The little boy dreams of being a winner. One day he pictures himself winning a purple ribbon at the county fair, and maybe the next day he imagines himself as a major league pitcher, throwing strikes in the big leagues.
Today we’ll meet a young man from rural Kansas who is living that exact life. Thanks to Montgomery County Chronicle editor and publisher Andy Taylor and sportswriter Brian Thomas who are the sources for this story.
Jace Kaminska is a baseball player from Montgomery County. Andy Taylor first met Kaminska at an unlikely place 10 years ago: The 4-H baking championship at the Montgomery County Fair.
Kaminska was a little boy from Tyro, Kansas. He was proudly displaying his homemade bread loaf which had earned a purple ribbon. Taylor’s newspaper photo of the smiling little 4-H kid would stay in his mind for years.
Taylor next heard about Kaminska in a totally different context. Kaminska’s interests had transitioned from baking to baseball.
Kaminska was a teenager at Caney Valley High School and the word was out that he could throw a baseball like nobody’s business. Kaminska was coached by his father, Mike, who had played baseball collegiately at Northwest Missouri State. Mike’s mother Carrie had played softball there as well.
Because of Jace Kaminska’s torpedo-like arm, Taylor termed him the Tyro Torpedo.
Marci Spaw, Wabaunsee County Historical Society and Museum
A new project uncovered something old.
That’s what happened in Alma, where the county historical museum staff were working on renovations and made an unexpected find – right underneath their feet. This museum is working to honor and preserve the history and culture of Wabaunsee County.
During the last two weeks, we’ve learned about remarkable women in business at Alma. Remarkable things are happening at the county historical museum in Alma, too.
Marci Spaw is executive director of the Wabaunsee County Historical Society and Museum. Spawgrew up on a farm near Overbrook, went to K-State for bachelors and masters degrees, and met and married Christopher. They now live out in Wabaunsee County’s rural Farmer township, population 119 people. Now, that’s rural.
Spaw joined the museum staff in 2020 and became the full-time executive director in 2022. The mission of the Wabaunsee County Historical Society and Museum is to record the history and culture of the people of the county over time, provide education, and collect, preserve and exhibit artifacts relating to the county.
Staying power. That’s important for any business, including those in small town Kansas.
Today we’ll visit a rural community with a business – and a business owner – that has truly demonstrated staying power. This remarkable lady is operating this business at age 97.
Last week we visited Alma to learn about a resurgence of downtown businesses there, many of those businesses led by younger women. This week, we’ll meet a woman who operates another downtown business in Alma, but – with all due respect – young she is not.
Gwen Hendricks is the long-time owner-operator of Hendricks Hardware, along with her family. In its 145 year existence, this store has had only three family owners.
Conrad Mueller built the building in 1878. He used the front half for a billiard hall and saloon and housed his family in the back.
That definition might apply to the community of Alma, where a group of small business owners who happen to be women are leading a revitalization of businesses in that community.
Morgan Holloman is the owner of Antique Emporium of Alma, one of the growing businesses that is part of the new downtown growth. Holloman is from Topeka and went to K-State where she met her future husband, Tyler. After her sister married a guy from Alma, Holloman started a lawn and landscape business there.
She cleared a lot in Alma and was preparing to build a new building while she and Tyler were dating.
“On one date, I told him, ‘I sure hope you want to live here, because I just poured that concrete pad over there,’” Holloman said.
They did indeed marry and moved to Alma, where Holloman had built a new metal building on that pad. Morgan and Tyler lived in an apartment in that building before buying a house in Alma.
From that building, Tyler looked down the street and could see the classic stone building storefronts that have earned Alma the title, City of Native Stone. One caught his eye.
“That’s the coolest stone building I’ve ever seen,” he said.
Eventually Morgan and Tyler bought that very building and the antique business within it, the Antique Emporium of Alma. Shortly after they purchased the building, Covid hit and everything shut down.
“We used that time to remodel the building,” Holloman said. The drop ceiling and old carpet were removed and more of the wood floors and native stone walls displayed. Now attractive display cases line the floor.
In addition, the Hollomans opened the basement and converted the second floor to seven apartments.
Antique Emporium of Alma has more than 4,000 square feet of vendor space. Offerings include a large coin collection, substantial library and a multitude of small and large collectibles and antiques. One part of the building is for Mill Creek Mercantile, which offers locally made products.
The business has attracted customers from California to the Carolinas. “We draw a surprising amount of visitors off (Interstate 70),” Holloman said.
The antique store is one of several women-owned businesses that have recently grown in downtown Alma:
Wrenn Pacheco runs a boutique beef shop known as Pacheco Beef.
Mel’s Coffee recently opened in another recently renovated downtown building.
Heather Beggs renovated a main street building and opened a yoga studio and Airbnb.
