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Huck Boyd National Institute
for Rural Development
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Huck Boyd National Institute
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KANSAS PROFILES 1999 Kansas
Cowboy Arena
If you were looking for a Kansas cowboy, where do you think you would find him? One logical answer might be, out on the range. Today we=ll meet a Kansas cowboy, and it is out on the range, alright. But I=m not talking about an individual rider here. You see, `Kansas Cowboy= is the name of a new livestock arena. It=s been built out on the range. The result is a positive development for horsemen and rural Kansas alike. Stay tuned, it=s today=s Kansas Profile. Meet Don Hafenstein. Don and his partners Geff and Dawn Dawson are co-owners of this newly opened facility called the Kansas Cowboy Arena. Don explains, AI=ve been in the horse business all my life. And, I=ve always wanted an indoor arena.@ Don hooked up with a young cowboy named Geff Dawson and they formed a corporation with an eye toward building a good quality indoor arena. Such an arena could hold a variety of horse shows and livestock events. Don says, AWe knocked on a million doors for financing,@ with no luck. Finally, through Eastern Kansas Economic Development and the Rural Electric Cooperatives, Don and Geff found financing and moved forward. But where would they build? Don found open pasture just off an interchange from Interstate 70 in the scenic Flint Hills of eastern Kansas. They bought the pasture and built the arena out in the country. Today the complex includes a 37,000 square foot indoor arena for horse shows and rodeos, the Cowboy Café, which is open 6 a.m.to 10 p.m. daily, and a campground with ample parking. The café features homestyle cooking, breakfast any time of day, and steak dinners, as you might expect. So where exactly is the Kansas Cowboy Arena? Its mailing address is Alma, Kansas, population 872 people. Now, that=s rural. But this isn=t even in town. The arena is located in the country, just seconds from Interstate 70 on exit 324 north. By being located out in the country, this facility has a unique attraction: Space. There is lots of room to park. There are RV camper hookups and spacious restrooms with showers. There is no urban congestion. And there is room to pasture or stable animals overnight. It=s the best of both worlds: room in the country, but easy access to the interstate highway. The arena itself seems huge. It is 150 by 250 feet in size, which makes it bigger than the National Finals Rodeo arena, and it is clear span construction. Geff Dawson says, AThe ropers really like the room.@ The offices, café, restrooms, gift shop, and arena are all under a single roof. Within the arena, temporary panels provide maximum flexibility for whatever type of livestock event might be held there. The Kansas Cowboy Arena has hosted team ropings, barrel racings, horse sales, tack sales, and more. The facility can host other events such as monthly, one-day trail rides complete with a campfire dinner, or birthday parties for the kids. Because the arena is fully insulated, it can be used year-round. Don says, APeople like bringing their horses in here during the bad weather months so the horse can get some good exercise in the winter.@ In November, there was a bucking bull auction. That=s where some of the top rodeo bull prospects will be demonstrated and sold. When they say the bull will be demonstrated, I think that means they=ll demonstrate his rodeo skills -- in other words, he=ll try to buck a cowboy off. That=s a little more entertaining than watching a salesman demonstrate his new vacuum cleaner, for example... Riders have come from as far away as Kansas City and Wichita to participate in equine events at the new facility. They are attracted by the spacious arena and the quick and easy access to I-70. Don Hafenstein says, APeople can come for a weekend horse event and they don=t have to worry about the safety of the kids or having things stolen from their car.@ If you were looking for a Kansas cowboy, where do you think you=d find him? Out on the range, would be a logical answer. And sure enough, out on the range is where we find the Kansas Cowboy Arena. We salute Don Hafenstein, Geff Dawson, and the other people of the Kansas Cowboy Arena for making a difference through hard work and cowboy ingenuity.
Tammy Carlson - Happy Hollow designs Today let=s tune in to Home Shopping Network on television. They seem to have lots of neat things to sell. There=s one on TV right now, for example. It=s a craft kit which a person can use to make two little scarecrow figures. They are rustic, cute, and colorful. Boy, my wife would like those. And where do you suppose those craft items came from? They are appearing on national television, but they came from rural Kansas. Stay tuned, this is today=s Kansas Profile. Meet Tammy Carlson. Tammy designed this item which appeared on Home Shopping Network. She is founder and owner of the business which produces these products which are now selling coast to coast and internationally. Our story begins in Rush County in west central Kansas. Tammy=s grandfather had a family farm there. Tammy=s father attended a one room schoolhouse there are called Happy Hollow School. So, her family named their farm Happy Hollow Farm -- remember that name. Tammy grew up at Great Bend. Tammy is a creative person. She studied graphic design in Salina, worked for two years, and decided to go back to college at Fort Hays State. As she was looking for housing, her grandfather became ill and asked her to stay in his house on the farm and look after things. Happy Hollow Farm was within commuting distance of Hays, so she could live at the farm while going to college. Tammy did so, and she stayed on in the house after her grandfather passed away. Tammy was looking for extra income but needing flexible hours, and she wondered what she should do. Her mother said, AWhy don=t you sew?@ Tammy=s mom had trained and encouraged her to do lots of sewing and handcrafts as a child. So, on the side, Tammy started to design and produce craft items which she could sell at local fairs. The products were well-received. Meanwhile, Tammy completed her degree and became art director for a manufacturing company. In 1991, Tammy decided to take her artistic talents out on her own. She set up a home-based business to design and produce these craft and sewing items for sale to mom and pop craft stores or quilt and sewing shops. But what should the company be named? She finally decided to name her company for the family farm on which it is located: Happy Hollow Designs. Tammy put her design skills to use, and the business began to take off. Tammy also got married. She and her husband live on the farmstead. Now what exactly is it that Tammy=s company sells? It sells a host of craft and sewing patterns, finished items, supplies, and accessories. These are things like patterns and buttons and fabric and stuffing and the odds and ends you need to do a craft project. My wife would love these things. Tammy=s business doesn=t usually sell directly to consumers, however. She markets these products wholesale to the retail stores who sell them to the public. And boy does she sell them. Sales have grown to 22 times the volume of the first year. The company has grown to eight employees and six divisions. These include Happy Hollow Designs, which offers patterns; Ozsome Accents, which offers sewing and craft accessories and supplies; Ruby Slipper Press, which can print on items in odd sizes and unusual shapes, from a walnut shell to a pen; Poppy Field Dreams, offering custom design of products on contract for other companies; 50 Yard Line products, which offers items for high school to NFL; and American Distributors, which sells products from other companies. Today, Tammy=s customers are such companies as Hobby Lobby, Hancock Fabric, and Ben Franklin. Tammy has accounts from coast to coast, and in Canada, Mexico, London, France, Belgium, Australia, Denmark, and Saudi Arabia. Yet the business remains based on the family farm in Rush County near the town of Bison, population 239 people. Now, that=s rural. Tammy says, AWith the fax and the computer, we can do business anywhere. Yet our products have a country flavor. We like it here, and this is where we want to be.@ It=s time to turn off the Home Shopping Network, but it=s exciting to see such a national network advertising products from rural Kansas. We salute Tammy Carlson and the people of Happy Hollow Designs, for making a difference through creativity and entrepreneurship. And I=m sure her grandfather would be pleased, because the hollow is happy again.
