Rotary Club of Parsons

06/10/2026

Rotarian of the Day, Jamie Janssen, introduced two young men from her 4-H group. Jackson Han and Jacob Han both gave excellent talks on what they have learned from being in 4-H and the hobbies they have developed. Both enjoy rocketry, photography, and dog training. They also have been introduced to shopping and leadership classes to help shape their future.
Jackson and Jacob answered many questions from our club members.

One question was what the 4-H's stood for? The boys explained by stating the 4-H motto in unison.

I pledge my head to clearer thinking,

my heart to greater loyalty,

my hands to larger service, and

my health to better living,

for my club, my community, my country and my world.

As both young men had a passion for photography, we wanted to show some of the images they shared with the club.

06/04/2026

Rotarian Hal Redford receives his Paul Harris Plus 5 pin from club President Roger Buck.

06/04/2026

The Parsons Rotary Club welcome two new members. (L to R) David Wallis and Doug Allen.

06/04/2026

Last week our speaker was Captain Harlow from the Labette Sheriff Department speaking on House Bill 2444 and the impact it will have on their budget.

05/25/2026

05/12/2026

District 6110 Conference

The Rotary Club of Parsons was well represented at the recent District 6110 conference. President-Elect Keith Butler, President-nominee Sydney Lancaster, Martha Castillo and Gary Pollmiller participated in the two-day event. Keith helped out at the Dictionary Project table with Gary. Gary heads up our club's Dictionary Project, but he has also served as Secretary on the board of directors for the Dictionary Project since 2018. Martha and Sydney were both asked by Governor John Rains to be part of a special panel presentation on RYLA.

During the conference, our members had the opportunity to volunteer time to help organize and pack hygiene products. Martha even took 2nd place in their Putt Putt for Polio contest.

Governor Rains contacted me later to thank us for sponsoring four Rotarians to the meeting. He was also very impressed to see our two young ladies so involved.

Our thanks to all four of these dedicated Rotarians for the time and efforts during the conference!

05/12/2026

School Lock Down Update

I'm sure you have all heard of the school lockdowns that occurred last week at several high schools in the area. Rotarian and Chief of Police Bob Spinks was unable to attend our meeting but did ask me to publish the following information to club members.

The school staff and kids responded great. Our officers were on site in 2 minutes.

This morning, Attorney General Kobach said our incident and many others across the state (Swatting calls yesterday) were not restricted to Kansas — it happened in other states too.

He said the KBI has learned a few things: the calls came from an AI-generated source, they came from the same source, and they came from outside the country.

He said that impacts the KBI’s ability to resolve the issue.

“There appears to be a criminal enterprise outside the United States that’s engaged in doing this. That complicates what we can do at the KBI to solve the problem. If it were a source inside the United States we could use the intelligence tools we have to figure out where that phone was,” said Kris Kobach, Kansas attorney general."

Kobach said it is still possible to solve the problem. It will just take more time as they work with law enforcement in other countries.

Our thanks to Chief Spinks for this update.

05/12/2026

Freedom of Flight Museum

Rotarian of the Day (and world traveler) John Dranchak brought us a really nice program. For some time now, John has been volunteering time to the Freedom of Flight Museum in Joplin to help restore a T-33 military jet trainer that will be displayed at the entrance driveway of the museum.

Our speakers were Darryl Coit, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors, and Ernie Trumbly, Curator of the museum. They talked about the four-year project to acquire and restore the T-33 for display. The engine and other components have been removed in order for them to place the jet on a raised mount at the entrance to the museum, which is located at 5501 Dennis Weaver Drive. Webb City, MO 64870. One of the challenges they ran into was getting the plane through the gate as the plane was a few inches wider. They used several pipe wrenches to manipulate it through the gate.

Ernie told us about some of the rare and unique items on display at the museum. He noted that even the Smithsonian Museum does not have some of these items. Memorabilia on display include many air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles. Several bombs on display were made in the Parsons Army munitions plant, including cluster bombs.

The museum also has a cockpit of a bomber, an ejection seat, and a very rare collection of chaff material and launchers. (Chaff is a radar countermeasure made of tiny metallic strips that, when released into the air, create a cloud of false radar reflections large enough to hide an aircraft or ship from enemy tracking. Each strip is cut to roughly half the wavelength of the radar it’s meant to defeat, turning every fiber into a miniature antenna that bounces radar energy back toward the transmitter. First used in combat during World War II, chaff remains one of the most widely deployed defensive tools in military aviation and naval warfare more than eighty years later.) They also have on display an original set of toy aircraft that coast watchers used to identify aircraft from other countries. The tour includes visiting the old tower.

https://freedomflight.org/

05/06/2026

The Parsons Rotary Club Board of Directors elected to be a sponsor of this year's Katy Days rather than have a booth/table set up. The year we tried that we had very few conversations and the board felt having our logo on the main stage would give us more visibility. Look for our club logo on the big screen on the main stage.

A check was presented to Aquila Winchell by club president Roger Buck.

05/06/2026

Paint Parsons is a project managed by the City of Parsons and Doug Baty. The program anticipates painting 23 homes in the Parsons community. The group is a community volunteer project that provides exterior home painting for elderly, disabled, and low-income residents. This has been down in the past and the city had donated $8,000. This year the city chose to contribute $12,000. However, the project will require $25,000, so the rest of the money had to be raised through donations. The last report heard was that the program wa short by $1,000, so our donation of $500 will certainly help get across the finish line. We hope to get photos of some of the projects and possible some guest speakers once the project is completed.

A check for $500 was presented to City Clerk and Parsons Rotarian, Jamie Janssen.