They say you can’t fight fire with fire, but maybe you can with wind.
Positive Pressure Ventilation has been used around Iola for about 15 years, said Deputy Fire Chief Tim Thyer. Now, it’s being used in a different way. Once just a means of clearing smoke from buildings, the system incorporates a high powered fan. As long as there is a good vent for smoke and flame to exit, it’s been discovered the fans can be used to dramatically reduce room temperature, clear smoke so fire fighters can enter and even direct flames away from undesired areas.
Thyer, Fire Chief Don Leapheart and Deputy Chief Norman Mullins all attended a one-day class to learn to use the new technique.
“It was good training,” said Thyer.
Held at Labette County Community College, the program was sponsored by the University of Kansas for area firefighters. Leapheart learned of the class through a Southeast Kansas fire chiefs meeting. What they learned surprised them.
Firefighters, the men were told, suffer from certian cancers at rates far above the general public.
Prostate cancer rates are 28 percent higher in fire fighters, non-hodgkins lymphoma and myelomas are 50 percent higher and testicular cancer rates are 100 percent higher than those in men not regularly exposed to smoke.
Thyer and Leapheart described how for days after a fire, you can smell smoke coming from your pores.
“That correlates to why this thing is becoming big,” Thyer said of the new ventilation method. “We’ve always worn self contained breathing apparatus, so our lungs were not an issue. But we never thought about absorption through the skin.”
In 1970, Thyer said, the time it toook for a fire to spread to the point where everything in a home was burning — flashover — was typically 14 to 15 minutes. Now, due to the presence of so many hydrocarbon-based products in our lives, flashover comes in three to four minutes. It takes that long for firefighters to get to a scene, said the men.
“We’re arriving at the most volatile part of a fire,” Thyer said — and the point where the most toxic fumes are being released into smoke.
In a typical fire, Thyer said, air enters a house through one opening, while fire exits another. Once a fire is put out, firefighters push out the remaining smoke with a high pressure fan.
“What the fan does is create positive pressure in the building,” Thyer said. “Outside is negative pressure. Fire and smoke are attracted to negative pressure.”
It was always thought that adding fans to an active fire would cause an increase in flames. What a group of firefighters in Utah learned was, by pointing the cone of wind from the fan in a certain way into the structure as it burns, you can push the smoke out ahead of the firefighters’ entry and direct the flames’ path.
“You let that fan work for 60 seconds,” Thyer said. “During that time you advance your hose line, and you’ll have a clear view to your fire source.”
Previously, firefighters had to belly-crawl through the smoke and feel around in the dark to find the flame source. “It also reduces stress and anxiety,” Thyer said.
“If you’ve ever crawled around in a burning building,” Leapheart said, “it’s nerve-wracking. You don’t know what you have until you put you hand on it.”
Without smoke occluding their view, firefighters can enter on their feet instead of crawling, Thyer said. “You can follow the bank of smoke to the fire. You can stand to carry in your gear, and visibility is better.” Those aspects reduce response times — and could save lives. Plus, he said, “if you have an exit or window open in the building, the mortality rate for anyone trapped inside decreases 50 percent.”
You can also direct the flames somewhat, Thyer said. “There will be a direct line of fire from the place of the fire to the place of exhaust.” That means in an attic fire for example, the flames can be directed out a window, rather than spreading throughout the structure.
“Positive ventilation has always been there; it’s just a new method of using it,” Thyer said.
A video demonstartion by the Chicago Fire Department notes a reduction in room temperatures where PPV is used from 650 degrees to 60 degrees in 30 seconds. That could definitely save lives.
“We haven’t had a chance to try it yet,” said Thyer, “and I don’t want to have to, but the next structure fire we have, I’m using it.”
Friday, February 19, 2010
Like to ponder? Consider "Proof"
Proof is an intelligent play, focused on prime number theory and dappled with geek humor. But it is accessible to all, because at it’s heart, the play is about relationships.
Anyone who has been doubted when they have not been in the wrong can relate to the main character, Catherine, whose mathematical genius has been inherited from — but overshadowed by — her brilliant but sadly insane father.
Ironically, he had “invented the mathematical technique for studying rational behavior,” says his awed protégé, Hal.
