“Volunteers do not necessarily have the time; they just have the heart.”
That quote by author Elizabeth Andrew might be a way to describe the many volunteers who help their communities in rural Kansas. Today we’ll meet a group of volunteers who have completed several community projects, the most recent of which is to bring grocery service back to their hometown.
Sherry Ronnebaum and her husband David are among the volunteers involved with the Axtell Economic Development Corporation, or AEDC. Sherry and Dave were the long-time owners of Axtell’s hardware store from which they recently retired, although Dave continues to do appliance repair.
In 1992, the American Legion building in Axtell burned down. A group of volunteers led the effort to rebuild it as the Legion Community Building.
AEDC was formed as a 501(c)3 organization to implement improvement projects for the community. In 2002, AEDC worked on a new firehouse that also housed emergency services. In 2021, Dave Ronnebaum spearheaded the effort to build an addition to the Legion building.
