What lures people to live in our small, Southeast Iowa city? How about a lifetime of good vibes? How about a small-town city with big city amenities? How about a calm, peaceful, multicultural city where everyone knows everyone and the people you see on the street always wave back? You see, the people who come to Fairfield don’t just make it a stepping-stone to something bigger and better. They make it home. In many cases, residents arrive through the Maharishi International University, and after spending years in our community, discover they don’t want to leave.
“I came here to go to MIU. Initially I thought I would move back home to the East Coast. But after graduating, I just fell in love with this little town,” said Sankari Wegman, a local Ayurvedic Consultant who came for an education and stayed for the love of the city. “It just feels so quiet and simple. I just ended up staying here. It’s been years since I graduated, but I just love living here. I feel like I’ve made so many dear family friends. It’s just a very lovely place to live. After I got married and had kids, it just felt like a very, very sweet place to raise our children.”
“I did notice a really big contrast from where we used to live. We were definitely lacking a sense of community. The D.C. metro area is very transient,” said Fairfield resident Jessica Hatchette. “That’s not to say a lot of new people don’t live in Fairfield, but I find that there’s a different vibe here. As soon as we moved here, people just wanted to know who we were and talked to us — so open, so friendly. It made it easy to feel comfortable right away.”
Once here, you’ll find the same quality of life you’d find in any larger city — but scaled down in a safe, welcoming community. “There are plenty of activities for the kids and family to do all year-round. I went and visited my brother in a larger city, and the things that we did in the larger city were the same things that we do here in Fairfield,” said Fairfield City Engineer Melanie Carlson. “We went to a museum; we have the Carnegie Museum right here in Fairfield. Then we went to a playground, which we have lots of playgrounds in Fairfield. And then we went out for dinner and the variety in that larger town was probably less than the variety we have in Fairfield.”
The only difference is the pace at which life moves. Because when you’re not spending half your life stuck in traffic, you find much more time to devote to your hobbies and passions.
“When you’re trying to raise three kids in a city and it takes you 45 minutes to get to a grocery store in traffic, a lot of your life is just sucked up with commuting and that carries through the rest of your life,” said Jessica Hatchette. “You just have so much less time for simple pleasures. Living in Fairfield allows us to have time to be together as a family and really bond and nurture that family structure. Fairfield really spent a lot of time thinking about what families want.”
The same goes for children, who find the same activities and extra-curriculars they’d find in any city. Fairfield is home to several youth sports and programs through Fairfield Parks and Recreation.
“We came to Fairfield originally in June 2018. There were a number of reasons, but the biggest was probably we have three small kids and we really wanted to give them something different. The energy was not right in the D.C. area. We wanted the opposite of D.C. — less traffic, less angry, more homey, more community feel. And Fairfield filled those boxes,” said Fairfield resident Greg Hatchette.
Best of all, Fairfield is a city that not only welcomes all cultures and traditions but embraces and celebrates them as well — from our annual Diwali celebration to our holiday festivities on the square, in Fairfield you’ll find a community that fosters, rejoices, and celebrates its diversity.
“It feels so nice to be able to celebrate in the ways that we would traditionally with this beautiful town around us,” Wegman said. “It just feels very welcoming and open that you can celebrate your roots, learn, and discover new things in this sweet, little town of Fairfield.”