A few years ago, San Juan Bautista resident Lori Elder noticed
that for all of the attractive qualities of the quaint town
– the Mission, the history, the shopping – there wasn’t a
community website that wasn’t member-based or affiliated with city
government.
A few years ago, San Juan Bautista resident Lori Elder noticed that for all of the attractive qualities of the quaint town – the Mission, the history, the shopping – there wasn’t a community website that wasn’t member-based or affiliated with city government.
So, the artist who specializes in precious metals began planning for a site that “captures the flavor and history of the community and all the shops that are here.”
Teaming with her roommate, Phil Stoffer – a retired USGS geologist and professor – they recently launched www.sanjuanbautistaca.com.
“It was a real labor of love,” said Elder, who has worked as business manager with the Pinnacles Partnership and is affiliated with the Rock Shop in San Juan. “The timing was right. I wanted to help promote the economy and the struggling people in town and the community needed a website that was a complement to both the chamber of commerce’s and the city’s websites.”
With a friend of hers offering to host the site and Stoffer helping with coding, Elder gathered the information and came up with a design for the site that went live about a week ago.
“It wasn’t our intent to do this as a business,” she said. “It was our intent to do this for the community.”
The site does, however, charge a small fee for businesses that want to include specific information about events at their locations.
Under the headline, “Welcome to the City of History!” the site’s homepage includes information about San Juan under rotating images submitted by local photographers. There are links to a calendar of events and to a You Tube channel that features videos of the town and the activities it hosts.
A “Visitors” tab includes information about lodging, shopping, dining, weddings, tours and the Mission. There are also calendar, photography, community and directions tabs.
“The challenge was capturing the feel of San Juan,” Elder said. “We want to have it be like you are getting a history lesson when you are on the website. It’s just to help everybody become familiar with what’s here and to help business in general.”