Karen Wright operates multiple main street businesses, such as a dance studio, liquor store and convenience store.
These are in addition to existing businesses operated by women, such as Jeanette Rohleder at the Alma Bakery and Sweet Shop, Gwen Hendricks at Hendricks Hardware, and Lori Daniel at the Signal-Enterprise newspaper.
Then there is the Volland Store at nearby Volland and the new renovation at the Wabaunsee County Historical Society and Museum. There seems to be a synergy of these businesses working together.
“We’ve found a way to refer people to each other’s businesses,” Holloman said. “It’s a great town.”
“Maybe Covid gave Alma the opportunity to show that people didn’t have to travel so far away to enjoy a rural lifestyle,” Holloman reflected. “We want people to come to Alma to experience what we have here: fresh air, beautiful green pastures and native stone.”
“There seems to be a resurgence in our downtown.”
That is great to find in a rural community such as Alma, population 802 people. Now, that’s rural.
Resurgence. It means an increase or revival, and that’s what Alma is experiencing today. We commend Morgan Holloman and the other women and business owners who are making a difference by helping downtown Alma experience a resurgence.
And there’s more. Not every downtown Alma business is operated by young women. In fact, one business is run by a woman who is 97 years old. We’ll learn about that next week.
There’s a revival going on down at a church east of Manhattan. No, I don’t mean another service; literally, the church building itself is experiencing a revival.
In this case, a historic stone church is being saved and repurposed into a center for the community.
Dave Nelson is a financial advisor in Wamego. A Manhattan High and K-State grad, he has worked on various land development projects. One of the forgotten landmarks near where he lives is the long-closed Mt. Zion Church, a stone building in the countryside five miles east of Manhattan.
“A new client walked into my office one day,” Nelson said. “When she told me where she lived, I said, ‘Oh, that’s across from the old Mt. Zion Church.’ Yes, she said, and it’s for sale.”
That got Nelson thinking. Soon after, he was out on his daily morning walk with a friend and neighbor, retired city official Jerry Petty. Nelson said: “What would you think if I bought a church? Would you want to be involved in fixing it up?”
Petty wasn’t sure.
The next morning, the two were walking again. Nelson said, “Well, I own a church. Can you help work on it?”
“When?” Petty replied.
“Well, I have two college kids coming at 9 o’clock this morning,” Nelson said.
On a transatlantic flight to Europe, Éclair is arriving in Ireland. But this isn’t just another jet-lagged tourist: This is a four-legged traveler.
Éclair is a black lab puppy. She went to Europe as part of an exchange to help enhance the service dogs that assist people across the nation, and she was sent by an assistance dog service in rural Kansas.
Bryce Dolan is director of marketing and fundraising for KSDS Assistance Dogs Inc., which sent the puppy Éclair to Ireland as part of an international exchange.
KSDS had its beginnings through 4-H. In 1987, 4-H dog project members from Cloud, Riley and Washington counties began serving as puppy raisers for assistance dog organizations in Ohio and California.
When they realized that very few of these assistance dogs were being placed in the Midwest, they wanted an assistance dog training facility for people in the central U.S.
In 1990, the Kansas Specialty Dog Service (now known as KSDS) opened its doors in Washington, Kansas. KSDS is a non-profit organization that provides professionally trained guide and service dogs for people in need of a canine partner. KSDS is led by CEO Duane Toews and a board of volunteers.
What’s growing in the garden? Corn, potatoes, tomatoes?
Yes, all of the above, and more. Today we’ll meet a long-time volunteer who supports her local community garden plus other projects that benefit her community.
Melvina Jones is a volunteer with the Potwin PRIDE program (now known as Kansas Community Empowerment at the state level), including the community garden in Potwin. She grew up on a farm near the Anderson County town of Welda and earned a teaching degree at Emporia State. She retired after a career of teaching.
Her family always had a garden. “I grew up in 4-H. Gardening was one of my projects,” she said. After moving to Potwin, she and her family had a garden of their own.
In 1984, the Potwin mayor invited community organizations to have a representative on a newly forming local PRIDE group. Jones joined PRIDE as a representative of the Parent Teacher Organization and has been active ever since.
That sounds like a lot. In this case, I’m referring to a new book that intentionally shares such little known stories. The book is titled Secret Kansas. It is chock-full of fascinating and little-known stories about our state.
Roxie Yonkey, who we have profiled before, is an author, blogger and travel writer. A Nebraska native, she became a staff writer at a college in Virginia. She came back to the Midwest for her career in journalism, married a Kansan in Goodland, and worked in tourism for years. She found she enjoyed writing about Kansas attractions.
In 2019, Yonkey launched a website and travel blog called www.roxieontheroad.com, of which she is the CEO: that is, Chief Exploration Officer.
