respective towns, conduct a needs assessment, research the history of the town and RAGBRAI, and create a project plan to help the town maximize the economic impact of RAGBRAI. In the summer, the students will execute those plans, which requires being in their respective communities the day before, the day of, and the day after RAGBRAI passes through.

“RAGBRAI is a big shot in the arm” for the communities, Walker says. “How do you keep that going? That’s the challenge for the students. I tell our students we have the intellectual capital. How do you apply that knowledge to benefit others?”

The Iowa JPEC students are charged with developing plans to encourage riders to stay longer, purchase more items, and hopefully make return visits, Walker says.

One of the students who volunteered to work with Templeton is Alec Wray, a junior from Johnston, Iowa. Wray says he heard of Templeton before, but never visited.

“I just felt comfortable going to Templeton,” he says. “They’ve done RAGBRAI before. It wouldn’t be starting from scratch. I felt comfortable knowing they had some experience.”

Wray says he researched Templeton and discovered different businesses and points of interest in the community, such as the oldest jail in Iowa. He also learned that most RAGBRAI riders don’t decide ahead of time which pass through towns they’ll stop in. With that in mind, Wray and his teammates focused on promoting the town through signs that promote the unique experiences available in the town.

“If we advertise that with signs leading up to it, then people will be more likely to stop,” Wray says.

Some of the businesses and organizations being promoted are the Iowa Corn Growers Association, a local woodshop that is making the signs leading into Templeton, and a restaurant that has its own line of signature sauces.

Wray says the RAGBRAI course has given him real-world experience managing a project and he praises Walker for allowing students to work independently on their projects.

“Something else I really enjoy about this class is being able to help others,” Wray says. “If you’re able to, I think it’s really important to do that. It’s important that we’re getting out and spreading the love for the state of Iowa.