BY KEITH LIPPOLDT
klippoldt@gbtribune.com
The Department of Education’s Sunflower Summer program, aimed at engaging families with state tourism and education, has seen its operating budget slashed by 50% for the shortened summer program of 2025 due to significant budget cuts from the state.
The Sunflower Summer Program is designed to be a benefit for Kansas families with school-aged children to encourage them to explore and learn more about Kansas at family-friendly prices. According to its website, sunflowersummer.org, “the program is designed to give affordable access to tourism attractions across the state and support the Kansas tourism economy.”
Convention and Visitors Bureau Director Amanda Gaddis said even though the funds are limited and the time to participate has been reduced, the program still offers a lot for families.
“The Department of Education started Sunflower Summer as a program to get families more involved with the state and with tourism, and getting kids educated on what the state has to offer,” Gaddis said. “They’ve kind of ran out of funds, and then they give that to the state tourism so, we (Tourism) are now the keepers of that program. What happens is, every year, we go before the legislation and we ask them for a certain dollar amount to try to help fund this program. Because what it is, it allows families to go to, let’s say, our zoo here in town. Well, we have a free zoo, so before, the program would reimburse our zoo per person that would come to that. This year, because of budget cuts, Sunflower Summer took a pretty hard hit.
“They asked for a certain amount. They still got an amount, but it wasn’t the amount that we were looking for. Because of that, programs like our Wetlands Water Park, they’re not eligible. Water parks are not eligible for the program this year. Any county that has more than 22,000 people, they aren’t eligible to have that reimbursed. So our zoo, our Wetlands Education Center, our historical society, they won’t get those reimbursement checks back for the free attractions. But if you wanted to go with your family to places like Exploration Place in Wichita, one adult and the kids could get in for free. And then the state reimburses those places.”
It is still a good opportunity for those attractions that are ineligible to remain a part of the program. There is a Sunflower Summer app available for your devices in both Android and Apple that list all the attractions that are signed up in the state. Even though some of these places may not be eligible for reimbursement, this is still a good way to get their name out and possibly get visitors traveling through the area. There is also a coupon page on the app where attractions put coupons for a discount at their stores.
In addition to the budget being cut, the length of the program has also been reduced. Last year the program ran from May through August. This year the program is scheduled for July 12 through Aug. 3, unless the funding is used up by then.
“They want to make sure that they can fund it for that month,” Gaddis said. “They don’t know how many people are gonna come. They don’t know how big it’s gonna get, and they don’t know if they’re gonna run out of funds. So they’ll go from July 12 until Aug. 3, or until the money runs out.
“I think it’s still a positive just by getting their names out there, It’s just getting people to Barton County. And maybe somebody from Wichita who didn’t know anything about Cheyenne Bottoms, we might get those people and their families down here — just to see what that’s all about — and then get them into Great Bend.”
Attractions that are still participating in Sunflower Summer from this area include Kansas Wetlands Education Center, Shafer Art Gallery, Barton County Historical Society and Museum, Ellinwood Underground City Tour, Pawnee Rock State Historic Site, Santa Fe Trail Center Museum and Library in Larned, Stafford County Museum in Stafford, the Kansas Barbed Wire Museum and the Rush County Historical Society in La Crosse.
