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 Emporia Main Street Calendar of Events 

November 16

Emporia Main Street Board Meeting

8:00 a.m. in the Emporia Main Street office.

November 30

All Committee Meeting

8:00 a.m. in the Emporia Main Street office
 

December 1

Horse Drawn Carriage Rides

700 Block of Merchant

December 3

Breakfast with Santa

9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. at the Emporia Public Library

December 6

Quarter Mania

Granada Theatre

Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and the event starts at 6:30 p.m.

December 8

Midnight Madness

8:00 p.m. until Midnight

Horse Drawn Carriage Rides

700 Block of Merchant

December 15-17

Kris Kringle's Kids Shoppe

December 15

Horse Drawn Carriage Rides

December 22

Horse Drawn Carriage Rides

January 7th

Granada Bridal and Prom Expo

noon in the Granada Theatre.

Benefactors 

The City of Emporia

Lyon County

Bobby D's BBQ

Caribbean Sun Tanning

CoreFirst Bank & Trust

The Emporia Gazette

ESB Financial

Emporia's Radio

StationsKVOE, 104.9, Country 101.7

Longbine Auto Plaza

Roberts Blue Barnett Funeral Home

T2 Verizon Wireless

AKA Marketing/The Sports Fan

Amanda's Bakery

Applebee's

Ash, LLC.

Atherton & Huth Attorney at Law

Barden & Thompson

Bath Expressions

Bennett Dental Group

Best Western Hospitality House

Black Heart Cherry

Brown's Shoe Fit Co.

C & J Woodworks

Cable One

Cable One Advertising

Capitol Federal

Cassell Insurance

Chester Press, Inc.

Clark Carpet & Tile

Coffelt Sign Co. 

Commercial Street Diner

Complete Works

Country Mart/Price Chopper

Dan's Hands

Dorsey & Wise Family Eye Care

Douglas Chiropractic Center

Dynamic Disks

Emporia Chamber of Commerce

Emporia State Federal Credit Union

ESU Memorial Union

E-Town Solutions

First Community Bank

Flint Hills Eye Care Associates

Flint Hills Lanes

Flint Hills Music

Flint Hills Tech College

Flint Hills Mall

Forget Me Not Productions

Four Seasons Apartments

Furniture Loft

Genesis Health Club

George Groh & Sons

Gerald Schumann Electric

Glendo

Granada Coffee Company

Granada Plaza & Lofts

Graves Drug Store

Hair Krafters

Helbert & Allemang Attorney's at Law

High Gear Cyclery

Hornet Residential

IM Design Group

Java Cat 5

Jimmy John's

Kansas Radio 96.1 The Wave

KISS 103.1

Krueger & Williams Law Office

L & L Pets

Little Caesers Pizza

Lyon County State Bank

Lyon County Title

Marion National Bank

Mark II Lumber

Mathis Physical Therapy

McDonald's on 6th Ave.

McKinzie Pest Control

Menu Foods Midwest Corp.

Midas Touch Golden Tans

Modern Air Conditioning

Muckenthaler, Inc.

Nature's Paradise

Navrat's Office Products

Pizza Ranch

Plum Bazaar

Poehler Mercantile

Pool & Wright

Prairie Sage Apartments

Prairie Land Partners

Pro Cuts

Pyramid Pizza

Redi Upholstry

Redline Trucking

Ru Yi

Sauder Custom Fabrication

Scheller's Lawn & Landscape

Simmons Pet Food

SS Graham Insurance Agency

Stanley Jewelry

Studio 11

Subway

Sunflower Gymnastics

Symmonds & Symmonds Attorney at Law

The Help Desk

The Henrikson Team

The Medicine Shoppe

The Sweet Granada

The Villiger

The White Rose Inn

Thompson Auto Repair

Toso Appraisal Service

Town Crier Bookstore

Town Royal

Water's True Value

Westar Energy

Wheat State Pizza

Williams Automotive

 Big Brothers Big Sisters

Community Theatre of Emporia

Corner House

Emporia Arts Council

Emporia Farmer's Market

Emporia Granada Theatre Alliance

Emporia High School Future Business Leaders of America

Emporia Public Library

ESU Foundation

Small Business Development Center

First Presbyterian Church

Flint Hills Optimists Club

Jayhawk Area Council (Scouts)