Today, we=ll hear a story that will make you a fan. No, I don=t mean a sports fan. I literally mean a fan B a device which moves air. This is a story of a company which, quite literally, makes fans. But these are no ordinary fans. These are top-of-the-line air circulators, and they are manufactured in small-town Kansas. Stay tuned. This is today=s Kansas Profile. Meet Michael Coup. Michael is Founder and President of Vornado Air Circulation Systems, Inc. in Andover, Kansas. This is the story of this remarkable company. Let=s begin our story during World War II, when a man named O.A. Sutton came to Wichita to work in the aviation industry during the war. In 1943, Mr. Sutton purchased several airplane-related patents from a research engineer, but the one that interested him the most as a possible post-war business was a new type of electric fan designed on the principles of aerodynamic flow. He set up a company to produce these fans and sell them under the name AVornadofan.@ That word Vornado is a cross between Vortex and Tornado. The new aerodynamic design made the fans very effective, and sales skyrocketed. In less than ten years, one of every three fans sold in the U.S. was made by Vornado. But by the late 1950s, the company had fallen into hard times and it closed. Vornado fans remained something of a keepsake, however. One man who collected these fans as a hobby was Michael Coup. Michael Coup is a mathematician and physicist. From a physics standpoint, he was interested in why these old fans worked so well. He restored the old fans for a hobby, but it seemed that many people were wanting more of them. So he began to wonder: What if he could give new life to the old product, or redesign it into a new configuration? After a lot of research, the new Vornado company was incorporated in August of 1987. It sold an improved version of the original aerodynamic design of electric fans. Craig Plank joined the company in 1988. He says, AI was hired as national sales manager, and sales were zero.@ But listen to this: Today this company employs 100 people and sales are up to 25 million dollars nationwide. How could this happen? Craig Plank, who is now Vornado=s director of marketing, says, AThe key has been that we always put a good product first. We knew we had a better thing, we believed people would pay for it, and we were right.@ The Vornado fans, or air circulators, have a distinctive design and several features which make them a market leader. Today, the model line includes more than 25 models across five comfort categories: air circulators, fans, heaters, humidifiers, and air cleaners. Innovative products include whole room heaters, evaporative style humidifiers, room air filters, retro-styled oscillating fans, and the world=s first automatic fan, which adjusts to room temperature. Through it all is a strong commitment to innovative design, high quality, and unique styling. Vornado=s products are sold coast to coast, through such national retailers as Dillards, Target, QVC, and Builders Square. Vornado=s products are even retailed extensively in Japan. Yet the company remains based in the town of Andover, Kansas, population 4,991 people. Now, that=s rural. Actually, while the town is small, it is close to Wichita, so it has benefits of the urban population too. But the point is that this homegrown Kansas company has grown from nothing to a multimillion dollar, international business in little more than a decade. What are the keys to such growth? Vornado says it is four cultural attributes. First is the passionate pursuit of product excellence. Second is a clear, shared vision, which breeds teamwork. Third is detailed analysis of the facts, whether product, market, or consumer-related. And fourth is empowerment of the people at Vornado. The commitment to quality remains paramount at Vornado. Michael Coup says, AIf we can=t do it better, we don=t do it.@ This is a story that will make you a fan. No, not a sports fan. This story makes me a fan of a company which makes fans. We salute Michael Coup, Craig Plank, and the other people of Vornado Air Circulation Systems, Inc. for making a difference with vision, entrepreneurship, and a passion for excellence. All in all, it=s fan-tastic.
AIt=s race day, and the cars are gathered at the starting line. The drivers are buckled in and the cars are ready. The crowd is cheering as they await the starter=s signal. And listen to the deafening roar of the engines as they.....Wait a minute, I don=t hear any deafening roar. In fact, I don=t hear any engine sound at all. What kind of race is this?@ You=ve just experienced a remarkable event called the ElectroRally. It=s a race of electric cars, with high school students as designers and drivers. This event has helped to promote the use of environmentally-friendly electric cars, and involved students from both urban and rural Kansas. Stay tuned, this is today=s Kansas Profile. Meet Jerry Lonergan. Jerry is Executive Director of the Kansas Electric Utilities Research Program. That organization is a cooperative venture among several electric utility companies. It does applied research on technologies that can enhance the value of electric service to its members, utility customers, and the state of Kansas. Of course, one possible use for electricity is in electric cars. So a few years ago, someone had the idea to advance the concept by holding an electric car race for students. In 1997, the first ElectroRally was held in Kansas. The response was so positive it is becoming an annual event. An organization called Electrathon America provided rules and guidelines for the event. Then high school students in schools across the state were invited to participate. They did so in classes ranging from physics to automotive technology. They raised funds necessary for the car material, designed, and built the vehicles. The rules say that these cars are to be Asingle person, lightweight, aerodynamic, high efficiency electric vehicles with three or four wheels of a least 16 inch diameter. The cars are powered by deep cycle lead acid battery packs not exceeding 64 pounds.@ Other than a few guidelines and some professional help through Jerry Lonergan=s organization, the students have flexibility to design their own vehicle. Then came race day. The object was to complete as many laps as possible in one-hour. Trophies went to the winners, and every participant received a medal. It sounds to me kind of like a boxcar derby with a battery. It has turned out to be an excellent educational opportunity for lots of students. Eleven schools were involved in the project the first year, and 22 schools were involved in the second. The winner in the first year was Paola High School. An interesting side note was that an all-girl team competed representing Pretty Prairie High School. It wasn=t an all-girl team because of some sexist rule, it just happened that there no boys in the Pretty Prairie physics class that year. The girls did well, by the way, winning the ElectroRally school spirit award. One of the things I like is the broad geographic region represented by participants in the two races. They came from as far east as Shawnee Mission and Olathe, and as far west as Ulysses and Scott City. There were big city schools represented, but also such towns as Medicine Lodge, population 2,224; Clearwater, population 1,996; Sterling, population 1,853; and Hanston, population 294. Now, that=s rural. Jerry Lonergan says, AThe breadth of involvement included both boys and girls, athletes, theater participants, and scholars B it is an event in which any student willing to invest the time and effort can participate.@ Since we=re talking about electricity here, it=s tempting to say that this initiative sparked a lot of interest, or generated lots of enthusiasm. At least we can say that it got the students charged up to do a lot of work. Okay, I=ll switch off my attempts at electricity humor... The point is that this opportunity stimulated students to do a lot of learning, and that=s what is important. This year=s race will involve more than 30 schools. It is scheduled for Saturday, May 8 in Wichita. For more information, contact Jerry Lonergan at 785-354-1821, or your local electric utility. It=s race day, and the cars are gathered at the starting line. But there is no roar of engines, for these are electric cars. Who will win? I predict the true winners will be the students and teachers and future citizens of Kansas, who benefit from this educational opportunity. We commend Jerry Lonergan and the supporters of the ElectroRally for making a difference with this creative way to stimulate learning among our students. And with that, we=ve crossed the finish line.
Florence Metcalf - Hugoton - part 1 If you can dream it, you can do it. Have you ever heard those encouraging words from a speaker, or maybe from a friend? They are inspiring, encouraging words. Today we=ll meet someone who has made those words B if you can dream it, you can do it B a central part of her legacy to her children. She has also lived those words, and provided an outstanding example to many, many students in rural Kansas. Stay tuned, this is today=s Kansas Profile. Meet Florence Metcalf. Florence is a rural leader in southwest Kansas. She grew up on the family farm in Stevens County in southwest Kansas. And that is truly southwest. Stevens County borders Oklahoma to the south, and is just one county from Colorado to the west. In fact, it is only about 50 miles from the state of Texas. Florence was an active 4-Her growing up, and that marked a lifelong interest in people and education. She graduated from Southwestern College and married her high-school sweetheart. They were living in Topeka and starting a family when the time came to make a decision about their future. Florence says, AWe made an intentional choice to come back to the community that we had come from. We wanted to raise our children in a small town environment.@ And, as she would later tell her children, if you can dream it, you can do it. So Florence and her husband moved back to Stevens County to fulfill their dream of being involved in the family farm and in their community. Florence became a teacher at the school in Hugoton, the county seat. Hugoton is a town of 3,240 people. Now, that=s rural. From this rural setting, Florence has truly been a leader. She is a family and consumer science instructor at Hugoton Middle School, where she has served more than 20 years. She also completed a master=s degree from K-State by taking classes over Telenet, the distance education network. Florence had an interest in getting public television in southwest Kansas. She got involved and worked to make it happen. Today, station KSWK serves the southwest part of the state. Florence became a member of the Public Broadcasting Commission for five years. Her friends credit her with leading the effort to bring public television to southwest Kansas. Florence became involved with other educational efforts also. She was a board member for the Kansas Agriculture and Rural Leadership program. She served as chair of the county extension board and on several program development committees. Her involvement took her to the state and national levels, and beyond. She served on the state extension advisory committee, represented Kansas at the National lay leader seminar in Washington DC, and in 1994 attended the U.S.-Russia joint conference on education which was held in Moscow. Wow. Meanwhile, Florence and her husband had a son and a daughter. Florence says, AWe always told them, if you can dream it, you can do it.@ Their son went to Southwestern College and got a law degree from KU. He is an attorney in Kansas City. Their daughter had challenges also. Because of a birth accident, their daughter lost 90 percent of the use of her right arm. But she had many skills. That daughter came to K-State and graduated in mechanical engineering. In spite of her handicap, she was able to do her drafting and design with the aid of a computer. She worked for NASA in Houston for three years and then returned to get married. Her husband is a K-State mechanical engineer also. One day she told Florence, AI don=t think I=m doing what I want to do for the rest of my life.@ Florence encouraged her to go back to school and to follow her dreams. Today, Florence=s daughter is studying industrial engineering at Wichita State University and helping design adaptations for workplaces for people with physical handicaps. If you can dream it, you can do it. That=s good advice. These are words of wisdom which Florence Metcalf shared with her children, and they are words that she has lived by. We salute Florence Metcalf and her family for making a difference in rural Kansas. And there=s more. Florence is a strong believer in using the tools of technology to benefit education in rural Kansas. So beam us up for that topic on our next program.
