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Business success for Aaron Collins means not letting the grass grow under his feet. The 15-year-old Leavenworth High School freshman is already four years into his Leavenworth County lawn mowing business: Aaron’s Lawn Care. His achievements and goals so far have been built on a solid foundation with family.His father, Matt Collins, recalled when Aaron was just a little tyke pushing a toy mower. “He would follow me around with his little bubble mower and I’d say ‘You gotta make sure you’ve got straight lines, buddy,” Matt Collins said with a big smile. As Aaron Collins got old enough to use a real lawnmower, he was experienced enough to take advantage of his first business opportunity.“During COVID, (Aaron) was in fifth grade and said, ‘Hey, dad, can I mow some lawns in the neighborhood?’ I said, ‘Sure.’ He came back with five lawns. That’s how it started. Every year it grew,” Matt Collins said.Collins started with push mowers until he saved up for his first riding mower, which allowed him to grow the number of clients he could serve, about 30 lawns per week. The mowing season starts when school is still in session.“My schedule was going to school, come home and mow, get done about 8 o’clock, then get my homework done for an hour or two, and then finally get my sleep in,” Aaron Collins said.The workload meant that he needed to hire help. His parents became his first employees. They don’t work for free, though.“During the school year, my parents would be going out and doing the smaller yards with the push mowers and I pay them 70% of gross revenue,” Collins said. “But now that it’s summer, I plan on doing it all by myself throughout the summer.”Leavenworth High School’s DECA program and the Leavenworth County Young Entrepreneurship Challenge programs have provided the guidance and support to help Collins build his business.“I’ve learned a lot of things in the past two years,” Collins said. “In 2022, I bought my first commercial lawn mower. I got a 90% increase in revenue buying the commercial lawn mower. This year, I bought a 36-inch one and can do yards much quicker now.” Collins began his freshman year enrolled in the Career and Technical Education (CTE) taught by business marketing pathway instructor Liz Anstine. According to the DECA website, CTE is a program within DECA that “prepares students to be college- and career-ready by providing core academic skills, employability skills, and technical, job-specific skills.”Anstine teaches three different levels of marketing, entrepreneurship and business management.“I’ve been working with Aaron on his marketing, his business cards and his value proposition,” Anstine said. “He’s been working on his marketing story. ‘How are you different than other lawn mowing companies. What do you want to be known as?’”Collins also participated in a separate program, the Leavenworth County Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge (YEC). Students who place first in that challenge qualify to attend the Kansas Entrepreneurship Challenge (KEC) at Kansas State University.“I got third the first year when I was in seventh grade,” Collins said. “In eighth grade, I ended up winning the competition. This year I won again as a freshman and then went on to K-State and won exemplary.” KEC is a program of the NetWork Kansas Entrepreneurship and several K-State partnerships. 2024 was the 11th annual YEC season and its largest, with 1,159 Kansas students participating.The student businesses that advanced to the KEC state level were judged on their executive summaries and mock boardroom presentations. Top competitors in YEC and KEC win cash awards.For 2024, Collins won $1,500 from the Leavenworth County YEC and $2,500 from the KEC. He used the prize money to reinvest in his business.“YEC is a great opportunity for young individuals to get feedback on their business ideas and receive money to fund these ideas,” Collins said.Collins credits the Leavenworth High School DECA program with helping him learn important skills for his business.“DECA has taught me many things but most importantly I believe DECA has taught me good public speaking and communication skills,” Collins said.One of his Leavenworth lawn care clients, Diane Schwartzman, shared how pleased she has been with Collins’ work.“Whether (Aaron) has a crew of three or four with him or if he does it by himself, he always does an excellent job,” Schwartzman said. “It’s amazing.”Collins said that he feels there are good business opportunities for people dedicated to pursuing their goals.“I feel if you work hard to succeed in life, as long as people have the drive to make something of themselves, they will. DECA really helps with that. I’m surrounded by many people that are like that. There are so many people in DECA who are trying hard to make something of themselves,” Collins said. Collins still has three more years of high school to further his business skills and goals. “After high school, I want to expand this and have a couple of crews out there,” Collins said. “I want to get people who understand the work ethic needed. I want to get employees to buy into the vision that I have for the company.”