She continues to write and post about Kansas attractions. In 2021, Yonkey published her book titled “100 Things to Do in Kansas Before You Die,” as we have previously profiled.
Moundridge Elementary School students building robots
The robotic device moves forward, stops, turns right, and then backs up, as its programmer watches carefully.
That might describe the scene in a research lab or high-tech factory. In this case, the location is an elementary school classroom, and the programmer is a first-grader. This is the remarkable story of an innovative effort to help young students learn about technology.
Chuck Laughlin is the family and community wellness and community vitality agent in K-State Research and Extension’s McPherson County office. He is a McPherson County native and was active in the 4-H program as a youth.
After attending K-State, he worked in information technology, and then directed a Texas non-profit organization before coming back to Kansas to care for family. He joined K-State Research and Extension in 2022.
After joining the county office, he worked with a program assistant who had been a preschool teacher. She was interested in robotics for younger children.
Laughlin visited with Becky Goss, president of the McPherson County Community Foundation. They identified a new opportunity to support interactive robotic education. A grant opportunity was being offered by NetWorked for Change, the NetWork Kansas-supported interdisciplinary partnership for community investment that we have previously profiled.
Through the McPherson County Community Foundation, K-State Research and Extension successfully applied for a NetWorked grant to support a mobile robotics education program for local schoolchildren in grades 1, 3 and 6. It was a fun and innovative way to make young children aware of opportunities in STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.
Laughlin worked on the project with Betsy Davis, director of community services for the McPherson County Community Foundation.
“Connecting people with resources is what we do,” Davis said. Extension staff used the grant proceeds to purchase age-appropriate robotic devices to use in presenting lessons in the school. Moundridge Elementary School became the pilot program site.
First graders used a Code & Go Mouse that they would program to move certain directions, after placing colored cards in a desired order. “This was to teach introductory programming and sequencing,” Laughlin said.
Third graders used Ozobots with various lighting displays that they would program to operate remotely with an I-pad. Sixth graders worked with Lego Spike, a self-propelled device that they had to build from Legos before programming.
“We were using the robots to teach basic robotics and engineering skills,” Laughlin said. “There was also an element of teamwork as the kids had to work together.”
Depending on the age, the lessons included math problems, story problems and trouble-shooting.
“It was great to see the teachers’ faces light up when they saw the educational elements that were being integrated, and it was great to see the kids’ different learning styles,” Laughlin said.
The sixth graders were challenged to find another way to make the Lego Spike move without changing code, and then they had a race of their robots.
“They had a great time with that,” Laughlin said. “They had to re-engineer something, it was a great learning tool.”
One child described the process as “best science class ever.”
“We were all just amazed at what the kids came up with,” Laughlin said. “They were so excited to show us what they did. I think we’ve got some future engineers in there.”
Speaking of engineers, the project organizers brought together a panel of actual engineers in the county – both male and female – to speak to the sixth graders. Betsy Davis believed this was eye-opening for the students.
“Early exposure to STEM creates more interest and aptitude later on,” Davis said.
Laughlin added: “They learned a lot.”
The organizers would like to serve more schools. Other county schools that could be contacted include Inman, population 1,341, and Canton-Galva which serves the rural communities of Galva, population 834, and Canton, population 685 people. Now, that’s rural.
Grade schoolers programming robots? Yes, it’s happening in rural Kansas. We commend Chuck Laughlin, Becky Goss, Betsy Davis and all the teachers involved in this innovative program.
“The best part was seeing that spark ignited in those students,” Laughlin said. “You saw you were making a difference.”
The documentary movie is being filmed in a remote part of the western U.S. Who is feeding the hundreds of cast members and extras in this wilderness?
Would you believe, a Kansas couple with a specially built chuckwagon and grill?
Don and Sharon Meyer are the owners of this remarkable chuckwagon with its built-in gas grill. Don Meyer has always been a skilled handyman and mechanic. He was born in a house that his great-grandfather built in 1909. The house is in Carlton, Kansas, south of Abilene.
Meyer grew up helping his father on the farm and then worked in construction, building grain elevators. He now helps his son run the family feedyard.
“In the mid-1980s, my dad had a party out at the farm,” Meyer said. “People came with their own barbecue cookers, and I thought there ought to be a safer way to do that.”
“I like to build stuff,” he added.
He thought about how to design a portable cooking wagon of his own in the shape of an old-time western chuckwagon. The café in nearby Gypsum was closing, so Meyer bought the stove and saved the grill. He knew a guy who had an old wagon running gear and got some 120-year-old boards from what had been a horse barn near Pratt.
Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University writes Kansas Profile. The weekly posts highlight individuals or companies in rural Kansas who are making a difference to their community and state.
The Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development is a public / private partnership between Kansas State University and the Huck Boyd Foundation. The mission of the institute is to help rural people help themselves. Learn more at www.huckboydinstitute.org.
