More Than a Car Show: How Junction Point Keeps Community in the Driver’s Seat
- Jackie Hynes
- 5 days ago
- 8 min read
On Saturday morning, the parking lot at Junction Point Post Acute in Herington looked more like a community festival than a skilled nursing facility.
Classic cars gleamed in the Kansas sunshine alongside motorcycles, trucks and modern muscle cars. Families wandered between rows of polished chrome while residents admired their favorites from the shade. Junction Point employees served free hot dogs, complimentary snow cones helped beat the August heat, and a dunk tank gave residents and attendees the chance to send a willing employee splashing into the water.
For many, it was a chance to admire remarkable vehicles.
For Junction Point’s residents, it was something much more meaningful.
Now in its fifth year, Junction Point’s annual Car Show has become more than a showcase of horsepower and chrome. It has become a celebration of community—bringing together residents, employees, families, local residents and automotive enthusiasts for an experience centered on connection.
That connection fits into a much longer story in Herington. The campus now operated as Junction Point Post Acute has served local families for more than 60 years. Today, Junction Point provides short-term rehabilitation, post-acute care and long-term skilled nursing services, carrying forward a longstanding role in the Herington and Dickinson County community.
Saturday showed another side of what care close to home can look like.
It’s the kind of moment that reminds us what makes a community truly Roadmarkable—neighbors who show up for one another, employees who bring their passions to work and residents who remain connected to the communities they helped build.
Residents in the Driver’s Seat
For Activities Coordinator Nickole Hird, that community connection is at the heart of the annual event.
“Honestly, just having the community interact with our residents is very important,” Hird said. “Our residents really enjoy having our community engaged.”
Residents at Junction Point come from Herington and communities throughout the surrounding region. Some have recently arrived, while others have called the facility home for years. One resident, Hird said, has lived there for nearly two decades.
Events like the annual car show create another opportunity for those residents to remain connected to life beyond the facility’s walls.
“Having this many people in the community come together is really special for them,” Hird said.
Throughout the afternoon, children explored rows of vehicles while conversations flowed between generations. Junction Point employees served free hot dogs, visitors cooled off with complimentary snow cones, and residents and guests gathered around the dunk tank to take their shot at dunking an employee.
The celebration also offered an opportunity to recognize resident Leona ahead of a remarkable milestone: she will celebrate her 102nd birthday on Tuesday, Aug. 11.
It was another reminder that while the cars may have brought people to the parking lot, the people were the reason for the gathering.
That emphasis on engagement extends beyond special events. Junction Point describes social connection, engagement and overall well-being as part of its approach to resident care.
Saturday put that philosophy on display.
An Employee’s Passion Helps Drive the Event
The car show also demonstrates what can happen when employees are given room to bring their own interests and connections to the workplace.
Nadiyya “Dia” Sensmeier joined Junction Point as a housekeeper about a year ago. Outside of work, she has a passion for cars and connections with automotive groups and enthusiasts across Kansas.
When she learned about Junction Point’s existing car show, she saw an opportunity to contribute.
“They already had it going,” Sensmeier said. “I reached out to the activities director and administrator and asked if I could bring some people out here.”
The answer was yes.
Sensmeier tapped into her network, helping bring a wider variety of cars, trucks, motorcycles and automotive enthusiasts to Herington.
“I feel like it’d be something good for the community, good for the youth out here,” she said. “When you see cars like this, it’s kind of inspiring.”
Her involvement also tells another story—one about working in Dickinson County.
Sensmeier actually lives outside Dickinson County and makes the approximately 10-minute drive from Lost Springs to work in Herington. After a year at Junction Point, she said the relationships she has formed are an important part of why she enjoys the job.
“It’s a good place to work,” she said. “You get close with the residents. It’s pretty peaceful as far as employees and employee environment and getting along with your coworkers.”
And when an employee had an idea for making an established event even better, leadership gave her the opportunity to run with it.
What started as a housekeeper asking, “Can I bring some people?” helped bring new connections—and new horsepower—to an annual tradition.
Discovering Herington
The conversations surrounding Saturday’s car show also revealed something larger about Herington itself.
Retired Army veteran Martin Tidd and his wife moved to Herington nearly two years ago after living in the Junction City area for decades.
They originally began looking for a home in the country.
Instead, they found one on the edge of Herington—and discovered a community that quickly exceeded their expectations.
