Fun Names and Fun Ideas are Good for Community!

Meet Jay Yoder, Kansas Explorer #108. This guy has one of the most creative minds I know. He built the bicycle you see in the picture -- and I can't really describe why it's impossible to ride but it might be because the shaft with the handle bars swiggles around.

Anyway, Jay had this great idea for the Partridge Family Fest--Partridge being his community of 250. He came up with the Partridge Pedal Party and has devised all sorts of clever events around the bicycle theme. Soon others got caught up in clever thinking and before you could put a clothespin and card on your bicycle spoke they had a great day planned! It will feature a parade of these impossible to ride kind of custom-designed bicycles. But have you ever seen a Low Gear Bicycle Race or a Slow Race (winner is the one that comes across the line last -- and that's not easy!). Bicycle Poetry. Bicycle Photography. Custom and Vintage Bicycle Show. He gave bicycles to each of the grades at Partridge Elementary for the kids to decorate so that will be part of the Art Bikes. Oh, I think they are having an inner tube toss over bike handles that will be set in the ground a certain distance from the tossing line. Probably more ideas will be invented that day... It's all good.

This Partridge Family Fest and Partridge Pedal Party will take place Saturday, October 18.

There is something about small towns... You don't have to do anything regular and there aren't a lot of regulations to adhere to. Small towns lend lend themselves to creative thought. You have an idea? Make it happen! Just like Lucas, the Mecca of Grassroots Arts. This weekend will be their Toilet Seat Live Auction to help pay for the grassroots art public restrooms they are designing. Elk Falls (pop. 120) will soon host their Outhouse Festival. Their best fundraiser is selling pieces of gravel that you can sign and then deposit in the pothole of your choice on Elk Falls unpaved streets! Meg Perry of Oak Hill, population 36, started the Middle of Nowhere Festival.

Be clever, small towns! Fun brings a community together and brings people to your community!

Get Kansas! Kansas Explorer #2 Marci Penner