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NEWTON —
Since the dust bowl days of the 30s, small towns in Kansas have been shrinking. Some have become ghost towns, and some survive with 100 people or less.
How do you stop that trend? How do you get people to come there either to visit or live, and how do you keep these towns viable?
These were just some of the questions about 200 people from across the state dealt with Friday at the Rural Kansas Brainstorm at the Meridian Center in Newton.
Marci Penner, director of the Kansas Sampler Foundation, pulled the event together to get people who are working on these problems connected.
There were many small group meetings, but no speakers as such.
“The goal is for everyone to be inspired, to go back to their towns with something that makes them believe their towns are significant and that they can make a difference,” Penner said.
She encouraged everyone to think outside the box.
“We are not here to make Kansas normal,” she said.
She told the group more than 70 percent of Kansas’ towns are rural and run by volunteers, meaning no paid staff.
Marce Brewer of Beaumont said the day was helpful to her. Several of the small town around her combine to make consolidated schools. She thought she might present the idea of consolidating some efforts to promote the towns with all of the towns.
It was this type of idea that Penner was looking for.
Since the dust bowl days of the 30s, small towns in Kansas have been shrinking. Some have become ghost towns, and some survive with 100 people or less.
How do you stop that trend? How do you get people to come there either to visit or live, and how do you keep these towns viable?
These were just some of the questions about 200 people from across the state dealt with Friday at the Rural Kansas Brainstorm at the Meridian Center in Newton.
Marci Penner, director of the Kansas Sampler Foundation, pulled the event together to get people who are working on these problems connected.
There were many small group meetings, but no speakers as such.
“The goal is for everyone to be inspired, to go back to their towns with something that makes them believe their towns are significant and that they can make a difference,” Penner said.
She encouraged everyone to think outside the box.
“We are not here to make Kansas normal,” she said.
She told the group more than 70 percent of Kansas’ towns are rural and run by volunteers, meaning no paid staff.
Marce Brewer of Beaumont said the day was helpful to her. Several of the small town around her combine to make consolidated schools. She thought she might present the idea of consolidating some efforts to promote the towns with all of the towns.
It was this type of idea that Penner was looking for.
