10/10/2025
Congratulations to this week's Hometown Hero Wayne Rohleder! For being our Hometown Hero he receives a prize pack from Briggs, RC McGraws, Robertβs Heating and Cooling and KROCK!
Read his nomination letter:
"I would like to nominate Wayne Rohleder for the hometown hero award. Wayne is a resident of Manhattan, Kansas and a veteran of the National Guard. Wayne joined the National Guard right out of high school in 1991. He served in different units throughout the state of Kansas, including Hays, Norton, Wichita & Manhattan. He was deployed to Kuwait from October 2010 to October 2011. Wayne retired from the National Guard in August of 2019. Wayne is still employed on Fort Riley in Civil Service helping with Civil Service retirements. Over the past 3 years, Wayne has dedicated much of his personal time to helping support families facing a childhood cancer diagnosis. Wayne reached out to our family in the fall of 2022 because he wanted to use his family farm to hold a fundraiser for my daughter who was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in July of 2022. Wayne invites families to come visit his farm, feed his animals, ride the carts, and explore for a small fee in which he donates 100% of the profits to families in need such as mine at the time. Since 2022, Wayne has held numerous fundraisers such as mine (egg hunts, fall at the farm, etc.) to support local families facing this difficult time. Wayne is such a selfless human and a veteran who devotes so much of his personal time to help families financially. Wayne's farm is also such an escape for the children going through treatment and puts a smile on their faces when needed most. You can see the joy it brings him knowing these children are having fun feeding animals and not thinking about their illness. I think that Wayne is so deserving of this award because of his devotion to supporting Kansas families. Thank you so much for considering him!"