Helping Others Support TopekaTK looks at how HOST 1 and 2 programs evolved and introduces you to three recipients who were able to sustain their operations because of the community’s generosity.
Photos by Emma Highfill, Rose Wheat Photography
By anyone’s account, COVID-19 health concerns, closures and cancellations have made 2020 a challenging year. For Topeka’s small businesses—employers and employees alike—the economic and emotional toll has been particularly difficult. Anticipating the anguish and swift loss of income small businesses would experience as they complied with state stay-at-home orders, two local businessmen, Scott Hunsicker and Lance Sparks, joined forces to create the HOST (Helping Others Support Topeka) gift card campaign. The innovative initiative administered by the Greater Topeka Partnership quickly cascaded into a complementary grant program, HOST 2.
TK looks at how HOST 1 and 2 programs evolved and introduces you to three recipients who were able to sustain their operations because of the community’s generosity.
Click the links below to read more.
The Initiators: Scott Hunsicker
The Administrator: Glenda Washington
The Recipients: Chuckburger
The Recipients: Cortez Transportation
The Recipients: Hanover Pancake House
Contributing Writer
Kim Gronniger is corporate communications manager for Security Benefit and a freelance writer. She writes articles for TK Business Magazine, Wichita Business Magazine and the Journal, a publication of the Kansas Leadership Center. She loves interviewing entrepreneurs, innovators, advocates, artists, hobby enthusiasts and others who are doing interesting things in Topeka and other parts of the state. She enjoys quirky shops and eclectic eateries discovered during capital city explorations and Midwest road trips with her family.
