Dear Chamber Supporters,

Our office was able to take President's Day off this Monday, giving us a four-day work week. Which was great to spend time with Makayla, who also had off that day as schools were closed. But it's a lot harder to do five days of work in only four days! The short week went by fast―but was still just as terrific. Here is a list of things that I was able to be involved in since my last note.

2/17 Legislative Coffee Recap

Two of our local legislators met in the City Hall Commission Chambers for our most recent Legislative Coffee. Both Representative Rebecca Schmoe and Senator Caryn Tyson were able to get through a plethora of questions presented by those in attendance and from those online (picture here). If you’re interested in watching this hour session, you can do so through the live stream on the City of Ottawa and the Chamber’s Facebook page (here is a direct link). Below is a rundown of the issues that were discussed and their timestamps, allowing you to jet to any topic of interest.

Support of legislation affecting beekeeping and breweries (2:48) - Rebecca
The progress on the veto override to the proposed tax bill - HB 2284 (5:54) – Caryn
- Since the Legislative Coffee, the veto override discussed was unsuccessful, missing by three votes. There are still conversations about tax relief that can be done outside this bill but has yet to materialize into anything substantial as of yet.
Special education funding – HB 2738 (12:25) – Rebecca
Public broadcasting (18:24) – Caryn
Polling locations (23:06) – Caryn
Land ownership from foreign entities (28:22) – Caryn and Rebecca
Tax relief outside of HB 2284, including property tax relief and removing property tax from social security (31:47) – Caryn
Medicaid expansion (45:00) - Caryn and Rebecca
Wine sold in convenience stores (51:17) – Rebecca

We appreciate the involvement of our legislators and those in attendance who help keep our community educated on the issues arising in the state house. These opportunities to meet in person are one of the best ways to have a dialogue about what matters to you. If you are interested in attending, our next Legislative Coffee will be March 16th at 10am. If you have questions in the meantime, we implore you to reach out to your legislators. Our committee was able to create this document that has a significant amount of helpful information on it (click here to see). This contains contact info, what committees each senator and representative serves on, and their involvement in specific policies. You also notice that it includes important upcoming dates. It is too late to register to vote for the fast-approaching Preference Primary. But if you are registered already, save March 19th on your calendar to participate in the first of three chances this year to vote.

Pathways to a Healthy Franklin County

In a past letter, I was able to share a bit about some of the great lunch programs that our Franklin County Government has been able to administer this calendar year. There was another tremendous showing at their educational lunch this past Monday as Dr. Bill Pfizenmaier was able to share about stretching and strengthening (picture here). It’s my understanding that the interest in these lunches has surpassed any expectations that the County expected when planning originally started, a testament to the program’s success! These lunches are made possible through the organization/execution of several entities working together within the community. Funding for this program was made possible through a four-year grant hosted by Blue Cross and Blue Shield that centered around healthy communities. This funding has been used in many ways, including a bike-share program at OU, the “harvest-to-home” program in Wellsville, these lunches previously mentioned, and also for leadership training that the Chamber has overseen, to name just a few. The training that the Chamber organizes takes place through the Kansas Leadership Center down in Wichita, an organization founded to build leaders in the state. Two groups from Franklin County have been able to enhance their leadership capabilities through several day sessions, once in 2021 and another in 2023. We accepted our last allotment, which will be utilized this year for one more session (picture here). Ten individuals will be able to go again to not only learn new competencies, but also bring the training to our community. With a train-the-trainer learning this year, this group can service groups here locally with the curriculum learned. This has the ability to compound the great work that’s already being done in Ottawa/Franklin County. And will undoubtedly increase partnerships and expose leaders internally within our local organizations. A great benefit that is made possible through the funds awarded through this impactful grant program!

