Thank You to Our 2023 Sponsors!

Content for this section comes from emails, quarterly reports, and community website/social media updates. If you'd like to highlight recent activities or promote an upcoming event in a future newsletter, email us at: ksce@ksu.edu.

The Ellis PRIDE group was "asked by the City Council in April 2023 to look at what options we could give them in doing 'something' with the over 30-year-old Christmas Star street ornaments. We had them bring one to a meeting and noted the large bulb strings with the very fragile light bulbs and the commercial grade gold garland." Of the 63 stars, over half of them had lost over the years, either the garland, the light string or both. The city workers were left to improvise year after year with home-use garland and lights purchased locally, so there were many ornaments that had different colored garland and/or different strings of lights. The bulbs were so fragile that many did not light. The PRIDE group removed all of the previous material and ordered LED rope lighting and attached that to one star, took a picture of it shining at night and asked the Facebook community of Ellis to voice their thoughts. The overwhelming majority were definitely FOR the change, with the only suggestion being to not use bright white lights, but instead to use the warm white lights.

"We contacted a company out of Texas called 1000 Bulbs and had them prepare a quote for the city." It was presented at a City Council meeting and approved. The PRIDE group then went to work removing all of the old garland and lights held onto each star with about 300 zip ties. That was completed by the end of July. The city bought the LED rope lights, but they were on coils and needed to be cut and have cords and ends attached. A group from the Ellis Baptist Church, which included several city workers, spent one Saturday morning attaching cords and ends for 62 lights. "There was a learning curve in the process, and we had a couple of bad spots in the cords appear after the whole ordeal." It was suggested to the city that they purchase one extra coil of lights to use in repair, which they did. Once that was completed and the city finished the welding repairs and repainting that they were doing, the PRIDE group began attaching the new LED rope lights to the star ornaments with zip ties. "City workers helped when they had the time, and we ended the project on the weekend before Thanksgiving with a Community Sunday event." It took approximately $2,000 to refurbish the whole town's ornaments and about 200 hours of volunteer labor.

Riverton Community Development has set up a compost center at the Riverton Walking Trail. The compost created will be used on their community garden to enrich the soil where fruits and vegetables will be grown for the community. They recently had 15 5-gallon buckets of coffee grounds donated by Punkins Place for the pile.

Revitalize YC (Yates Center) as taken from their Community of Action Report (this project was seen as highly innovative and inspiring by the Kansas PRIDE, Inc. Board of Directors): "RevitalizeYC launched a campaign, Adore Your Door, in hopes of bringing some much needed color, vibrancy, and care of personal property back into our community. The idea of painting the front door could ripple into cleaning up a yard, adding landscaping, and freshening up the front porch which was exactly what we witnessed. This has been a fantastic project to see come alive in our community. As the "I Adored My Door" signs started popping up throughout the community, the excitement started to spread. Neighbors were talking about color choices, and what they were going to do to increase their chances of winning. This project helped us spark some community PRIDE and a little friendly competition. For that, we are grateful for your support on this community project."

"This Adore Your Door campaign extended beyond the local residents. The local business owners decided to participate in the beautification process too. Our local ice cream parlor, car detailer, and the fence fabrication facilities all updated the façade on their buildings. In addition to facades, the sidewalks were replaced in front of the bowling alley and event center with the help of the owners and the City of Yates Center. It has been amazing to see the ripple effect from this Adore Your Door campaign. These projects are really helping us work towards accomplishing the long-term goal of city beautification."

Admire

Alton

Anthony

Arlington

Ashland

Assaria

Axtell

Basehor

Belleville

Blue Rapids

Burden

Bushton

Caldwell

Caney

Canton

Centralia

Clifton

Coats

Columbus

Conway Springs

Courtland

Delia

Dwight

Elk City

Elkhart

Ellis

Erie

Florence

Formoso

Fort Scott

Glasco

Grainfield

Grinnell

Harper

Haysville

Herndon

Highland

Horton

Hugoton

Humboldt

Independence

Iola

Kinsley

La Harpe

Lakin

Larned

Lecompton

Lenora

Leon

Leonardville

Lincoln

Lucas

Luray

Macksville

Marion

McFarland

McPherson

Melvern

Morland

Mount Hope

Nickerson

Norton

Olsburg

Osawatomie

Overbrook

Ozawkie

Perry

Portis

Potwin

Quenemo

Randolph

Riley

Riverton

Rossville

Russell

Saint George

Savonburg

Scranton

Silver Lake

Toronto

Towanda

Vermillion

Wakefield

Wichita (South Central)

Wilson

Yates Center

Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service

K-State Research and Extension is an equal opportunity provider and employer.