Lyon County Historical Society

National Teachers Hall of Fame

Plumb Place

The United Way 

Boyzen Bunny Fiber Arts- Tracey Graham

Energy Innovators

Family Jewels-

Leticia Rust

Gold Canyon Candle- Stephanie Morgan

Green Door Recycling- Amy Becker

Independant Longaberger Consultant- Judith Dieker

Interdependent Web- Ben Stallings

Joe the Furniture Doctor- Joe Kurzen

Kynda Kreative- Amanda Mendoza

Mary Kay- Brenda Braynard

Pampered Chef- Chelsea Gerleman

Patti Cakes- Patti Lipson

Paula's Creations

Paula Roper

Premier Designs Jewelry- Nikki Simmons

RossTography

Mike Ross

Scentsy- Deann Rose

Stampin-Up

Darcy Johnson

Tastefully Simple- Vanessa Apodaca 

Anne Strobel

Brad Harzman

Dale and Carolyn Davis

Erin Woods

Julie Johnson

Kayla Oney

Mark & Amy McAnarney

Mary & Tim Helmer

Matt & Val Zimmerman

Pam & Fred Stephenson

Peggy Mast

Rob Gilligan

Sue Blechl

Victoria Partridge 

Emporia Main Street E- Newsletter

Saturday, November 5th at 9:30 a.m. 

Soden's Grove 

For on-line run registration, click HERE.

To view the run/walk route, click HERE.

For the on-line bike registration, click HERE.

To view the bike route, click HERE.

To download the paper registration form, click HERE.

Red Ribbon Merchants 

Click HERE for more information on this cooperative Marketing Package through Emporia Main Street!

Businesses currently signed up include: Bath Expressions, The Emporia Arts Council, Forget Me Not, Graves Drug Store, Plum Bazaar, Poehler Mercantile, Stanley Jewelry, Studio 11, Town Crier, Lyon County Title, L & L Pets, Furniture Loft and Complete Works.

To sign up, click HERE!

Midnignt Madness

December 8th from 8:00 p.m. until Midnight

Businesses currently signed up to participate include: Town Crier, Waters True Value, The Place to Be, Joe the Furniture Doctor, Pampered Chef and Furniture Loft.

To sign up, click HERE!

Quarter Mania

The Next Quarter Mania is December 6th at the Granada Theatre.  Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and the event starts at 6:30 p.m.  If you want to become a participating vendor, please contact Emporia Main Street Events Coordinator Becky Smith at 620-340-6430 or main.street@emporia-kansas.gov .

Kansas Main Street Quarterly Training Webinar

National Main Street Center staff person Todd Barman will lead a webinar covering Targeted Market Research.  This webinar is free for Emporia Main Street members, but you need to sign up by Noveber 10th.  The webinar will be hosted on November 17th from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.  for more information: CLICK HERE.

Breakfast with Santa

December 3rd, 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. at the Emporia Public Library.  Bring your kids for breakfast, arts & crafts, story time and a chance to meet the big guy: SANTA CLAUS!!!

Window decorating contest 

Currently, Bath Expressions, Town Crier Bookstore and Plum Bazaar are signed up to participate.

Click HERE to sign up!

Kris Kringle's Kids Shoppe

December 15-17 at 725 Commercial Street.  Red Ribbon Merchants can provide goods at $10 and under in a shopping environment just for kids!  Kids can shop for parent's, grand parents, teachers, siblings or anyone else on their wish list!

Creating tommorrow's Entrepreneurs

An emphasis on business creation in youth creates more local businesses, better employees and a more creative community.

How do we retain our youth?  How do we create more businesses, wealth and jobs in the area?  Well, starting young and letting our youth know that they have the option of starting a business as a career is a great way to keep them local and create a generation of critical thinkers that make better employees and more engaged citizens.  Youth entrepreneurship was a major emphasis at the Kansas Downtown Symposium, and below are some ways to engage youth in entrepreneurship activities and promote support mechanisms for students as they go through high school, college and beyond!

1.  Start young.  The optimum time to start training your entrepreneur? 5th grade.  Now, that may seem a little young, but this is the age where students still retain their creativity, have developed a little focus and hormones (generally) haven't hit full force.  Essentially, you've got creative people with energy that are still excited about taking educational chances.  Freshmen & Sophomores in High School also represent an ideal time frame for entrepreneurial education.  These youth haven't hit the age where they won't try something outside the box yet.  The older a student gets, the harder it is to introduce entrpreneurial concepts.

2.  Let's go camping.  Although longer term curriculums are ideal, some entrepreneurial concepts can be introduceed in a summer "camp".  These camps can take place for various age ranges (after 5th grade) and unlike many summer camps, can actually provide skills that participants can utilize over their entire lives.

