Huck Boyd Institute announces 2025 Leaders of the Year
MANHATTAN, Kan. — Food, fitness, fun, family, and the future are major areas of focus for the entrepreneurs and organizations to be honored by K-State’s Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development as the 2025 Huck Boyd Leaders of the Year.
Seven Kansas winners will receive awards on Tuesday, Oct. 28 at the Kansas Department of Agriculture offices at 1320 Research Park Drive in Manhattan.
Categories, winners, and towns of this year’s award winners are as follows:
- Food and Agriculture: Karen and Darrin Moege, Flint Hills Pints, Alma.
- Agribusinesses: Heather Strate of Edwards County Economic Development, Kinsley/Blue Sky Farms dairy, Lewis; Dan and Jan Smoots, Fanestil Meats, Emporia.
- Entrepreneurship: Brad and Lynn Roepke and Jo Hammel, Solid Bar Fitness, Waterville.
- Tourism Development: Jordan Roemerman, Kansas Tourism – Sunflower Summer, Topeka.
- Business Development: Jill Kuehny/Jen Kern, Border Queen Harvest Hub, Caldwell.
- Community Service: Howard Miller and Sig Collins, Cheney Lake Watershed, Cheney.
“Congratulations to these winners who represent the excellent spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship in our state,” said Abigail Horn, attorney at Sebelius, Griffiths & Horn LLP in Norton and chair of the Huck Boyd Institute Board of Directors.
During the pandemic, Karen Moege made ice cream for her family and friends at home. It was so well received that, with encouragement from others, the Moege family launched an ice cream business called Flint Hills Pints, which uses local milk and eggs to produce all-natural ice cream in traditional and creative flavors.
As Edwards County’s director of economic development, Heather Strate worked to encourage construction of a large dairy in her county. Blue Sky Farms agreed and now the $200 million, 19,000-cow state-of-the-art Twin Circle Dairy is milking cows near Lewis.
Dan Smoots first worked with the Fanestil Meats processing company as a consultant before he and his wife Jan became owners of the business. Today, Fanestil Meats is a processor of ready-to-eat, fresh and smoked and cooked, value-added meats. Sons Joe and Nate joined the business more than a decade ago. The company recently moved into a 23,000 square foot facility with a warehouse, offices and retail store plus a state-of-the-art 47,000 square foot production facility near Emporia.
After a successful college football career, Brad Roepke started making his own weightlifting equipment in his hometown of Waterville. As he improved the design of his equipment, he and his wife Lynn founded Solid Bar Fitness. Daughter Jo Hammel also joined the business, which produces Olympic-level weightlifting equipment now used in weight rooms across the nation and beyond.
Sunflower Summer is a program to encourage youth and families to engage in educational outdoor activities during the summertime. That program is now administered by Kansas Tourism, led by director Bridgette Jobe and deputy director Jordan Roemerman. Through the Sunflower Summer website, Kansas families with kids can access a mobile app that provides free access to more than 220 attractions across the state during the summertime.
Jill Kuehny is CEO of Kan-Okla, a telecommunications company, and also leads the community volunteer non-profit known as Vision Caldwell in the Border Queen town of Caldwell. That group identified the need for locally-sourced foods and worked with Shop Kansas Farms to develop plans for a food hub to connect growers, processors, distributors, and consumers. With support from the Patterson Family Foundation, the Border Queen Harvest Hub has been launched with Jen Kern as director.
In the 1990s, farmers along the North Fork Ninnescah River noticed that sediment and nutrients were building up in Cheney Lake, which provides much of Wichita’s water supply. Through the Cheney Lake Watershed organization and with support from EPA, an agreement was reached for the City of Wichita to provide funding to help farmers implement practices to improve water quality. Howard Miller is outreach coordinator and Sig Collins is past chair of the Citizens Management Committee for the Cheney Lake Watershed.
The 2025 Huck Boyd Leaders of the Year winners were selected by entrepreneurship students in K-State’s College of Business and by agricultural communications students in K-State’s College of Agriculture. Each year the Huck Boyd Institute selects its leaders of the year from among those featured previously on its weekly Kansas Profile radio program and column.
Kansas Profile is distributed by the K-State Radio Network and K-State Extension News Media Services to radio stations and newspapers statewide.
The Huck Boyd Institute is a public/private partnership between K-State Extension and the Huck Boyd Foundation. The Foundation office is at the Huck Boyd Community Center in Phillipsburg. The Institute office is at Kansas State University in Manhattan.
