By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
ELLIS — For many youth in northwest Kansas, the allure of a metro lifestyle is enough to pull them from the area. But for Sophia Henrickson, the new executive director of the Ellis Alliance, the lifestyle afforded to those living in smaller towns was something she was always drawn to.
In her new position, she said she has a perfect balance of professional experience and small-town life.
“I want to be the best I can in this position, I want to serve Ellis,” she said. “What I really hope I am able to do for them is help them to move forward with the goals and dreams the board has for the city.”
The Alliance is an umbrella organization for the Ellis Community Foundation, the Ellis Chamber of Commerce and the Ellis Development Corp. and helps to coordinate community improvement efforts.
Henrickson sees her role at the Alliance as a go-between for those groups and others in the community.
“It’s not my dream, it’s not my vision, but when (the Alliance board) has the passion to do something, you can help them realize their dreams and be at the (disposal) of all the volunteers that make up Ellis.”
When taking the position, she took on a role as a facilitator for existing organizations.
“That’s the mindset I took because I didn’t want to override any of the board,” Henrickson said.
As she continues developing in the position, however, she hopes to bring in her own ideas.
“I feel like I have a lot of great ideas that could really help Ellis,” Henrickson said.
Among her goals is to develop a stronger community endowment to help create funds for area organizations.
And by promoting the endowment, Henrickson hopes to capture generational funds as younger people move away, often taking funds out of the community forever.
“If you are able to capture (funds) and invest it back into the community through something like a community foundation, that is, I believe, a good foundation for making our rural communities enticing for people to move back to,” she said.
While Henrickson admits she is not an economic expert, she also hopes to see more buildings downtown used and to help create a stronger economy for Ellis.
But that growth should be tempered to the community.
She believes in Ellis there is a healthy mix of people eager for change and those who want to see the town keep to its roots.
“I think the people that live here like the community size, so I don’t think there is any true desire from any groups within Ellis to boom the population,” she said. “I think a lot of the desire is to improve what buildings stand here and improve what businesses can flourish here.”
She said she often sees the community excitement to improve Ellis landmarks.
“The things that make living in Ellis already appealing, it seems like they like to jump on board with those types of things,” Henrickson said.
While the current director position is only a part-time role, she said she has gotten feedback from others that they would like to see the position grow in the future.
Home away from home
While Henrickson is a Kansas City metro transplant, she has been in the area since attending Fort Hays State University.
She graduated from FHSU with a degree in communication studies with an emphasis in public relations.
While there, she worked for over two years in university relations and marketing and a served as an FHSU VIP ambassador.
“I just like to be in a role where I really am facilitating and helping and getting to communicate with people,” Henrickson said.
After graduation, she joined the AmeriCorps Vista program, where she worked as a grant writer for DSNWK, and later served as their donor communications manager.
“I helped them with their marketing, advertising and their donor relations,” Henrickson said.
While in Hays she also served as a member of the USD 489 Board of Education – a position recently vacated after moving to Ellis with her new husband.
“I really enjoyed Hays and had no intentions of moving away as soon as I did,” Henrickson said.
But the move became serendipitous as the Alliance position came open at just the right time.
She had sought the position before but was hampered by other obligations and so, with the latest opening, she jumped at the chance.
“This position was right up my alley of things that I like to do and things that I am good at,” Henrickson said.
She also said the position also allows for a perfect balance of family life and professional responsibilities.
And it fits perfectly with the small-town life she desires.
“I was always wanting something simpler,” Henrickson said. “When I moved out here and got a feel for how tight the community can be and just being connected to people on a deeper level than you are living in a city, it felt more comforting to me.”
She said once she moved to western Kansas, it was hard to imagine ever moving back to a metro area.
“I definitely feel like I am doing my service by living out here,” Henrickson said. “You hear that the population is increasing, but out here it is decreasing and that boggles me a little bit, how we can be so overpopulated as a nation, but yet these communities are dying. It almost doesn’t make sense."
“If you can live in a rural community, you should live in a rural community,” she said.