Recently I found myself sitting at a high-tech console in a studio. In front of me were four television monitors, a digital video mixer, a computer, a sound mixer control, tape players and recorders. It was an impressive collection of technology. I didn=t dare touch a button! So, you might ask, what television station was I visiting? The answer is, it wasn=t just a television station at all. It was a part of a classroom at an innovative school in rural Kansas. Stay tuned, this is today=s Kansas Profile. Meet Dr. Kathy Dale. Kathy is the superintendent of the school district at Hugoton, Kansas. Hugoton is in Stevens County in southwest Kansas. On our last program, we met Florence Metcalf who teaches in that school system. Today, we=ll take a closer look at the outstanding ways in which technology is being used in these schools. Kathy Dale says, AOur district is heavily committed to technology.@ Kathy herself has a bachelor=s degree in education from Florida Atlantic University, a master=s from Fort Hays, and a doctorate from Kansas State University. She was curriculum technology coordinator before becoming superintendent in 1995. How is Kathy=s district using this technology? Let=s start with that impressive console where I sat during my visit there. It is used by the broadcasting and video editing class of a teacher named Ross Davis. They do a variety of projects. On the day I was there, they were editing a videotape of the school play. One of their regular projects is for the students to actually prepare and present a television news program which is broadcast on the local cable TV channel. Think for a minute about what this means to the students. They love the technology, so they are highly motivated to learn. And in the process, they are learning the subject matter, serving the community, and becoming invested in their hometown. It is a win-win-win deal. And that=s just the beginning. Joyce Schobert is the school librarian. She estimates that there are 120 Internet-connected computers in this high school of 300 students. The Internet is used for research, for group classwork, and for teacher instruction. There are radio-operated wireless connections among all the rooms in the high school. There are two instructional computer labs and two student computer labs. When I was there, Joyce said that two classes had just been using the Internet for research in the library. One class was researching a social issues paper. Another class had the assignment to do a comparison of automobile values. This requires them to use the computer to access computer information, do the math, and then practice decision-making in coming to a recommendation. That means a lot of useful skills are being integrated. Then there is the ITV, or interactive television, classroom. From this classroom, students can participate electronically in classes from other schools without having to travel, and vice versa. For example, Hugoton students have shared classes with students in the nearby towns of Rolla, population 379, and Moscow, population 262. Now, that=s rural. Today, rural students don=t need to feel isolated. They can use technology to bridge the distances we find in rural America. Joyce Schobert says the French 3 class at Hugoton actually did a program which connected them with fellow students halfway around the world in Paris, France. Wow, talk about an incentive to learn your French. Teacher Florence Metcalf says, AThe technology can give our students the world at their fingertips. With the computers and the Internet, they can access the world from here in Hugoton.@ Superintendent Kathy Dale says, AWe expect to use technology to allow our students to reach beyond our extremely rural borders.@ It=s time to say goodbye to the high-tech console where I=ve been visiting, which is part of an innovative classroom. It=s a school where technology helps the teaching. We salute Dr. Kathy Dale and the students and teachers of the school district at Hugoton for making a difference with technology and education. But I still don=t dare touch the buttons.
Let=s have lunch at the local café. Here=s my order. I=ll have the cheeseburger special, a glass of iced tea, and a roll of postage stamps to go... Uh, what was that last one? That=s right, I said a roll of postage stamps to go. Now what in the world do postage stamps have to do with my lunch? In this case, they represent the ability of rural people to innovate and adapt. Stay tuned, I=ll explain on today=s Kansas Profile. Meet Virginia and Dave Pettit. Virginia is the manager of the Agenda Café in Agenda, Kansas. I recently came to Agenda while traveling across Republic County in north central Kansas. What a great name for a town: Agenda. I told my assistant about this, and she said since it=s not on a major highway, it might be called a hidden agenda. Hey, don=t blame me, it was her joke - not mine. The Agenda Café has the things you expect to find in a small town restaurant: good food and friendly people. Virginia and Dave Pettit showed me a printed history of the town. A local farmer named Steve Anderson told me that his parents had owned the grocery store in Agenda for thirty years. Steve=s wife is now postmaster in the nearby town of Cuba, and their oldest daughter is a student at K-State. The town has an interesting history. The original name of the town was Neva. It was a railroad town. But then it was found that there was already a town named Neva along the same railroad line, so it had to be renamed. The story goes that the city council met to consider the topic. Someone said, the next item on the agenda is to rename the town. Someone else said, well, if that=s the next item on the agenda, let=s just name the town Agenda. And so they did, and it has stood for a hundred years. An old copy of a local newspaper describes Agenda as Athe thriving new town on the C. K. & N.@ But as with many rural towns, it began to gradually lose population. Steve Anderson says, AAgenda used to have two cafes, a grocery store, a lumberyard, a hardware store, two filling stations, two garages, a bank, a blacksmith shop, and a hotel.@ Now the only businesses that remain are the grain elevator, one filling station, Dale=s Repair, and the Agenda Café. The café is located in what used to be a bank, and it is now a community owned cafe. Virginia Pettit has managed it for seven years. The population of Agenda, according to the census bureau, is down to 76 people. Now, that=s rural. How does a town that size maintain essential services? The answer is, by finding a better way to do things. In 1995, the Agenda post office was under study for closure. Suddenly one night, their was a fire in the post office. It closed permanently. What was to be done? The answer was that a contract postal unit was opened in the café. Postal equipment and post office boxes are located there. Residents get their mail by rural route, but if they want stamps or other services, they can come to the café B instead of having to drive miles to somewhere else. Virgina Pettit says, AWe can do anything here except money orders. And the people really enjoy it.@ I like this idea. It maintains services in a cost-effective way, and offers even more hours open than the post office. It=s not every day you go into a restaurant and see a postage scale between the cash register and the kitchen. And of course, the postal funds are kept separate from the cafe. It all reminds me that rural people are resilient, and they find a common sense way to adapt and make things work. I=ll have the cheeseburger special, a glass of iced tea, and a roll of postage stamps to go. Betcha can=t do that at your city drive-thru. But in Agenda, Kansas, you can handle your mail while getting your meal. We salute Virginia and Dave Pettit, Steve Anderson, and the other people of Agenda for their community efforts. It=s an example that=s high on my agenda.
