WHAT’S INSIDE

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE 6

JOPLIN AT A GLANCE 8

WELCOME NEW MEMBERS 10

TOP INVESTORS 12

JOPLIN CELEBRATES 100 YEARS OF ROUTE 66 14

ENTREPRENEURIAL MARRIAGES 18

MOMENTUM BIKE PARK 22

MEMBER SEARCH 25

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

Every story shared in this edition of Chamber Spotlight reflects the energy and heart of our business community. I want to personally thank you for taking the time to read our publication and for your interest in the articles that highlight the remarkable work being done by our local businesses and community partners. It truly means a lot to me to share the stories of the individuals and organizations who help make Joplin the great community that it is.

Over the past few months, I’ve had the privilege of meeting so many of you: business owners, nonprofit leaders, educators, health care professionals, and community partners across our region. Each conversation has reminded me how much passion there is for our community and how willing people are to come together every day to make Joplin better.

I am incredibly grateful for our Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce members, our amazing staff, and our Board of Directors who make this work possible. Your involvement, support, and commitment are what keep our organization and our community moving forward in a positive direction. Thank you again for reading Chamber Spotlight and for supporting the businesses and stories featured in this publication.

Betsy Mense

President/CEO
Joplin Area Chamber
of Commerce

WELCOME NEW MEMBERS

NOVEMBER 2025 - JANUARY 2026

417 Athletics

Sports Complex

300 West Hayward Drive

Mount Vernon, MO 65712

417.316.9950

417athletics.com

Sydni Alexander, Director of Marketing

Sponsor: Michelle Steverson, JACC

Animal Clinic of Diamond

Veterinarian

20160 Highway J

Diamond, MO 64840
417.325.4136
animalclinicofdiamond.com

William Gentry, Owner/Veterinarian

Sponsor: Lauren Hall, JACC

Axis Dumpsters

Waste Disposal

Rogersville, MO 65742

573.673.6933

axis-dumpsters.com

Carson Buckman

Sponsor: Michelle Steverson, JACC

Baird Insurance

Insurance

Oronogo, MO 64855

620.717.8517

Greg Baird, Owner/Agent

Sponsor: Michelle Steverson, JACC

Bundy Law

Attorney

2200 South Utica Place

Suite 222

Tulsa, Ok 74114

918.208.0129
bundylawoffice.com

Aaron Bundy, Co-Founder

Sponsor: Michelle Steverson, JACC

Conroy Baran, LLC

Legal Services

1316 Saint Louis Avenue

2nd Floor

Kansas City, MO 64101
816.388.9686

ConroyBaran.com

Beth Ogan, Practice Manager

Sponsor: Michelle Steverson, JACC

Design Thinking Landscaping LLC

Landscaping

P.O. Box 172

Webb City, MO 64870
417.593.0234

designthinkinglandscaping.com

Philip Bardasian, Owner

Sponsor: Michelle Steverson, JACC

Diggity Solutions

Marketing/Payroll

11862 Kenobi Lane

Neosho, MO 64850

417.622.0410
diggitysolutions.com

Michael Abernathy, Managing Director

Sponsor: Michelle Steverson, JACC

Divine Stoneworks, LLC

Manufacturing Stone Veneer

324 South Prigmor Avenue

Joplin, MO 64801

417.825.0649
divinestoneworksllc.com

Jennifer Divine, Owner

Sponsor: Michelle Steverson, JACC

Herbologia

Neosho, MO 64850

417.312.1429

Opal Zepeda, Owner

Sponsor: Melissa Williams, JACC

Hope City Church

Church

1258 Jaguar Road

Joplin, MO 64804

417.622.5744
hopeforjoplin.city

Emily Studer, Operations & Staff Resources

Sponsor: Michelle Steverson, JACC

JOMO Jive

Internet News Source