One experience in particular has stayed with Tidd.
He and another veteran had stopped at Herington’s Vietnam Memorial while wearing their American Legion uniforms when two children approached on bicycles.
The children asked whether they were veterans.
When they answered yes, the children thanked them for their service.
“It blew my mind,” Tidd said.
For him, it captured something about Herington that reminded him of the small-town life he remembered growing up.
Children riding bicycles around town.
Neighbors waving.
People volunteering.
And, he soon discovered, a surprising amount to do.
“There is more stuff going on in this little tiny town of Herington than bigger cities ever put on,” Tidd said.
He pointed to disc golf tournaments that draw participants to Herington, rodeos and the Tri-County Fair, activities at the former Herington airbase, veterans organizations and numerous opportunities to get involved.
For years, Tidd said, he had occasionally traveled to Herington without realizing everything happening within the community.
Moving there changed his perspective.
“Once you move here and you start getting around, you start knowing people,” he said. “This is the most welcoming town.”
For a community working to attract residents, workers and families, testimonials like Tidd’s carry weight.
Sometimes a community’s best ambassadors are the people who chose it.
And sometimes what makes a place Roadmarkable isn’t its size. It’s children on bicycles thanking veterans. It’s neighbors waving from the street. It’s a calendar filled with events and residents willing to show up for them.
Coming Home—and Staying Home
For Jon and Kaleigh Rucker, Herington isn’t a community they discovered.
It’s home.
Both grew up in Herington, were high school sweethearts, and are now raising their own family there.
Jon left for college in McPherson before eventually returning. Why come back?
“Family,” he said.
He also knew what he didn’t want.
“I didn’t want to live in the city.”
Today, their family is experiencing another generation of small-town life. Their children attend local schools. Their 14-year-old daughter has already entered the local workforce with a job at a snow cone business. Their son rides through Herington on a bicycle his father rode growing up.
The family also enjoys local traditions, from downtown gatherings to drag racing events at the former World War II airbase.
It’s an everyday version of rural economic development that can be easy to overlook: someone leaves home, gains experiences elsewhere and then makes the decision to come back.
Attracting new residents matters.
Giving the next generation reasons to return matters, too.
“You Just Keep Going”
Among the conversations Saturday, one Junction Point resident offered perhaps the simplest perspective of all.
Paul, 90, had lived in Herington for years before recently moving to Junction Point with his wife. Their house is still only a couple of blocks away.
As he reflected on aging, changing circumstances and the unexpected turns life can take, he offered a simple philosophy.
“Life deals you all sorts of things,” he said. “You just keep going.”
His words captured something about the afternoon.
Communities change. Families change. People move away, return home, begin careers, retire and enter new stages of life.
Strong communities find ways to keep people connected through all of it.
The Roadmarkable Part
Economic development is often measured in businesses recruited, jobs created and dollars invested.
Those measures matter.
But strong communities also depend on the infrastructure and institutions that allow people to build an entire life in one place.
That includes access to care close to home.
For more than six decades, the Herington campus now operated as Junction Point Post Acute has been part of that infrastructure, providing skilled nursing and rehabilitation services for local families.
Saturday’s car show showed why that matters beyond healthcare alone.
Do employees feel empowered to bring their ideas to work?
Do families have reasons to come home?
Do newcomers feel welcomed when they arrive?
Can people remain connected to their community as they grow older?
Does a community still show up for its neighbors?
On Saturday in Herington, the answers could be found throughout a parking lot.
It wasn’t simply about cars.
It was about an employee using her connections to make an established tradition even stronger.
It was about a family that left Herington and chose to come home.
It was about a retired veteran who moved to town and discovered a community more active and welcoming than he expected.
It was about celebrating a resident preparing to turn 102.
And it was about free hot dogs served by employees, snow cones on a hot August afternoon and the laughter that followed every successful shot at the dunk tank.
Those are the things that don’t always appear in economic development statistics.
But they matter when people decide where they want to work.
They matter when families decide where they want to live.
They matter when someone decides whether to come home.
And they matter when families need a place where someone they love can continue to be part of the community around them.
That’s what makes Dickinson County Roadmarkable.
Sometimes building a stronger community doesn’t begin with a major development project.
Sometimes it begins with a parking lot full of cars, employees willing to go the extra mile, neighbors willing to show up—and a longtime Herington institution committed to keeping community in the driver’s seat.
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