As the top recipient of Giving Tuesday donations this year, the Great Bend Recreation Commission Foundation is closer to its goal of raising $4 million to restore the former Club at StoneRidge golf course and turn it into a public course.
Now that GBRC owns the former golf course property, it needs to be maintained, Executive Director Chris Umphres said. At the Dec. 8 board meeting, GBRC approved JRO Dirt and Demo to remove close to 300 trees for $65,000. At that meeting, the board also approved Kemper Sports as the management firm for the golf course moving forward.
Joining Umphres at the Great Charity Giveaway last Thursday – where Giving Tuesday totals were announced – local businessman John Francis talked about a new group known as Friends of Great Bend that has joined the effort to see this and other community improvements come to be.
He spoke with the Great Bend Tribune after the giveaway.
Two years ago, Francis and Kim Vink were among a small group that started an unofficial group called Friends of Great Bend, with an aim to bring back the local golf course, among other things.
“I’ve learned a number of communities have formed organizations like we have,” he said, citing groups in Junction City, Hays and Wichita. It sounded like a good idea for Great Bend.
“We’re just a group of people who want to see some good things,” he said. “Our first project is to revive and renew the golf course, which was previously called The Club at StoneRidge.” The majority owners were Rick and Lois Ball. “The Balls generously donated that property, and the Rec Commission, under Chris Umphres’ leadership, very generously accepted to take this project on.
“(There were) about eight to 10 of us in the beginning, and now we’re 30 or so people that are helping with the project, and it’ll grow to hundreds. When we’re finished, this will be a public course owned by the Rec Commission, and we will build a new facility out there for a clubhouse – which we think is going to include pickleball. It will be a multi-use community asset. We’ll be able to host regional golf tournaments, maybe even regional pickleball tournaments. It will have a restaurant as well. It will be a good place for people to come and have a good time, and it’s an asset that we really need.”
Umphres said the arrangement will allow for the sale of alcohol on the premises.
Francis said Great Bend is the only city in western Kansas without a golf course.
“It’s embarrassing, and we’re going to get something done about it.”
He praised the work of the GBRC Board and Umphres.
For getting started on this multi-year project, Francis said he and Vink read Dan Sullivan’s book “Who Not How: The Formula to Achieve Bigger Goals Through Accelerating Teamwork.”
“Sometimes, when you are faced with a large project, something that’s very important to get done, you say, ‘How am I going to get this done?’ Well, ‘Who Not How’ is about WHO are you going to get to help you get it done, to make it happen? We’re going to make things happen for Great Bend: Friends of Great Bend, in Association with the Great Bend Rec Commission, we’re going to make it happen.”
Economic development
Francis sees this as an economic development project as well as a quality of life project.
“In order to attract young professionals and other workers, we have to have amenities. We are losing potential employees for the City of Great Bend and Barton County because we don’t have the amenities that some of the larger cities have. So this is not just about having fun, it’s also about economic development and having an asset.”
Umphres said the GBRC’s Board members are enthusiastic about the project.
“When I brought this to them, they were open arms,” he said. “Obviously golf and pickleball meets a certain clientele that is under-served. We look for ways to jump into the community and meet some of those needs.”
As people learned about the project, gifts started pouring in. The Great Bend Recreation Foundation was the top recipient of Giving Tuesday donations, with many of those gifts earmarked for this project.
The Giving Tuesday donations jump-started the project – which has an initial budget of $4 million. As of Thursday’s announcement of Giving Tuesday winners, the Rec has raised $1,808,000.
“We’re not done,” Umphres said. The Great Bend Recreation Commission has its own Foundation, which accepts donations any time.
Mail checks to Great Bend Rec Foundation, P.O. Box 353, Great Bend, KS 67530, or visit the main office at 1214 Stone St. The foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