The 170th anniversary of the founding of Leavenworth is being recognized by the Leavenworth County Historical Society, which also celebrates its 70th anniversary this year, having been organized in Leavenworth’s centennial year. A celebration will be held on the lawn of the Carroll Mansion Museum on June 22 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The Lecompton historical re-enactors will be featured at 10 a.m. followed by recognition of descendants of early Leavenworth Town Company founders and new members in the First Families of Leavenworth County program. The Carroll Mansion Museum, at 1128 Fifth Ave., has been owned by the society for 60 years. The structure was originally a farmhouse built over 165 years ago, so it has essentially witnessed the history of Leavenworth over the years. A $10 box lunch by reservation is also being offered. There will be live music at the event, and walk-through museum tours from 1-3 p.m. Free-will donations will be accepted.The area that had been marked on maps as the Great American Desert opened for settlement when the Kansas and Nebraska bill passed. Shortly after the Kansas Territory opened, the first squatter meeting was held at Riveley’s tavern in the Salt Creek Valley on June 10, 1854, by an association of gentlemen from Weston, Missouri, and Fort Leavenworth. A town company was organized on a joint stock basis for the purpose of laying out a town at some convenient point adjacent to the fort. Of this association, Col. George W. Gist was president, Maj. Sackfield Macklin, Amos Rees and L.D. Bird, were trustees, and H. Miles Moore was secretary. The document was signed on June 13 designating the site to be settled upon immediately south of the fort, then covered with hazel brush thickets, brambles and scrub oaks. The survey was made by Gist, and George H. Keller was engaged to clear the area of brush. In those early days, Leavenworth was actually a squatter city and laid claim to 320 acres of land in what was known as the Delaware Trust Lands. This was land ceded to the United States by treaty with the Delaware Indians, thereby making it necessary to purchase lots from the government. The original townsite began south of Fort Leavenworth and went to Three Mile Creek on the southern border, to extend from the Missouri River westward.As related in 1874, “Among the first important acts, was christening. The prestige of the name of Leavenworth had been by all conceded, but some whose dreams had been of Philisa Ann, Artimesia Semphronica or Rachael Jane, desired a double name and wanted “city” at the end, so that in the future it would have the sweet and sonorous designation of the city of Leavenworth City, but better sense prevailed and so they called it Leavenworth without the tail. This was just twenty years ago.”The attending hardships, both bitter and long-lasting in the early years, encompassed a high level of domestic discord and strife. Today, one cannot imagine the difficulties of being a free state man in Leavenworth, when two-thirds of the population was violently pro-slavery, who at an hours notice would repeatedly arrest, imprison, rob, murder and drive out of homes and from the land those not in agreement with the extension of slavery in Kansas. This period of time became known as the “times that tried man’s soul” and more commonly, Bleeding Kansas.The Leavenworth Daily Commercial published a 10-page issue on Jan. 1, 1875, reviewing the year just ended. With a population of over 30,000, the first city of Kansas had grown rapidly and noted $3 million in manufactured goods had been produced in Leavenworth in 1874. That included five million cigars, 13,000 stoves and nearly $1 million worth of furniture. A reminiscence of the year Leavenworth was founded served as a prelude to the approaching “coming of age” celebration to occur later in the year. While most age rituals celebrate a transition from childhood to adulthood for an individual, Leavenworth residents maintained that “only once the city comes of age,” and for Leavenworth, 1875 was a crucial stepping-stone. There was no doubt that the first city of Kansas had overcome and survived its many trials and tribulations and with such a rapid growth was now the largest and most important point between St. Louis and San Francisco. There was certainly cause for celebration.Of the original 32 signers of the Leavenworth Town Company, which was composed of ministers, lawyers, doctors, printers, merchants, a surveyor, Army officers and farmers, only a handful remained to tell the story of settlement by the summer of 1874. These few, believing