The play opens in the wee hours of Catherine’s 25th birthday. She has devoted the last five years of her life to caring for her father, giving up her own fledgeling career in higher math to attend to him.
Catherine glumly shares a bottle of “the worst champagne I have ever tasted” with the spirit of her father: The day marks not only her birthday, but his funeral.
She worries for her sanity, as she has now reached the age her father was when his mental functions began their decline.
She unhappily awaits the arrival of her sister, who has supported them financially but never emotionally through the years of her father’s illness. In addition, she must defend her father’s legacy: a collection of 106 notebooks filled with gibberish he wrote in his senile years.
Hal is certain something of value lies buried in the books, although Catherine warns him otherwise. Still, he pesters her about cataloging the books.
The notebooks do hold one secret: Unknown to everyone, in her spare time Catherine has written an amazing proof, “A mathematical theorem about prime numbers,” explains Hal to Catherine’s sister Claire.
Claire, who admits she has only “one-thousandth of my father’s ability,” really isn’t interested in theoretical math. She believes in jojoba conditioners, vegetarian chili and a good black dress. What she doesn’t believe in is her sister.
She question’s Catherine’s sanity, believing no person in their right mind would have derailed their own career to care for their parent.
Neither she nor Hal believe Catherine could have written the proof, given her limited schooling.
“You only have a few months of math from Northwestern!” Hal tells her.
“I had twenty years of living with my father,” she coldly replies. Twenty good years, before his mind snapped and she “had to feed him and bathe him.”
Proof is as much about challenging the perceived notions others have about us as it is math and madness.
Hal tells Catherine “If I could come up with one tenth the stuff your dad did, I could write my ticket to any math department at any university in the country.” How, then, can he believe she has developed something in her spare time that he, with a university staff around him, cannot?
She reminds him that the person who developed Germaine primes in the 18th century was a woman, who had to work clandestinely as she was denied formal schooling because of her gender.
The only one who relished Catherine’s ability was her father.
“You knew what a prime number was before you could read,” he tells her in the opening scene.
He causes her to recall just how many hours she has sat idle since his demise —and recognize the number is “the smallest number expressible as the sum of two sets of two cubes.”
“See, even your depression is mathematical,” her father’s ghost informs her.
PROOF IS A difficult play in that the relationships it describes are painful. The characters are anything but supportive of each other.
Her father’s passing has left Catherine with a void known by any caregiver whose charge no longer needs them, any person who’s lost their sense of self when they’ve lost a job. The sudden hole in one’s life can’t just be filled instantly, as Catherine’s sister would like.
Claire wants Catherine to come to New York. She informs her she is selling the house.
“When is this happening?” Catherine asks. “Friday,” Claire replies. It turns out her sister has been scouting mental hospitals as well as apartments for her sister.
The play — and proof of authorship of the mathematical notebook — eventually resolves itself, but in the process relationships are broken.
That Catherine chooses, at the end, to give them another try is testimony to her resiliency, and hope.
Newcomer Julie Benteman plays the role of Claire, while Iola High School senior Eileen Chase takes on the main role. Allen County Community College chemistry instructor Todd Francis plays Hal, and Keith Goering is the mad professor.
Proof opens Saturday at the Iola Community Theater, with your choice of desert accompanying your ticket.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m., chocolate mousse cheesecake, carrot cake and sugar-free apple pie are served at seven, and the curtain rises at 7:30. A Sunday matinee is at 1 p.m.
The play runs Feb. 21, 22, 27 and 28. Tickets are available at Sophisticated Rose.
Anyone who has been doubted when they have not been in the wrong can relate to the main character, Catherine, whose mathematical genius has been inherited from — but overshadowed by — her brilliant but sadly insane father.
Ironically, he had “invented the mathematical technique for studying rational behavior,” says his awed protégé, Hal.
The play opens in the wee hours of Catherine’s 25th birthday. She has devoted the last five years of her life to caring for her father, giving up her own fledgeling career in higher math to attend to him.
Catherine glumly shares a bottle of “the worst champagne I have ever tasted” with the spirit of her father: The day marks not only her birthday, but his funeral.
She worries for her sanity, as she has now reached the age her father was when his mental functions began their decline.
