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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Allen Bailey – Marshal of Dodge City

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

Illesheim, Germany. This audience is excited because authentic cowboys from Kansas are performing cowboy music. One of them is even the official marshal of Dodge City.  He’s a man of many talents who comes from rural Kansas.

Allen Bailey is the marshal of Dodge City, Kansas.
Allen Bailey is the marshal of Dodge City, Kansas.

Allen Bailey is the western performer who carries the title of Dodge City marshal. Allen grew up at Cimarron, Kansas and went on to a varied career, working for the gas company, building saddles and cleaning hats, working for a hospital and senior citizens home and then in education.

Several key interests surfaced early in his life. First of all, his dad had a cow-calf operation. Allen loved horses and the cowboy life. Second, he enjoyed history – especially Kansas history. Third, he liked to draw and create art. Fourth, he enjoyed music.

“One guy called me a Renaissance man but I told him I’m just a nut who likes to do lots of things,” Allen said. “I do love Kansas.”

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Greg Wolf – Family Food Store

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

San Diego, California. A package of delicious cherry rolls is being delivered to a customer. Would you believe, these baked goods were prepared by a family living half a continent away in rural Kansas?

The Family Food Store in Sawyer sells an assortment of freshly-baked breads.
The Family Food Store in Sawyer sells an assortment of freshly-baked breads.

Greg and Ruby Wolf are the owners of the Family Food Store, source of the cherry rolls that went to California. Greg grew up on a farm near Quinter during the farm crisis of the 1980s.

“I grew up thinking I was going to farm, but the farm economy took me away from that,” Greg said. “It gave me a desire to help farm families.”

Greg grew up in the Old German Baptist Brethren church. “We’re a conservative church somewhat similar to the Amish and Mennonite,” Greg said. “We drive cars, but we choose a simple lifestyle with no television, radio, or Internet.” It’s a close-knit fellowship, with lots of connections between churches.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Svetlana Hutfles – Community Foundations Conference

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

“The power of together.” That’s a powerful phrase. It was a powerful theme for a conference in Kansas which attracted people from across the nation. This annual conference is helping build capacity of community foundations which assist Kansans and others to leave a legacy to make their communities better.

kacfconferenceSvetlana Hutfles is executive director of the Kansas Association of Community Foundations. She explained that community foundations are community-based non-profit philanthropic institutions which receive funds from various donors for charitable investments in their communities.

There are currently 87 community foundation members of KACF: The Kansas Association of Community Foundations. They’re found in the state’s largest cities, communities like Manhattan, and even rural places such as Kensington, population 518, and Sylvan Grove, population 319 people. Now, that’s rural.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Heather Morgan – Project 17 – Part 2

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

T, W, and S are three letters which are sometimes used to precede the title of a project in southeast Kansas. What does TWS stand for? The Weather System? Toward West and South? Some company? No, in this case, it stands for “Together We Succeed,” which is an apt description of the mindset which drives Project 17 in southeast Kansas.

Pictured left to right: Heather Morgan, Project 17 director; April Mason, K-State Provost; and Jeff Tucker, director of the Advanced Manufacturing Institute.
Pictured left to right: Heather Morgan, Project 17 director; April Mason, K-State Provost; and Jeff Tucker, director of the Advanced Manufacturing Institute.

Last week we learned about Project 17, which uses Together We Succeed as an unofficial motto. Heather Morgan is the executive director. She grew up in Pratt, did undergraduate work at Kansas Wesleyan and then got her master’s in public administration at K-State while working with the women’s basketball team and K-State Athletics.

After graduation, Heather worked in the governor’s budget office in Topeka. She joined the state Juvenile Justice Authority where she became assistant commissioner and also served for a time as a county manager.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Heather Morgan – Project 17

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

What’s your platform? No, not fancy shoes or the policy statements which are debated and adopted by the political parties every four years. I’m talking about what has been referred to as a “regional change platform.” In fact, it is a grassroots network that is working to improve the lives of citizens across a multi-county region of southeast Kansas.

project17logoProject 17 is the name of this project for regional economic development and community engagement in the southeast region of the state, led by the Advanced Manufacturing Institute (AMI) within Kansas State University’s College of Engineering. Jeff Tucker is executive director of AMI. Since 2004 AMI has been working with companies, communities, and regions throughout Kansas to help cultivate rural, innovation-based economies.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Jacob Grinstead

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

“Learning to do, doing to learn, earning to live, living to serve.” That’s the motto of the National FFA Organization for high school agriculture students, and it’s an apt description of the equine career development of a young man from rural Kansas.

Kansas State University student Jacob Grinstead of Buhler, Kansas, has already held numerous leadership positions.
Kansas State University student Jacob Grinstead of Buhler, Kansas, has already held numerous leadership positions.

