The Junction City Area Chamber of Commerce partnered with the Kansas Department of Commerce and Fort Riley to host a Kansas Military Workforce Summit on May 19th in Junction City.

The summit will address topics surrounding a service member’s transition to civilian life and will allow transitioning soldiers, business owners and community members the opportunity to network. Service members, military spouses and military support specialists will participate in the panel discussions as well.

Brigadier General Patrick Frank, 1st Infantry Division and Fort Riley Deputy Commanding General, will address the summit along with Kansas Department of Commerce Secretary Antonio Soave.

The summit will take place at the Courtyard by Marriott in Junction City and begin at 9:00 am on May 19th with registration beginning at 8:30 am. A networking reception will follow the event at 6:30 pm.

The following topics will be addressed:

• military skill set capability
• employment and social media
• employing the military spouse
• setting realistic employment expectations
• transition concerns facing service members and employers
• benefits of hiring a veteran
• USO transition, Fort Riley

To register for the Kansas Military Workforce Summit, visit kansascommerce.gov/militarysummit or contact Nicole Randall with the Kansas Department of Commerce at nicole.randall@ks.gov.

Sponsors for this event include the Kansas Department of Commerce, the Junction City Area Chamber of Commerce, Geary County Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, Junction City First, Kaw Valley Engineering, Bayer Construction, Central National Bank, DEL Motors and Briggs Auto Plaza, Weary Law Firm and Coryell Insurance.

The Kentucky Derby Friends of Animals style, the Pooch Pie Eating contest and booths with all sorts of animal supplies were just some of the activities during the annual Pet Fair & Walk of Life at the Geary County 4-H / Senior Center on Saturday.

Pet owners entered dogs of all sizes and shapes in the Kentucky Derby races where the race starter Rick Dykstra noted some of the dogs were quick, while others took their time on the race track. “There are some very quick dogs, and some dogs that are just so old that they are just going to sit around and watch the races.”  During the event tennis balls were thrown onto the course with the dogs then giving pursuit.

Linnea Alt with Friends of Animals said all the funds raised from the event go to help the Junction City / Geary County Animal Shelter. “We vet them and get them on to rescues.” She estimated approximately 150 dogs were brought to the pet fair. Alt was hopeful approximately $20,000 would be raised by the event. “This is our biggest fundraiser and what we need to go through the rest of the year.”

The Pet Fair & Walk of Life are held every year.

I.C.A.R.E. – Intergenerational Clearinghouse and Resource Educational Center – is a group that works to build positive relationships between youth and older adults in the community; whether it’s through tea parties, reading with the elderly, encouraging high school to interview war Veterans or simply experiencing some of the many quirks of getting older through hands-on education.

The group is now focused on bringing fitness and family together at the Fifth Street park in Junction City through their Exercise Equipment Project.

Harold Macumber, ICARE Board President, said that studies show more grandparents, rather than parents are now taking kids to the park.

“Well instead of sitting on a bench, they can be on [the] exercise equipment while the grandkids are playing at the park,” said Macumber.

Board Secretary Penny Macumber said that this effort is not in conjunction with the Quality Play for All group, but there interests parallel one another.

“If they’re going to make Fifth Street Playground Park look so beautiful, we want our addition that we’re putting in to coordinate and look nice as well; so we’ve been working with the Quality Play for All group, but we are not sharing funds or anything else, we’re just trying to work them and promote each other,” said P. Macumber.

The Exercise Equipment Project will consist of five to six pieces of exercise equipment, for basic muscular building, and will cost approximately $40,000. The base of the exercise area will be concrete as to make it wheelchair and handicap accessible.

A Marco’s Pizza fundraiser event is the first of many planned fundraisers to bring the project to life. The fundraiser begins at 11:00 am on Friday, May 19th – the night before high school graduation – a perfect time to grab some pizzas, according to H. Macumber.

“We’re hoping people will go out and order your pizzas for graduation, since it’s the night before graduation…and we want everybody to order their pizzas from Marco’s and help us fundraise.”

