Loving Our Library

 

Our hometown library is undergoing a renaissance. 

In October 2021, the Preserving Nora's Legacy fundraiser began. The goal was to raise money for restoration projects at the Nora E. Larabee Memorial Library. A dedicated group of volunteers dreamed big. They called their neighbors. They called their classmates. They sent letters. They talked about their dreams at civic clubs and in the local grocery store aisles. They wrote grants. They talked some more. 

And the community responded, raising more money than even those big-dreaming volunteers thought possible in a little town during uncertain times. A Wall of Giving - Preserving Nora's Legacy - was recently installed at the library. (Thanks to local artisan Robert Owens for his beautiful work.) It includes the names of those who donated at least $100 to the project. 

This photo is by "courthouselover" on Flickr. Currently, they are working on the front door replica and the yard was torn up as crews worked on the foundation, so I didn't take my own photo.

And I took this photo in 2014. (We could sure use the moisture from that snow!)

The Preserving Nora's Legacy Facebook page appropriately uses a children's book analogy to symbolize the volunteer's efforts: "I think I can, I think I can..." It's a book we all read as children, whether it was in the basement children's room at the Larabee Library or from a library in another town or sitting on our mother's lap. And, we, like that Little Engine That Could, dreamed about doing big things.

I can't help but think of the people who originally gifted the library to the city. They were certainly big dreamers as well. The Larabees left quite a footprint in Stafford - in banking, flour milling and civic leadership.

Nora Larabee was the only daughter of two of Stafford's leading citizens, Mr. and Mrs. J.D. Larabee. When Nora died of tuberculosis in 1904, her parents wanted to build a tribute to her. In 1906, they erected a red brick building at a cost of $5,000. Nora Larabee's portrait in stained glass dominates one of the library's west windows.

The building was designed by Charles E. Shepard, a leading architect in Kansas during the first part of the 20th century. At that time, most libraries weren't designed by architects. But he envisioned the dark red brick building in a Corinthian style. The Larabees and Shepard also cooperated on a bank building in Stafford at Main and Broadway. (It is currently one of the buildings used by the Stafford County Historical Society.)

 The library hasn't been without controversy:

      The library is unique as a focal point in a 1907 feud between the town banker and The Stafford Courier editor. The building became a public library only after a controversy which turned the town upside down. Public sentiment about the library was so strong that the entire Stafford City council and mayor resigned before the deed for the building was finally accepted. The condition of the deed that caused the furor read as follows: "Owing to certain unwarranted attacks made by The Stafford Courier…it is made a condition of this deed that the present editor of said newspaper, nor any of his family shall at any time be a member of the said board of directors."
        Finally, in May of 1907, a petition from Stafford citizens requested the library council to either accept the conditions of the deed to the library or resign. The new city council voted to accept the building from the Larabee family along with the stipulation that the editor of The Stafford Courier and his descendants be barred from membership on the library board in perpetuity.

Information from http://skyways.lib.ks.us/towns/Stafford/libhist.html

Besides the individual donors, the library received monies from the Heritage Trust Fund grant program from Kansas State Historical Society.

The renovation projects include:

• Trenches were dug and pipes were laid to carry water from the downspouts away from the building to the curb. The trenches are now back-filled, the sidewalk replaced, the lawn graded and leveled and grass sown.
  
• The interior basement walls got a functional facelift; the bricks and stone were re-pointed with the historically-correct mortar "recipe."
• The exterior will be spot-repointed and masonry reconstruction will restore a portion of the north wall.
• The historic door was irreparable, but a master craftsman is working on a new replica that will incorporate the original beveled glass.
• The electrical system has been updated.

More projects listed on the architect’s report of 2017 are now under consideration by the board and committees. Topics under discussion are:

• Updating entries, steps and one bathroom to meet ADA-compliance recommendations.
• Making the envelope of the building safe and secure, specifically windows. 
• Front step renovation.
• 4 windows (double-hung and beveled glass surround), stained glass windows around Nora's portrait window, trim repair/painting, replacement of overhead light fixtures in two original rooms, and baseboards.

The stained glass window isn't the only unique feature of the library. Many of the other windows feature leaded glass. (Even though it doesn't show the woodwork, I like the angled view below because I could avoid the storm siren and the power lines you see when you look out the window directly.)

The windows are encased in beautiful original woodwork.

This photo also shows one of the pieces of 100-year-old Mission-style furniture in the library. It's a photo I took in 2014. 

Photo taken January 2023

The library remains today, more than 100 years after it was constructed as a memorial to honor a beloved daughter. 

It's not just the building that's undergoing a renaissance. During the past couple of years, the library has added a First Friday event to its programming in the spring, summer and fall. They've featured artists, musicians, photographers, magicians, a car show, readers, crafts and much more. 