Joplin, MO 64801

417.540.6288

www.jomojive.com

Matt Thompson, Publisher

Sponsor: Betsey Mense, JACC

Joplin RV

RV Sales

3535 Hammons Blvd.

Joplin, MO 64804

417.768.4440

joplinrvmarine.com

Justin Thomas, Media & Marketing Coordinator

Sponsor: Lauren Hall, JACC

King Style Dog Boarding

Pet Boarding

6347 Castle Heights Road

Joplin, MO 64804

417.695.0543

kingstyledogboarding.com
Tara Kingrey, Co-Owner

Sponsor: Michelle Steverson, JACC

Law Office of Michael L. Roberts, LLC

Attorney

320 West 4th Street

Joplin, MO 64801
417.624.0700

mrlawjoplin.com

Michael Roberts, Owner

Sponsor: Michelle Steverson, JACC

Macfee Team Real Estate LLC

Real Estate

2730 South Range Line Road

Joplin, MO 64804

417.396.1397

MacfeeTeam.com

Lindsey Macfee, Owner

Sponsor: Michelle Steverson, JACC

Manuela’s Mexican Restaurant + Cantina

Restaurant

2412 South Main Street

Joplin, MO 64801

417.291.0405
Facebook

Amada Atilano, Manager

Sponsor: Michelle Steverson, JACC

Mid America Supplements

Vitamin Manufacturing

2237 South Outer Road

Joplin, MO 64804
417.385.1725

midamericasupplements.com

Jennifer McVay,

Sponsor: Michelle Steverson, JACC

Mis Arcos Mexican Restaurant

Restaurant/Catering

1936 South Garrison Avenue

Carthage, MO 64836

417.680.1417
misarcoscarthage.com

Manuel Maturino, Owner

Sponsor: Lauren Hall, JACC

Modern Moments Events

Event Planner Balloon designs

Joplin, MO 64804
417. 396.0740

Michaela Roy, Owner/CEO

Sponsor: Michelle Steverson, JACC

Nsight Performance Group

Marketing & Sales Training

212 South Joplin Avenue

Joplin, MO 64801
417.758.3464

nsightperformancegroup.com

Patrick Hughes, Co-Partner/Founder

Sponsor: Lauren Hall, JACC

Ozark Fairway

Indoor Golf

Monett, MO 65708
417.669.8556
Facebook

Brendon George, Owner

Sponsor: Michelle Steverson, JACC

Pediatrics Plus

Health Services

4500 East 32nd Street

Joplin, MO 64804
417.530.5654
pediatricsplus.com

Addie Woods, Marketing

Sponsor: Michelle Steverson, JACC

Pop It Like It’s Hot Dirty Sodas

Food Truck

Carl Junction, MO 64834
417.825.0095

popitdirtysoda.com
Ben & Jimmi Isenmann, Owners

Sponsor: Lauren Hall, JACC

Price 4 Charter Buses & Limos Springfield MO

Transportation

639 South Campbell Avenue

Springfield, MO 65806

866.265.5479
price4limo.com

Aaron Bundy, Co-Founder

Sponsor: Michelle Steverson, JACC

Robin Plumbing, LLC

Plumbing Service

7534 Heron Drive

Neosho, MO 64850

417.624.0682

robinplumbing.com

Brian Robin, Owner

Sponsor: Michelle Steverson, JACC

Sosa’s Barbering and Beauty Shop

Barber & Beauty Shop

3105C East 17th Street

Joplin, MO 64804

417.622.0393
Facebook

Marlene Sosa, Owner

Sponsor: Michelle Steverson, JACC

The Chamber’s Board of Directors and staff are pleased to welcome our newest Chamber Members. Please keep these and all Members in mind when looking for goods and services. Invite your clients or vendors to join the Chamber. Contact the Joplin Chamber team at 417.624.4150.

Thank You To Our Top Investors

GET YOUR KICKS

JOPLIN CELEBRATES 100 YEARS OF ROUTE 66 FAME & FORTUNE

By Jerry LaMartina

Travelers such as songwriter Bobby Troup have enjoyed driving Route 66, known as America’s “Mother Road,” since it was christened 100 years ago in 1926.

The road stretches nearly 2,500 miles from Chicago to Santa Monica, CA, and runs right through Joplin. Troup even mentions Joplin in his famous song, “(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66,” right after “Saint Looey.”