Fifteen percent of all sales between 11:00 am and midnight on Friday, May 20th benefit the ICARE Exercise Equipment Project in Fifth Street Park. Modern Woodmen of America have agreed to match all proceeds from Marco’s up to $2500.

Cattle and goats to wheat and soil conservation were all covered during the Geary County Ag Day activities at the 4-H / Senior Citizen Center on Friday. Approximately 700 third grade students from USD 475 were in attendance.

Eight year old learned about livestock. “I learned that cows can produce a lot of dairy, and they can use a lot of milk.

Nine-year old Alwina Alokoa seemed to enjoy the lessons on conservation….”soil, dirt and bugs.”

During their visit the students rotated between stations ranging from livestock to wheat and conservation. Extension Agent Ginger Kopfer heard some of the student comments. “Things like those cows are really big, just things like that we hear every year…different takes on the same things I’ve never seen a pig before and things along those lines.”

Geary County Ag Day is an annual event.

Kansas Big Brothers and Big Sister (KSBBBS) has $1,000 ($500 for Riley and Geary County communities) of matching funds available for every new gift in any amount received today – Friday, May 5th.

Gifts made to the program by the end of business today will be matched dollar-for-dollar.

This opportunity will benefit programs in Junction City and Manhattan. If you would like to make a donation, please call KSBBBS at 785-776-9575.

There is no minimum donation amount. Even a $5 donation will be doubled!

Credit/Debit Card Donations designated to Riley County can be made at https://www.4kidsake.org/RileyCounty/Donate

Credit/Debit Card Donations designated to Geary County can be made at
https://www.4kidsake.org/Geary-County/Donate

A $500,000 grant could be the saving grace for the overall health of Geary County – but the entire community has to work together.

Susie Bilderback, Food Policy Council Chair-Elect, said that the Pathways to Healthy Kansas Grant could be a great thing for the community.

“It’s a $500,000 grant, so it’s big money, but it’s not something that we can just do anything we want to with; [they] have a pretty prescribed way of how they want us to use things,” said Bilderback. “[The grant focuses on] three main areas – healthy living/healthy eating, physical activity and smoking cessation.”

In recent months, local residents have been inundated with reports on the food insecurity in the county, but Bilderback said the desperate state of overall health goes beyond those statistics.

“We also are the number one tobacco use of adults in the state, we also tie second for the most use of alcohol and on top of that we have a lot of high rankings in health behaviors and issues; so we are a very needy community at this point,” said Bilderback.

Recipients of the grant will be notified on June 30th. Last year Geary County competed against 80 other communities unsuccessfully.

“We will know whether or not we’re going to get a site visit by the end of May…we did get a site visit last year, so hopefully we will get one again this year, they’ll go to 15 different communities for the site visits,” said Bilderback. “When they come here to do that [site visit], we’re asking our partners to come out with us…they’re going to walk to visit with the community, and talk to people and see what their intent is, and how they are going to be willing to make this work.”

Bilderback noted that the grant committee wants to see “community readiness” before awarding the funding.

“They don’t want to just see Live Well Geary County applying for this, they want to see [us] backed by the whole community; and should we receive the grant it will take the whole community to make the grant work [for us all].” 

The grant is divided into seven pathways:  community policy, resident community well being, food retail, healthcare, restaurants, schools and work-site wellness.

“We would be working with each of those [pathways] and after they had done some preliminary work, they would also be able to receive some of that funding,” said Bilderback. “It’s kind of an all encompassing grant and I just see as being just what we’re needing right now.”

The Food Policy Council is a subgroup of Live Well Geary County.

New Veterans Parking spaces were unveiled this afternoon, with the first two being placed as part of a ceremony at the City owned lot on the corner of 6th and Washington Street.

Mayor Phyllis Fitzgerald officiated the informal ceremony honoring local Veterans.

An additional parking sign will be placed at Rathert Field, and another in the City Municipal building parking lot.

View photos and the video of the ceremony below.