Remember when 5th graders ran a town for a day? ‘It’s such a Kansas City experience’

Uniquely KC is a Star series exploring what makes Kansas City special. From our award-winning barbecue to rich Midwestern history, we’re exploring why KC is the “Paris of the Plains.”

Most people can’t recall details of a day in fifth grade. But Stacey Sales of Olathe remembers the day she went on a field trip to Exchange City , almost 35 years ago.

“Somebody gave me a ticket because I put my toe in the grass, because they were really watching,” Sales said. She took her ticket to the Exchange City mayor, who happened to be her “little fifth grade boyfriend,” and was miraculously found not guilty.

“I learned all about small town corruption right away, to have friends in high places,” Sales laughed.

Sales was one of the thousands of Kansas City kids who held jobs for the day at Exchange City from 1980 to the mid-2010s.

This field trip experience was designed to teach children economic concepts like loans, interest and taxes by running in their own mini town. While the Kansas City area was home to similar programs, like Earthworks and Blue Springs School of Economics, Exchange City was the longest running.

In Exchange City’s heyday, students came from as far away as St. Louis and Oklahoma for the program.

The kid-run town moved around the Kansas City area over its 30-year history — Exchange City was located at a converted warehouse near the Liberty Memorial, a repurposed cave north of the river and the Penn Valley community college campus.

Then, in the 2010s, the funding for experiential field trips dried up. Corporate organizations like the Sprint and Hall Family Foundation shifted where they gave their money, and school districts received fewer tax dollars during the recession. Exchange City welcomed its last set of residents around 2014, before its lease expired for good in 2015.

Even after a decade, Exchange City carries nostalgia for the people of Kansas City. The field trip destination is a recurring topic of conversation on practically every social media platform. Bonner Springs shop Kinfolk Creations makes an Exchange City T-shirt, which proclaims “best field trip ever!”

‘Wannabe’ an adult?

Almost 60 former Exchange City kids wrote to The Star about their experiences, sharing memories of fifth grade shenanigans, early lessons about the work world and feelings of responsibility they found on the field trip. Overall, the readers described Exchange City as a meaningful and memorable experience.

Students prepared for weeks before the field trip, voting for the mayor and coming up with business plans for their shops.

In 1987, David Waters ran for mayor of Exchange City, practicing his campaign speech with his mother. This turned out to be just his first mayoral win — Waters is now the mayor of Westwood in Johnson County.

Kids had many jobs they could do — more than 65 in 1999, according to a Star article. They could work in the town government — the courts, the police — or businesses — town snack shop, newspaper, bank.

Leslie Kohlmeyer loved her job at the radio station so much she worked through lunch, which she noted was a practice she continues to this day.

The town DJ was a well-remembered position. In the 1990, Julie Stokes was fired from her job as DJ for playing “The Chicken Dance” on repeat, while Pat Mullin’s classmates only wanted to hear the Spice Girls’ “Wannabe.”

“20+ years later I can’t hear that song without being taken back to that radio booth and hearing it over and over and over again,” Mullin wrote.

Money, sweets and power trips

It wasn’t only about working a job. Exchange City students learned how to write checks and, later, how to use debit cards. This gave children the opportunity to save or spend their money as they chose — with varied results.

In the late 2000s, Jewel Fivecoat spent all of her banker salary in one place. “I went bankrupt on dirt and worms,” Fivecoat wrote.

Liv Jo of Kansas City, Kansas, remembered “My friend getting fined for walking on the green carpet (grass) and trying to run from the authorities (a fellow fifth grader on a power trip).”

Decades after her outing as a jewelry designer, Sales returned to Exchange City in the late 2000s with a fifth grade classroom of her own.

With parent chaperones and Exchange City staff to run the field trip, Sales said teachers could “witness (students’) learning firsthand ourselves.”

‘Such a Kansas City experience’

Sales had a secret wish when she picked up the phone to speak with The Star: “I hoped it was reopening.”

Her son is now a fifth grader, and Sales wishes he could have the experience. There are other organizations carrying on the torch, like the Junior Achievement BizTown and the School of Economics .

When Sales meets other teachers who grew up in the area, they trade stories of Exchange City. “It’s such a Kansas City experience,” she said.

For Kansas Citians aged 20 to 55, Exchange City is a fond memory. Who wouldn’t remember what happens when, as Sales said, “you put fifth graders in charge of the world for a day”?

Do you have a Kansas City memory you want to share? Contact the Service Journalism team at kcq@kcstar.com .