Last December we went to the Alamo Bowl in Texas. As I walked by the Alumni association table at the pre-game meal, I spotted a fancy flier promoting a K-State sports book. I thought to myself, AThere they go again. Here=s another publishing chain from some big city trying to get in on the popularity of K-State sports.@ But imagine my surprise when I took a closer look at the flier and saw the address of the publisher. This publisher wasn=t in Wichita, Kansas City, or part of some out-of-state chain. In fact, the address of this publisher was the north central Kansas town of Delphos, population 488 people. Now, that=s rural. How did a town that size come to be home to a publisher? Stay tuned, this is today=s Kansas Profile. Meet Neal Rolph. Neal is the owner and operator of Konza Writings in Delphos, Kansas. Delphos is located 32 miles north of Salina in Ottawa County. In talking with Neal, it is obvious that there are certain things which he enjoys. One is his family. Another is the great outdoors. A third is the farm and the rural lifestyle. He also enjoys writing, and he especially enjoys K-State football. This is his story. Neal was born and raised at Delphos. He graduated from K-State with a degree in biology. After that, he says, AI was a professional boy scout.@ That means he worked on the staff of the Boy Scouts of America. His next move was to come back to the family farm near Delphos. As I said, he liked to write, so he was doing some writing on the side. He operated his publishing enterprise under the name Konza Writings. Neal and his wife started a game bird farm, which operated until one dark day when it was struck by a tornado. Neal went on raising more traditional crops and livestock, working part-time on various jobs, and continuing to write on the side. Neal now has written three novels. He then took a full-time writing assignment for the Outdoor Kansas publication as a camping columnist. His writing gave him the flexibility to operate the farm. And why the love of K-State football? He says, AI was at K-State when football was good before. I graduated in `71 with Lynn Dickey and those guys.@ Those were good years for K-State football, but even then they didn=t rise to the heights of the K-State football team today. So Neal had the idea to write and sell a book complete with full-color pictures chronicling the 1998 K-State football season. What a season it would turn out to be. It was the first season ever in which the Wildcat football team earned a number one national ranking, and a season in which the Cats beat Nebraska and topped Colorado and Missouri on the road B finishing the regular season with a perfect, unbeaten record for the first time in school history. The book describes this and more, including two hard-fought defeats in post-season. The book is appropriately titled Season of Excellence. So why publish such a book from Delphos? Neal Rolph says, AThis is a fantastic place to raise kids. I can let my kids go downtown and not worry about them.@ His son and daughter are now grown and living in small towns. Neal says, AI was on a boat with a corporate executive on the east coast one time, and he asked where I was from. I said, >Kansas.= He said, >We=ll hire you.= He said that they like to hire young people from the midwest, because they are more adaptable and need less training time. Our kids grow up with a work ethic and more creativity. It=s a good, clean, wholesome place to live.@ Last December, we went to the Alamo Bowl. There in Texas we found a flier for a new book about K-State football, and to my delight, it is being written in small-town Kansas. Neal Rolph says, AWe=re just chasing a dream out here.@ If you would like to order the book Season of Excellence, call Konza Writings at 1-877-710-8299. That number again is 1-877-710-8299. We salute Neal Rolph for making a difference through entrepreneurship and creativity. His writing makes for a season of excellence in rural Kansas.
Today let=s meet an entrepreneur who has started his own business, who is offering his services in several states, and who has won a national award for his entrepreneurship. Pretty good career, wouldn=t you say? There are a lot of people who work for decades and don=t accomplish this much. But there=s one other thing you should know about this particular entrepreneur: he=s only 18 years old. If that makes you feel sheepish, we=ve only just begun. Stay tuned for a wild ride, this is today=s Kansas Profile. Meet Matt McClain. Matt is the young entrepreneur of whom I=ve been speaking. And when I talk about feeling sheepish and having a wild ride, I mean that literally. This young man has built a business out of letting kids ride sheep, and thus experience the life of a rodeo rider. It=s a kind of kids entertainment which is called mutton busting, or as a cowboy would say, mutton bustin=. Mutton bustin= has been around for years. It=s sort of like a rodeo event for juniors. You probably know that there=s an event in grown-up rodeo called bull riding. Mutton bustin= is like bull riding for kids, except instead of riding mean bulls with horns, they ride sheep with wool. That gives them the feel of a rodeo event, without so much risk. Also, mutton bustin= is for fun and learning, not for money. It is usually not a competitive event. Matt McClain says, AIt=s like t-ball for bull ridin=.@ Matt himself did some mutton bustin= when he was a kid. It was natural for him, as he grew up on a farm just north of the Kansas line. Matt and his parents raise wheat, corn, cattle, and sheep. Matt=s address is Republican City, Nebraska, but he went to school at the Phillips County, Kansas town of Agra, population 366 people. Now, that=s rural. In this rural setting, rodeo is a popular event. There is a big rodeo in Phillipsburg each summer, and in 1994 the rodeo planning committee asked Matt=s family to provide sheep for the mutton bustin=. The McClains did so for two years, and recognized there was market demand for this type of activity. So Matt organized a business which could take mutton bustin= to other communities. He contacted the family lawyer, designed brochures, and took a display to the Kansas and Nebraska fair conventions. In his first year, he got 10 contracts to provide the mutton bustin= for fairs or rodeos. In the second year, he got 30 contracts. And so far, he already has 45 contracts for the third year. Matt set up this business as part of his agricultural experience program for his high school agriculture classes. He took agriculture and joined FFA at Kensington High School. In November 1998, Matt won the National FFA Agri-Entrepreneurship Award. Today Matt and his family have two pickups and rigs to cover the many events in which they participate. They carefully select the sheep to participate in the mutton bustin=. Kids who participate must wear a helmet and sign a release form. At the signal, the sheep will come out of the chute or the trailer with the kid astride the animal, just like the bull riders at a real rodeo. Unlike the real rodeo, however, Matt will run alongside, if the kids are scared, to hold them and keep them from falling. And Matt also provides clown acts, just like a rodeo, to keep the event fun. Usually every kid who participates gets a prize. And Matt also gives every kid a photo of him in his rodeo clown outfit. The result is success. During the past year, Matt drove more than 12,000 miles to 49 rodeos and fairs from South Dakota to Oklahoma. But success can take other forms as well. Matt says, AWe had a handicapped kid ride a sheep at Eskridge, Kansas. He had no use of one arm. I ran alongside to help him. And when he got off, he was all smiles.@ Now that=s a special kind of success. It=s time to bid farewell to this entrepreneur. He has built his own business, operates in several states, and has claimed a national award in entrepreneurship....yet he still plays on his school basketball team. We salute young Matt McClain and his family for making a difference through entrepreneurship.
Gerald Moore - Combine to Canvas Today let=s visit the home of NASCAR champion auto racer Jeff Gordon. Look, hanging on the wall is a beautiful print of a racetrack. It is really well done. What artist would have created such a colorful and realistic work of art? Would you believe me if I told you it was a farmer from rural Kansas? Stay tuned, this is today=s Kansas Profile. Meet Gerald Moore. Gerald is the farmer and artist of whom we are speaking. Gerald is a farmer in Republic County in north central Kansas. His address is a rural route from the town of Munden, population 137 people. Now, that=s rural. How in the world did someone from Munden create an artwork that could end up in the office of a national racing champion? The answer is, the artist simply used his God-given talents. Gerald Moore has been a farmer for years. He says that he always liked to draw. One winter he was laid up with a bad back, which limited his activity. He tried various things to keep his mind active. Gerald did a lot of line drawings. Then he got down some old paints and tried to do some painting. He decided to try to paint a picture of an old Ford 8-N tractor. As an amateur, however, he says he didn=t even know how to mix paint for artwork. One day he went down to the Scandia Art Gallery and asked the worker there for some red paint to paint an old Ford tractor. The lady just looked at him and said, AI don=t think it=ll stick.@ Gerald said, ANo, no. I don=t mean to put the paint on the tractor, I just want to paint a picture of it.@ Apparently the lady wasn=t expecting this farmer to be an artist. It was not an auspicious beginning. But the director of the art gallery overheard, and she encouraged Gerald=s interest in painting. She asked if he wanted to take some classes, and great things started to happen. Now, I must say, if you=re into abstract art, that=s not what this is. His paintings are so realistic that more than one observer has said that they look like photographs. Gerald says, AI paint what I=m familiar with. That means no mountains or oceans.@ So he has painted many scenes of rural Kansas, which I think are just fabulous. He does families and farms and local scenes around his home county. That happens to include the High Banks oval auto racetrack at Belleville. His racetrack scenes are so good that they have been made into prints. Several prints have gone to leading racecar drivers, such as Jeff Gordon, and another belongs to the former head of truck sales for General Motors. When I asked his favorite painting, Gerald said that one of his favorites is the scene of the county fair. If you=ve ever been to a small town fair, this picture will hit home with you immediately. It is absolutely true to life, and accurate in the smallest detail. One of my favorites is the scene of some hunters walking across a field in the early morning. The early morning frost on the grass looks so real it will give you a cold. And then there are his fascinating scenes of families and people. Gerald Moore says, AI like doing people. Each face is like a landscape.@ Gerald continues to paint. About half of his paintings are done on commission, and the others he initiates himself. But his painting comes to a stop in summertime, when wheat harvest rolls around. Now here=s some good news: Gerald Moore=s art is coming to a location near you. A statewide tour is being organized to display his work. It started with a showing in the statehouse for Kansas Day. The exhibit will then go to the communities of Burlington, Courtland, Concordia, Marysville, Oberlin, Goodland, Scott City, Elkhart, Satanta, Pratt, Winfield, Phillipsburg, Independence, Lindsborg, Ottawa, and in September, to the State Fair in Hutchinson. In April 2000, the tour will culminate at the Ag Hall of Fame in Bonner Springs. If you would like more information, contact Gerald Moore at 785-987-5521. That number again is 785-987-5521. It=s time to bid farewell to the home of a national racing champion where we found a print of artwork by a rural Kansan. We salute Gerald Moore for his artistry and for making a difference by sharing his gift.
