Congratulations to our neighborhood superstars Volleyball Beach and Suburban Lawn & Garden for taking home top honors at the South Kansas City Chamber of Commerce Annual Dinner & Community Impact Awards. Both businesses are Martin City treasures and we couldn’t be more proud.
Suburban Lawn & Garden won the Sustainability Community Impact Award.
Suburban Lawn & Garden was started by Bill Stueck in the early 1950’s as a lawn mowing business while he was in grade school. In the seventy plus years since, Suburban has grown into a multi-faceted retail, wholesale and service organization dedicated to the principles of making superior lawn and garden products and providing excellent customer service. Suburban has three Garden Center locations in the Kansas City metro area, and two production farms that supply approximately 75% of the trees, shrubs and flowering plants sold at their stores.
Suburban also maintains a yard-waste recycling center which accepts yard-waste for recycling into mulch and soil products. Since 1989, Suburban has been processing and recycling Kansas City’s organic plant waste, keeping millions of tons of waste out of landfills, and turning it into compost and mulch instead. Regulated by the USDA, OMRI, Missouri Department of Natural Resources, this facility is open to both residential and commercial customers.
Every year, Suburban’s yard waste recycling center processes over 180,000 cubic yards of yard waste material. Sustainability and environmental stewardship are two of Suburban’s core values. All business planning decisions consider the environmental impact they will have; from building state-of the-art storm water detention and retention at their stores, to re-using and recycling customer’s plastic containers at the production farms.
As a local company, that runs its own fleet of CDL trucks, Kansas Citians who choose to purchase their plants and other landscaping materials from Suburban rather than from a chain store, are getting products made locally, and with significantly less fuel to transport.
In the near future, Suburban will be converting to using fully-compostable plastic pots for the flowers they grow, and packaging the soils and mulches the manufacture into compostable plastic bags. (from SouthKCChamber.com)
Volleyball Beach won the Small Business Community Impact Award.
Volleyball Beach is a bar and grill located in the northern end of the Martin City area of Kansas City, which has 14 outdoor volleyball courts for leagues and tournaments, and serves food and drinks to its players and guests. Volleyball Beach opened in 1989 and operated seasonally in spring, summer and fall, until 2015, when it inflated a heated air dome over the courts, which enabled it to stay open year-round.
In 2023 Genesis Health Clubs bought Volleyball Beach as the initial step for Genesis to bring beach volleyball to various locations in the Midwest.
Both prior to, and during Genesis’ ownership, Volleyball Beach exemplifies business and civic leadership in the Martin City area. Manager Howard Barewin has served on the Martin City Community Improvement District Board for 12 years, and recently served on the boards for Sherwood Autism Center and New Reform Temple. Highlights of his volunteer work in South KC include pouring beers at Sherwood’s Blues & BBQ event and driving mayoral candidate Scott Taylor in the Martin City St. Patrick’s Day parade.
Volleyball Beach donates thousands of dollars annually to charities and hosts over 25 charity volleyball tournaments each year helping them raise tens of thousands of dollars collectively. Those charities include ALS, MS, Ronald McDonald House, Hope House, Avila College Sports, and the South Kansas City Chamber. On a smaller level but meaningfully, Volleyball Beach gives nearly 100 veterans and first responders free volleyball leagues annually as recognition for their service. Finally, Volleyball Beach hosts team-building events for many Kansas City companies including JE Dunn, Cerner, Compass Minerals, Aspen Dental, and Sunlighten Saunas. During its brief period of ownership, Genesis has continued to support these efforts. (from SouthKCChamber.com)