Reining kettle corn & Bethel spirit Reusser couple make tasty Fall Festival treat for years
When Loren and Betty’s grandson went to Bethel, Loren wanted to raise the enthusiasm of the crowd. A Bethel College First Down Club brochure eventually was printed. About 1,000 Bethel College First Down Club hand banners were made, and people in the stands started bringing them to games and pointing them in the direction of a touchdown or first down. Loren said they used to distribute First Down Club handbooks, but they don’t have any left. Loren decided he was going to start cheerleading at Bethel games, and John Sheriff, who was in his first term as interim Bethel president in 2005-06 recalled when Loren stopped by his office to discuss the matter.
“I do remember Loren coming to my office and sharing his vision of ‘First Down Club’ and making me a member,” Sheriff wrote in an email. “It was the year his grandson came to college, and he wanted to do something to create more ‘spirit’ in support of our athletic teams, especially football.” “I didn’t ask anyone’s permission (to lead cheers),” Loren said, smiling. His first megaphone was a 2-litre bottle, and then he moved on to using an orange construction cone given to him by a BC parent. “The thing was heavy,” Loren said. Later, a football player’s mom brought Loren two boxes of gray and maroon (Bethel’s colors) pom-poms and a megaphone from California. Loren was inspired to attend away games when this woman and other football team’s relatives came from long distances, like Texas and Ohio, to see them play in Ottawa one year. “I thought, ‘If they can do that, we ought to be able to have commitment to them’ “ as live human beings, Loren said, stating the players have feelings, and he wanted to attend games to support them. Now the Reussers, who are Newton residents, go to football, volleyball, men’s and women’s basketball games, soccer, and softball games. At the basketball, volleyball and football games, Loren throws 20 to 30 bags of kettle corn to people in the stands for free. “(Loren) continued to lead cheers for sports teams and to give away free kettle corn after his grandson graduated,” Sheriff wrote. “Loren became a fixture, a tradition, a legend in his relentless effort to wake up spectators to the joy and responsibility of supporting their teams.” “At the home games, he gives a bag to all the players,” Peggy said.
Loren made a deal with one woman, Rosie Goering Brandt. The parameters of the deal are if Loren throws her a bag at a game, she owes $20 to Penny Power. During one game, Brandt received several bags, and at another game, Brandt didn’t attend because of illness, so Peggy sent a bag home to her. “And she still paid for it,” Peggy said. This kettle corn isn’t just any kettle corn — it’s made by Loren and Peggy, who have been selling the delicious treat at the Bethel College Fall Festival since the late 1990s. They will sell it again this year, and, for a time in years past, they sold it outside of the Newton Wal-Mart. Fall Fest will be Oct. 16-19 this year. When selling the kettle corn at Bethel, Loren jokingly said he calls it German Swiss Anabaptist Mennonite Bethel College Kettle Korn, and when they sell it at the Mennonite Central Committee relief sale in Hutchinson, he replaces the words “Bethel College” with “MCC.” “One year, we popped nearly 400 pounds,” Peggy said of the MCC sale, which was attended by more than 25,000 people. When they first started, the Reussers had a wooden rowboat oar to stir the kettle corn, but now use a motorized stirrer. Peggy joked people get less fiber in their kettle corn now. People from around the country purchase the sweetened grain at Fall Fest. The recipe includes popcorn, butter, salt, sugar and canola oil. For example, some people took the corn to Ohio, and a Newton mom who had a son attending college in Chicago mailed the tasty treat to him. Their cooking heat source is propane, which Loren said sounds like a hot-air balloon blast. Now, the only time they sell kettle corn is during Fall Fest, and for that annual event, they donate about 80 percent of the proceeds to the college. For 12 years, they sold it at the MCC sale and gave proceeds to
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