Stretches of the highway were originally called Route 14, connecting St. Louis and Joplin, according to the State Historical Society of Missouri. The name change to Route 66 became official on April 30, 1926.

To celebrate the nostalgic highway’s centennial, Joplin is hosting a variety of public events and art displays through October 2027, including three-dimensional Route 66-themed street paintings by international artists, according to Patrick Tuttle, director of Visit Joplin. (For a complete calendar of events celebrating the anniversary, visit here.)

“Joplin’s actually one of the cardinal cities on Jefferson Highway and Route 66,” Tuttle said. “So, it’s kind of cool that two noted crisscrossing highways come through here.”

Route 66 has boosted Joplin’s economy for decades and still does, per the Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce.

Jo Ann and Scott Smith have been operating Anderson Auto Glass at 602 W. Seventh St. since they bought it in June 2022. Route 66 has helped the business grow, they say.

“We have a Route 66 sign painted on our building,” Jo Ann Smith said. “A lot of motorcyclists stop and take pictures in front of our building with the sign in the background, and people in older cars also stop and take pictures of it.”

Many of the Smiths’ customers come from as far as St. Louis, Illinois, and Arkansas to get their windshields replaced, according to Scott Smith. Many of them are in the midst of traveling and need repairs. Some Arkansans come to their business specifically because “we just have a good price,” Jo Ann added.

The highway has been around so long that Joplin residents consider it a landmark, Jo Ann noted. The highway’s centennial celebrations are creating “a big buzz,” she said. Groups of people, many of them from overseas and elsewhere, come to experience Route 66, Scott Smith added. Joplin’s Third Thursday cultural events from March through October entice many travelers to stop and spend time in the city. The Smiths expect the centennial celebrations to continue to stimulate Joplin businesses, including theirs.

Joplin has done a better job of attracting Route 66 travelers to stop and spend time in the city since the 1990s than it had before, according to Tuttle.

“But we’re still missing a few things,” he said. “When I got here in 2011, we really didn’t have magnets to get (people) to stop. They’d come here at Seventh and Main and turn to the west, but there really wasn’t much out there to do.”

In response, Visit Joplin created a mural park downtown. It now has three big tile murals and a 1963 Corvette cutaway for a photo opportunity. That has “really helped people stop and slow down and spend more time in the downtown area,” Tuttle said. Visit Joplin also converted its city hall office to a visitors center. It provides Route 66 information and describes Joplin’s history. That also attracts visitors, according to Tuttle.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, people traveling across Missouri to Joplin would spend maybe two or three days in the city, Tuttle said. That has increased to an average of three to five days since.

Attracting visitors to stay a few days is important for the city’s economy because “we totally live off the lodging tax,” Tuttle said.

According to the Smith Travel Report, the Joplin market had more than 681,000 available rooms (nearly 1,900 hotel rooms across 22 properties) and a 61 percent occupancy rate in 2025. This generated more than $47.6 million in revenue and nearly $1.7 million in lodging tax.

“We want to get people to spend more time in Joplin and hopefully generate a hotel night,” Tuttle said. “Route 66 is a funny thing. There are the people who are freewheeling it and finding a place to stay. That’s the more fun group that’s coming through. The people who have the hard itinerary already have all their hotels booked. They’re going to be jumping right through. We’ve got to have things to slow them down. So, we’re working with two different types of travelers here.”

Route 66 also attracts a lot of international travelers, Tuttle noted. He cited a pre-COVID study by American Express and Rutgers University that said 12,000 to 15,000 Europeans traveled the highway annually.

“That’s phenomenal,” Tuttle said. “It’s coming back post-COVID. We’ve seen a huge increase. We’ve also seen that the centennial and the World Cup are having a direct impact on it, as well.”

Another tourism measurement tool is Joplin’s Visitors Center’s guestbook, which had nearly 4,000 entries in 2025, up from nearly 3,600 entries in 2024. About 2,300 of the entries in 2025 listed international addresses (more than double the number in 2024), representing 49 countries. In addition, according to the 2024 VisaVue report, which tracks credit card purchases that originate internationally, 40,700 visitors from 131 countries visited Joplin and spent more than $5.8 million in the city.