3.  Brainstorming is just one of many steps...  This is a concept that many adults fail to understand.  The youth entrepreneur may have an idea that seems too big and outlandish to ever work, but with a little guidance from a mentor, the core concept can be paired down into a workable business plan.  A ffth grader that wants to write a business plan for a theme park in Emporia is ultimately going to be disappointed, but what if some guidance led to a paintball or airsoft range?  The core concept is still there, but start up costs in the millions are changed to start up costs in the thousands and youth get to actually FOLLOW THROUGH on their plans.

4.  Make resources available.  I'm not talking about grants, but a few thousand dollars in unmached low interest loans can make a concept a reality for a youth entrepreneur.  One case study highlighted was that of a young teen that worked in an entrepreneur program and obtained a loan for laythe equipment which he used to create new wooden baseball bats.  This now 23 year old has a 2.3 million dollar company with a product called Dinger bats (slogan: be a swinger with a dinger) and has a staff of 15.  These are loans, and paying the loan back is an important part of the learning process, but these small youth investments can create big community dividends.

5.  Cross curriculum training.  Your optimum entrepreneur probably isn't a straight "A" student.  They earn "B's" and "C's", are hightly competative, very creative and like to win.  While classes on entrepreneurship and small business techniques are helpful, so is the integration of these techniques in other classes.  Along with writing short stories, an English class could have students write a business plan.  Math classes could have students calculate costs of goods sold, return on investment or any of a myriad of calculations required to perform well in business.  A psychology class could introduce industrial psychology or psychographics.  Art classes could introduce elements of scale and floor design.  History classes could have an assignment based on famous entrepreneurs.  By engaging students across curriculums, they are more likely to adopt entrepreneurial thinking.

6.  Train to liquidate.  We set entrepreneurs up to fail when we don't train them how to liquidate a business.  Think how many jobs you've had over your lifetime.  Most of you will answer with a number more than one.  Why then do we expect entrepreneurs to do the same thing forever?  Traning entrepreneurs how to properly transfer ownership can stop tremendous losses in business, jobs and assetts for a community.  Once entrepreneurs learn proper techniques to start, grow and liquidate businesses, a community develops tremendous intellectual assetts that can lead to "serial entrepreneurs" that start several businesses over their lifetimes.  With each new venture, the serial entrepreneur brings new knowledge and assetts to the table with bigger and better businesses.

7.  Emphasize Community Assetts-  Making connections with entities like Main Street, the Small Business Development Center, Flint Hills Technical College, Emporia State University, local banks, accountants, attournies and other professionals that actually do the hard grunt work to help businesses start, grow and succeed is important.  When student's know where to go and what services they can recieve beyond "networking", they can reach out with their concepts and create real businesses.

8.  It's OK to fail (really, it is...). If your t-ball team lost a game you wouldn't walk up to the kids and say "well, we lost so we're done with baseball forever..."  Failure in life is inevitbale.  Heck, some would say that if you never fail you aren't pushing hard enough.  Every great thinker, doer and entrepreneur in history has had to deal with failure.  Letting people know that it's OK to fail as long as you learn from the process so you are better equipped NEXT TIME is vital to creating a sustainable class of entrepreneurs.  From a student perspective, experts say about 1% have everything they need to be highly successful, including family support, creativity, will to succeed, savvy, some resources, work ethic, self motivation and proper concept identification.  But all businesses succeed even if students don't fall within that 1% simply because they now have access to a work pool of creative, motivated employees that think beyond their job.

99.7% of all employer firms in the US were originated by entrepreneurs representing 1% of the population. When we start remembering a community's "good ol' days" one of the most overlooked factors is that businesses were mainly locally owned.  Industry, services, retail and restaurants had owners that were part of the community because they lived and grew up here.  Now, we have a variety of businesses from all over (and that's OK), but the more local ownership we have the better off our community will be in the long run.  However, we often fall into the trap of training our kids to work for someone else, then they leave for large companies based somewhere else, and we are shocked...  Look for extended Entrepreneurship Programs through Emporia Main Street and our partners in the near future.  Starting young may not reap immediate benefits, but building a better community is a marathon, not a sprint.

For more information on this topic, contact Todd Tracy at www.inalliance.biz , one of the presenters at the recent Kansas Main Street Downtown Symposium.