She unhappily awaits the arrival of her sister, who has supported them financially but never emotionally through the years of her father’s illness. In addition, she must defend her father’s legacy: a collection of 106 notebooks filled with gibberish he wrote in his senile years.
Hal is certain something of value lies buried in the books, although Catherine warns him otherwise. Still, he pesters her about cataloging the books.
The notebooks do hold one secret: Unknown to everyone, in her spare time Catherine has written an amazing proof, “A mathematical theorem about prime numbers,” explains Hal to Catherine’s sister Claire.
Claire, who admits she has only “one-thousandth of my father’s ability,” really isn’t interested in theoretical math. She believes in jojoba conditioners, vegetarian chili and a good black dress. What she doesn’t believe in is her sister.
She question’s Catherine’s sanity, believing no person in their right mind would have derailed their own career to care for their parent.
Neither she nor Hal believe Catherine could have written the proof, given her limited schooling.
“You only have a few months of math from Northwestern!” Hal tells her.
“I had twenty years of living with my father,” she coldly replies. Twenty good years, before his mind snapped and she “had to feed him and bathe him.”
Proof is as much about challenging the perceived notions others have about us as it is math and madness.
Hal tells Catherine “If I could come up with one tenth the stuff your dad did, I could write my ticket to any math department at any university in the country.” How, then, can he believe she has developed something in her spare time that he, with a university staff around him, cannot?
She reminds him that the person who developed Germaine primes in the 18th century was a woman, who had to work clandestinely as she was denied formal schooling because of her gender.
The only one who relished Catherine’s ability was her father.
“You knew what a prime number was before you could read,” he tells her in the opening scene.
He causes her to recall just how many hours she has sat idle since his demise —and recognize the number is “the smallest number expressible as the sum of two sets of two cubes.”
“See, even your depression is mathematical,” her father’s ghost informs her.
PROOF IS A difficult play in that the relationships it describes are painful. The characters are anything but supportive of each other.
Her father’s passing has left Catherine with a void known by any caregiver whose charge no longer needs them, any person who’s lost their sense of self when they’ve lost a job. The sudden hole in one’s life can’t just be filled instantly, as Catherine’s sister would like.
Claire wants Catherine to come to New York. She informs her she is selling the house.
“When is this happening?” Catherine asks. “Friday,” Claire replies. It turns out her sister has been scouting mental hospitals as well as apartments for her sister.
The play — and proof of authorship of the mathematical notebook — eventually resolves itself, but in the process relationships are broken.
That Catherine chooses, at the end, to give them another try is testimony to her resiliency, and hope.
Newcomer Julie Benteman plays the role of Claire, while Iola High School senior Eileen Chase takes on the main role. Allen County Community College chemistry instructor Todd Francis plays Hal, and Keith Goering is the mad professor.
Proof opens Saturday at the Iola Community Theater, with your choice of desert accompanying your ticket.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m., chocolate mousse cheesecake, carrot cake and sugar-free apple pie are served at seven, and the curtain rises at 7:30. A Sunday matinee is at 1 p.m.
The play runs Feb. 21, 22, 27 and 28. Tickets are available at Sophisticated Rose.
"Proof" pokes into psyche
“In order for your friends to take you out, you generally have to have friends,” Catherine tells her doting father the morning of her 25th birthday near the opening of the Pulitzer winning play “Proof,” which returns to the Iola Community Theater this weekend for its final run.
Catherine is depressed, and her father nags her about her retreat form the world of complex math —an endeavor that defined her life before she gave up college to care for him in his waning mental state.
Her birthday brings the burden of acknowledging her family legacy — mathematical genius — and madness. She is befriended by one of her father’s former students, a self-proclaimed math geek who plays in a rock band.
“They get laid surprisingly often,” he says of his bandmates. “It kind of makes you question the whole set of terms — nerd, geek, paste eater.”
Proof questions other presumptions, too.
The play relies on the tension between Catherine, her sister Claire and interloper Hal, the geek.
It runs Friday and Saturday at the Warehouse Theater. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. with curtains rising at 7:30 p.m. Ticket price includes desert. Tickets are available at Sophisticated Rose and at the door.