The library also offers classes and other special events, along with summer reading for children and adult reading programs all through the year. In fact, I picked up my next contest sheet when we were at the library the other day.

(NOTE: I took some of the photos of the library in 2014, when there was snow on the ground.)

Innovation not Stagnation: Discover Kansas

Scott County, Kansas (April 2018)

Not long ago, a headline popped up on my Facebook feed:

Rural Kansas is dying. I drove 1,800 miles to find out why.

It was an article in The New Food Economy. The subtitle claimed: A native Kansan returns home to find that the broken promises of commodity agriculture have destroyed a way of life. 

OK. That made me squirm. After all, I've been a resident of rural Kansas all my life, and I'm involved in commodity agriculture. So the author is talking about me and a lot of other people like me.

You may have seen the article, too. Several of my Facebook friends linked the article to their own timelines. Most of them went on to explain what they were doing to help their own small Kansas towns thrive. Our son, Brent, read the article and sent it to me, too, to make sure I'd seen it, and we had a good conversation about it.

Photo courtesy of Millie Dearden

Ironically, the article was making the rounds at about the same time that Randy and I went on a field trip to Scott County with our Kansas Master Farmer/Master Farm Homemaker group. I couldn't help but wonder what the author of the article would have thought had she visited Scott City.

I also came away with the same thought I usually have after reading how modern farming practices are destroying rural America: How is it that farming is the only business that is supposed to exist in a time capsule? Why do some consumers want us to farm like our ancestors did 100 years ago? And isn't it interesting that these same people are espousing their views from the latest cell phone or computer while eating what they want, when they want to?

In 2011, Scott City was designated an All-American City. Their economic development tagline is: "We've Invested Millions in Ourselves." More than $80 million in capital improvements have been made in the county during the past decade, including a state-of-the-art hospital. Now, they are addressing the need for assisted living options for the aging population. Building houses for young families is another priority. "Come Thrive With Us," they say in one of their full-color brochures.

Shortly after we returned from Scott City, we also watched a segment on CBS Sunday Morning. In it, they interviewed James and Deborah Fallows, the authors of Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey into the Heart of America.

For the last five years, the Fallowses have been traveling across America in a single-engine prop airplane, visiting dozens of towns. They met hundreds of civic leaders, workers, immigrants, educators, environmentalists, artists, public servants, librarians, business people, city planners, students,and entrepreneurs to take the pulse and understand the prospects of places that usually draw notice only after a disaster or during a political campaign.

They came to a different conclusion about rural America. James Fallows said this:

"Americans don’t realize how fast the country is moving toward becoming a better version of itself."

Wow, a glimpse of optimism from a national journalist! Fallows, who writes for The Atlantic magazine, wrote a portrait of the civic and economic reinvention taking place in America, town by town and generally out of view of the national media. (I've signed up for the book from my library, and I'm anxious to read it when my name gets to the top of the reserve list!)

The Fallowses acknowledge the problems rural America face, but they also found people who are  crafting solutions on the local level. They found people with energy, generosity and compassion, dreams and the determination to make things better.

America is becoming more like itself again. More Americans are trying to make it so, in more places, than most Americans are aware. Even as the country is becoming worse in obvious ways—angrier, more divided, less able to do the basic business of governing itself—it is becoming distinctly better on a range of other indicators that are harder to perceive. The pattern these efforts create also remains hidden. Americans don’t realize how fast the country is moving toward becoming a better version of itself. 

James Fallows in The Atlantic

And, yes, he found some of those places in Kansas:

“We may be ‘conservative.’ but we’re progressive,” Melissa McCoy, who grew up not far from Dodge City and is now the city’s Project Development Coordinator, told Fallows. “There was a time when we had a really negative self-image as a town. But people thought, If we won’t invest in ourselves, how can we expect anybody else to? It was a matter of getting the community behind it and realizing that we needed to back ourselves up to get outside investment and support. Now we’re starting to see it pay off.”

From an article in The Atlantic, Why Not Dodge City, Why Not Stockton

The authors could have discovered that "can-do" spirit in Scott County, too.  Leaders and citizens embrace their historic past. But they put a modern spin on them by tying history to tourism and business. Another of their taglines is "Where History and Progress Meet." The Kansas Master Farmers/Homemakers experienced that firsthand.

Next time, more on our trip to Scott City and the first in a series of blog posts about possible Kansas Staycations.

***

On Memorial Day yesterday, I posted these photos to my Facebook page. While this doesn't have a thing to do with the economy of small-town Kansas, it does show there are fringe benefits that aren't possible to compute in dollars and cents.