Carmen Sherwood - Graphix Plus Today I have a business card to show you. Watch carefully, I=ll hold it up very close to the microphone. Oh, I guess you still can=t see it. Well, then let me describe it. It=s a simple and straightforward business card, with the person=s name and address printed on it. And note the town printed on the card: this man=s address is listed in a town in California. Now where do you suppose that a man in California would have his business cards designed? As a wild guess B how about California? Oh, that would be logical. But in this case, this man had his business card designed and printed by a business in rural Kansas. How did this happen? Stay tuned. This is today=s Kansas Profile. Meet Carmen Sherwood. Carmen is owner of the business which designed this business card for a part-time Californian. Her business is named Graphix Plus B that=s Graphix spelled with an X on the end to make it extra catchy. Graphix Plus is located in Carmen=s hometown, the Morris County town of Council Grove, population 2,278 people. Now, that=s rural. How in the world did a company in Council Grove come to do a business card for someone in California? Well, it turns out that this was actually done for a local citizen in Council Grove who spends his winters in California. This new business card is a handy way to let his friends, family, and neighbors know where they can find him. So the business card designed by Carmen Sherwood is a big plus for him. Carmen grew up at Council Grove. She went to K-State and studied agricultural journalism. Her academic advisor at K-State turned out to have been a classmate of her father=s. Hmm, sounds like a sweetheart deal to me... After finishing her degree, Carmen worked for her dad until the business moved to San Antonio, Texas and then as an interim editor for the K-State Extension Service. She also found time to get married. In May 1998, Carmen went into business on her own. She opened Graphix Plus, a desktop publishing and copying service. The slogan of the business is AQuality design from start to finish.@ So what exactly does this business do? For one thing, it offers copy services like the big city stores. That means, AGive me twenty copies of this ASAP,@ but it also means finishing (such as binding, hole punching, stapling, and folding), plus laminating, scanning of text or graphics, and sending faxes. Graphix Plus can even rent you a computer. The desktop publishing is where Carmen Sherwood can use her creative skills. She can layout ads, brochures, catalog labels, forms, resumes, letterhead, newsletters, decals, sale bills, invitations, programs, certificates....you get the idea. Carmen also offers publishing services, such as manuscript editing, media coordination, press release writing, logo development, resume= writing, and photo scanning. Since this is a start-up business, Carmen is working at another job also. She went to work at a convenience store, but on the first night she worked by herself, the store was robbed. Wow, talk about an inauspicious beginning. Now, she is working at the Cottage House, which is an historic hotel and bed & breakfast there in Council Grove. What are some good things about being in small town Kansas? Carmen Sherwood says, AI grew up here. You get to know people. It=s easy to work one-on-one. I can make changes on a project and get it done. And I like the atmosphere. It=s a nice, close bunch of people.@ Today I have a business card to show you. Look right into your radio. Still can=t see it? Well, take my word for it. It=s a nicely designed card with an address in California, but it was designed right here in rural Kansas. We salute Carmen Sherwood for having the vision and entrepreneurial spirit to open a desktop publishing and copying business. That type of entrepreneurial spirit can make a difference in rural Kansas.
Imagine driving down a Kansas roadway and seeing a sign that says, AThis field of wheat has been adopted by Mrs. Dater=s third grade class.@ Wait a minute. I=ve seen highways adopted before, but never a wheat field. How and why would a class of schoolkids come to adopt a wheat field? The answer is, it=s part of a strategy by a creative teacher to help her students learn more about the basic industry of agriculture. Better understanding of agriculture is the goal of a national program called Ag in the Classroom. Ag in the Classroom seeks to help schoolchildren and their families know more about agriculture, which is so fundamental to our economy. And how do we reach schoolchildren? That=s right, through their teachers. Ag in the Classroom is designed to better inform teachers and then help them inform their students. Meet Sandy Kramer. Sandy is the administrator of the Kansas Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom, which carries out these programs. The Ag in the Classroom office is privately funded, and is housed in the College of Education at K-State. This program offers teachers three hours of free graduate credit from a Regents university on the topic of AIntegrating agriculture into the classroom.@ It is provided through a two week summer course, offered at Hays, Wichita, Manhattan, and Kansas City. Class participants go through various learning activities and tours. They may bake bread as a group, for example, while they mix butter in a jar. Just think: you could honestly say, the dog ate my homework. Students are required to produce a teaching unit involving agriculture for use in the classroom. Since 1985, 900 teachers across the state have gone through the program. As many as 600 teaching units are current, which is a tremendous resource to schools and teachers. What does this really mean? Can a teacher really integrate agriculture? Well, here=s some examples which Sandy showed me of how wheat can be integrated in the classroom. Students can do math, such as measuring the size of an acre, graphing wheat prices from the newspaper, comparing volume of dough versus baked bread, and even calculating fractions and percents by estimating the ratio of raisins to flakes in your cereal bowl. Then there=s science, where students might learn about photosynthesis or the water cycle. There are language arts, such as reading a poem or writing a paper about grain. There is social studies research, on such topics as how wheat came to this country. And there=s physical education, where students calculate caloric intake from wheat foods and design an exercise program. There was even a music teacher in the Kansas City area who came to the first session and thought he should drop the class. They encouraged him to give it a try, and he ended up making a band with containers filled with grain and loving it. All different types of agriculture are included. The Foundation for Ag in the Classroom also recognizes outstanding teachers each year. One was Mrs. Dater at Sedgwick, whose class adopted that wheatfield. The students came out and measured it, followed the growth of the wheat plants, and learned a lot. 1997's outstanding teacher was Marilyn Kirk from the school at Admire, population 193 people. Now, that=s rural. Sandy Kramer says, ATeachers from all over need this, both urban and rural. Too many fourth graders think that milk comes from the grocery store and garden soil comes in a bag from K-Mart. If we better understand the big picture, maybe the future will be brighter for our rural communities.@ The Foundation for Ag in the Classroom is now producing an educational AgMag called Kansas Kids Connection, which goes free to 9,000 kids across the state. Sandy says, AWe hope they take it home to mom & dad, so we can touch quite a few lives.@ Imagine seeing a wheatfield adopted by a class of gradeschoolers. That=s a win-win deal, where the students have a place to apply some of their lessons and learn about agriculture in the process. We salute Sandy Kramer and the teachers who have participated in Ag in the Classroom, thus making a difference by building understanding of food and fiber in our daily lives. It=s an idea worth adopting.
