Crowdfunding site helps support projects in small Kansas towns

Great things are getting done in tiny towns and neighborhoods across Kansas, one project at a time.

The WeKan! Support website is allowing communities to work on projects and sometimes make dreams come true.

“There are so many projects in small towns without people to make donations that it is often hard to make projects come to life,” said Marci Penner, director of the Kansas Sampler Foundation.

The website began last fall as an online crowdfunding site that allows anyone to donate – friends, family, alumni or perfect strangers.

Four communities were selected to test the program: Burdett, Plains, Wilson and Yates Center. Funding goals ranged from $5,000 to $19,620.

The WeKan!Support project is an opportunity for small towns to find help for projects that strengthen communities, Penner said.

“One thing I love about this site is that it helps the world get to know what kind of efforts are going on to help keep communities alive and thriving,” she said. “We would love people to go to the site and hopefully make a donation, no matter how small, but we also need help getting the site shared all around the state and nation.”

While some of the original communities are still working on obtaining the needed funding, a new crop of communities and projects have been added to the website.

“One of the thing that makes crowd-funding sites popular is to have lots of projects so if people go there and find a project they like, they can donate,” Penner said. “We are still involved in a learning curve.

“Mostly, we want to get the word out to each town’s alumnus – those that live around the globe – to donate.”

Some of the newest projects include:

▪ Building a front porch for the Old Frankfort School in Marshall County. The project is called “Stairway to Nowhere” and includes raising $39,000 to build a front deck with flooring, lattice work, pillars and rafters.

▪ In Arvonia, folks are holding a Tin Ceiling Revival. The project would raise $21,000 to restore tin ceiling tiles and turn a church into a community center.

▪ Nearly half of Garden City’s goal of $39,000 has been raised to restore the Windsor Hotel’s cupola. Friends and family of Don Harness, the co-founder and past president of the Finney County Preservation Alliance, are particularly wanting to see the project to completion.

Last fall, Harness was diagnosed with lung cancer. For more than two decades, Harness has worked to preserve the Windsor. The intent of the project is to continue Harness’ legacy of preservation and complete it in time for him to see it finished.

Here is an update on the original projects:

▪ The residents of Plains in Meade County raised more than $5,000 to buy a downtown lot for a grocery store.

▪ The town of Wilson raised $15,000 to restore the Czech Opera House marquee. The distinctive limestone Opera House was destroyed by fire in 2009. The hope now is to build an open-air amphitheater in the shell of the 1901 building.

▪ Burdett, the hometown of Clyde Tombaugh, the man who discovered Pluto in 1930, wanted to raise $10,900 to renovate a miniature golf course, shaping it to look like the nine planets and the sun. The project raised $7,300.

▪ People in Yates Center worked on a bicycle and hiking trail around the town’s lake and golf course. The community raised $1,900 of the $7,600.

This story was originally published July 5, 2015 at 12:57 PM with the headline "Crowdfunding site helps support projects in small Kansas towns."