Catherine is depressed, and her father nags her about her retreat form the world of complex math —an endeavor that defined her life before she gave up college to care for him in his waning mental state.
Her birthday brings the burden of acknowledging her family legacy — mathematical genius — and madness. She is befriended by one of her father’s former students, a self-proclaimed math geek who plays in a rock band.
“They get laid surprisingly often,” he says of his bandmates. “It kind of makes you question the whole set of terms — nerd, geek, paste eater.”
Proof questions other presumptions, too.
The play relies on the tension between Catherine, her sister Claire and interloper Hal, the geek.
It runs Friday and Saturday at the Warehouse Theater. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. with curtains rising at 7:30 p.m. Ticket price includes desert. Tickets are available at Sophisticated Rose and at the door.
Documentary debuts Sunday
Two young filmmakers have turned the spotlight on southeast Kansas in a short documentary, “Punch Clock.” The film tells the stories of typical shift workers and the dreams they had before falling into a daily work routine.
The first draft of the film won “Best Documentary Short” in the Southern Winds Film Festival last year, said former Humboldt resident Nathan Cheney. Additional footage for the 20-minute film was shot earlier this year, said co-producer and Iola resident Chance Luttrell.
In homage to their roots, the final cut will debut at a free noon showing Sunday at Iola’s Sterling Six Cinema. Another free showing, at 6 p.m. Monday evening, will be at the old Iola Cinema, now Fellowship Regional Church, 202 S. Washington.
LUTTRELL and Cheney began filming in 2007, shortly before a record flood hit the area. They interviewed subjects in Colony, Chanute, Humboldt and Iola.
“It’s been a process this 2 1/2 years,” Luttrell said. Post-production work just finished in Los Angeles, Cheney added.
Unlike narrative film, with documentaries, “the story is really told in the editing room,” Luttrell said. “A lot of the interviews are over an hour long. We took over 15 hours of footage and made a 20 minute film.”
The interviewees told them about dreams they had prior to becoming shift workers. Those dreams were as varied as being a missionary and a stuntman, Cheney said. None were achieved.
“People you see every day — it’s fascinating to learn what they wanted to be,” Cheney said. “It’s so different from what you see.”
Instead of being depressed or angry about the twists in life that led them to an everyman existence, Cheney said he was surprised so many of the subjects were happy.
“That was a surprise to us younger guys,” Cheney said. “We learned about people and we learned about ourselves in the process.”
Both film makers said they expected to make a downbeat film. Instead, their preconceived notions were shattered.
“When you say dream, people always think it’s gotta be this big ‘I want to be a superstar’ thing. But a lot of them were really simple,” Luttrell noted.
The hopefulness they found while filming “Punch Clock” has left both young men changed.
“You don’t necessarily have to give up your dreams,” Luttrell said. “When I first started, I though these people working 8 to 5 had given up.” But, he noted, “The older you get, the more mature you get, you realize you can fuel your energies in different ways. If you’re a musician, you don’t have to be a rock star.
“I was pretty naive when I went into this,” Luttrell added. “I thought, ‘Here’s all these depressed people who hate their jobs’ — but there’s no unhappiness. They had a lot to be thankful for.”
Not achieving your original dream does not equate with failure, the two realized. Dreams simply change.
“But that doesn’t mean you can’t be happy,” Luttrell noted.
THE BIGGEST barrier to pursuing original dreams was unplanned parenthood, Cheney learned. “Another was not having the resources or not being supported in what they wanted to do,” he said. “For a lot of people, life happens.”
The same might be said for Cheney and Luttrell.
The two got a helping hand in the production of “Punch Clock” from former Humboldt resident Jerry Whitworth, now a Hollywood producer of such television fare as “Survivor” and “Oprah’s Big Give.”
“We started doing the documentary and a woman we were working with happened to be working with Jerry’s mom,” Cheney said. That serendipitous encounter led to Whitworth taking an interest in the fledgling producers’ project.
“He really helped us draw up the story in a more professional manner,” Cheney said. So much so that the two have re-scored the film and finessed it to this final cut.
