New Eyes

Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette:

Kansas Explorers Club tent at the Kansas Sampler Festival, Leavenworth

NEW EYES

How do we see our state? Is the glass half-empty or half-full?

Like everything else in our lives, how we perceive Kansas is how we experience it. If you think that Kansas has nothing going on, well, that will be your experience.

Sometimes we buy into that story, that there’s little to see and do in Kansas, that our small towns have nothing to offer, that our prairies aren’t as glorious as the Rocky Mountains.

Which is all hooey, of course.

However, the tourist game is played differently in Kansas. Maybe in Colorado or Santa Fe or San Francisco you can say, “I’m here, please entertain me.” But in Kansas, a traveler has to put forth more effort to see the magic that is actually all around us.

Sometimes we need to be reminded that Kansas has thousands of things waiting for us to discover. And that’s why the Kansas Sampler Foundation hosts an annual festival which showcases all things Kansas including talent, attractions, towns, history and food.

This year’s Kansas Sampler Festival took place in Leavenworth on May 1 and 2. Dave and I were there along with 8,500 other attendees. More than 300 exhibitors had booths at the event.

It was a foot-tapping, bierock-eating, wine-tasting, history-telling, author-signing, brochure-handing-out kind of a weekend. The festival is a meet-and-greet for Kansans, a place to connect with others who have similar interests.

On the stages, musicians played jazz and folk and bluegrass. Magicians performed tricks. In tents, there were representatives from towns such as Garnett and Ellinwood, Lecompton and Abilene. Historians performed as Calamity Jane, Gen. Robert E. Lee, and Doc Holliday.

Marc Ferguson as Doc Holliday

Drifting in the warm air was the aroma of grilled chicken from Phil’s Farm of Hutchinson. Pachta Pork, of Belleville, served pork, of course. And a truck with Becky’s Bierocks came all the way from St. Francis. Numerous vendors offered the crowd breakfast and ice cream and everything in between.

I saw old friends and made new ones. But what I like best about the Kansas Sampler Festival is the spirit of the event.

There’s a sense of cooperation and camaraderie among participants which is passed on to the festival attendees. I’ve found that with anything sponsored by the Kansas Sampler Foundation there’s an underlying goal of creating a good experience for everyone involved.

Under the Kansas Sampler Foundation’s umbrella are the Kansas Explorers Club and We Kan. We Kan is a group that connects rural leaders. Last year, We Kan volunteers renovated the Whiting Café during a weekend in June.

A slogan of the Kansas Explorers Club is “See Kansas with new eyes.” Explorers are people who enjoy the treasures of Kansas, the obvious and the hidden. They choose to support rural communities by spending money at locally-owned businesses.

The club is a loosely-organized group in which members explore in their own way. Some may focus their travels on a particular interest, such as architecture or history or, ahem, pie. A membership fee of $18.61 ($30 for a family) will get you regular newsletters telling about fascinating Kansas places.

Marci Penner serves as executive director of the Kansas Sampler Foundation and WenDee LaPlant is assistant director. If you know Marci and WenDee, then you’re already aware that the work of the Sampler Foundation is not a superficial I-heart-Kansas thing.

There is serious work being done here. And the efforts of those associated with the foundation come from a deep, abiding devotion to the state, a dedication and commitment to preserving and sustaining the lifestyle and culture of rural Kansas.

What the Sampler Foundation groups have done for me, and likely for others, is to reveal a bigger story for Kansas, one of community-building, teamwork and success. Individually, and as a group, we have more power to affect change than we think we do. We are limited only by our own vision.

Our state isn’t half-empty or even half-full; Kansas is a cup that’s overflowing.

Copyright 2010 ~ Cheryl Unruh

For more information:

Kansas Sampler Foundation

Kansas Explorers Club

We Kan

Kansas Sampler Festival – next year May 7 & 8, Leavenworth

Marci Penner, right, Director of the Kansas Sampler Foundation listens as a representative from Park City tells about what her town has to offer.

Members of the Kansas Explorers Club gather for their annual meeting at the Sampler Festival. The Club has about 1,400 members.

Flags represent communities and groups that appeared at the festival.

^^^Wendee LaPlant, assistant director of the Kansas Sampler Foundation created ^this video ^ of the two-day festival.