After two months of two-meetings-per-month and the Labor Day holiday weekend, we are back to our regular schedule of weekly meetings, ready or not! This week, on September 5, we will learn more about the Never Let Go Fund. Please click on the Never Let Go Fund link to see a recent Emporia Gazette article about it.
Emporia High School head football coach Corby Millison scheduled less this summer, but accomplished more with his team. Millison encourages three-sport athletes, and encouraged them to enjoy participating in other sports this summer in addition to EHS football. Sixty returning players and a roster of ninety-six compares with 70, 65, and 60 respectively the last three years. This year's team will have more size than in recent years as well.
Coach Millison established a leadership council for the football team, whose members studied leadership principles this summer. He introduced to our Rotary Club two of his seniors who are among the team leaders: Sawyer Clayton, offense, and Brent Haster, defense. They commented on the leadership skills that they have been learning, including "speaking up when something isn't right", and "yelling is not leadership". They both said to expect a fast tempo, no huddle spread offense, and a fast, up-tempo defense.
Coach Randy Wells leads the team's weight training among a total of ten coaches who work with the team. The EHS football schedule is very tough again this year, competing against some of the best teams in the state.
Rotarian Kent Heermann, President of the Regional Development Association of East-Central Kansas, has been in Emporia at the RDA since July 1993. He explained about the history of the RDA, and the RDA's role in economic development in the Emporia area for many years. A city half-cent tax was voted in place in 1994 with a ten-year sunset for the purpose of land acquisition, land improvement, and the funding of the RDA to make our community more successful in recruiting new industry. Since then the tax has repeatedly been re-instituted by a wide margin of votes. The results have been undeniably successful. In 1993 the average wage for production workers was $5.57-$5.74, and today it is $16.44. In 1950, Emporia population was 15,669. In 2010, it was $24,916. Twenty-three manufacturing plants have chosen to call Emporia home.
Retail recruitment has been more active since 2006 due to the economic downturn in our country. The result is a new Hobby Lobby that opened in August.
Kent provided some of the past code names for potential plants used for plants looking for a new home:
Taho - Caterpillar
Sweetness - Mars Candy plant that located in Topeka (2013)
Sleeve - Chinese sausage casing company (2012)
J.T. - Menards that located in Lawrence (2015)
Block - Fertilizer plant
Jacob - Hill's Pet Nutrition that invested $200 million in Emporia and hires 200 workers (2007)
What are the challenges facing Emporia's future recruiting efforts?
Labor availability, especially for entry-level workers
Public transportation
Housing availability, especially for the high-end home
Our Rotary Club is a is the chartered organization for the outreach Pack for the kids in SummerScape, a camp program held during the summer at Camp EE.
At the end of July, the youth at the SummerScape Program came to the Girl Scout Camp Double E for day camp. About 80 boys and girls came to the day camp this year despite the heat. While it was hot, the kids stayed cool and had great camp fun! The day camp was put on for them by the Boy Scouts and Girls Scouts. During the day, they sang songs, made solar ovens, planted seeds, and hiked in the trails. The Boy Scouts came to demonstrate how to make rope and tie knots. In the afternoon they stayed cool by playing water games.
The Boy Scouts were able to put on the Day Camp thanks to the Rotary Club of Emporia, who is the chartered organization for the outreach Pack for the kids in SummerScape.
Alex Mosakowski
District Executive
BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA Jayhawk Area Council - Sojadi District
Our Rotary Club donated $50 as a sponsor for the Cardboard Regatta, a scouting event for scouts in our area this summer. Below is a thank you note for our contribution and the success of the event for the kids.
Please let the Rotary Club know how much the Boy Scouts appreciate them for helping us put on the Cardboard Regatta. We had 50 people show up for the event on Friday, July 28 – Scouts, siblings, parents. We had 6 teams of cardboard boats ready to race and only one boat sank. The sun went down quickly in the evening, but that didn’t stop us! And afterwards the Scouts and their families got to enjoy the water park. It was a wonderful evening!
Alex Mosakowski
District Executive
BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA Jayhawk Area Council - Sojadi District
Funds collected from Happy Bucks during our July, August and September meetings go to the Emporia Community Foundation's Match Day activities. Contributions toward this have resulting in attracting growing contributions every year since Match Day started. Please contribute!