Writing History: The beginning of Heroes and Hamburgers

The History of Heroes and Hamburgers

Heroes and Hamburgers

Photo submitted Ken Miner, center, founder of Heroes and Hamburgers, with Police Chief Ken Farmer, left, and Fire Chief Steve Sims. First Heroes and Hamburgers is scheduled for Sept. 18.

Recently, Simple Pleasures owner, Ken Miner was featured in an article in The Weekly Vista newspaper of Bella Vista,  called  Hamburgers and Heroes event brings together children, officers.

Below is the article that was featured:

BELLA VISTA, Ark. (Aug. 26, 2016) – “How can we prevent our community from feeling so angry and disconnected?” This was Ken Miner’s reaction while watching the turmoil in Ferguson, Mo. As he continued to hear about communities imploding with pent up frustration, he knew that he had to act. That sparked the creation of the Heroes and Hamburgers event.

Miner, owner of https://simplepleasures.us/Simple Pleasures, grew up with a high respect for police and firefighters. He knew that these men and women chose to serve their community, putting themselves at risk daily, for people in their community they may not know. From a young age, these people were his heroes.

Miner knows not everyone had the same experience growing up and in many cases today, a person’s only contact with these departments are in negative events like car accidents, tickets or calling in noise complaints. Because of this, some children grow up with a negative bias towards law enforcement due to lack of exposure to the positive impact of their work.

He especially wants people to know that our local police, fire and ems are not just approachable but, amazing people who sacrifice family-time, are on the job 365 days a year and are on duty 24 hours a day to keep Bella Vista a great place to live.

By developing Heroes and Hamburgers, Miner wants to bring the community together with law enforcement not only to meet them but, really understand what they do for our community, day in and day out.

Bella Vista Mayor Peter Christie, Police Chief Ken Farmer and Fire Chief Steve Sims met with Miner and further evolved the event over some famous Simple Pleasures wood fired cheeseburgers. They decided those cheeseburgers, fun activities, classic rock and roll and the opportunity for interactions with law enforcement, fire and ems members would be a great base for the event.

Mayor Christie suggested they meet with the Bella Vista Foundation to find additional ways this event could give back. Through meetings with Tom Pyatt and other board members, they determined the proceeds of this event should fund the much needed purchase and installation of life-saving computer systems for the city’s first-responder vehicles. The Bella Vista Foundation, a 501(c)3 organization, will manage the proceeds of this event and make the donation for the computers.

Adding additional excitement to this event, activities were suggested that would increase interactions with the heroes and the community members, especially kids, like Hero Hayrides pulled by a Bella Vista emergency vehicle and having emergency equipment on hand that kids can learn about, touch and test, like firefighter bunker gear and ladders.

By inviting other community members and businesses to be involved in the event, they believe September the 18th will be something people are talking about for a long time. Not only will attendees have fun, it will also have long-lasting benefits, building relationships between community members and local law enforcement, as well as the immediate benefits of the life-saving computers.

There is still time to participate and we need sponsors”, Miner said. Visit their event website www.heroesandhamburgers.com for more information on sponsorships and event details.

How can we help our community? By coming together at Heroes and Hamburgers to to meet and interact with our local heroes and have fun too!

 

 

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2 Responses to Writing History: The beginning of Heroes and Hamburgers

  1. Nancy Lyon September 17, 2016 at 8:32 am #

    ” The Bentonville High School class of 1961 celebrated our 55th Class Reunion at “Simple Pleasures” Sept 9th 2016. We could not have picked a better place to kickoff our 3 day event. The antique cars & collectible’s brought back so many great memories. Great Hamburger meal !! Tour of the property has some unique decor tucked away in the landscape. Very creative!!

    • madmin September 18, 2016 at 4:14 pm #

      Nancy, So glad that you enjoyed the reunion at Simple Pleasures and it was great to see you at the Heroes and Hamburgers event today. Thanks for telling your friends about our beautiful event center. We hope to see you again soon!