By SALINA POST
Earlier today, Kansas Lieutenant Governor and Secretary of Commerce David Toland, alongside leaders from across the state, unveiled the "Love, Kansas" talent attraction campaign. The initiative aims to boost Kansas' population by inviting past residents to choose the Sunflower State as their future home.
Wyatt Thompson, voice of the K-State Wildcats, hyped up the crowd of Kansans and served as emcee for the event held on Monday, July 1.
"Today we are launching a new campaign that is going to bring these people home to Kansas by helping them rediscover why this state is the best place to call home," Thompson said.
During the campaign launch at the Flint Hills Discovery Center in Manhattan, Lt. Gov. Toland shared his personal journey about coming back to Kansas after he was inspired by a phone call from a family friend.
"I am a 1995 graduate of Iola High School in Allen County. I have two degrees from KU, I married a girl at KU who is from Pittsburg and as soon as we finished graduate school, we moved out of the state," Toland said. "We went to the East Coast and we were there for the better part of a decade."
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Toland said after the birth of their daughter Caroline, he and his wife decided to come back home to Kansas.
"Caroline was learning to walk in our 16-foot wide row house, when one night, I got a phone call from somebody back in Iola, a friend who said, 'I'm sure you've never considered this. It's kind of a crazy idea. You'd have to move.' and he said, 'Well, I wonder if you would ever consider coming back to Kansas, and specifically to Iola.'"
Toland, a seventh-generation Kansan, said he felt that Kansas has always been in his heart but wasn't always in his mind as a place that had opportunity.
"It wasn't until that phone call that it clicked and I realized that we should be back home. We should be building our life for our daughter back in Kansas," Toland said. "And that's just what we did. It's been 16 years, and that was the best decision we've ever made."
Click the play button above to learn more about the Love Kansas initiative.
Love Kansas' goal is to highlight Kansas as an exceptional place to live, work, and raise a family, with a special emphasis on "boomerangs" - individuals with previous ties to the state.
Love Kansas focuses on the state's abundant job opportunities, high quality of life, excellent education system and affordable communities. The campaign is locally driven but strategically targets key markets across the U.S., with a strong focus on digital and social media platforms.
"It's simple: we need more humans in Kansas to keep up with the phenomenal economic growth our state is experiencing," Lt. Gov. Toland said. "The best way to do that is to first approach Kansans who left the state for economic opportunities elsewhere and invite them to build a life in a place they know and have connections to, whether in their hometown or elsewhere in the state. With the Love, Kansas campaign, we aren't just extending an invitation to those who once called Kansas home to come back--we re also inviting families from around the country to build their lives in the Sunflower State."
During the launch event, Toland announced that the first 50 communities to partner with Love Kansas will be eligible for a $5,000 grant to assist in their efforts to attract new residents to their community. Nineteen pilot communities and seven universities already joined the initiative and are planning events that align with the campaign's theme.
LISTEN: 🎙King in the Community — Kansas Lt. Gov./Secretary of Commerce, David Toland
Salina Area Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Renee Duxler, Salina Downtown Inc. Executive Director Leslie Bishop, and Salina Community Economic Developement Coorporation Executive Director Mitch Robinson all attended the event.
Duxler said the Salina Area Chamber of Commerce is working to create a local, grassroots collaborative in Saline County to bring this initiative to fruition.
"We're working on creating a collaborative among all of our community and organizations that includes Salina Downtown, Salina Community Economic Developement Organization, the City of Salina, Saline County," Duxler said. "We're all selling the same asset. We're going to have this collaborative marketing, that we will all be able to utilize."
Duxler said the $5,000 grant awarded to Salina from the Love Kansas program will be used to create marketing and outreach campaigns to target Salina's own boomerangs.
"It's easier, as the lieutenant governor said, than casting this wide net on everybody in the United States," Duxler said. "The people that we know are familiar with us [Kansas] and might want to come back to raise a family or be with their family."
Influencer and journalist engagement and targeted in-person events both within and outside of Kansas play a crucial role in reaching potential boomerangs.
Bishop, who is a boomerang resident herself, said she was encouraged and motivated by the enthusiasm and energy at the kick off event.
"It's incredible. I feel like Kansas is finally getting the recognition it deserves to be a great state to live in, work, play, raise your family," Bishop said. "I'm a boomerang resident, and I left and was never going to come back and here I am today. All of us who live here in Kansas, wherever you are, know how wonderful this state really is. We are not a flyover state anymore."
After graduating from Salina Central High School in 1982, Bishop moved to Park City, Utah, and was in the hotel business there for six years and lived in a ski resort town.
"Then I came back because my mom opened up a local business and my dad, had a local real estate office, "Bishop said. "It was great to be back and we raised our son here. There's a lot to do in Salina. We have a great community, there's work to be done. But together, we can do it."
A primary goal for the campaign is for communities across the state to do direct outreach to past residents they have a personal connection with, inviting them to return home.
"The collaboration already on display between so many partners underscores the enthusiasm for this campaign," Kansas Tourism Director Bridgette Jobe said. "There are so many amazing things happening in Kansas right now; Love, Kansas gives us the chance to let people throughout the country know about them."
In his closing remarks at the announcement, Toland asked all Kansans to call up a friend or family member and make the pitch for them to return to the state they once called home.
"The most important thing for you to say might just be, 'Hey, there's good things happening in town and we miss you,'" Toland said. "We want you to come home. We want you to love Kansas. That's what's most important. Make that call. Send that text. Get out there and together we're gonna change Kansas."