SALINA, Kan. ? Payday was fun day for Melissa McCoy during her four years in Jacksonville, N.C.
For the U.S. Marine living in a barracks, that twice-a-month check signified brief financial freedom, and a road trip.
"We'd jump in cars, and drive to shop in other cities," she recalled. "We would purposely not shop in Jacksonville."
It was worth an hour or two on the road to Raleigh or Wilmington in North Carolina, she said, because businesses in those towns were more clear in their support of military ? all ranks.
Many businesses in those cities offered a discount to those in uniform.
"It's not a big deal, but when you're a lance corporal or a corporal living in a barracks, 10 percent becomes a big deal to you," McCoy said.
Those experiences stayed in her memory and blossomed four years ago into Salina's Patriot Business Program.
"That's kind of where the idea branched out from," said McCoy, the manager of public affairs and communications at the Salina Airport Authority.
With energy, insight and help from Rachel Hinde, director of communications and military affairs at the Salina Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Kansas National Guard, the program is moving statewide.
During a press conference at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday in Eckert Hall at the National Guard Regional Training Institute, the Guard will announce how the Patriot Business Program has mushroomed to include all of Kansas, with interest growing from such faraway places as Oregon and Pennsylvania.
"The quest is to spread the program into those communities that may not have a program or one that's working well," said John Armbrust, of Manhattan, executive director of the Governor's Military Affairs Council.
"It's not only good for the men and women in uniform or the military, but the businesses," he said. "It shows support. They get something in return."
With special logos showing on the doors and windows of some 300 Salina businesses, the Patriot Business Program embraces those in uniform, but the benefits run both ways.
"It's an opportunity to give back to the military and to get free marketing," Hinde said. "It's a win-win for everyone, for the community, businesses, and service members and their families. That would be a win-win-win, wouldn't it?"
Robin Blake, owner of Hickory Hut barbecue restaurant, 1617 W. Crawford, noticed that McCoy was "really gung-ho" about the program when she presented the idea in 2011, but there was no pressure.
Blake opted to offer soldiers a 10 percent discount, which added a lot of camouflage-clad customers at Hickory Hut.
"It's hard to gauge how it's helped my business, but it's easy to say how it's helped me," Blake said. "It made me grateful for the people in the military, and that was totally unexpected."
Having no close family members in uniform, she was always appreciative when soldiers dined at Hickory Hut, but it stopped there.
"Now, because of that program, I've learned to appreciate that person for what they do for me, my family, my community and country," Blake said. "Now I really enjoy saying 'Hey, thanks for what you do.' "
The program is organized with a computer database and guidelines so that military folks know what to expect whenever they move, which is every three years on average, McCoy said.
"The military loves uniformity," she said. "If I move from North Carolina to Kansas, I don't want to have to relearn the program."
Participating businesses are on a list that has been passed out to 6,000 visiting military, based-military and area military, McCoy said.
Soldiers' spouses and children have been bused to Salina for Patriot Business Shopping Days.
McCoy and Hinde presented the program in January to Gov. Sam Brownback, Maj. Gen. Lee Tafanelli, the adjutant general and director of the Kansas Division of Emergency Management, and other members of the Governor's Military Affairs Council.
They have also pitched their program at Fort Leavenworth and the Leavenworth Chamber of Commerce. Other military towns have learned of the program through state military affairs gatherings.
Lots of towns and businesses aim to support the military through special programs and discounts, but Salina's is more formalized, said Armbrust, of Manhattan.
"There's a little more process to it. It's more professionally done, and it's very successful in Salina," he said.
Elements of the Patriot Business Program already exist in places like Manhattan and Junction City, Armbrust said, but any community can glean portions of the Salina program, or wholly adopt it.
"From my perspective, this is an opportunity where programs aren't quite doing what they were intended," he said. "Melissa and Rachel deserve a ton of credit, along with the Salina business community. They have a system that is a proven winner."
By word of mouth, McCoy and fellow Marines knew what businesses offered discounts in North Carolina, but it seemed there was no formal program.
"We were gonna drive there anyway, and we kept saying 'Wouldn't it be nice if every business had a sign or a logo and took the guess work out of it.' "
When she returned home in 2009 and landed a job at the Salina Airport Authority, McCoy remembered those excursions.
She hatched an idea to build a business support program for soldiers in Salina. Military training and operations were ramping up at the time, and the airport authority was heavily involved.
"The whole genesis was really in Melissa's mind," said Dennis Lauver, president and CEO of the Salina Area Chamber of Commerce.
"Rachel worked with her to implement other ideas, and they turned it into gold," he said.
The town had already relaunched its Military Affairs Council, and McCoy ? by then a civilian but married to a Marine Casey McCoy ? joined up as part of her job.
She and Hinde developed more than a logo program.
"You can have your yellow ribbon pins and wave American flags," McCoy said. "But this is a measurable way to show 'We support you.' "
The idea has become a program that others in Kansas "are very passionate about," said Tim Rogers, the airport authority executive director.
"I'm proud of Melissa for taking the initiative to bring to Salina and other Kansas communities a program that enables a community to honor members of the military, they're families and veterans for their military service," he said.
There was no need to "reinvent" the program already developed in Salina, said Mary Nesbitt, state family program director for the Kansas guard, so the Salina Patriot Business Program has been melded into the guard's national Community Covenant Program.
One of the state's Volunteers in Service for America (VISTA volunteers) has been assigned to sign up other Kansas communities.
"We can hopefully take this beyond our borders," Nesbitt said.
Information on the Salina program has been sent to the National Guard Bureau in Washington, D.C., she said.
"We've had people who have reached out to us (Oregon and Pennsylvania, for example)," Nesbitt said. "They say 'It sounds like a great program.' "
tunruh@salina.com
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