News: Kansas

Heartland Winnies
Local Chapter
By Joyce Haerich

It is sad to see another camping season end as Neal and I are not ready to quit camping yet. We had a great camping season and it was enjoyed by many. We have a great club and great participation. We hope to see everyone next year.

May: Our camping season started out at Dodge City Hawleywood RV Center. Bill and Karen provided a great weekend as always. At that campout, we signed up seven new members. We enjoyed area reps, Andy and Jeanie Bienvenu, and Doug and Pat Formanek, WIT General Manager, during the weekend. Our next campout lead us to Salina for the Salina River Festival. In addition to that, we toured a lavender farm and KS largest winery. Once again it was a very educational weekend on happening in KS.

July: Next the club traveled to GNR. During prerally we arranged for the early birds to have a meal at Sally's in Forest City and on Monday night of GNR hosted the finger food social. Once again with our great participation, we had numerous volunteers to help with setup and cleanup.

August: August was our annual meeting and was held in Beloit with our elections. Our tours included Sunflower Manufacturing and the local Law Enforcement Center.

September: September we traveled south KS to Greensburg. Greensburg was totally destroyed several years ago and they have rebuilt green. We toured the high school, the hospital, and a home that was built with green and recycled materials. We all were overwhelmed with the information. Our last campout of the season was in Manhattan which the McCall's Pattern Company was toured as well as a local micro-brewery. McCall does all the printing and packing and shipping of the patterns to stores. The patterns are designed in New York. As always, we are finding many things about the great state of KS.

Next year proves to be an exciting year. In April the state of KS will host its first state rally since the 1970s. It is scheduled for Apr. 12-15, 2012 in Hutchison. Please share our space at the state fairgrounds. Our club and chapter members are hosting this in conjunction to the MCC sale which is an auction of Mennonite products. This should be quite interesting for the club. Other attractions in Hutchison will be available for participants to explore.

I hope this finds you all well. Keep in touch over the winter and enjoy your travels.

Winnebago-Itasca Travelers