 On this Memorial Day, I'm thankful for small town Kansas patriotism. Thanks to the Patriot Guard who accompanied a Korean War veteran to his final resting place on Saturday and who stood at attention as people arrived at the memorial service. I also appreciate their raising the flag at every home football game. I'm thankful I live in a place that still pulls over for funeral processions as a sign of respect.

What's Cooking at Rural Schools? More Than You'd Think!

Stafford Schools USD 349 is a small school in a small Kansas town. But small doesn't equate with dying or stagnating. The small school continually is looking for big ways to make a difference in the lives of their students and in the community.

For the past two years, Stafford Schools has been working to convert its Family and Consumer Science room into a commercial kitchen.

A couple of weeks ago, Randy and I went to a fundraiser dinner at the school for the culinary arts program. SHS Alumni Barry and Meta (Newell) West shared their knowledge of cooking and baking with culinary arts students at SHS during the day.

Then Barry (SHS Class of 1961) and Meta (SHS class of 1965) demonstrated techniques to the patrons who gathered that evening to see the new kitchen being used (and eat a fabulous three-course meal).

Culinary Arts instructor Denise Dickson talks about the program with dinner attendees.

For several years, Superintendent Mary Jo Taylor and the Stafford USD 349 Board of Education had been contemplating the future of the Family and Consumer Science program. The leaders were looking for a way to make FACS more relevant to career-oriented individuals.

Career emphasis isn't a new idea at Stafford Schools. Several years ago, the school opened the Stafford Entrepreneurship and Economic Development (SEED) Center at a downtown Main Street location. The SEED program is an innovative approach for meeting the educational and school-to-work preparation needs of high school students.   SEED Center classes are elective classes.  Students learn entrepreneurship and marketing principles while participating in individual and group projects. Each student operates an entrepreneurship project and utilizes marketing strategies to promote his/her business project. Students are allowed to keep 70 percent of their net profits. (Businesses have included T-shirt design, converting videos to DVDs, personalized dog collars and lip balm, just to name a few.)

The SEED Center, Photo from SEED's Facebook page

In addition, there are students who've been taking classes in a health care curriculum. They can get health care certifications, like Certified Medication Aide, etc. Many of them gets hands-on experience working at the Stafford County Hospital. (Randy had blood expertly drawn by a high school senior for some recent lab work there. The same student helped draw blood at the health fair last year.)

The commercial kitchen is yet another way to introduce students to possible future careers.

"The Commercial Kitchen is a project that was built out of a desire to have culinary arts curriculum available at SHS," Superintendent Taylor said. "This hope became a reality when a grant from the state became available from the Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE) called a Rigorous Program of Study (RPOS grant).  The effort to earn the grant was successful.  For the past two years, the Board of Education and staff have worked at planning curriculum and kitchen space.  Teachers have had to be trained for this unique method of teaching and learning.  In the end, the entire Family and Consumer Science Room has been remodeled and turned into a commercial kitchen.  It is an exciting new venture for the school."

School photo

Superintendent Taylor said that KSDE was looking for an innovative idea to provide a model for other schools in the state.

"KSDE leaders, especially a former FACS teacher now at KSDE, Gayla Randel, loved the idea of proving that a rural school could take on a project like this and provide a model for rural schools," Taylor said. "Most folks think this grant money should go to large schools to affect more students.  But, if many rural schools could learn from this, many students will be affected.  That is why much of our funding was to go to staff development training and technology.  We are supposed be be able to document our progress and present it in a way for other schools to learn."

After the school got the RPOS grant, Stafford County Economic Development Director Carolyn Dunn obtained another grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank for $20,000 to help pay for the new equipment.  The school paid for the remodeling of the kitchen.

As a component of the grant, the school also had to establish corporate sponsorships.  They include: Stafford County Flour Mills (more on that tomorrow), Apron Strings, Elroy's Pizza, Joan's Cafe, Wheatland Cafe and Catering and Stafford County Farm Bureau.  These entities don't necessarily give money but serve in an advisory capacity (although a couple of them are generous, Superintendent Taylor says).  Other partnerships are:  Kansas Sampler Foundation, Kansas Small Business Development Center, Wetlands and Wildlife National Scenic Byway, Stafford County Economic Development, Stafford County K-State Extension, Stafford Chamber of Commerce, STARS After-School Program and Kansas Restaurant and Hospitality Association.

"An advantage of learning this curriculum at the high school level is that students can obtain professional certifications that put them ahead of the game if they pursue this career path," Taylor said. "For example, an industry standard is the "Serve Safe" certificate.  Another is the "Pro-Start" certificate.  Upon graduating from high school a student may go straight to work as a cook in a restaurant or already have the background to take their career to the next level as a caterer, restaurant manager, restaurant owner or any number of careers in Hospitality and Tourism."