Jacob Grinstead is from south central Kansas. His family lives between Hutchinson and Buhler, where Jacob went to high school. At an early age, he was exposed to his family’s love of horses. The Grinstead family raises, shows and markets performance horses.

“My first memories were sitting in the bleachers at jackpots (competitions) watching dad rope,” Jacob said. He helped with chores as a kid. When his older sister went to college, his interests and opportunities grew. He showed horses in regional shows and developed interests in other aspects of the equine industry.

Jacob enrolled in agricultural education classes at Buhler High School and joined FFA where he practiced and developed his equestrian skills. As the FFA motto says, he was learning to do and doing to learn.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Karen Sturm – Talking Tombstones

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

“If only those tombstones could talk….”  Have you ever had that thought while visiting a cemetery? Today we’ll meet a rural community which is giving a voice to fascinating histories of the past.

Karen Sturm
Karen Sturm

Karen Sturm is tourism coordinator for the Chamber of Commerce in Caldwell. This is a volunteer position, as was her time spent as president of the local historical society.

“I’ve always loved history,” Karen said. As a child, she enjoyed reading historical books.  Karen grew up at Caldwell and married a farmer. They have two sons and four granddaughters.

Caldwell is located near the Oklahoma border. It played a significant role in the 1893 Cherokee Strip Land Rush into Indian Territory, now Oklahoma. In 1990, the community of Caldwell began a three-year process to prepare for the centennial of the land rush.  Karen stepped in to help with this celebration and learned much more about the fascinating history of Caldwell.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Brett Pfizenmaier

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

“The perfect pumpkin.” That’s the objective of a young farm entrepreneur whose interest in a pumpkin seedling 4-H project has grown into a business of its own.

Eric (left) and Brett Pfizenmaier
Eric (left) and Brett Pfizenmaier

Brett Pfizenmaier and his brother Eric are owner/operators of the Pfizenmaier Pumpkin Patch. Their parents, Pat and Maureen Pfizenmaier, farm west of Clay Center.

Bobby Bulk, a family friend, helped the Pfizenmaiers with their field crops. He also loved to garden, and that knowledge would prove helpful in the future.

Brett and his brother were active in 4-H. One year Brett tried a 4-H project to learn about germination of seedlings using a nice, big pumpkin seed as an example. He planted and watered the seed and watched it grow.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Tracy Teeter – The Main ARTery

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

The main artery is vitally important in the circulatory system of every person. It carries nutrients and life-giving oxygen that is vital to the human body. Today we’ll learn about a different type of artery. This one is literally about Art. The Main ARTery is a catchy name for a remarkable art gallery in a rural region of Kansas and it’s the topic of this week’s Kansas Profile.

Tracy and Lynn Teeter
Tracy and Lynn Teeter

Tracy Teeter is owner of The Main ARTery in Ulysses, Kansas. She grew up at Ulysses and studied commercial art at Garden City Community College and Emporia State University before working in the restaurant business at various locations around the country. In 1995, she returned to Ulysses and went to work for an attorney. She also met and married her husband, Lynn Teeter.

Tracy practiced painting pastels on the side. In 2005, she befriended a local frame shop owner and fellow artist named Jeani Gustafson. After seeing her friend’s artwork, Tracy said, “Let’s do a show together.” The two joined with other artists to plan and produce an art show in Ulysses.

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Todd Trzcinski – SCR Professional Services

Posted on by Mary Lou Peter

The people stood on their front lawn, looked at their house, and they began to cry. Does that sound like a story about the devastation resulting from a flood or tornado? In this case, the story has a whole different focus, because these are tears of joy. Today we’ll learn about a rural Kansas entrepreneur who is using his painting skills to create happiness through improvement.

Todd Trzcinski owns and operates SCR Professional Services in Goodland, Kansas.
Todd Trzcinski owns and operates SCR Professional Services in Goodland, Kansas.

Todd Trzcinski is owner of SCR Professional Services which includes SCR Painting and SCR Tree Services. Todd grew up in Denver but he spent summers working with his grandfather back east. “He had a handyman service which included painting, and I gravitated to the painting part,” Todd said.

After a couple of years in corporate life, he went into painting professionally in Denver. “I painted all the way along the front range, mostly commercial painting,” Todd said.

Eventually, living in an urban area wore Todd down. “I got tired of the rat race,” Todd said. “I didn’t want to sit in traffic for 1-1/2 hours each day. Then one day two kids were shot on their way to school in my neighbourhood, and that was the last straw.”

Todd decided he would take a drive. He drove to a small town in eastern Colorado, picked up a local newspaper, and saw that there was a house for rent in Kanorado.  Todd not only rented the house, he went to work for the farmer who was offering it.

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