Greene County took center stage at Thursday night’s Iowa Tourism Conference in Waterloo when RVP-1875 and History Boy Theatre Company was named as Outstanding Tourism Business in the rural category.

Co-owner’s Robby and Angie Pederson were surprised to be the inaugural winner of the award.

Robby points out that when they started their 1800’s historic furniture business in 2007, he and Angie traveled around to different museums to see how they conducted tours.  He says all they’re hard work has paid off.

“We’ve been in the trenches for years doing this grassroots tourism thing that we do here.  And we know we give a great tour and that we have an important story to tell and it’s just getting that word out.  And so, we were able to do that in front of the entire Iowa tourism community and give them a little kick in the rear and it was a good thing.”

And with the addition of History Boy Theatre a few years later, Robby explains that they are like a destination package and it’s another great location to show off for the City of Jefferson and Greene County in general.