that the history of the early struggles should not be lost, organized themselves into a society to maintain the records of the early days of Leavenworth. Judge Richard R. Rees was elected president and H. Miles Moore, secretary. Thus, in 1875 the “Pioneers of Leavenworth” gathered to commemorate the 21st birthday of the founding of the city. Under the direction of Moore, the agenda for the evening of celebration at the Odd Fellows Hall on Shawnee street included singing, a prayer by Rev. B.L. Baldridge and an address given by then Hon. Samuel D. Lecompte, who had served as a U.S. judge during border ruffian days. Judge R.R. Rees recited a poem of 36 stanzas he had composed. Following a sumptuous supper, ice cream and cake was served and a lengthy list of toasts were given, as was then the custom to honor people, events, a patriotic or special occasion. Rees delivered the closing remarks with the hope there would be many happy returns of these joyous celebrations. Having played an active role in the early history of Leavenworth, Rees died later in the year. Noticeably absent from the 1875 celebration was Col. D.R. Anthony, owner and editor of the Leavenworth Times, who had been nearly fatally shot by a rival newspaper editor the month prior, but would survive his wounds and resume his usual conduct after three month’s time.Subsequent memorial celebrations have been held to commemorate Leavenworth’s founding and often recalled the historical events from territorial days through post-Civil War as had been the desire of the founding fathers. Most notable in more recent memory was the Leavenworth Centennial in 1954 with the subsequent opening of the Centennial Bridge to Missouri and the 150th year commemoration held in conjunction with the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial on July 4, 2004. For more information, or to reserve a box lunch, contact the museum at 913-682-7759 or online at www.leavenworthhistory.org/Events.htm. Membership is open to anyone interested in preserving the unique legacy of history only found in Leavenworth.

Jeff Latz Special to the Times Ham radio operators licensed by the Federal Communications Commission from the Pilot Knob Amateur Radio Club in Leavenworth will… Login to continue reading Login Sign up for complimentary access Sign Up Now Close

The Harvesting Hope mural took shape last weekend as more than 30 volunteers joined in to paint the first layer of the expansive art project. It is located on the north-facing wall next to Exchange Bank in the alleyway near 7th Street between Delaware and Shawnee.Exchange Bank approved the project proposal presented by LV Arts in March. The artist statement for the mural explains the concept. “Depicting a Turkey Red Wheat field in Kansas from sunrise to sunset, this mural serves as a beacon of optimism, inviting viewers to immerse themselves in the promise of a better tomorrow and the nurturing of dreams yet to flourish.”The mural is 14,854 square feet with purple, red, blue, green and yellow colors. Home Depot donated the paint. LV Arts president Michaela Fitzgerald said several stars seemed to have aligned around the mural’s wheat concept.Fitzgerald, who works part-time at Willcott Brewing Company, 600 Cherokee St., discovered a coincidental connection between the mural’s featured Kansas wheat and the brewery.“They have a beer that is brewed with Kansas wheat,” Fitzgerald said. “One day, I got to meet the farmer who grew the wheat to make the beer we were drinking. It also happens to be the 150th anniversary of that wheat this year. And, Exchange Bank’s logo has wheat. So, there’s another tie-in.”Many community members and civic groups volunteered to help with the mural project. “We got to incorporate as many people as we can for the project and make it easy for people to come on the scene,” Fitzgerald said. “We have the stencils. All you have to do is trace it to make it easy for people to come in and paint.” The mural has two more layers of wheat stalks to be added before the official mural reveal party, which will take place June 22 at 12:30 p.m. A reception will follow at Willcott from 1-3 p.m. There will be a presentation by a wheat farmer to talk about sustainable farming practices. “Everyone is invited,” Fitzgerald said. “There will be pictures and videos on the TV screens so that people can see the process and who all was involved,” Fitzgerald said. “I would love to have lots of organizations come out and say ‘This is our mural. We contributed to this.’”

Continuing divisions among members of the Lansing Board of Education were on display this week.