They feel so confident in the film, in fact, that “all of next year we’ll be submitting “Punch Clock” to different (film) festivals,” Luttrell said. Each submission costs $40 to $75, he said. The two are accepting donations to support the process. The year thereafter involves screening the film, he said.
The multi-year time frame is typical of documentaries, Luttrell said. Still, both he and Cheney prefer the genre to fiction.
“I think it’s much more powerful to see real people with real outcomes,” Luttrell said.
Both are in pre-production on new documentaries.
Cheney, son of Theresa Cheney of Iola and Craig Cheney of Humboldt, is working on, “A Fatherless Generation,” about children of single-parent homes.
“It’s about choice,” he said. “You don’t have to let your past determine your future.”
Luttrell, son of Iola’s Bill and Terri Luttrell, is working on a profile of pencil artist Rick Barkdoll.
Both Cheney and Luttrell said they are living their dreams.
Cheney will graduate in May from Hollywood’s Columbia College with a degree in Cinema and Television with a focus on production. He is currently serving as an intern at ABC television with plans to continue there after graduation.
“I feel blessed to have many opportunities here,” he said.
Luttrell, who played with the alt-rock band Agathy, is pursuing his own, more folk-based, acoustic music now.
“I’m spending more time doing acoustic music and sending it places to try to get it into movies,” he said.
Luttrell works at Pacer Energy Marketing in Humboldt. He no longer punches a time clock.
The first draft of the film won “Best Documentary Short” in the Southern Winds Film Festival last year, said former Humboldt resident Nathan Cheney. Additional footage for the 20-minute film was shot earlier this year, said co-producer and Iola resident Chance Luttrell.
In homage to their roots, the final cut will debut at a free noon showing Sunday at Iola’s Sterling Six Cinema. Another free showing, at 6 p.m. Monday evening, will be at the old Iola Cinema, now Fellowship Regional Church, 202 S. Washington.
LUTTRELL and Cheney began filming in 2007, shortly before a record flood hit the area. They interviewed subjects in Colony, Chanute, Humboldt and Iola.
“It’s been a process this 2 1/2 years,” Luttrell said. Post-production work just finished in Los Angeles, Cheney added.
Unlike narrative film, with documentaries, “the story is really told in the editing room,” Luttrell said. “A lot of the interviews are over an hour long. We took over 15 hours of footage and made a 20 minute film.”
The interviewees told them about dreams they had prior to becoming shift workers. Those dreams were as varied as being a missionary and a stuntman, Cheney said. None were achieved.
“People you see every day — it’s fascinating to learn what they wanted to be,” Cheney said. “It’s so different from what you see.”
Instead of being depressed or angry about the twists in life that led them to an everyman existence, Cheney said he was surprised so many of the subjects were happy.
“That was a surprise to us younger guys,” Cheney said. “We learned about people and we learned about ourselves in the process.”
Both film makers said they expected to make a downbeat film. Instead, their preconceived notions were shattered.
“When you say dream, people always think it’s gotta be this big ‘I want to be a superstar’ thing. But a lot of them were really simple,” Luttrell noted.
The hopefulness they found while filming “Punch Clock” has left both young men changed.
“You don’t necessarily have to give up your dreams,” Luttrell said. “When I first started, I though these people working 8 to 5 had given up.” But, he noted, “The older you get, the more mature you get, you realize you can fuel your energies in different ways. If you’re a musician, you don’t have to be a rock star.
“I was pretty naive when I went into this,” Luttrell added. “I thought, ‘Here’s all these depressed people who hate their jobs’ — but there’s no unhappiness. They had a lot to be thankful for.”
Not achieving your original dream does not equate with failure, the two realized. Dreams simply change.
“But that doesn’t mean you can’t be happy,” Luttrell noted.
THE BIGGEST barrier to pursuing original dreams was unplanned parenthood, Cheney learned. “Another was not having the resources or not being supported in what they wanted to do,” he said. “For a lot of people, life happens.”
The same might be said for Cheney and Luttrell.
The two got a helping hand in the production of “Punch Clock” from former Humboldt resident Jerry Whitworth, now a Hollywood producer of such television fare as “Survivor” and “Oprah’s Big Give.”