Imagine we are at a crime scene in Massachusetts. A break-in and burglary has been committed. The police detectives are on the scene gathering evidence, yet they find only one small part of a fingerprint. Looks like a tough case to solve. But then they go to a new resource which they have just purchased: a software and computer system which automatically searches a huge database of fingerprints and in a matter of minutes, finds a match. And thanks to this new computer resource, the criminal is found. And where do you suppose this new computer program was produced? Would you believe me if I said in rural Kansas? Stay tuned, cops and robbers, this is today=s Kansas Profile. Meet Derald Caudle. Derald is President of the Phoenix Group, a company which makes high-tech fingerprint matching equipment. If I told you this was used in fighting crime and it is based in Pittsburg, you might assume I was referring to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania B a city of half-a-million people. Instead, the Phoenix Group is based in Pittsburg, Kansas B population 18,483 people. Now, that=s rural. Derald Caudle came to Pittsburg to go to college at Pittsburg State. He says, AThis was supposed to be a temporary stop. Now I=ve lived here longer than I have anywhere else.@ In 1989, Derald founded a business which developed computer software for fingerprint identification systems. This started as one-to-one fingerprint verification. If a company wanted only authorized users to have access to a door or a certain computer, for example, they could set up a high tech system which reads user=s fingerprints. Only after the fingerprint image is scanned and verified by the computer could authorized users enter the area. It sounds a little like Star Trek to me, but the technology is already here. Derald foresees the day in the near future when all new computers will come with a small scanner as standard equipment. The next application of this technology was in matching fingerprints on a one-to-many basis. That means a fingerprint from a crime scene could be collected, for example, and automatically matched with those in a data base. That=s the newest product which the Phoenix Group is marketing. It=s called the AFIX Tracker. AFIX stands for Automated Fingerprint Identification eXpanded. This remarkable technology enables a police officer to find a match to a fingerprint in a matter of minutes, instead of a matter of days or months. The system doesn=t require a point-of-center to find a match, and it automatically rotates the image 360 degrees to match all the possibilities. Imagine how long it would take a person to find a match, if all he had was a magnifying glass and 10,000 cards of fingerprints. It=s a practical impossibility. But this system can find a match in less than a half hour. For those of us who always wanted to be FBI agents when we grew up, this is really neat. It=s a high-tech way of fighting crime. Derald Caudle says, AMost smaller police departments don=t have access to the national FBI database. This system is an affordable alternative.@ The U.S. Army crime lab uses this system on a daily basis. One of their special agents is quoted as saying, AWe continue to be impressed. Looks and acts and feels like a Learject for the price of a Cessna 150.@ Since June 1998, the Phoenix Group has taken the AFIX Tracker to more than 20 trade shows. Orders have come in from as far away as Georgia and Massachusetts. The system has been used successfully, even when there was only a smudged or partial fingerprint to compare to. In one recent case, a fingerprint found on a Sudafed box from a meth lab was successfully matched by AFIX Tracker to identify the suspect. How exciting that such a state-of-the-art technological system is being produced in small-town Kansas. Derald Caudle says of Pittsburg, Kansas, AThis is a nice town. It=s a good place to raise kids.@ It=s time to say goodbye to the scene of the crime in Massachusetts, where the computer system from Kansas is helping to bring in the bad guys. We salute Derald Caudle and the people of Phoenix Group for using their creativity and entrepreneurship to make a difference in fighting crime with technology.
Today let=s visit a place in Kansas you probably haven=t heard about. The name of this place is Nestrelago. Have you ever heard that name before? Nestrelago. You could look at a map for a long time and not find Nestrelago, because it=s not printed on a Kansas road map. But it is there just the same. No, it=s not some imaginary place, or an Indian legend either. This place called Nestrelago is a place where local people are working together for the good of their community and rural Kansas. It=s an interesting true story of cooperation in a very rural place. Stay tuned, this is today=s Kansas Profile. Meet Charles Hennen. Charles is Superintendent of Schools at Utica in western Kansas. He=s a native of Pleasanton, Kansas who holds degrees from Phillips University and Pittsburg State. He did doctoral work at K-State. Charles can tell us about Nestrelago. One day someone mentioned to me a school district called Nestrelago. I=d never heard of it, so I started to look into it and was referred to Charles Hennen. It is his school district which is sometimes called Nestrelago. Charles says, AWhen I interviewed for this job, I thought maybe it was an Indian name. But instead, it takes its name from the four counties in which the school district is located: Ness, Trego, Lane, and Gove.@ Oh, now I understand. If you take the first few letters of each county name and put them together, it spells Nestrelago. Of course, all unified school districts have assigned numbers, such as USD 383. Most also have more descriptive geographic names, such as Southern Gray County or Jefferson West. Nestrelago represents all four counties. Charles says, ADuring the school unification process of the 1960s, this was the coalition that happened to be put together.@ It appears to me that the county seats had their own school systems, but the rural areas in the corner of these counties were left to go together. So they formed their own new identity, called Nestrelago. The school building is located in Utica, which is in the center of the district. Utica is a town of 195 people. Now, that=s rural. This school district has either the smallest or one of the smallest enrollments in the state. It has 76 full-time equivalent students in grades K through 12. There are only seven in the senior class. With low and declining enrollments, that means big challenges. Charles said his school would lose $130,000 in the next year, or 16 percent of the budget. I had to ask if that was sustainable. Charles says, AI believe that the Constitution of this state makes it a state function to support education. Therefore, the state has an obligation to fund our educational system or do something about it.@ Meanwhile, the people of this very rural part of the state have pulled together to support their school. Charles says, AThere is a tremendous amount of local pride in our school. What happens in the school is the center of life in a small town. A ball game here is a community event. The crowd of people visiting after the game is as large as the crowd during the game. This is a good environment to raise kids in. And people like to hire our kids, because they have such a good work ethic.@ And what about those seven seniors? Charles Hennen says proudly, AAll seven are going on to some form of post-secondary school.@ And let=s talk ACT scores. The highest score a person can get on an ACT test is 36. Among these seven seniors there are scores of 29, 32, and 33. Wow. Charles Hennen says, AI=ve been in schools of 500 that didn=t have three ACT scores that high.@ To that I say, score another one for rural Kansas. It=s time to say goodbye to this place you probably haven=t heard of: this school sometimes called Nestrelago. Just as the name brings together the diverse names of the counties, so the school has brought together the people of the region in support of education and community. We commend Charles Hennen and the people of Nestrelago for making a difference through a commitment to community and education. And best wishes to those seven seniors. We=re proud of you.
Kent Sinclair - Information Technology Cooperative Let=s think about history for a minute. There have been times when farmers needed vital supplies like fuel or animal feed or electricity, and these supplies were difficult to acquire individually on a cost-effective basis. Those farmers searched for a solution, and they found that they could band together to acquire these vital supplies through creation of a cooperative. Okay, thanks for the history lesson, you might say. But I=m facing the modern issues of today, trying to deal with this changing economy. What does that have to do with me? Today we=ll meet some rural leaders who have a vision of bringing modern technology to benefit western Kansas. They=re doing it through the time-honored idea of the cooperative. Stay tuned, this is today=s Kansas Profile. Meet Kent Sinclair. Kent is Executive Director of the Garden City Information Technologies Cooperative in Garden City, Kansas. It=s called GCITC for short. Kent is proud of this initiative. He=s a Garden City native who graduated from Garden City Community College and K-State, and was a commercial market consultant for AT&T before joining the information technology cooperative. Now, I know that a farmer=s co-op can buy tires, for example. Can a community cooperative buy technology? Well, it doesn=t exactly work that way. Kent Sinclair explains that, two years ago, some key leaders in the Garden City community got together to brainstorm about the future. These included a hospital executive, the president of the community college, the city manager, school superintendent, and a leader from county government. As they discussed the future needs of the region, the importance of technology was brought home. They also found, at a practical level, that each one of their entities had similar technology needs. But what were they to do about it? Eventually, it became clear that no one else was going to do it for them. They had to create their own future. Just as farm leaders concluded years before, this group decided they could work together for mutual benefit. So the Garden City Information Technology Cooperative was formed. It includes the city, county, hospital, school, and community college. The Executive Committee is chaired by Dr. Jim Tangeman, President of the community college. The vision of this group is to establish Finney County as a leader of telecommunication services in the Midwest, and in so doing to enhance access by the population to business, educational, governmental, social, health and recreational opportunities. Phase one of the project is to enhance coordination and technology sharing among the members of the cooperative. For example, the school district=s Internet server now serves as host for the other entities, since they are all tax supported in one way or the other. This results in efficiencies for users and taxpayers. It is estimated that this system saves the hospital $22,000 and saves each member 10 percent on their telecommunications bills. Phase two is to pursue a high speed, high bandwidth communications network within the region. This would mean connecting the members with fiber optic cable, for example, which has high capacity for transmission of voice and data. Phase three would be to use these telecommunications technologies to benefit the entire region, by providing such things as interactive videoconferencing, optical imaging, geographic information systems, and other high tech stuff. The ultimate goal is to benefit the entire region. In fact, the Internet server is provided to the school, and then GCITC, by Pioneer Telecommunications. Pioneer is based in the neighboring county in the town of Ulysses, population 5,859 people. Now, that=s rural. It=s exciting to see the leaders of this rural region get together and build for the next century. Kent Sinclair says, AWe want to propel our community forward, and be on the leading edge of the future.@ Let=s think about history B those times when citizens got together to form cooperatives that could provide vital services and supplies. These leaders in Garden City are making modern history today, by using the time-honored principle of cooperation to bring high technology to southwest Kansas. Just as acquiring fuel was vital to farmers in earlier times, so acquiring information technology is vital to community leaders today. We salute Kent Sinclair, Dr. Jim Tangeman, and other leaders of GCITC for making a difference with forward-thinking technology and cooperation.
