Kansas State University

search

Kansas Profile

Tag: K-State Research and Extension

Daniel Friesen, IdeaTek

Posted on by Pat Melgares
Head and shoulders picture of Daniel Friesen, IdeaTek
Daniel Friesen

Let’s meet some freedom fighters. These won’t be found in some jungle fighting a dictator. These fighters are working to achieve freedom from bad Internet service, and they are based in rural Kansas.

Daniel Friesen is founder and chief innovation officer at IdeaTek in Buhler. He describes his company’s staff as freedom fighters for good Internet service, particularly in rural communities.

Daniel went to high school in Buhler. He was a tech-savvy kid. “When our teachers at the school got computers, they would ask me to set them up,” Daniel said.

In 1999, he and four high school friends started a computer repair business in Buhler with $250 in the basement of his parent’s house. The business was named IdeaTek.

Daniel continued the business in college while his four friends pursued other interests. He studied computer systems support at Hutchinson Community College and management information systems at Wichita State before pursuing the business full time in Buhler, where he and his wife and family live today. Continue reading “Daniel Friesen, IdeaTek” →

Dr. Tom Walsh, Onaga Community HealthCare System

Posted on by Pat Melgares

Today let’s meet a rural doctor who practices medicine but doesn’t have patients. You may ask, “How can that be?”

The answer is that the people he sees are more than patients – he sees them as friends and neighbors. This type of relationship with those in his care has led to a lifelong career in practicing rural medicine.

At right: Dr. Tom Walsh

Last week we learned about the Community HealthCare System in northeast Kansas where Dr. Tom Walsh practices. He will retire at the end of 2021 after 46 years of practicing medicine in the rural community of Onaga, population 751 people. Now, that’s rural.

Dr. Walsh’s father Eugene was a family doctor in Onaga as well. After medical school, Eugene came to Onaga for one year to help his friend Dr. Fleckenstein – but he liked Onaga so much he never left.

Tom and his brother accompanied their dad on house calls. Tom decided to follow his father into the medical field. “I knew what I was getting into,” Tom said.

“When my folks took me to college (at Notre Dame), it was the first time I had ever been east of Kansas City,” Tom said. After graduation, he went to medical school at KU. He also met and married Marcia.

In 1975, Dr. Tom Walsh and Marcia moved to Onaga to join his father’s practice. Dr. Walsh would later become affiliated with what is now the Community HealthCare System of northeast Kansas. Marcia would rise to become the system’s chief operating officer. Continue reading “Dr. Tom Walsh, Onaga Community HealthCare System” →

Todd Willert, Community HealthCare System

Posted on by Pat Melgares

By Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University

 

Have you heard the saying about building an airplane while trying to fly it? That would be one way of describing one hospital in rural Kansas which was transforming itself while continuing to provide services – and in the case of the hospital building, a new hospital was literally built in the place of the old one. This small-town hospital in rural Kansas has been transformed into a state-of-the-art health care facility.

Todd Willert is CEO of Community HealthCare System headquartered in Onaga. He shared the story of the remarkable progress of this organization.

At right: Community HealthCare System hospital, Onaga

Todd is a native of the Chicago area. “There were as many people in my high school graduating class as in the whole town of Onaga,” Todd said. After serving in health care administration in Illinois and Iowa, he was recruited to Onaga and became CEO in 2015.

He credits a former director, the late Joe Engelken, and local physician Tom Walsh with many of the organization’s advancements through the years. Todd wrote: “When Joe joined in 1981, Community Hospital Onaga’s team consisted of 30 employees and Dr. Tom Walsh. We could have remained a sleepy little hospital in northeast Kansas, but Joe had other ideas. He looked past decades-old football rivalries and instead focused on how communities could work together.” Continue reading “Todd Willert, Community HealthCare System” →

Shannon Martin, Burford Theatre

Posted on by Pat Melgares

By Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University

 

“Welcome to my imagination.”

