The best thing about annual events is that they can serve as a mile-marker.
Friday night’s ninth annual Thrive Allen County banquet highlighted the arc of the non-profit’s dramatic success as well as gave opportunity to recognize the leadership of people across the county.
Only a short nine years ago, Thrive relied on one source of funding — the REACH Healthcare Foundation. Today, it has multiple sources that, accordingly, have allowed its mission to expand. It has grown from a staff of two to nine employees. And its offices are now in a building three times the size of its original 500 square foot site.
But the most telling measure of Thrive’s progress is its works.
Today, Thrive is the largest rural health coalition in Kansas and the only one that combines health with economic development, according to David Toland, its executive director.
“It’s a different formula, but it works,” Toland told a crowd of more than 250 gathered in the parish hall of St. John’s Catholic Church in Iola.
For its health and wellness focus, Thrive’s effort to get more people signed up for health insurance has seen marked success. Allen County’s uninsured rate has dropped from 21 percent to 10 percent.
“We’ve had the second largest decline in the state of Kansas,” he said, thanks to its Navigators that have helped people get insurance, some for the first time, through the Affordable Care Act.
Other mile markers of Thrive’s efforts to make Allen County a healthier place to live is the development of the Lehigh Portland Trails system; continuation of the Charlie Mad Bomber Run for Your Life; passage of the Tobacco 21 ordinance in Iola asking retailers not to sell tobacco products to those under 21; and passage of a cold wealther rule in Iola to prevent utility shutoffs during freezing weather.
As for its economic development arm, Thrive has worked to see the old hospital was razed and that a 12-unit apartment complex was built on the downtown site. Next to come is a G&W Foods planned for summer 2017.
All of this has been possible because of the partnerships Thrive has developed across the county, Toland said, and a communal willingness to believe Allen County’s best days are still ahead.
THE HIGHLIGHT of the banquet is the recognition of local leaders.
Ray Maloney of LaHarpe was given the night’s biggest accolade for not only his tenacity in seeing a career technology center located in Allen County, but also his contribution of buildings for the center.
As someone who steered away from a conventional education, Maloney said the career tech center has been a longterm dream of his for those who, like him, found a classroom setting tortuous.
It was at a Thrive-sponsored Community Conversation in August 2015 that Maloney ventured to put his money where his mouth is, saying he would find the buildings for such a center if area educators would do the rest.
Over the course of the next year school superintendents, principals, and community college presidents worked together to fulfill the dream.
This fall, a construction trades class with 20 students debuted at the rural site. Still ahead are a welding class, nurses’ aides classes, heavy equipment, and many more.
“The community has been good to me. I wanted to return the favor,” Maloney said in receiving the award named after Donna Talkington, a volunteer extraordinaire.
Others noted for their achievements were Dave Riebel and Dave Fontaine for their work in constructing the new Lehigh Portland Trails; Karen Jesseph as director of the Reba E. Davis Drumming Circle, a drumming ensemble for fourth- and fifth-graders; Darci Croisant of the Humboldt Recreation Commission for her innovative ways of getting multi-generations to interact; Regena and Loren Lance for rescuing the defunct Charley Brown’s Store in Mildred and turning it into a general store aptly named, the Mildred Store, and Kathy Koehn of the Iola school district for the innovative Marv dining bus used during the summer. Not only does the bus provide a dining venue for kids who live in the far reaches of the county but it also is a traveling library. Koehn’s “traveling bistro,” ensures kids can eat healthy food across the summer months.
And last but not least, the night’s “Unsung Heroes” — those who have devoted much of their lives to public service on and off people’s radars, were recognized in Vada Aikins, Humboldt; Dick Fewins and Vera Isaac, Elsmore; and Andy Dunlap, Iola.
