Girl builds company making bird feeders

Put together an energized 11-year-old’s budding eye for design and aversion to seeing glass objects just thrown away with an entrepreneurial gene, and you end up with a blossoming new company.

At the heart of New Ulm-based Kenko Co. is 11-year-old Kennedi Kokesch, whose mother, Nancy, owns the Country Loft, a gift shop open at Hutchinson Mall at least through the holidays and perhaps longer.

Kenko Co. combines discarded or otherwise unused glass and porcelain bottles, vases, glass, cups and saucers with some industrial strength glue to create decorative, but functional, bird feeders that can be hung from tree limbs or mounted on small diameter posts.

Kennedi’s imagination and interest in reusing glass all came into focus during a visit to a Salvation Army collection center in Mankato about 18 months ago. There she spotted a dumpster full of glass pieces.

“I asked if I could have some, and then asked Mom if I could take some home,” she said. “I started trying random ideas when I saw a hummingbird next to the window and that got me thinking about bird feeders,” she said.

For more about Kennedi’s budding business, read the Leader’s Dec. 18 print edition.

(Terry Davis is a Hutchinson Leader staff writer. E-mail him at davis@hutchinsonleader.com.)