“We started doing the documentary and a woman we were working with happened to be working with Jerry’s mom,” Cheney said. That serendipitous encounter led to Whitworth taking an interest in the fledgling producers’ project.
“He really helped us draw up the story in a more professional manner,” Cheney said. So much so that the two have re-scored the film and finessed it to this final cut.
They feel so confident in the film, in fact, that “all of next year we’ll be submitting “Punch Clock” to different (film) festivals,” Luttrell said. Each submission costs $40 to $75, he said. The two are accepting donations to support the process. The year thereafter involves screening the film, he said.
The multi-year time frame is typical of documentaries, Luttrell said. Still, both he and Cheney prefer the genre to fiction.
“I think it’s much more powerful to see real people with real outcomes,” Luttrell said.
Both are in pre-production on new documentaries.
Cheney, son of Theresa Cheney of Iola and Craig Cheney of Humboldt, is working on, “A Fatherless Generation,” about children of single-parent homes.
“It’s about choice,” he said. “You don’t have to let your past determine your future.”
Luttrell, son of Iola’s Bill and Terri Luttrell, is working on a profile of pencil artist Rick Barkdoll.
Both Cheney and Luttrell said they are living their dreams.
Cheney will graduate in May from Hollywood’s Columbia College with a degree in Cinema and Television with a focus on production. He is currently serving as an intern at ABC television with plans to continue there after graduation.
“I feel blessed to have many opportunities here,” he said.
Luttrell, who played with the alt-rock band Agathy, is pursuing his own, more folk-based, acoustic music now.
“I’m spending more time doing acoustic music and sending it places to try to get it into movies,” he said.
Luttrell works at Pacer Energy Marketing in Humboldt. He no longer punches a time clock.
First Steps lead to reading
The Iola Public Library wants even the youngest members of the community to become voracious readers. To that end, they have developed a program called “First Steps to Reading.”
First Steps offers parents and guardians of infants small gifts in exchange for completing four simple steps of a newly designed “infant packet” available at the library. The program is funded by a grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services, said Library Friends member Becky Nilges.
The library previously had “an infant packet they gave to newborns at the hospital,” Nilges said. However, that was mainly a list of resources and information.
“Through the direction of a volunteer task force, we looked at what was given, and we added two books and the incentives to the list of resources,” Nilges said.
“Read to Your Bunny,” a book by award-winning childrens book author and illustrator Rosemary Wells, was selected specifically for its instruction to parents on reading to their children. While parents learn about the importance of early exposure to reading, engaging illustrations keep young eyes on the page.
“Not only will it inspire the child, but it will educate the parent to what a positive resource the library is,” Nilges said.
Another change is in distribution. Librarians once learned of births “through the hospital or health department,” Nilges said. They would then contact new parents about helping them locate resources. Because of changes in health privacy laws, that is no longer possible. Instead, parents receive a coupon at the hospital, doctors offices or county health department, Nilges said, to redeem at the library’s children’s desk. That simple change also gets parents “into the library,” while children are still infants, Nilges noted.
If a guardian does not receive a coupon, they can still “come in and get registered,” said Children’s Librarian Leah Oswald. “We just want babies read to — that’s the goal.”
“A lot of people understand the importance of reading and of the library, but they wait until their children are closer to school age to bring them in” Oswald explained. “Just from brain development research, (scientists have) learned how important it is” for children to be exposed to reading at a much younger age, she said.
Exposure to the physical act of reading helps babies recognize letters, understand print orientation and focus attention, Nilges said. “Just to be able to sit and look at a book, even if they can’t yet read it,” orients the child toward reading, she noted.
Shawna Vega discovered First Steps through a display she saw when she brought her daughter, Lexi, 8, to the library. Vega and her nine-month-old son, Kaeden, are the first Iolans to complete the program.
“Reading is big in my family,” Vega said. “My sister reads all the time; my dad has always been a big reader.” And Vega wants her children to follow in those footsteps.
The four steps in the program are easy to achieve, Oswald said.
Step one is signing up for a library card, either for the child or the child’s guardian.
Step two involves checking out a parenting DVD. Step three involves checking out a board book for baby to read, plus a parenting DVD.
Step four requires completing four of six activities, including checking out materials and/or attending parenting workshops at the library. Completion of step four brings a library fine waiver, good for a year, plus a cloth book bag.
