The "Manhattan Optimist Club Bulletin" Vol. 2026 #37 6-17-26
VOLUME 2026 JUNE 17 NUMBER 37
President Kelly Karl welcomed everyone, Bruce McMillan gave us our morning reflection, followed by the flag salute.
Tim Fairbanks introduced his son-in-law, Blaine Burris, K-State Baseball Athletic Trainer, who spoke on his career as an athletic trainer and his work with K-State Baseball.
Blaine just completed his 17th year in college baseball as an athletic trainer and 20 years as an athletic trainer. Athletic trainers are highly skilled health care professionals who work with your organization to advise on and execute plans to address issues such as emergency and preventative care, environmental conditions, facility and equipment safety, and other sports and job-related matters. Athletic trainers can help your school, business, or community organization better oversee injury prevention, assessment, treatment, and rehabilitation. The trainer is the person who runs out on the field when someone gets hurt. The trainer then works with the injured individual on any diagnostic, treatment, and rehabilitation all the way back to 100% of preinjury status to get them back on the field. Regular rehabilitation gets people back to their daily living; athletic trainers get the individual back to their previous high-performance level.
Much of his work is rehabilitation of upper body injuries, especially shoulders and elbows, in the sport of baseball. Blaine stated he is privileged to get paid to watch the sport of baseball. He went on the explain there is an extremely important muscle in the shoulder for shoulder stability, commonly known as the “boxer's muscle.” Part of the rehabilitation of shoulders is the strengthening of this muscle; thus they work with the individual in boxing style training. He has them “walk” 90 feet in a handstand to ensure they are ready to go back to pitching. The throwing of a punch in boxing is very similar to throwing a pitch in baseball.
Athletic trainers work in schools, colleges, and university athletic programs, but they also work in performing arts such as ballet and Cirque du Solei in Las Vegas. They also work in industry and construction to reduce worker injury and minimize worker's compensation claims. Trainers also work in medical facilities to assess injury and do rehabilitation. The US armed forces also use trainers to reduce injuries and rehabilitate injuries.
Blaine grew up in Oklahoma and after high school, he spent seven years in the Air Force, five of them with the Oklahoma National Guard, then he went to Oklahoma State for undergrad and received a degree in athletic training. He went on to Clemson University for his graduate work. He then worked at a nearby small NAIA school and high school as an athletic trainer. Then he went on to Charleston, South Carolina and worked at Charleston Southern University. He moved to Florida and worked with an Air Force tactical squadron, however, that position was defunded, and he moved to Manhattan and has worked with the KSU baseball team for the past 12 years.
Blaine highlighted several trips with the KSU baseball team, however, one notable one was to Nicaragua where the team constructed a basketball court for local youth to use. All the work was done with little machinery; almost all was with hand tools, including mixing nearly all the concrete for a basketball court by hand in a wheelbarrow; it was a very rewarding experience for him and the team.
The KSU baseball team has a mission to help the community in 19 ways during this school year. This involves activities like reading to children, helping with parades, the turkey trot, the Alzheimer's walk, ALS, First Birth Pediatric Cancer, the team's largest fundraiser. Half of the funds raised goes to pediatric cancer research, and the other half goes to Oklahoma University Children's Hospital for playground enhancements. Since 2018 they have raised over $400,000 for this charity. This is more than anyone else in the nation.
One of the enhancements the baseball program wants to construct is a pitching lab, now a standard for any high-level program, that will enable a very detailed analysis of the pitcher's motion to help enhance their performance and to eliminate motion that may increase the likelihood of an injury. This will involve a lot of cameras and technology as well as a facility.
Blaine closed by acknowledging his family and how important they are to his ability to be a top-level athletic trainer at a division I university. He also thanked the Optimist for having him speak.
Mike Fincham announced they were all set for the Juneteenth celebration.
Kelly Karl announced the Manhattan Optimist Club won the Manhattan Mercury's Reader's Choice Award for best civic organization. They are working on an advertisement that will come out in the Manhattan Mercury noting all of the Reader's Choice Awards.
Tom Hawk announced the Flint Hills Coalition for Fair Courts town hall at the K-State Student Union Courtyard, 918 North MLK Dr., Manhattan on Tuesday June 30th from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. Former Chief Justice Lawton Nuss and Logan Stenseng will speak on the Kansas constitutional amendment which will be on the primary election ballot. Tom and Doug Sebelius will also speak to the Optimist on July 8th on the “History of the Kansas Supreme Court.”
Optimist Park T-Ball and concessions are going well.
GUESTS: Blaine Burris, our speaker and Ken Ebert introduced Kalab James, Vice President of Vigilis AI and a candidate for Kansas House in the 67th district. He has lived in Manhattan for eleven years.
Meeting adjourned with the Optimist Creed.
SAVE THE DATE: October 24th is our 24th annual Chili Crawl.
JUNE 24 – NOON MEETING: Program: Respect for the Law
JULY 1 - MORNING MEETING: Program: Raymond Cloyd: Topic: “Get the “Sweet” low down on honey bees”
JULY 8 – NOON MEETING: Program: Doug Sebelius/Tom Hawk: Topic: “History of the Kansas Supreme Court”
JULY 15 – MORNING MEETING: Program: Melanie Highsmith, Riley County Historical Society: Topic: “The Founding of Manhattan Kansas”
JULY 22 – NOON MEETING: Program: Anne Smith, ATA Buss Services: Topic: “Update on Manhattan Public Transportation”
JULY 29 – MORNING MEETING: Program: Joshua Gering, Riley County EMS Services: Topic: “Update on Riley County EMS”