That sign is displayed on the desk of a creative person who manages a theater in small town Kansas, as she imagines how to engage more people in the arts.

Shannon Martin is the director of the Burford Theatre and Ark City Area Arts Council in Arkansas City. Her desk sports the sign, “Welcome to my imagination.”

Shannon went to high school in Iola and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Pittsburg State. She is the mother to four sons: Micah, Riley, Wyatt, and Wade.

Shannon and her husband Grady now live in eastern Cowley County. Grady works for General Electric and runs a cow-calf operation. Their historic farm home, stone barn and rental cabins are near the rural community of Dexter, population 278 people. Now, that’s rural.

In 2017, Shannon took the position as director of the Ark City Area Arts Council and director of the historic Burford Theatre in downtown Arkansas City. Continue reading “Shannon Martin, Burford Theatre” →

Ray Ford and Joel Heath, Burr Roasters

Posted on by Jason Hackett

By Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University

Not all coffees are created equal. Today we’ll meet a couple of artisan coffee roasters who have learned the truth of this statement and applied it to their remarkable coffee business.

Ray Ford and Joel Heath are the makers of this remarkable coffee. They are co-owners of Burr Roasters & Cafe in Leavenworth.

From left: Ray Ford, Joel Heath
From left: Ray Ford, Joel Heath

Ray Ford grew up in Kentucky and joined the Army. “I grew up with bad coffee,” Ray said. “Everybody drinks coffee in the field,” he said. “(The coffee is) warm and you’re cold.” Soldiers drank whatever coffee was provided.

Ray took a job in retail which included working in a coffee shop. “I got a knack for it,” Ray said.

He finished his Army career at Fort Leavenworth. An Army friend named Johnny Kasper was also in his church. They talked about opening a coffee shop in Leavenworth after they retired. Together, they opened Burr Roasters, a veteran-owned, small-batch roastery and coffee shop located in historic downtown Leavenworth. Continue reading “Ray Ford and Joel Heath, Burr Roasters” →

Jackie Mundt, ag advocate

Posted on by Jason Hackett

By Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University

Growing food and growing people. Those two are not the same, but they both have to do with positive development for the future – and they are the two motivating priorities that inspire one young Kansas leader daily. They have helped propel her to not one, but two national agriculture awards.

Jackie Mundt
Jackie Mundt

Jackie Mundt is communications and marketing manager for Kanza Cooperative Association and a two-time winner of national awards from the American Farm Bureau Federation. She and Marc Rundell live on Marc’s family farm in Pratt County.

Jackie grew up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin. She was active in FFA and was elected national FFA president in 2004. Her duties involved traveling to FFA chapters, schools, and other meetings across the United States and beyond. One of those meetings was the state FFA convention in Fresno, California.

“I fell in love with the people and the campus there,” Jackie said. She ultimately enrolled at Fresno State University and earned a degree in agricultural communications. Along the way she met Kansas farmboy Marc Rundell. Continue reading “Jackie Mundt, ag advocate” →

Michele Nordahl, Anderson & Forrester

Posted on by Jason Hackett

By Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University.

“Where should we land?” That sounds like something a pilot might say, but in this case, I’m referring to a business decision. A company in Denver was looking to relocate and considering various locations. The place where they chose to land with their business was a small community in rural Kansas.

From left: Michele Nordahl, Chad Nordahl and Roxane Metzen
From left: Michele Nordahl, Chad Nordahl and Roxane Metzen

Michele Nordahl and Roxane Metzen are co-owners of the Anderson & Forrester company, which they chose to relocate from Colorado to Clearwater, Kansas. Anderson & Forrester is a maker of specialized brass fittings which serve as orifices to channel natural gas or propane inside gas- or propane-powered devices.

