Overland Park Rotary
July 9, 2025 at 11:30 am
Sedona Room
This week is Start-Up Rewind.
The Explore Foundation – Samantha Baker (explorefoundation@gmail.com)
BIO:
Samantha Baker is the Founder and Executive Director of Explore, a nonprofit organization that provides funding and coordination support for field trips at schools in underserved communities. As a former educator, Samantha recognized the dire need to offer direct support to teachers, especially regarding field trips that are not happening as often as they used to. She founded Explore to become a unique resource that supports experiential learning and removes roadblocks for teachers like limited budgets. In just two years, Explore has impacted over 2,500 students in Kansas City, sending them to places like the KC Zoo & Aquarium, Science City, the Timber Ridge Challenge course, and other unique learning experiences!
Field trips and learning experiences that allow students to become immersed in the community provide the opportunity to develop connections between what is learned at school and what occurs in the “real world”. These immersive experiences increase a student’s development of socio-emotional skills and academic motivation. Often, students are only exposed to these opportunities through field trips, especially when their families do not have the means to provide an opportunity to explore.
In many cases, the responsibility of planning a field trip falls to the teacher. Teachers are often met by limited budgets (which require students to pay for the experience) and very limited transportation options offered by their schools. In underserved communities, there is no budget allotted for field trips and in many cases, elementary school students in Title I schools have not experienced a field trip in over 3 years.
Explore is a Kansas City-based nonprofit serving the Metro and surrounding areas, founded in May of 2022. Our primary mission is to empower educators to extend learning beyond the classroom. This mission is achieved by making more field trips happen for teachers and their students
KC Can Compost – Hayden Andrews (sales@kccancompost.com)
BIO:
Hayden has managed commercial sales for KC Can Compost for three years. After a decade of work with environmental nonprofits and 15 years in restaurants, working in Kansas City, St. Louis, Sonoma County, and San Francisco, Hayden moved home to KC during the pandemic and began work at KC Can shortly after. During their time at KC Can, they have worn many hats, but are most proud of their work aiding almost 80 businesses in composting. Outside work hours, Hayden enjoys managing a compost pile of their own and loves working in the backyard with their wife, Kara and dog, Bagel.
OVERVIEW:
Our vision is to empower people and preserve the planet.
KC Can Compost is an innovative nonprofit enterprise committed to the transformation of Kansas City’s social and environmental landscapes.
We not only collect food scraps and divert it from the landfill for composting but also educate and train people struggling to overcome barriers to employment for work in green industry jobs. Two goods, one solution.