By any measure, Joplin preserves and benefits from Route 66’s place in America’s hearts and imaginations. Bobby Troup was not the only one who got his kicks on Route 66.

“Get your kicks on Route 66.”

– From the song “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66” written by Bobby Troup and first recorded by The Nat King Cole Trio in 1946.

ENTREPRENEURIAL MARRIAGES

MARRIED TO THE JOB IN JOPLIN

By Jerry LaMartina

You’ve heard the phrase “married to your job”?

Here is a twist without the negative connotation of an imbalanced life: married couples who own and run a business together.

Megan and Tim White have an entrepreneurial marriage. They started building their business team when they founded cyber security company Thrive Cyber, LLC (thrivecyber.net) in February 2025 in Webb City. Tim is the senior consultant; Megan is the administrative and outreach assistant.

Tim has a background in information technology support for small, medium-sized and large companies. He was a high school technology teacher earlier in his career. Megan also works part-time for the Missouri Department of Elementary & Secondary Education’s First Steps program for children with developmental disabilities. She was also a schoolteacher.

“We just had a heart to make a difference for hometown businesses in our area but also across the U.S. with cyber security,” Tim said. “You see a lot of bad things on the news and you hear different things through the rumor mill. A lot of times things aren’t super public because people are embarrassed about bad situations they have. And our goal is to help prevent those things from happening. It doesn’t cost that much to have good security.”

About 90 percent of cybercrime comes through email, he said. He noted statistics also show small businesses are four times more likely to have a cyber breach than large ones, a typical attack costs a small business $120,000 to $1.2 million, and 60% of small businesses fold within six months of an attack.

In their work to improve these statistics, Tim and Megan have distinctly different roles at Thrive Cyber. Tim handles the tech end.

Megan is “the social brain,” he said.

“I translate it into common language” for customers, Megan explained.

Running the business together enables them to make time to focus on their children’s sports and other activities. Pitfalls include spending too much time on the business and not enough on their personal lives and bearing all responsibility for the company’s success. They sometimes talk about work during dinner at home.

The most important thing to make it work is their mutual trust, they both say.

“I have to trust him and his ability,” Megan said. “First and foremost is, I have to trust God.”

“God led us into this (and) the right circumstances lined up for us to do this,” Tim added.

The other key to success is building strong business and community relationships through networking, according to Tim.

“If we all do a good job of it, we’ll protect those relationships,” he said.

Jennifer and Michael Johnson started Union Station Deli & The Club Car Pub (unionstationdeli.com) in October 2023. Owning and working in the business together focuses them on the same end goal with a deep bond of trust, according to Jennifer.

“I know I can walk away and do something else, and he can take care of things,” she said.

Michael said he is “here to be the person she can depend on. You can’t depend on anyone else sometimes.”

Managing stress is important but can be hard.

“I’m not a bear when I get stressed, but he has to talk me down,” Jennifer said. “It goes a little deeper than trust, because I trust my employees. I trust that they’re going to do what they think is best. But Mike and I have a similar outlook on how that needs to look.”

Another benefit of their working marriage is that “I don’t have to worry about being at work and him sitting home without me,” Jennifer said. “I enjoy being around my husband.”

“She’s my favorite person,” Michael added.

The benefits come with challenges.

“We can’t get along a hundred percent of the time,” Jennifer said. “So, occasionally there are times when you go into another room and let the other one cool off” – as with any marriage.

Another challenge is taking work home, whether it’s keeping up with employee schedules, taking calls from work or managing financial pressure, which can cause “stress dreams,” Jennifer said, while trying to keep a healthy work- and home-life balance.

“But I think the most important thing is that we have completely learned and understand that we are a team and we have to work together to get the outcomes we need,” she said. “You’re a team and you have to function as one person.”

“You’re a team and you have to function as one person.”

