Agriculture singles gather in Hutchinson
By EDIE ROSS
The Hutchinson News
HUTCHINSON, (AP) -- The group of men and women winding their way through the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center's museum Friday morning seemed most likely to be an assembly of childhood friends, now grown and having a reunion.
At times the genders would split -- the women leaning in to talk to one another in hushed tones, and the men standing side-by-side, hands in pockets, looking silently at an exhibit.
Other times the group would mix together, enjoying some good-natured ribbing and offering one another mock condolences in a pat on the arm or a quick squeeze around the waist.
The comfort and authenticity that emanated from the collection of friends was not at all typical of what they were -- a singles group.
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On Friday, about 200 members of the Singles in Agriculture group converged upon Hutchinson for the 24th Annual Singles in Agriculture National Convention.
The convention was headquartered at the Grand Prairie Hotel and Convention Center and included tours of the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center, the Kansas Underground Salt Museum and the ADM grain elevator as well as dances Friday evening and this evening.
Singles in Agriculture is a nationwide nonprofit organization purposed with providing social, educational and recreational activities for singles with an agricultural background or occupation. Members come in all ages, including many senior citizens. The organization has 15 chapters across the United States encompassing 22 states, said Cara Maschmeier, the group's public relations coordinator.
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Five years ago, when Maschmeier's mother suggested she - a recent divorcee - get involved with the Oklahoma chapter of Singles in Agriculture, Cara was skeptical.
"I really didn't think it was something for me," said Maschmeier, who grew up on a farm and ranch in Beaver County, Okla. "I thought, I guess, that I was 'cooler' than the normal farmer."
But Maschmeier's mother, who at 84 is still a SIA member, convinced her to try it out.
"Mom was a widower and for the first three years, she crocheted and made ceramics and did things like that. But she wanted to meet people," Maschmeier said. "She heard about the group in a Rural Electric magazine."
It only took attending a couple of SIA gatherings - including a float trip down Nebraska's Loupe river in the pouring rain - before Maschmeier was hooked, and now she declares the group "some of the dearest people I've ever met."
"The support is incredible," she said. "This group is not really about finding a spouse. We focus on friendship."
Maschmeier said the more she learns about the group, the more she likes it.
"I thought that maybe I was too educated for a group like this," she said. "But there are a lot of our members who have an agriculture background and have gone on to corporate careers. We have a ConAgra retiree who actually lives in downtown Chicago but has farms in Indiana.
"We have a fellow who owns two ranches - one in South Dakota and one in Texas. His sons run them both and he goes back and forth depending on the weather."
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Singles in Agriculture got its start when a single farmer wrote in to a farming magazine expressing the difficulties of meeting single women interested in a rural lifestyle. The letter prompted the magazine to publish several articles about the social lives of single farmers. One of the articles requested single readers to send their names, addresses and a 50-word biography to the magazine. The 2,700 submissions that were received were compiled, printed and mailed to all those who had responded.
The project caught the interest of Iowan Marcella Spindler, who volunteered to handle correspondence among those interested in forming a singles organization. By the summer of 1986, the project officially became Singles in Agriculture, which was chartered in October of that year.
The farmer in search of a wife might've started the organization, but Singles in Agriculture is not about finding a girlfriend, boyfriend or spouse, said Maschmeier. It is more like a family where members are accepted as they are.
"Some people have been through tough things, like divorce, and they are wounded," she said. "The rest of the group really is there to encourage them. We are great about giving hugs. Pretty soon you start to see the light come back into their eyes."
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Pamela Fjeld, of Illinois, said she joined Singles in Agriculture 18 years ago as a divorcee, joking that she would've been a widower except that she's a law-abiding citizen.
"My older daughter said, 'Mom, you have to get out of the house,' and she signed me up for bowling," said Fjeld, who grew up on an Illinois dairy farm. "After one year of bowling, I said, 'Never again.' Now my kids wonder where I am all the time because I'm out doing things with people I've met in this group.
"I've met the greatest friends of my life here."
That includes a special man whom Fjeld dated for three years before he passed away.
"He was from Bloomington, Illinois - which is two hours away from my home, and we met in Kansas through Singles in Agriculture," she said. "We never would've met otherwise. He brightened my life."
While SIA isn't focused on matching men and women up in dating relationships, that does happen from time to time.
"We've had people get married and then they usually join our sister group 'Singles No More,' " Fjeld said. "We still love to see them and they love to see us. This group just kind of gets under your skin - in a good way."
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Singles in Agriculture provides a multitude of activities for its members, including unofficial get-togethers as well as official chapter events. There also are three national events every year.
Hutchinson was chosen as the location for this year's national convention because of its rural atmosphere and the resources that are here, including the Cosmosphere and the salt mine, said Marie Frost, president of the Kansas chapter of SIA.
"People are coming from Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri and from as far as West Virginia," she said.
Previous SIA events have taken members on Alaskan cruises, tours of Kentucky horse stud farms and even to Hawaii.
"It's a good way to meet others and see things you wouldn't go see by yourself," Fjeld said.
"Attend one event and you'll have such a good time you'll want to come back," Maschmeier added.
Interested?
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Information from: The Hutchinson News, http://www.hutchnews.com