Back in 2004, when Cessna Aircraft’s chairman emeritus Russ Meyer decided he wanted to help create a daring new innovation in charity, he realized he might fail.
The idea needed $8 million. He organized a group of business and civic leaders, and said he wanted to create a huge, cutting-edge Boys & Girls Club north of 21st and Grove, a location surrounded by thousands of people who need jobs, day care, training, and other forms of help.
But privately, Meyer wondered whether they would pull it off. He said the Wichita he’d known years before had had a lot more daring people in it, people who founded Pizza Hut and Rent-A-Center and many other ventures. Now most companies here are owned by shareholders not as familiar or as concerned with Wichita’s needs.
Meyer fretted as he chose people to advise him.
We need to get one big-name group to donate, he told them. Other donors might then chip in, too.
One man Meyer had chosen to be an adviser was Ken Wagnon — a member of the old Pizza Hut gang.
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