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Jeremy Rusco, Dynamic Discs, part 1

Let’s go to the Super Bowl – that is, the Super Bowl of disc golf.

It’s the Professional Disc Golf Association World Championships in Ogden, Utah. Many of the top competitors are using discs from a remarkable Kansas company.

Portrait, Jeremy Rusco
Jeremy Rusco

Jeremy Rusco is founder and CEO of Dynamic Discs, the business that provides the discs for many top competitors in the sport. Jeremy was a Great Bend native who came to Emporia State to play football, run track and study business. Jeremy also discovered the sport of disc golf.

Disc golf is played just like traditional golf in that the goal is to get to the target in as few tries as possible, except the player is using a round plastic disc instead of a ball, and the target is a metal pan mounted on a post, with chains hanging down to break the disc’s momentum when it reaches the target.

Of course, the player doesn’t use a club, but throws the disc at the target like throwing a frisbee.

However, the player needs different discs just like a golfer needs different clubs. In other words, discs are designed differently for drives, putts, etc. A competitive disc golfer might have 15 or more discs with a bag to carry them.

Rusco discovered the sport as a student at Emporia State. He found it was a lot of fun and figured he could buy more discs and sell the extras to others. He bought discs, put on cool designs and dyed them, and sold them on eBay. As interest grew, he set up his own business. After asking his girlfriend (now wife) Wendy what to name the company, he settled on the name Dynamic Discs.

“I never expected it to be anything more than a college hobby, but after graduating in 2006, it was evident that there was something special about the disc golf community,” Rusco said. Continue reading “Jeremy Rusco, Dynamic Discs, part 1”

Deb Goodrich, Santa Fe Trail Association

Can one man’s journey change history?

Portrait of woman with long brown hair
Deb Goodrich

“Yes,” said writer and historian Deb Goodrich. She points to William Becknell’s 1821 trade mission to Mexico as a pivotal point in the history of the west. Now she is leading the effort to commemorate the bicentennial of the Santa Fe Trail.

Goodrich is a journalist, historian and television host. A Virginia native, she was a student at Washburn University who became enamored of western history. She is now historian in residence at Fort Wallace in Kansas. Among many other things, she chairs the Santa Fe Trail 200 committee, which is commemorating the bicentennial of this historic trail.

“In 1821, change was racing across the west like a prairie fire,” Goodrich said. “Missouri was a brand new state and Mexico was a newly liberated nation.”

Missouri was also in a financial depression. A Missouri salt-maker named William Becknell was one of those in financial trouble. He was on the verge of going to jail because he could not pay his debts.

In September 1821, Becknell and five companions headed west to hunt and trade horses and mules. They traveled hundreds of miles by horseback through challenging territory. Nearly two-and-a-half months later, they arrived in Santa Fe.

Continue reading “Deb Goodrich, Santa Fe Trail Association”

Donna Krug, bicycle trail

“Due to the pandemic, it’s not been possible to travel and see the world. But now, the world has come to us.”

Man and woman riding tandem bike
John and Donna Krug

That’s a paraphrase of a sentiment expressed by one Kansan as he described the benefit of improvements made to the bicycle facilities in his community. These improvements have welcomed people from across the globe.

Last week we met Donna Krug, district director and family and consumer sciences agent for the K-State Research and Extension Cottonwood District in Barton and Ellis Counties. She and her husband John live in Great Bend.

Donna grew up on a farm near the rural community of Washington, population 1,131 people. Now, that’s rural. “We had a tandem (two-seater) bike when I was a kid,” Donna said. After she and John married and had kids of their own, they rode bikes as well.

“We had always been a biking family,” Donna said. In 2000, she and John purchased a tandem bike for themselves. Bicycling became a passion.

“We’ve put 75,000 miles on our tandem bike,” Donna said. “We’ve ridden in every Kansas county and every one of the contiguous 48 states,” she said. While it’s not possible to ride a bike across an ocean, Donna still has hopes of riding a bike in Hawaii.

Continue reading “Donna Krug, bicycle trail”

Donna Krug, Cottonwood District

When your business or organization needs to conduct a staff retreat, where do you go? Sometimes groups leave their town to go to a bigger city with lots of venue choices.

Woman smiling on cover of magazine
Donna Krug

Today we’ll meet an Extension district whose staff chose to go in the opposite direction. They are choosing to hold their retreats in the smaller towns within their counties.

Donna Krug is the district director for the K-State Research and Extension Cottonwood District, comprised of Barton and Ellis Counties. She also serves as a family and consumer sciences agent for the district.

Donna grew up on a farm near Washington, Kansas. After graduating from K-State, she became a 4-H agent in Texas where her future husband, John, was attending chiropractic school. They married and came to back to Kansas where Donna became the family and consumer sciences agent in Barton County. John was a chiropractor in Great Bend for 32 years.

“As an Extension agent, I do a lot of health and wellness and nutrition classes,” Donna said. “I like sharing my knowledge on health and wellness, and I love the people who come to learn.”

She enjoys teaching Stay Strong, Stay Healthy workshops and has developed10 family and consumer sciences fact sheets focused on health and nutrition. She’s now teaching a sauerkraut making class.

“I recently did a fact sheet on taking a new look at fermented foods,” Donna said. “I shared it at a national meeting. The folks at Iowa State called and want me to come present it there.”

Continue reading “Donna Krug, Cottonwood District”

Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: John Jackson, international agricultural consultant

The plane is arriving. Here are the passengers. There are no hugs or handshakes for these passengers, because these air passengers are beef cattle being transported from the U.S. halfway around the globe to Abadan, Iran. The man who helped arrange this project is John M. Jackson, an international agricultural consultant based in Great Bend, Kansas.

John Jackson

John Jackson is the founder of Agricultural Management Group, Inc. (AMG) which specializes in agriculture and agribusiness, private enterprise development and resource management.

John grew up in Illinois and studied agriculture at Western Illinois University. There he met and married Sharon, his future business partner and wife.

One day on campus, John saw a booth for the Peace Corps. Recognizing the opportunity to experience another culture and to put their skills to good use, John and Sharon both decided to join. Six months later, they were on a plane to Iran to help a village that had been destroyed by an earthquake and had no water or electricity. John and Sharon helped the local people to rebuild. He also learned to speak Farsi, the language of Iran.

Continue reading “Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: John Jackson, international agricultural consultant”