Vega said she’s learned a lot about library resources through First Steps.
“In doing the program with Kaeden, I learned a lot about the educational DVDs.” She particularly liked the “Hooked on Babies” DVDs. The videos feature cartoon characters and real kids, she said.
“They say words that rhyme and do finger plays. Everything in the series is at a slower pace,” so parents can learn the rhymes, she said.
First Steps is designed to be followed over the course of a year, as baby grows and develops, Oswald said.
Vega noted “the program helped me know what to check out for each age level. I think it’s a good program. You can benefit a lot.”
Vega is a stay at home mom. Her husband, Martin, works at B & W Trailer Hitches in Humboldt. Both the couple read to their children.
Martin is from Mexico, Vega said. “We get a lot of books here for the children in Spanish and he reads to them.”
Kaeden is now exploring the library’s board books, Vega said. “Right now he’s wanting to touch anything so he wants all the touch and feel books but anything with bright colors gets his attention. Now we’re into all the fun board books with all the noises and feely things you can enjoy.”
She encourages his continued interst by reading to him.
“Ever since he was little he’s loved to hear the sound of my voice,” she said. “He really gravitates to it.
“When I was pregnant I came to story hour and I think he got used to hearing the stories,” she said.
Vega brings her children to the library regularly. She noted “on a rainy day when we can’t play outside, it’s fun to come (here). It always seems everyone’s so friendly when you come to the library.”
First Steps to Reading is funded through the end of 2010, Nilges said.
Some of the informational material in the packet includes a list of parenting books available at the library, tips on assisting your child with reading and writing and family reading tips from Barbara Bush.
The program’s objective is simple, Oswald said.
As Vega said of her son, “I hope eventually he’ll have a love of books.”
First Steps offers parents and guardians of infants small gifts in exchange for completing four simple steps of a newly designed “infant packet” available at the library. The program is funded by a grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services, said Library Friends member Becky Nilges.
The library previously had “an infant packet they gave to newborns at the hospital,” Nilges said. However, that was mainly a list of resources and information.
“Through the direction of a volunteer task force, we looked at what was given, and we added two books and the incentives to the list of resources,” Nilges said.
“Read to Your Bunny,” a book by award-winning childrens book author and illustrator Rosemary Wells, was selected specifically for its instruction to parents on reading to their children. While parents learn about the importance of early exposure to reading, engaging illustrations keep young eyes on the page.
“Not only will it inspire the child, but it will educate the parent to what a positive resource the library is,” Nilges said.
Another change is in distribution. Librarians once learned of births “through the hospital or health department,” Nilges said. They would then contact new parents about helping them locate resources. Because of changes in health privacy laws, that is no longer possible. Instead, parents receive a coupon at the hospital, doctors offices or county health department, Nilges said, to redeem at the library’s children’s desk. That simple change also gets parents “into the library,” while children are still infants, Nilges noted.
If a guardian does not receive a coupon, they can still “come in and get registered,” said Children’s Librarian Leah Oswald. “We just want babies read to — that’s the goal.”
“A lot of people understand the importance of reading and of the library, but they wait until their children are closer to school age to bring them in” Oswald explained. “Just from brain development research, (scientists have) learned how important it is” for children to be exposed to reading at a much younger age, she said.
Exposure to the physical act of reading helps babies recognize letters, understand print orientation and focus attention, Nilges said. “Just to be able to sit and look at a book, even if they can’t yet read it,” orients the child toward reading, she noted.
Shawna Vega discovered First Steps through a display she saw when she brought her daughter, Lexi, 8, to the library. Vega and her nine-month-old son, Kaeden, are the first Iolans to complete the program.
“Reading is big in my family,” Vega said. “My sister reads all the time; my dad has always been a big reader.” And Vega wants her children to follow in those footsteps.
The four steps in the program are easy to achieve, Oswald said.
Step one is signing up for a library card, either for the child or the child’s guardian.
Step two involves checking out a parenting DVD. Step three involves checking out a board book for baby to read, plus a parenting DVD.
Step four requires completing four of six activities, including checking out materials and/or attending parenting workshops at the library. Completion of step four brings a library fine waiver, good for a year, plus a cloth book bag.
