Rally for Rusty Hilst

09/13/2025

Video from Friday's Broadcast Booth dedication in Rusty's Honor.

09/13/2025

Broadcast Booth at Gowans Stadium Dedicated in Rusty's Honor

A couple of photos from the dedication, including Rusty's brother, Kent, and nieces and nephews Kinsley Riggs, Cody Riggs, Meg Hilst and HHS girls basketball coach Kalen Hilst with the plaque honoring Rusty's broadcasting career.

Read more about dedication at the Hutch Post https://hutchpost.com/posts/1a1a5d6d-482d-4d85-ba8a-87653808189f

09/12/2025

Just a quick update - Rusty's house has a pending contract with a closing date in October. We hope the new owner(s) love the home, yard, fish, and neighborhood as much as Rusty did! Also, today (Friday, Sept 12, 2025) at noon the broadcast booth at Gowan's Stadium in being dedicated to Rusty and named for him. I know Rusty would have been so humbled and proud!

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08/29/2025

Rusty's house is now on the market. Please share with anyone you know who might be interested and reach out to your realtor for a showing.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16uLY6HNCS/

This 1675 square feet Single Family home has 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. It is located at 59 Meadowlark Ln, Hutchinson, KS.

08/12/2025

RUSTY'S ESTATE SALE THIS WEEKEND!

Stop by Rusty's house (59 Meadowlark Ln) this Friday, August 15th (2-6 PM) and Saturday, August 16th (9 AM-1 PM) for Rusty's Estate Sale. Golf lovers paradise! Many one of a kind items and collectables. Furniture, books, golf clubs, housewares, and clothes. Treasures you're unlikely to find anywhere else.

See more pictures at the Epic Estate Sales listing https://www.estatesales.net/KS/Hutchinson/67502/4606437?fbclid=IwQ0xDSwMIUT1jbGNrAwhRNmV4dG4DYWVtAjExAAEeik7PrcPI6vzjzR4k7PuuaCuO4oJ_3kF_yGxXWWqM5wR0HT27twt1TzhqZqQ_aem_uT1PrvIiLmTkXV9WS65QFw

07/21/2025

Epic Estate Sales will be conducting an estate sale at Rusty's home at 59 Meadowlark Lane (Hutchinson, KS) on Friday and Saturday, August 15-16. Hope to see you there!

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07/14/2025

We are investigating how best to sell Rusty’s furniture and other personal items. When we make a decision we will post a notice with details to this Rally for Rusty Hilst page. Please check back if interested!

We also expect Rusty's home to be on the market soon. If you know someone who might be interested, please pass it along.

07/07/2025

Update
The time has come...

Two and a half years have passed since Rusty was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease, leading to the creation of this page. Its mission? To support Rusty as he battled this awful disease.

Rally for Rusty Hilst succeeded in doing that. Spectacularly! It enabled Rusty to remain relevant and engaged, doing what he most loved -- teaching. It infused him with purpose and gave him voice, quite independent of failing vocal chords. He had only to come here of a Monday morning to know that he still mattered. Because you showed up, and you cared.

With Rusty's death, the time has come to celebrate what you have accomplished. And to close that chapter. This, then, will be my last Monday morning update.

I will miss you and these weekly gatherings. But I will still be around, first reading your comments, and after that, reachable by email: linley@gmail.com. I would love to hear from you.

Rusty was all about finding joy in life. And driving this search? That would be a powerful emotional force which is often overlooked, or dismissed as wishful thinking -- hope. I'd like to wrap up by giving hope its due.

A recent study done at the University of Missouri, involving more than 2,300 participants from different backgrounds, explored a wide range of positive emotions – amusement, excitement, contentment, happiness. Of them all, one emotion stood out in importance. Only hope consistently predicted a stronger sense of meaning in life. Hope infused life with depth, purpose, and direction.

Best of all, the researchers suggested, such hope can be cultivated. Simple, practical habits, such as noticing the good moments – even something as small as a kind gesture or a peaceful morning – can make a difference, reminding us that things can go right.

Hope helps us move through tough times, not by pretending things are perfect, but by allowing us to imagine that things could improve. Rusty never lost that sense of possibility, even when things appeared most bleak. As the losses to ALS mounted, he continued to find hope in nature's beauty and the companionship of friends.

