Iola is home away from home for Thrive Allen County’s newest team member, Jessica McGinnis. McGINNIS grew up playing sports in Ottawa. An active lifestyle runs in the family, her dad is a sports official. Her passion for sports brought her to Iola to Allen Community College on a softball scholarship. It was at Allen where she met her husband, Jeremy, who now coaches soccer at ACC.
In January McGinnis came on board with Thrive as a community healthcare educator. Thrive received a grant in November to help prevent diseases such as heart disease and diabetes.
“I’m super excited to work with this community and promote healthy lifestyles,” she said.
McGinnis would like to create more wellness programs directed to the adult population. She said the grant is still in the beginning stages.
“Everyone here has been very awesome and it’s great to work toward goals with like-minded people,” she said.
“He was on a soccer scholarship and his number was 20 and mine was 13,” she said. “We parted ways after I graduated in 1997.”
Those jersey numbers have a significant meaning to their relationship.
McGinnis went on to Ashford University and majored in sports and recreation management. In 2008 she came across Jeremy’s profile while looking at an alumni website.
“I found him and wanted to just say hi and see if he remembered me,” she said. “He said how could he forget his first love.”
The two picked up their relationship right where they left off.
“We joke that we took an 11-year sabbatical,” she said.
McGinnis moved to Iola from Lawrence in 2012. She was living in Lawrence working with the recreation department. Once she returned to Iola she commuted to Chanute to work with KVC Health Systems as a family support worker.
“I learned a lot about families in need of care,” she said. “The job was rewarding to see how it supported the family.”
Jeremy and McGinnis married in 2013 which has a connection to their old Allen sports numbers. The couple had their first daughter, Riley, in October 2014.
McGinnis said when she’s not at Thrive she likes to stay active. She likes to try out new classes at the recreation building and she enjoys softball, co-ed volleyball and camping. She also enjoys watching Jeremy do his passion, coaching.
“We have great bonds with the people at Allen, they are like a second family,” she said. “Jeremy proposed to me here, we had our first baby here. Iola has a big place in our hearts.”
McGinnis joins Thrive team