Own Your Story

I was able to enjoy the keynote program from the Ottawa Library in conjunction with their O-Town Reads program last night. They invited Nancy Sharp, an author, speaker, and coach who shares with people the importance of “not waiting to say what matters most” and to “share your story” (picture here). She led the group on how she facilitates this process with those who take her course―Life Letters. A Life Letter is a life-affirming document, not an autobiography, but stories that can leave your legacy well past your time here on earth. The idea behind this letter is not so much to face your own mortality but how to live on with the time we’ve been given. Much like the premise in this year’s O-Town read book, The 100 Years of Lenni and Margot, a story about an unlikely friendship between a terminally ill teenage girl and an elderly woman. Together, they use art to paint their life story together through individual paintings. With this in mind, Nancy urges us to do similarly through writing. Whether through pen and paper or on your computer, sharing what matters to you is not a waste of time but can give our lives value and be a piece of our legacy.

If you’re interested in writing a Life Letter, I’ll share some of the tips passed on during the presentation. The first step is figuring out who the letter is for, and it was suggested that “who” be relatively broad. This makes writing the letter easier and also allows you to make subsections later on to specific individuals if desired. The next step is to choose an area of focus. You can view the entire list with tips at the link, but some examples could be your personal history, your values and beliefs, your achievements or accomplishments, or it could be about forgiveness (full list here). Nancy shared that these suggestions are in no way exhaustive but can hopefully spur ideas. When writing your Life Letter, it's important that you are not using this to cast blame or point fingers. Keep in mind that this process is to allow you to share your beliefs―0ne of the easiest ways to share your beliefs is by utilizing stories or experiences in your life. With all this in mind, here are three prompts that can get you started:

Who and what gives your life meaning?
What else do you value above all else?
What do you want your loved ones and community to know about you?

Some helpful tactics you can use to jot ideas down could be through clustering (clustering example here). Using this image, replace the words connected with inputs matching the descriptor words for each line. Or another tool is to use the phrase “I’ve done this!” and to list things you have accomplished; it can even be small moments or interactions that spurred more significant meaning. Ultimately, this basic outline will help you put everything mentioned above into practice (outline here).

The program was very interactive, we were able to hear from dozens in the audience. One story that made me think was a lady who shared that she recently came across notes that she had written to her grandfather when she was just a little girl, and him back to her. Now, some 60 years later, these are more than letters but real treasures. How are we sharing our lives, our wisdom, and our experiences with those who carry on after us? Don’t wait to share your story!

Shoe Delivery

I hopped over to Lincoln Elementary School for the celebration this morning as AdventHealth Ottawa and Shoes that Fit was able to gift a pair of shoes and five pairs of socks to every student in the building (pictures here). This was accomplished through a significant amount of funds donated by our local hospital, and those with a giving heart. Currently there is over $7,000 raised (that’s 200 pairs of shoes!) through individual donations to benefit the kids in our community. With the goal of $10,000, there is still a chance to give here. Superbowl-winning KC Wolf heard about the program and made his way down to Ottawa to join in on the fun. What an incredible sight to see these kids revel in their gifts. I heard several say things like "these are the best shoes!", "they fit perfectly!", "I'm never going to take them off!" were exclaimed at different points. This seems like a key memory that will stick with them for some time―or at least as long as they’re wearing their new shoes and socks! Along with making their day, this kind of program will undoubtedly benefit the health of our community, giving our youth the resources to move, play, and just be a kid in a way that feels good for their feet. Over the next few weeks, the other schools in Franklin County will be getting their shoes and socks. Totaling 1,150 shoes and 5,750 socks, what an impact! Though I didn't receive a pair of shoes, I will cherish the gift of all the student's reactions this morning. A lovely memory for all of us onlookers. Very proud of everyone who has stepped up to make this a reality.

With spring-like weather sticking around into this next week, I hope you find an opportunity to soak it all in. If you haven't caught a sunset or sunrise recently, consider looking outside around that time (7:00amish in the morning and 6:00pmish in the evening). Having seen sunsets from the Caribbean and the coasts, nothing compares to the Midwest sunset/sunrise. Colors galore! The only unfortunate bit is that it only last just a few minutes, but maybe that makes them so special. I look forward to seeing you soon!

Ryland Miller

President/CEO

Ottawa Area Chamber of Commerce

ryland@ottawakansas.org

785-242-1000