It's easy to dismiss hope as just a feel-good emotion. But it’s something we need to live well. And it’s something we can practice every day. I can hear Rusty encouraging us to do just that.
Sandra (sister)

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07/07/2025

These three great nephews of Rusty are sporting their "Uncle Rusty" golf hats. Grandsons of Rhonda (Rusty's sister) and Bob Kimball (and sons of Alan and Megan Kimball) are Theodore Alan (8), Everett James (5), and Laurence Russell (2) Kimball. Alan, Teddy, and Laurence are namesakes of Rusty.

06/30/2025

Update
I have struggled with this update. Perhaps because I was unable to attend my brother's funeral, and thus cannot capture the immediacy of that event (despite having watched it remotely). Perhaps because I don't know what happens now with a Rally page that was begun to support Rusty in life, now that he has died. I feel exhausted, and words elude me.

So I'm taking a break. And looking for something uplifting. Pictures often raise my spirits. If this is true for you too, enjoy this slideshow of Rusty photos. It was displayed at his memorial service. Pictures appear in random order, and some will be familiar.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vSSfjUS_yZRn5NDNogX514TYdZM2ISRL1sT0O2SX9_gH3NumZb50ZFyj6nQvx-zcC98M1H6-i2mtjmB/pub?start=true&loop=true&delayms=10000

Life-Sustaining Joy

Since Rusty died, I've been thinking about difficult times and joy. And I have a question. Where do you turn for delight? What is something you do purely for the wonder and joy of it?

This could be anything... Spouting poetry or cracking a corny joke. Wearing something outlandish that makes you smile. Singing your heart out. Giving a great belly laugh. Snuggling a pooch (or kitten or child). Going outside just to feel the sun on your skin or to pick flowers from the yard.

What matters is it makes you feel good. Nothing else.

Would you share one of your joyful experiences with us in a comment? Shared, your joy becomes ours as well, leading to many more moments of delight.

And, in Rusty's honor, do one joyful thing this week (more is better!).
Sandra (sister)

06/27/2025

A quick reminder that Rusty's Memorial service will be tomorrow, Saturday, June 28, 2025, at 11:00 a.m. at
Our Redeemer Lutheran Church
407 E 12th
Hutchinson, KS
A luncheon at the church will follow.

The service will livestream online and in the church gymnasium and can be accessed via the Our Redeemer Lutheran page. In accord with facebook rules, the video will not be available later. Please note, you may need a Facebook account to view the livesteam online:

https://www.facebook.com/orlhutch

Rusty's obituary can be found online at the Elliott Mortuary website:

(https://www.elliottmortuary.com/obituary/rusty-hilst

Friends may sign the book 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Elliott Mortuary. 1219 N. Main, Hutchinson, KS 67501. In lieu of flowers, memorials are suggested to Central Links Golf or HHS Alumni Association, in care of Elliott Mortuary.

Sunday Worship Services are at 8:30am and 11:00am. Adult Bible Study class and Sunday School classes

06/23/2025

Update
My heart overflows with gratitude, for each of you.

You accompanied Rusty along his difficult and scary ALS journey, offering hope, encouragement, companionship. It was a rocky journey, a lonely one, and you eased the way, providing purpose and comfort.

The Rally page was begun to support Rusty, and so it did. You are the reason why. In his posts and your responses, Rusty found a compelling reason to keep going, to keep fighting. Because he could share with you, and you, with him, he was not alone. You made space for him in your lives. And he mattered still. Even as his losses mounted up, he could always look to those Mondays, deciding what to say as he strove to make sense of the seemingly senseless. You anchored him. Nurtured him. And enabled him to continue what he most loved, teaching.

ALS is a cruel disease. You, on the other hand, have been extraordinarily kind and thoughtful. In a world that too often seems hostile or indifferent, you cared. And gave of yourselves freely.

I don't know whether the Rally page will continue beyond Rusty. Or if so, what shape it would take (If you have any thoughts on this, please share them!). I do know that what you and he created here is extraordinary, and I am proud to have been a part of it.

On this Monday morning, as I confront the void my brother's death leaves behind, I find myself turning naturally to you. This is where Rusty came to be heard and understood. Now I am the one coming, knowing that folks who are themselves hurting will nonetheless reach out to comfort each other and me.

Rusty believed joy could always be found, even in difficult times. Today, you are my joy.
Sandra (sister)

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