Michele is a longtime human resources business executive. She grew up in Oregon and worked in New Jersey before her career took her to Wichita. In 2014, her employer asked her to evaluate different company-owned businesses that the company was considering selling. One of those was Anderson & Forrester, which Michele eventually purchased herself with her friend Roxane. Michele is president and CEO. Michele’s son Chad is now general manager of the company. Continue reading “Michele Nordahl, Anderson & Forrester” →

Heather Johnson, S&S Drug – Part 2

Posted on by Jason Hackett

By Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University

Have you had your shot? That question was on the minds of millions as vaccinations for COVID-19 were rolled out across the country. Today we’ll learn about a rural Kansas pharmacy which responded to the pandemic in remarkable ways.

S&S Drugstore
S&S Drugstore

Last week we learned about Heather Johnson, chief executive of S&S Drug, a family-owned pharmacy in Beloit. Heather and her husband Jim Johnson have three children in college and high school. Jim, an attorney in Beloit, had grown up at the nearby rural community of Randall, population 65 people. Now, that’s rural.

“We hosted Jim’s high school class reunion at our house. They had 100% attendance,” Heather said. “Of course, it was only seven people,” she said with a smile.

But serious times hit rural America when the pandemic spread in spring 2020 and stay-at-home orders were issued across the nation. “Like any small business, the pandemic had a big impact on us,” Heather said. S&S closed its doors for four months and reopened in June 2020. Even though the retail operation closed, the pharmacy still had to meet essential needs and provide prescriptions through drive-up and delivery. Continue reading “Heather Johnson, S&S Drug – Part 2” →

Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Sarah Siders, Spark

Posted on by Jason Hackett

By Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University

A little spark can get a fire going – or in this case, it might help get entrepreneurship going. I’m referring to an organization named Spark which serves as a hub for resources to support entrepreneurs.

Sarah Siders is executive director of Spark. A Kansas State University graduate in social work, she left Manhattan briefly and planned to work overseas but came back a year later. She got married, went to graduate school for clinical social work with the goal of becoming a therapist, and then worked in the mental health department at Fort Riley’s Irwin Army Community Hospital. She and her husband also serve as a co-pastors of a Manhattan-based church, The Well. After nine years in the mental health field, she opened her own business.

Sarah Siders
Sarah Siders

“When I started my own counseling and coaching practice, I found I loved the business side of things,” Sarah said. She joined the organizing team of the 1 Million Cups entrepreneurship organization, worked closely with some of the original founders of the Manhattan co-working space called The Fellow, and wrote for Manhattan Business News. In 2019, colleagues encouraged her to run for Manhattan City Commission, which she did but was not elected.

“Five days after the election, a member of the organizing team recruited me to help develop a new entrepreneurship nonprofit organization in Manhattan called Spark,” Sarah said. In the first few months, Sarah developed Spark’s branding and took the lead on the proposal securing the bulk of Spark’s funding. In July 2020, Sarah was selected as executive director and the organization earned 501(c)3 status. Continue reading “Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Sarah Siders, Spark” →

Brett Hubka, A Mural Movement

Posted on by Jason Hackett

By Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University

There’s a fever which has begun in a Kansas community. Don’t worry, this is a good kind of fever. It is what one artist described as “mural fever,” where a community put up a mural and that led to another mural and then another. These murals have improved the downtown appearance and sparked new interest in the community.

Clay Center mural
Clay Center mural

Brett Hubka is community bank president in Clay Center, president of the Clay Center Rotary Club, and the person who launched the initial idea for a mural in his community.  Brett has rural roots, having grown up in Medicine Lodge. His mother is from the rural community of Sharon, population 158 people. Now, that’s rural.

Brett attended Kansas State University, where he met his future wife who is from Oberlin. They married and moved to Oklahoma where she attended optometry school. She joined a practice in Clay Center where Brett came to work in the bank. “Rural Kansas is important to us,” Brett said. “This is where we want to raise our kids.” Brett’s parents, Mike and Elene Hubka, are educators who now live in Manhattan. Continue reading “Brett Hubka, A Mural Movement” →