Luke Wade
At 17, Luke Wade, The Community Creator, joined the Army 6 months before 9/11. He proudly served his country for eight years, including one year in Iraq at 20.
While in the Army, he was responsible for heavy equipment operations and website design.
The Army also allowed Luke to attend Southeast Missouri State University, where he studied computer information systems and played a year of football before going to Iraq.
Luke came to KC in 2008 and struggled to find quality sports or events to meet new people and have fun. Because of all this, KC Crew Sports & Events was born in 2012 with a softball league Downtown.
Ten years later, KC Crew has connected over 100,000 people through pickleball, cornhole, golf, volleyball, basketball, karaoke, and more all over the metro.
KC Crew’s goals are simple; bring excellent sports and unique events to everyone, support local businesses, and connect people through fun experiences. He has also created many events around town, including The Downtown Open, End of the World Pub Crawl, and Adult Field Day.
One of the unique aspects of KC Crew was that Luke developed League Ally, a software that helps manage schedules, waivers, payments, and more. The free-agent system helps people find teams to play on or a team to fill out a roster with insufficient players. If you play with KC Crew or Chicken N Pickle, you have used League Ally.
On top of building League Ally, he also built Facility Ally when Hy-Vee Arena opened. Facility Ally is facility management software designed to help with online reservations, manage memberships, collect payments, invoices, and more.
Media Ally was born when Luke’s software clients needed more help than just his management software. Media Ally is a digital media marketing agency designed to help companies and nonprofits advertise and manage their events with the same success as KC Crew for the last ten years.
While 2020 created many challenges for Luke and KC Crew, they shifted their events online, including its most popular event, virtual bingo. These virtual events not only saved KC Crew’s business but allowed a way for people stuck at home during the pandemic to still get the fun, connected experience they needed.
While 2020 was challenging, it also brought Luke a new venture. He co-founded Rec Hall STL with two others in St. Charles, Mo. Rec Hall is 33,000 square feet and offers games like ping pong, cornhole, bocce ball, giant Jenga, and more. It has a full bar and used Luke’s software and media agency to bring in over 60,000 guests in the first year.
Luke has built an incredible community of people looking to have fun, network, stay active and give back to KC. I know he will continue to impact KC, the Midwest, and the US. I look forward to supporting his journey and watching him continue to evolve.
Website: thecommunitycreator.com