Youth Core Ministries is looking to bring a message of hope to local students by offering residents a cold and sweet summer treat.

This summer, the organization is serving up Tropical Sno shaved ice treats from a trailer stationed at 2521 10th Street, on the southeast corner of 10th and Washington, adjacent to the Salvation Army store.

Steve Hopkins, Great Bend director of Greensburg-based Core Life Ministries, who heads up the venture, described Tropical Sno as a beefed up version of a snow cone. The trailer serves up 34 sweet mix-and-match flavors in a variety of combinations. They also sell bottled water.

Along with the trailer, they provide a covered outdoor seating area for customers.

The ministry organization is completely donor-funded through churches, businesses and individuals, and the Tropical Sno trailer is no exception.

Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Hopkins said the organization lost a significant amount of donor funding, so the group began looking for new ways to fund its ministry in Great Bend.

Hopkins said the trailer was made possible through a $25,000 donation from a single anonymous donor. The donation covered the trailer, as well as all necessary machinery and inventory needed to get the summer business up and running.

“He saw the potential, and saw the opportunity to raise the funds we needed to do our program,” Hopkins said.

All of the proceeds from the business will go directly to funding the Core Life Ministries Great Bend division. However, Hopkins said, it will not just be the money which will help the students in the ministry.

In addition to two paid staff members, they will have youth volunteers helping make the shaved ice treats, clean up and perform other functions. The hope, he said, is to offer students a chance to learn practical business skills such as customer service and operating cash registers. Hopkins’ wife, Jennifer, who heads the Jobs for America’s Graduates-Kansas (JAG-K) program at Great Bend High School, will often be on hand to help teach students the business aspects.

Also, with that, students will have a chance to earn money which goes toward funding a summer camp program put on by Youth Core Ministries each summer.

The Tropical Sno trailer will be open from 1-9 p.m. Monday through Saturday until approximately Sept. 18.

About Core Life Ministries

Youth Core Ministries in Great Bend is a division of Core Life Ministries, which is headquartered in Greensburg, and has outreach ministries across the state of Kansas.

The Great Bend chapter of Youth Core Ministries is a faith-based outreach ministry for students in grades 5-12 who might not otherwise be connected with local churches.

The goal of the ministry, Hopkins said, is to have a positive impact on students in the community, and through that, to impact families, as well.

The group meets on Monday nights, and adult volunteers prepare a full meal for students who attend. They have two separate 90-minute meetings, one for grades 5-8 and the other for high school students. The meetings offer a safe place for students to come hang out, be fed and hear a message from scripture. Leaders also make sure to take time to pray with, and for, the students.

Hopkins said they meet on Monday nights because the ministry does not want to compete with existing church youth groups, who he said also do a great job of reaching out to students.

Youth Core Ministries is one of three different ministries that Core Life Ministries offers in the Great Bend area and across Kansas.

The organization also operates Barton County Core Community, whose aim is to help individuals break the cycle of generational poverty through healing and empowerment and by building community relationships. The weekly program focuses on helping individuals and families build all the resources they need to lift themselves out of poverty.

The organization also operates Core Mentoring, which is a faith-based mentoring program modeled after Big Brothers Big Sisters. The mentoring ministry pairs elementary school students with high school students, and in turn, pairs high school students with adult community members. Hopkins said the group has roughly 250 mentoring matches throughout the state.