– Jennifer Johnson, Union Station Deli & The Club Car Pub

NEW BIKE PARK BRINGS MOMENTUM TO JOPLIN

NINETY-FIVE ARES OF FUN DRAW VISITORS FROM NEAR & FAR

By Jerry LaMartina

Momentum” means movement in Latin. And Joplin’s new MOmentum Bike Park has moved to become the largest of its kind in Missouri.

The 95-acre park on the south side of West Zora Street at Lone Elm was built by general contractor Crossland Construction Co. in collaboration with SWT Designs, the International Mountain Bicycling Association, and American Ramp Co.

According to a Crossland news release, the park has more than 132,000 square feet of dedicated bike park features, including a children’s bike playground, skills course, progressive jump lines, and a BMX-style pump track to help new and experienced riders improve their skills. In addition to the formal bike park elements, there are ten miles of purpose-built mountain bike trails.

Ground was broken for the park on February 24. A ribbon-cutting ceremony marked its completion November 24. A grand launch party is scheduled for May 2, and an annual bike festival is slated to start the first weekend in November (updates at facebook.com/MOmentumBikePark).

Drew Douglas, City of Joplin’s director of marketing and communications, said MOmentum is unique because it combines all its features in one contained area. Northwest Arkansas has many popular bike parks and is known as the mountain bike capital of the world. But the region has no single, self-contained bike park comparable to MOmentum.

“The big thing for us is the design of the park is to not only be a great recreation feature for our local biking community and get families together, but also to be a world-class facility that draws people in from other states,” Douglas said. “It’s worth packing the family up for a road trip for biking in Joplin. It’s an all-in-one park area for families to enjoy together.”

The park cost $6.7 million to build, according to Douglas. The parks and stormwater quarter-cent sales tax, the hotel/motel tax, and a Missouri Department of Economic Development local tourism ARPA grant of $1.5 million funded the project.

Cole Beckham is a community advocate for bicycling in Joplin and is vice president of design for American Ramp Co. The company designs and builds most of the largest bike parks in the country, and he designs many of the bigger ones. Beckham also works with project landscape architects and civil engineers. He helped shape MOmentum’s design.

“We’ve seen the impact this outdoor infrastructure can have on communities in northwest Arkansas, specifically Bentonville with the Walton Family Foundation investments,” he said. “It brings in and retains skilled workers and creates a healthier community, getting kids off their phones and video games, and giving an outdoor outlet for people to go outside and recreate.”

Joplin residents have responded to MOmentum even more positively than Beckham expected. The ribbon cutting drew 300-500 people despite a pouring rain. On any day with decent weather, the park typically has more than 100 visitors during peak hours. Beckham has been riding for 15 years. His 6-year-old son is learning to ride a mountain bike and Beckham takes him to MOmentum.

“This is one of the few places in the country where we can both show up and be engaged for hours,” he said. “There is something for all skill levels and all ages at MOmentum bike park.”

Beckham’s experience designing bike parks across the country and getting ideas from riders about what they want in a bike park and from government departments about maintenance needs helped shape his vision for MOmentum’s design.

“Almost every kid in the country learns to ride a bike at some point,” he said. “Especially in big metropolitan areas, it’s important to have safe places to learn to ride.”

Christina Williams wants Joplin to be one of those safe places. She is a former Joplin City Council member and voted a few years ago to renew the parks and stormwater sales tax, which helps fund MOmentum. She’s also a coach of Joplin’s SWMO Mountain Bike Team for middle and high schoolers, including her son. And she is a longtime rider herself.

“I’ve known for years we were losing a lot of local traffic,” Williams said. “They’re going elsewhere to ride bikes and have those experiences, including my own family. I wanted to keep people in Joplin and give them a place to ride here so they can develop their skills. And then when they want to go to a larger mountain bike region to ride, they’ve honed their skills right here at home. So, this is definitely a destination if people would want to come visit, and it’s a great amenity for people who live here.”

“There is something for all skill levels and all ages at MOmentum bike park.”

– Cole Beckham, Vice President of Design, American Ramp Co.