If students decide to climb the management ladder, SHS has articulation agreements with two community colleges, Barton Community College and North Central Kansas Technical College at Beloit and Hays.

"By articulating, it means that courses are already seamlessly coordinated to go from one step to the next with ease, thus increasing the efficiency of the education obtained," Taylor said.  "The only college currently offering a bachelor's degree in this major is Fort Hays.  We expect K-State to offer this major soon."

Culinary arts students at SHS can take classes offered in a Culinary Arts and Management Strand through a Career Cluster, part of KSDE's Career and Technical Education Curriculum. The classes include culinary arts I and II, baking and pastry I and II, food science and event planning and management. SHS won't offer all the classes each year.

The reason I am such a big fan of CTE," Taylor said, "is that students can take an interest and pursue it a little or turn it into their life's work.  Certainly the certificates could help a college student get a higher paying job at a restaurant and help them with college expenses."

Yes, high school classes can have a profound effect on your life. Meta Newell West, who was one of the chefs at the culinary arts fundraiser, brought with her a recipe book she compiled during Stafford High School home economics classes. (Her former home economics teacher, Betty Byer, was at the fundraiser dinner!)

The methods may change over the years, but SHS has been working to effectively educate its students for more than 100 years.

**If you're in the Stafford area and missed the fundraiser, you still have an opportunity to see the commercial kitchen, as well as other new features of the school, including a greenhouse and safe room. The school will host an open house from 6:30 to 8 PM Tuesday, April 8. Enter through the high school and check in at the Commons Area for tours**

Local Economy On A Roll

A movie marquee from Stafford's Ritz Theatre in 2010.

Going the Distance: Small towns and rural communities in Kansas and across the U.S. are trying to figure out how to do just that. One county in Iowa has a simple idea that's making a big difference.

The Chamber of Commerce in Greater Franklin County (Iowa) is making an impact on their local economy one toilet paper roll at a time.

It doesn't sound very glamorous, does it? And it's getting mighty personal. But think about it: What product does every person use every day? Young or old, male or female, farm or town: Everybody uses toilet paper. In fact, the average person uses 105 rolls of toilet paper a year. It costs an average of $1.25 per roll.

So, in December 2011, the Greater Franklin County Chamber of Commerce promoted an idea: Buy toilet paper at a hometown store, not a big box store. And, believe it or not, the idea is starting to clean up (so to speak).

There are 15,000 people in Greater Franklin's service area. They did the math (which is good, since it's not my best skill):

From their Buy One Product Local website:
That one item (toilet paper) would keep almost $2 million dollars in sales in the county.  It would also generate $140,000 in sales taxes.

Last year, it was estimated that the amount actually spent on toilet paper in greater Franklin County was $335,800 – that’s lost revenue of $1,631,244!

The idea worked. After a year, Franklin County stores that sell toilet paper have seen an increase in sales.

Our county doesn't have that many people, so the math will be different. But what would happen if residents of rural Kansas "swiped" the idea and bought their toilet paper from hometown stores? What if we then added a tube of toothpaste or some laundry detergent to the shopping cart? How would our local economy be impacted if we spent money in our hometown for everything from apples to deodorant to soap to zucchini, instead of driving 30-plus miles to a big box store for supplies?

Notice that Angel Soft toilet paper is even on sale this week at Paul's!

My husband has always been an advocate of shopping locally. I must admit that I do shop in the chain stores on occasion, but I do try to do the bulk of my grocery shopping at our small town grocery store, Paul's.

Last October, the Stafford Mercantile opened. It's a variety store owned by local investors. It fills a niche in our small town that was left when our Duckwall's store was closed in 2010.

Yes, I really did have toilet paper on the pickup hood. I got some weird looks.

When something new opens, there's always an initial curiosity and foot traffic. Hopefully, that led to some purchases, too. But when the newness wears off, we forget that we need to be the solution to having things like wrapping paper, bridal shower gifts, office supplies, toys and more available just down the street instead of 30-plus miles away.  (Our Stafford Mercantile also has a refurbished, vintage soda fountain, so come enjoy a scoop of ice cream, a milkshake or a fountain drink.)

If we aren't willing to open our wallets in hometown stores, we are "voting" against having those services available locally. Maybe we'll have to pay a little more for the convenience. But what's the real payoff?

Reasons to Shop Local (from Buy One Product Local's website)

• When you purchase locally, those businesses you buy from purchase from other local businesses.  Those same local businesses often support local charities.
• Small businesses are the largest employers nationally.
• Local businesses are looking to hire someone with specific product expertise – meaning better customer service.  Plus, they live and work in the community and really know their customers.
• Generally, local business owners are more invested in the community.  Their children attend the schools, their family goes to a local church.

Who knew toilet paper could be such a big deal? I'd like to find out. Will you join me?