Last week we held a meeting for the upcoming Freedom Fest (this Saturday), we were on a "Newsmaker" segment with KVOE concerning 

One of many Trick or Treat families out downtown on Saturday.

 upcoming events, we worked with three seperate groups looking to develop businesses in the downtown, we met with the City Commission concerning the possibility of bringing passenger rail back to Emporia, we held a Business Enhancement meeting, we conducted a Home Based Business Meeting, we met with a group seeking to expand entrepreneurial activities in Emporia, we participated in an Emporia Gazette E-TV interview, we held the Emporia Main Street Public Improvement Auction, worked with a local columnist writing an article on the importance of shopping local, we held a first annual Ghost Tour with 116 people and then followed that event with a first ever coordinated Trick or Treat in downtown Emporia.  70 hour work weeks do tire you out..., BUT we got A LOT accomplished for all of you and received some great community questions...

1.  "How did the auction end up?" From a board member.  A lot of activities, including a memorial service for a tragedy at ESU kept our crowd a little smaller than normal, but we target a goal of $8,000 going into the auction, and after we tabulated $7,993, a board member offered another $7, so we met our goal...  Ron Thomas of Emporia's Radio Stations was a great Master of Ceremonies, although we may have to take our audiance members on an 80's trivia show because people were answering Ron's 80's questions before the questions were out of his mouth...  Kevin Flott did an exceptional job as auctioneer again, and we were happy that he could help out even as his daughter was preparing to help win the state championship in volleyball for Olpe High School.  We had several local and regional businesses that donated items, and very generous bidders.  We thank you all for supporting public improvement projects in Emporia!

2.  "How many events do you help with a year?"  From a city staff person. A lot.  This last week, for example, we had back to back to back events with the Auction, Haunted Tours and downtown Trick or Treat.  I don't suggest ever doing three events in a row like that (staff got a little worn down), but it is necessary to create and maintain events that improve the vibrancy of the community and support other goals.  There are certain elements of Main Street that the general public rarely sees.  Some of our design research and individual property support or our business enhancement, financing and educational components aren't loud and flashy.  However, our building history studies allow for proper design aesthetics AND allow us to conduct a haunted tour that gives people fun history of the community.  Several of our events have goals larger than the event itself, and promoting traffic, business and community pride are worthy goals that can be achieved through promotion.

3.  "How many people went on the haunted tours?" From several people I bumped into the day after... 116.  We thought that was a great number for a first year.  People got the chance to meet the "Men of Mystery" ghost hunting group, including Kevin Dobson, Bryant Duenas, Ron Ziglar, Colby Dobson and others that showed video evidence of a ghost hunting expididiton done at the Granada Theatre.  Roger Heineken told stories of haunted happenings at the older section of the ESU Memorial Union, staff told stories about the ghosts that inhabit Red Rocks, the William Allen White home.  Jill Wheeler and her staff spooked up the Plumb Place and Shirley Slaymaker showed petrified people around Poehler Mercantile.  We even made an unscheduled stop at the new Studio 11 location (the former Crawford's Furniture) to check out their creepy basement...  Feedback was good, and this activity not only gave people something fun to do, but it educated participants about Emporia, showed off some buildings that several participants had never been in and it helped raise some funds for participating agencies.    

4.  "How many people do you think went on the downtown Trick or Treat?" From a local business person. It varied from stop to stop, but a few of our businesses reported well over 100 kids, and the kids were generally outnumbered by adults.  Beyond the obvious good will element, many family participants that were informally surveyed during and after the event noted that they visited businesses "I've never been in before".  So, for those businesses that pulled trick or treater's into your business on Saturday's event, kudos!  Hopefully, the activity when coupled with other events will promote more traffic into your store this holiday seaon. 

5. "Do you think that passenger rail should be a community priority?"  From an elected official. The basic premise of the question indicated a thought process that we should dedicate limited resources to several other activities other than the pursuit of passenger rail.  While I don't think that obtaining passenger rail should be the top priority of city government, I do think that it should be a priority.  Why?  We have to determine what the community will look like during the completion phase of a potential daytime stop for passenger rail service in Emporia.  During that time frame, fuel prices will undoubtedly continue to rise and long range passenger service will become a necessity for important constituent groups, like ESU students and individuals that live in Emporia but work in other communities.  By looking at time lines that intersect with market realities, we understand that we must work to plan and implement projects BEFORE the project need reaches critical mass to keep costs down and allow for multiple funding sources.  This potential project allows the city to pursue public/private partnerships that can off set costs associated with projects like passenger rail.  By learning to leverage financing, the city can pursue other projects while defraying some of the costs to the taxpayer.  We are currently the largest community from Chicago to Los Angeles without any type of passenger rail stop along the Southwest Chief.  When we exercise foresight, we understand that some of the priorites government officials set through public pressure (job creation, new businesses, traffic increases, aiding local institutions) are aided through inderect means like passenger rail.  If this project can be completed economically with both a private and public community commitment, it could be a good thing for Emporia.