If you were looking for a collection of artifacts from darkest Africa, where in the U.S. would you look for it? Perhaps the Smithsonian in Washington, or maybe some museum in New York? You can find a remarkable collection of genuine African artifacts much closer to home B in fact, right here in rural Kansas. Get ready for a safari, this is today=s Kansas Profile. Meet Barbara Enlow Henshall. Barbara is a long-time volunteer at the museum that we are going to visit today. It=s the Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum in Chanute, Kansas. Barbara provided us a tour of the museum, introduced us to director Conrad Froehlich, and told us of a call the museum had received from French television asking permission to do a documentary about a pair of American adventurers who explored Africa early in this century. Why would a television company from France make a transatlantic call to rural Kansas regarding African explorers? Chanute has a population of 9,498 people. Now, that=s rural. Yet this community is home to a museum with a remarkable collection of African artifacts, and it tells the true story of two amazing individuals: Martin and Osa Johnson. Martin Johnson was from Independence and Osa was from Chanute. Martin was an adventurer. As a young man, he traveled with author Jack London on a trip to the South Seas in 1907. He returned home to southeast Kansas as something of a celebrity and opened a theater. Young Osa met Martin at that theater, and the two eloped a few weeks later. Apparently Osa caught the adventure bug from her husband, because Osa and Martin would make two expeditions to the South Seas, two to Borneo, and five extended trips to Africa. One of those trips spanned four years! Wow, that=s a long time to have the neighbor feed the dog. But Martin and Osa Johnson didn=t just explore these regions, they were photographers, authors, and naturalists too. They captured these true-life adventures and exotic cultures on film, using both still and motion pictures, and brought them back to the American public. These films brought the far-off continent of Africa home to thousands of Americans. In the process, their documentaries brought Martin and Osa Johnson fame around the world. They had gone on the vaudeville circuit with material from Martin=s trip with Jack London. They went on lecture tours after their African trips. They were great celebrities of their time. Martin Johnson died in a plane crash in California in 1937, and Osa lived until 1953. In 1961, a museum was established in their honor in her hometown of Chanute. The museum has grown over time. A fan of the Johnsons, a New York City doctor who had lived in Africa, donated a large collection of African artifacts and these have been added to through the years. In 1993, the museum moved into a historic railroad station downtown. Today, the museum includes more than 10,000 photographs taken by the Johnsons. The African gallery includes ceremonial masks, carved figures, musical instruments, swords, jewelry, and textiles from four regions of west Africa. There are two lifesize models of Bambara dancers which make a striking display. The museum also features a lifesize recreation of the Johnsons= safari camp and memorabilia such as Osa Johnson=s vaudeville dress. There is a fine arts gallery and a library with 10,000 books, journals, and manuscripts on early African exploration, plus much more. A few years ago, a Kansas author visited 249 museums around Kansas. He published a list of the top ten museums in the state, and guess which one ranked Number one: The Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum in Chanute. Barbara Enlow Henshall, a K-State graduate and long-time volunteer at the museum, tells us that the total value of all the museum holdings could be as much as $2 million. She says, ATo have this in Kansas is spectacular.@ If you were looking for a collection of African artifacts, where in the U.S. would you look? Chanute, Kansas probably wouldn=t have been our first guess. But because of the adventurous spirit of the Johnsons and the community spirit of many citizens, this treasure of a museum can be found right here in Kansas. We salute Osa and Martin Johnson for their courage to explore, and for their contributions to documentary film making and wildlife research. We also salute Barbara Enlow Henshall, Conrad Froehlich, and all those who are making a difference by preserving and sharing this heritage.
It=s morning and time to go to work. You=ve put on just the right clothes, gathered your papers, and it=s time to go. And...now you=re there. Wait a minute, that was fast. What happened to the rush hour commute, the cost of gas, the car pool, and the traffic? The answer is, you don=t have to put up with that. You are telecommuting B interacting with your office electronically through the computer and telephone from your home. Today, we=ll meet someone who is telecommuting across the continent from rural Kansas. Stay tuned, this is today=s Kansas Profile. Meet Sarah Coiner, telecommuter. This is her story. Sarah grew up in Colorado and moved to California at age 17. She and her husband started a family and a career there. Sarah was living in southern California when she was president of the PTA at her child=s school. As a fundraiser for the PTA, the group was selling a variety of gift items produced by a company named Red Apple. The company was so impressed with Sarah that eventually they asked if she would be interested in a job. Her child was just starting kindergarten, so Sarah said yes. That was seven years ago. Over time, their family grew B but so did the stress level. Sarah says, ACalifornia has so many problems with gangs, smog, and a stressful lifestyle. We were robbed several times, and it=s not that we weren=t in a good neighborhood. And I wasn=t happy with the school system.@ It was time to make a change, and Sarah found that she could do her job over a telephone and computer. So in February 1999, they made the move all the way out to rural Kansas. Sarah continues to work for the Red Apple company, which markets various food and gift items as fundraisers for local PTAs just as Sarah had done in California. Here=s how it works. Through the local PTA, the kids in a school will get brochures about the various gift items. They take those brochures home and make sales. This is a huge business in California. Sarah says, AThe schools in one county in California generated more than a million dollars in sales in one season.@ Sarah=s role is to manage the communication part of the process. For example, one of her assistants makes calls to schools to drum up business. Other calls are made to schedule presentations of the gift brochures at the schools. And then there needs to be a place where purchasers of those products can call for customer service. Note that each of those activities involves telephone calling. Then you realize those calls could be handled anywhere. Sarah and the Red Apple company figured that out also, so she will soon be doing her work electronically from rural Kansas. Sarah and family moved from California to the town of Jennings in Decatur County in northwest Kansas. It is a town of 167 people. Now, that=s rural. But if a Red Apple customer in California or Georgia makes a telephone call for customer service, that call goes to Sarah in Jennings, Kansas. Her computer is networked with her assistants and the main office in California so they can share information. A lot of information is sent through the fax machine also. Sarah says, AIt doesn=t matter where you are as long as you have a computer. If I needed to go to Denver for a week of training, I could just take a laptop and work from there.@ And of course the customer in California or Georgia has no idea where his call is going. He just needs help, and Sarah can provide it. So why live in Jennings? Sarah says, AA small town was what I wanted. And we do have family in the area. My father, Frank Bouts, lives over at Selden. This is a nicer growing up area for kids.@ It=s amazing to me that someone is telecommuting from rural Kansas coast to coast. But Sarah says that in three and a half weeks, she=s run into 3 different people who have moved out here from California. The work day=s over. It=s time to head for home. Gather your papers, pick up your things, and....now you=re there. Nicest commute you=ve ever had. We salute Sarah Coiner for making a difference by telecommuting in northwest Kansas. I=ll bet she gets good gas mileage too....
