RURAL OBSERVER

Kansas small towns are kind of like the late comedian Rodney Dangerfield — they don’t get no respect. Sometimes even their own residents don’t appreciate them.
Marci Penner, executive director of the Kansas Sampler Foundation, is trying to change that.
She recently paid a brief visit to Pittsburg and Frontenac, which included a stop at the Frontenac Bakery and dinner in Pittsburg.
“This town has so many great things,” Penner said. “Pittsburg should be the locally owned restaurant capital of Kansas.”
But she can — and has — found positive things about the other small towns of Kansas, and put that information in several guidebooks.
Penner is herself a small town girl. She lives in Inman, which has a population around 1,000, and the Kansas Sampler Center is located on the Penner family farm.
She left the farm to earn a bachelor’s degree in radio, TV and film from the University of Kansas, where she was a double-sport letter winner, and in 1985 received a master’s degree in counseling and guidance from the University of Wisconsin.
Penner spent five years working as an elementary guidance counselor in the Philadelphia area before returning to Kansas in 1990 to work with her father, Milferd Penner.
“In 1990 I traveled through Kansas with my father, and what we saw and heard inspired us to found the Kansas Sampler Foundation together,” Penner said.
The two also co-authored “Kansas Weekend Guide,” “Kansas Event Guide” and “Kansas Weekend Guide II” between 1990 and 1993.
“In 2002 and 2003 I visited all 627 incorporated cities in Kansas to do research for ‘The Kansas Guidebook for Explorers’, which was published in 2005,” Penner added.
The Kansas Sampler Foundation is geared at preserving and sustaining rural culture.
“One way to do that is to educate the public on what there is to see and do in Kansas,” Penner said. “We help the public know how to explore Kansas, which is not the same thing as being a tourist. We also work with the small towns to get them ready to be the best they can be, and help them get ready for explorers.”
Exploring, she explained, is about enjoying the journey, becoming engaged in the search, and about not judging a town on first appearance, but appreciating the culture and  ongoing drama of everyday life.
The foundation helped create and launch the Kansas Explorers Club, with members receiving a bimonthly newsletter filled with ideas on what to see and do in lesser-known parts of the state.
“Exploring helps people see Kansas through new eyes,” Penner said.
During her most recent excursion, she left Inman, stopped in Fall River for lunch, visited the Gold Dust Hotel at Fredonia, then went on to Altoona and Stark.
“We stopped at Scotty’s Classic Cars in Arma, then came on to Frontenac and Pittsburg,” Penner said.
She also enjoyed stops at Pallucca’s, Pittsburg State University Veterans Memorial and Timmons Chapel on the Pittsburg State University campus.
Kansas Sampler Foundation hosts the annual Kansas Sampler Festival, which is overseen by WenDee LaPlant, KSF assistant director, and established We Kan!, a network to bring rural communities together to share common issues and common solutions.
The foundation has also sponsored competitions such as the Eight Wonders of Kansas. “Big Brutus was a finalist for that,” Penner noted.
Contests are planned on the eight elements of rural culture, including architecture, art, commerce, cuisine, customs, geography, history and people. Nominations will be taken during July for art attractions in rural communities.
Hopefully, these contests will help the communities become aware of their own cultural riches, as well as publicize them throughout the state.
“When Dad and I did our first guide in 1990, people used to say that there was nothing in their town,” Penner said. “We think that every town has a story.”