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Tag: Kansas Community Empowerment

Melvina Jones, Potwin

Posted on by Pat Melgares
Closeup- Melvina Jones amid corn stalks
Melvina Jones

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.

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Kansas Community Empowerment

Posted on by Pat Melgares
Logo, Kansas Community Empowerment
Logo, Kansas Community Empowerment

“Empowerment: The degree of autonomy and self-determination in people and in communities. This enables them to represent their interests in a responsible and self-determined way, acting on their own authority.”

That textbook description of empowerment helps explain why a long-standing community development program in Kansas has used that term to rebrand itself.  

Jaime Menon and Jan Steen are co-coordinators of the newly named Kansas Community Empowerment program, which is being rebranded from the Kansas PRIDE program that it had been known for decades. The Kansas PRIDE program began in 1970 as a partnership with K-State Research and Extension, the Kansas Department of Economic Development, and state business leaders.

Menon and Steen also are K-State Research and Extension state specialists in community vitality. KDED has become the Kansas Department of Commerce. The Kansas Masons joined as a partner in 2016. Business leaders continue to be involved through the non-profit organization, Kansas PRIDE Inc., which raises funds for grants and awards. Continue reading “Kansas Community Empowerment” →

Tami Howland, dala horses

Posted on by Pat Melgares
Red painted dala horse in front of Welcome to Olsburg sign
Olsburg dala horse

The horses are out! They’re all over town!

But these horses aren’t running away; they are standing strong for their community.

These are dala horses, the beautifully decorated horse-shaped figures that are a symbol of Sweden. Today we will visit a rural Kansas community that is using dala horses to beautify the town and engage its people.

Tami Howland is president of Olsburg’s Kansas PRIDE program, now known as Kansas Community Empowerment. Howland also works at Union State Bank in Olsburg.

The town was founded in 1880 by an immigrant Swede named Ole Thrulson. Originally named Olesburgh, the name was later shortened to Olsburg. One Swedish tradition is the display of dala horses: wooden carvings of horses that are painted and displayed outside homes and businesses.

PRIDE members wanted to enhance the community. In 2021, they received an anonymous donor’s gift to be used for beautification.

Using the Swedish theme, PRIDE members decided to launch a public art project consisting of large dala horses to be decorated by local businesses and organizations. The project received a matching grant from the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission, which is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts. PRIDE members contacted a Nebraska company that produced fiberglass dala horses 3 1/2 feet tall.

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