Have you ever witnessed the founding of an industry? It makes me think of Thomas Edison inventing the electric light in New York, or Henry Ford mass-producing cars in Detroit. Today, we=ll visit a community where an industry was founded. But this doesn=t have to do with cars or lights, it=s something as fundamental as food. It=s called the extrusion industry. And where do you suppose this multi-million dollar industry was founded? Not New York or Detroit, but rural Kansas. Stay tuned, this is today=s Kansas Profile. Meet LaVon and Don Wenger of Wenger Manufacturing in Sabetha, Kansas. Wenger is this pioneering, global company with rural Kansas roots. Let=s begin our story in 1929. Joe and Louis Wenger were the sons of Swiss immigrants. As the youngest of nine brothers, there wasn=t much opportunity for them on the farm. So they built a feed mill, and started experimenting with equipment to blend molasses with forage to make livestock feed. The equipment worked well, and they started to expand. In 1958, LaVon Wenger, a son of one of the founders, developed and patented the first commercial cooking extruder. These extruded items had a number of advantages, and demand for the machines started to grow. In 1959, Wenger designed and manufactured the first commercial extrusion cooking systems for grain processing, in effect founding the extrusion industry. Now, you might not know what an extruder is, but I can almost guarantee that you have eaten something produced by an extruder. For example, have you eaten elbow macaroni, fettucine, corn balls, cheese curls, or flaked or puffed breakfast cereal? Of course you have. Those types of expanded products can be made by an extruder. I=ll bet the Cheerios my daughter has for breakfast are made by an extruder too. There are many other commercial applications of extruder products, in such things as aquatic feed and petfood. This type of processing is very popular, and it is in demand overseas as well as in the United States. Today, Wenger Manufacturing is a global leader in commercial extrusion cooking systems. It specializes in state-of-the-art systems which range in size from small lab research applications to large production units which can produce up to 22 tons of product per hour. Wow. Wenger has twice been honored by the Kansas Engineering Society for having the Governor=s New Product Award. Wenger operates a technical center, which is an agrifood laboratory, and maintains a cooperative research relationship with several universities, including K-State. Wenger sells coast to coast and world-wide. In fact, 60 percent of Wenger=s production typically is exported. Customers include all of the industrialized nations and most of the developing countries. Wenger has twice been named the Kansas exporter of the year. With international sales offices in Belgium and Taiwan, you might think that this global company could go anywhere. But the plant and the headquarters remain located in the town where it all began, in the northeast Kansas community of Sabetha B population 2,354 people. Now, that=s rural. What does this mean to Sabetha? The company has helped spawn several other businesses. Wenger Manufacturing itself now has 240 full-time employees and the payroll has grown to 13 million dollars. Wow, what a record. Joe and Louis Wenger were the pioneers who braved the Great Depression, and Lavon and Don Wenger are the second generation who are carrying the company on to greater heights. Don Wenger says, ANow the third generation is coming on, and we=re excited about the future.@ That next generation includes Marc, Jeff, and Brad Wenger and Lafe Bailey, director of sales and marketing. Have you ever witnessed the founding of an industry? Me neither. I=ll never see Thomas Edison or Henry Ford, but I=ve visited this innovative company which founded a world-wide extrusion industry from a small town in Kansas. It=s great to see a home-grown Kansas company have such world-wide success. We salute LaVon and Don Wenger and all the people of Wenger Manufacturing for making a difference through innovation and international entrepreneurship. Henry Ford and Thomas Edison, move over.
Greenbush I - Historical Legend Today let=s learn some Kansas history. The year is 1869. According to legend, a missionary priest was making his way across southeast Kansas on horseback. He was on his way to the Osage Mission when a ferocious spring thunderstorm came up -- as we Kansans know they can do. Wind, hail, and rain started to pelt the young priest. He was out on the open prairie B not a building in sight. Nowhere to take shelter. So the frightened priest did the only thing he could do. He took refuge in a nearby clump of bushes and crawled under his saddle for protection. And he made a vow: He vowed to his Maker that if his life would be spared, he would build a church on that spot. Father Colleton=s life was spared that day. And true to his word, he built a church on that location. The church would lead to a school, and that would one day lead to an educational service center. And that has led to a remarkable initiative to serve education from rural Kansas. Stay tuned, this is today=s Kansas Profile. Father Colleton did build a church on that spot, in a community that would come to be known as Greenbush. The church was named St. Aloysius. The St. Aloysius church was the first Catholic church erected in Crawford County. It was a small wooden frame structure completed in 1871, and a settlement grew around it. A post office was established in the community in 1874, and it was given the name of Greenbush. Mother Nature continued to demonstrate her fickle ways at Greenbush. The church which had been inspired by a storm was itself destroyed by a storm in 1877. But the citizens of the community were committed to rebuild, and this time they quarried stone from a sandstone outcropping along nearby Hickory Creek. The church building was completed in 1881. The town of Greenbush was never incorporated. It grew in the late 1800s, and then began to fade. The post office was discontinued in 1901. But the church at Greenbush was a focal point for people throughout the region, and it grew. Around 1900, plans were made to build a still larger church B a building to be larger than any church then in Crawford County. Again, the men of Greenbush parish quarried stone from the ledge on Hickory Creek. The new building was dedicated in 1907. The 1881 church was converted into a community building used for church gatherings and a school. In 1958, land was purchased to build a bigger school. The Greenbush school closed in 1975 and in 1976, became the Southeast Kansas Education Service Center. Meanwhile, the church continued to serve the people of the region. Then came August 11, 1982. Would you believe that Mother Nature would once again show her dark side? On that date, lightning struck the St. Aloysius Church and it was destroyed by fire. Today, the sandstone ruins of the old church still stand. But parishioners remained true to Father Colleton=s promise. The 1881 church was again renovated into a place of worship. Thus the second church became the fourth church. It was rededicated in March 1986 and was named to the state register of historic places in 1994. It was a fitting tribute to the people of the St. Aloysius Church in Greenbush, Kansas. Still, time marches on. Today there are only a couple of houses remaining in the town of Greenbush, so the population of the town is less than 20 people. Now, that=s rural. Due to a shortage of priests, nine churches in southeast Kansas were closed in 1993, including St. Aloysius. The last regularly scheduled mass was held there on September 4, 1993. The church building remains, however, and special services and weddings are still held there. We=ve come to the end of our Kansas history session. But there is more to be told about the community of Greenbush. You see, that school which had become a regional service center has gone on to become a remarkable high-tech facility which is making a difference. The people at Greenbush aren=t just honoring their history, they are making history. Father Colleton=s vision of service to people is being achieved in a different way now, and we=ll hear about that on our next program.
Greenbush II - Serving Schools Imagine the date is March 3, 1999. We tune in to the PBS News Hour with Jim Lehrer. This award-winning TV show has excellent coverage of national news. And what location do you suppose we=ll be seeing on this national news program today? Would you believe it is the unincorporated town of Greenbush, Kansas? What in the world would attract a national news program to feature this tiny town in the southeastern part of our state? Stay tuned for the answer. This is today=s Kansas Profile. If you were watching the PBS News Hour on March 3, 1999, you would have seen a film feature about Greenbush, Kansas. Greenbush is the site of the Southeast Kansas Education Service Center. The center=s innovative efforts to serve education are receiving national attention and were featured on the PBS News Hour. Here=s why. On our last program, we learned the history of how the former school at Greenbush became the location for a regional service center. Today, the Southeast Kansas Education Service Center is called Greenbush for short. In effect, Greenbush is a cooperative effort among the school districts in the region. They recognized that they could pool their strengths by working together. The cooperative nature of the service center means that school districts can participate in educational services that would otherwise be unavailable or unaffordable, or are simply offered most cost-effectively through a cooperative arrangement. The goal was and is to provide equal educational opportunities for all kids. There are regional service centers serving schools all across the state, but Greenbush is unique in that it receives no base fiscal support from school districts, the state, or federal government. How then does it survive? The answer is, it meets needs. Today, Greenbush offers a cafeteria-style set of programs. No, that doesn=t mean they sell school food. Rather, it means that schools can pick and choose the educational support services which their school needs. They pay only for those services they use. For example, a school may simply wish to have some signs engraved or order some educational videos. They can do so through Greenbush. But the schools can also contract for a comprehensive program of school improvement services, including assessment, technology, and integrated curriculum development. Greenbush offers consortiums in everything from environmental compliance to maintenance and custodial work. If two or more school districts want a program, the Greenbush staff will put together a program and a bu |