Kenton Brothers Chili Cook-Off: Back Home and Bringing the Heat!

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Kenton Brothers Chili Cook-Off: Back Home and Bringing the Heat!

By Gina Stuelke, CEO of Kenton Brothers

After 16 long weeks of working remotely following the July 2025 flood, the Kenton Brothers Systems for Security team is finally back where we belong — inside our newly renovated, stronger-than-ever headquarters at 3401 East Truman Road! And what better way to celebrate our homecoming than with one of our favorite KB traditions — the Annual Chili Cook-Off!

The smell of simmering chili, roasted peppers, and bragging rights filled the air as teams fired up their secret recipes. From “Five-Alarm Fury” to “Sweet Heat Surprise,” every pot had its own personality — much like the folks who made them!

Between tasting rounds, laughter echoed through the hallways as teammates reunited in person, sharing stories from our flood recovery adventure. The shiny new floors and refreshed workspaces served as a reminder of resilience, teamwork, and the KB spirit that doesn’t back down — even when the water rises.

And the winner is…

Neal Bellamy - Chili Cook-Off 2025 WinnerOf course, no chili cook-off is complete without fierce competition and friendly trash talk. Diners took their jobs seriously, sampling each entry with precision (and maybe a few antacids). In the end, only one chili claimed the coveted title of “KB Chili Champion 2025” — Neal Bellamy!  But honestly, everyone won just by being together again under one roof.

Here’s to a fresh start, spicy traditions, and a team that always comes back stronger.

Welcome home, KB family — and pass the cornbread! 🌶️🏆

Rising in the Flood: How Kenton Brothers Came Together in a Moment of Need

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Rising in the Flood: How Kenton Brothers Came Together in a Moment of NeedBy David Strickland, COO of Kenton Brothers

At 3:30 a.m., the alarms went off at our Kansas City headquarters. A devastating storm had hit the area, and water was pouring into our warehouse. Within minutes, equipment and supplies were floating across the floor.

Moments like this test more than buildings, they test people.

Kenton Brothers doesn’t get “days off.” Our customers include universities, hospitals, government facilities, and businesses. They depend on us to be ready no matter what. That night, our Critical Emergency Response Plan gave us the playbook, but it was our team that brought it to life.

From the first call to SERVPRO at 4:00 a.m., to crews pumping water by sunrise, every part of the Kenton Brothers family was already in motion. Maintenance, IT, leadership, and operations worked side by side—protecting servers, rerouting communications, moving equipment, and safeguarding client systems.

By the time most of Kansas City was waking up to the storm, our people were already adjusting, hitting the ground running, and keeping our customers’ systems online,  focused on our mission. That’s who we are. We serve critical environments where failure isn’t an option, and our mission is clear: to protect people, property, and possessions.

Rising in the Flood: How Kenton Brothers Came Together in a Moment of Need Rising in the Flood: How Kenton Brothers Came Together in a Moment of Need

In the middle of a flood, our team lived that mission.

What could have been a setback became proof of resilience, teamwork, and purpose. Plans gave us structure, but our people gave us strength. And because of them, Kenton Brothers continued to deliver—no matter the storm.

To every member of the Kenton Brothers team: IT, operations, sales, leadership, and field staff—thank you. Your quick action, calm under pressure, and unwavering commitment ensured we stayed true to our mission.

You didn’t just respond to a flood. You proved once again that our strength is in our people.

Rising in the Flood: How Kenton Brothers Came Together in a Moment of Need Rising in the Flood: How Kenton Brothers Came Together in a Moment of Need

Boomer – A Day in the Life of an Office Dog

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By Neal Bellamy, IT Director at Kenton Brothers

We wanted to share what a day in the life of an office dog looks like. So we hooked up my dog Boomer with a harness and GoPro and filmed him around the office. Boomer is our VP of Fun, by the way. Some of our favorite moments? Happy shakes,  ball chasing and curiosity for days.

We hope that you will enjoy this video walkthrough of the Kenton Brothers office from 16 inches up from floor level. You will get to see our show room, our pickle ball court, take a coffee break, watch Boomer get back scratches from Gina Stuelke, our CEO, and more.

 

Secret Sauce Ingredient – Start Strong. Finish Strong.

