It all started in 2005 with the purchase of a forty-five-acre farm and a wild idea.
Why Change Everything?
My family had a comfortable life living in the suburbs of Shawnee, Kansas. We had a nice house, five children who had been raised there, routines and friends made, and a wonderful church family. My husband was raised in the country and began to long for more land. So we started looking, and in 2005 we found a forty-five-acre farm outside of Archie. We sold our house, moved in, and began working on the land that would soon be home to much more than we ever dreamed.
Our Motivation
My husband and I have always had a passion for people. We want to inspire, educate, and motivate people to reach and stretch more than they ever thought was possible. Since moving to the farm, we’ve been a home away from home for high school and College students as our youngest two have grown up. We can’t tell you about Wellstone Gardens without sharing our passion for these young men and women and all we’ve poured into them.
South Grand Farms: Nicole’s Story
Everyone has their passion, whether tapped or untapped, and mine is marketing the ideas that I believe in. In the summer of 2014, I was given the opportunity by Wellstone Gardens to market something I fiercely believe in the way I’ve been raised.
I grew up on a forty-five-acre farm in Missouri, learning about hard work and sweating more than I ever thought was humanly possible (trust me, I Googled it). My family had a small group of my high school friends out every weekend during the summers I spent on that farm for fellowship, fun, and some of the best meaningful conversations I’ll ever have. I grew tight with this circle of friends, and to this day they remain some of my closest. When I moved into the heart of Kansas City a couple of years ago, I began to understand the impact that those weekends at the farm had on me and my friends. Several late-night-coffee-shop-meetings and Chinese-takeout-dinners later, I had a staff of volunteer members assembled and a new brand for the land I’d grown up on South Grand Farms.
In one summer, I’ve been blown away by the lives we’ve touched and how strong the bonds of friendship have grown between us. The staff of South Grand Farms is a group of young adults who grew up on this farm together and have spent years being inspired by Melanie and Steve Dearing. Their fire and passion for spreading what they’ve learned about life to others is contagious, and we’re setting out to pass the blessing we’ve had onto others.