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Secret Sauce Ingredient - Start Strong. Finish Strong.By Ryan Kaullen, Field Services Manager at Kenton Brothers

You may remember our blog from earlier this year: Secret Sauce Ingredient – Door Rodeo Sessions. This story is a continuation of Kenton Brothers in-house trainings.

On May 12th, Kenton Brothers had an all day, all company meeting that covered multiple topics and discussion points. Why is this valuable? The simple answer is alignment. Alignment is the key to so much in a business. Kenton Brothers has grown, and grown rapidly. What that means is we have a responsibility to all our employees to continue to improve.

How do we focus our efforts on alignment?

It’s a process we call “Start Strong, Finish Strong”. Start Strong, Finish Strong is a concept we have been developing and implementing over the past few years. It stems from how all of our different departments work together, what works, what doesn’t, how do we fix issues, awareness to what each department is responsible for, how do we take care of the customer more effectively, etc.

During the all-day company meeting, there were multiple training sessions, multiple presentations and discussions centered around having every department understand what their area of responsibility is. We had great discussions as we broke into groups. There were quite a few eye-opening instances where one group had no idea another group was responsible for so much, and there were plenty of educational moments.

Some of the topics included: sales processes, installation processes, service processes, engineering processes, project management, accountability, and more. This was a long, but important day. By the end of the day, everyone was exhausted… but understood how valuable working on the business instead of in the business is.

For the Kenton Brothers team, these days allow us to grow, allow us to realize how to take care of our customers in different and better ways, allow us to reset standards, and allow us to stay in alignment with each other. Taking care of our customers, internal and external is the highest priority for us at Kenton Brothers and opportunities like this only help us hit that goal.

What are you doing in your business for cross-training functional areas and helping your team gel? We would love to hear from you in the comments.

Secret Sauce Ingredient - Start Strong. Finish Strong. Secret Sauce Ingredient - Start Strong. Finish Strong.

Secret Sauce Ingredient – Door Rodeo Sessions

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By Ryan Kaullen, Field Services Manager at Kenton Brothers

Door Rodeo SessionsKenton Brothers encourages our team members to get training during work hours, but we also encourage them to take advantage of outside training if available. One such training that we offer our team members is what we call Door Rodeo Sessions. These training sessions are offered after hours and are voluntary. Kenton Brothers provides pizza and drinks, and a certain topic or topics are chosen for one of our tech trainers to cover during the class.

The goal of these classes is to provide deeper training on subjects that an individual would like more training on, strengthen their knowledge of the industry, build closer bonds with other team members, and continue to elevate their ability to take care of our customers.

Our team members come to us with all types of backgrounds.

Some of our team members are 20-year vets, some are brand new to the industry, and some fall in the middle. What makes the Door Rodeo Sessions unique and well-rounded is that they appeal to everyone who works for the company. What we’ve found is that our team members all have their areas of expertise and focus. While they may have some knowledge in other areas, these Door Rodeo Sessions allow them to dive deeper in areas they may not see or focus on each and every day.

Door Rodeo Sessions Door Rodeo Sessions

The most recent Door Rodeo Session covered Door Hardware, Door Vocabulary, Door Swing, and Lock Types.

One of the things that is important, especially in the security world, is talking the same language, understanding the same things when it comes to doors & locks, and being able to properly communicate that to our customers, the office, and other techs. These types of training sessions allow us to streamline communication, get parts on order faster, fix issues in the field faster, and again take care of customers in a more efficient manner.

Door Rodeo sessions are tailored each month and are based upon what our team members are telling us they need/want to learn more about.

Door Rodeo Sessions Door Rodeo Sessions

Back to the Basics

Access control has grown so much over the past 10-15 years and the training for it has become more readily available. Many of our team members have been telling us they want to go back to some of the basics of mechanical hardware training and become more proficient. As a result, our upcoming Door Rodeo Sessions will include Mortise Lock, Cylindrical Lock, Deadbolt, and exit device training. It’s also important for us to pay attention to what our field team members are telling us they need and want. They are the ones out there every day, customer facing, and they can tell us exactly what they need.

Kenton Brothers has a long history of investing in our team members when it comes to training. Door Rodeo Sessions are another example of that. Making sure our techs are fully trained and taking care of our customers is essential to the health and growth of our organization and team members!