Vega said she’s learned a lot about library resources through First Steps.
“In doing the program with Kaeden, I learned a lot about the educational DVDs.” She particularly liked the “Hooked on Babies” DVDs. The videos feature cartoon characters and real kids, she said.
“They say words that rhyme and do finger plays. Everything in the series is at a slower pace,” so parents can learn the rhymes, she said.
First Steps is designed to be followed over the course of a year, as baby grows and develops, Oswald said.
Vega noted “the program helped me know what to check out for each age level. I think it’s a good program. You can benefit a lot.”
Vega is a stay at home mom. Her husband, Martin, works at B & W Trailer Hitches in Humboldt. Both the couple read to their children.
Martin is from Mexico, Vega said. “We get a lot of books here for the children in Spanish and he reads to them.”
Kaeden is now exploring the library’s board books, Vega said. “Right now he’s wanting to touch anything so he wants all the touch and feel books but anything with bright colors gets his attention. Now we’re into all the fun board books with all the noises and feely things you can enjoy.”
She encourages his continued interst by reading to him.
“Ever since he was little he’s loved to hear the sound of my voice,” she said. “He really gravitates to it.
“When I was pregnant I came to story hour and I think he got used to hearing the stories,” she said.
Vega brings her children to the library regularly. She noted “on a rainy day when we can’t play outside, it’s fun to come (here). It always seems everyone’s so friendly when you come to the library.”
First Steps to Reading is funded through the end of 2010, Nilges said.
Some of the informational material in the packet includes a list of parenting books available at the library, tips on assisting your child with reading and writing and family reading tips from Barbara Bush.
The program’s objective is simple, Oswald said.
As Vega said of her son, “I hope eventually he’ll have a love of books.”
Recycling requires scenic drive
Those wishing to recycle plastic milk jugs and juice cartons locally have been out of luck since Walmart stopped collection in August.
Manager Todd VanEssen said the store still recycles internally, but “we’re not a recycling center for the community.”
The decision came from corporate headquarters after other stores around the country became dumping grounds for items considered hazardous waste, such as motor oil and pesticide containers, said a store employee not authorized to speak on the subject.
The store will still accept return of Walmart bags, VanEssen said.
Consumers who have been saving containers from juice, yogurt, dairy products and pop must now drive about an hour in order to recycle.
Both Fredonia and Garnett will accept Iola’s recyclables, employees with those county’s collection facilities said.
If people care to come, said Fredonia Recycling Center’s Chad Shaver, “That’s great.”
The center, at 1312 N. Second St., accepts both number one and two plastics.
“We do milk jugs and clear plastics,” said Shaver. “Look at the triangle on the bottom of the plastic,” to be sure of the type, he said.
In addition, Shaver said, “We can’t take anything poisonous. No oil or hazardous materials. And we prefer them clean, with the lids off.”
The center is run by the city of Fredonia as a service to the community, Shaver said.
“We don’t buy anything, but we do get a little something for it,” he said. “It’s never been profitable.”
The town of 2,700 has been offering community and curbside recycling for close to 20 years now, Shaver said. “We also pick up cardboard at restaurants and grocery stores.”
Shaver said response to the program has “really gotten gung-ho over the last five or 10 years.”
In addition to Fredonia’s recyclables, Shaver said the town of Neodesha brings its recyclables by once a week.
The center can take plastics, cardboard, paper, glass and aluminum and tin cans. The center does not accept scrap metal.
Everything is bundled using balers specific to the items. Some of the balers were purchased through grants the community received, Shaver said.
The Fredonia Recycling Center is staffed from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mondays, 7 to 4 Tuesdays through Fridays, and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays. For those who can’t come when the center is open, there are sorting bins in a shed behind the center, Shaver said.
Recycling isn’t a way to make money, Shaver said, but it is a great way to keep one’s community clean.
THE CITY of Garnett, about 3,000 strong, also recycles.
In addtion to their own materials, they send a recycling truck out to Colony, Kincaid, Welda, Westphalia and Harris every month. They will also accept Iola’s plastics.
In addition, they’ll take household hazardous waste, e-waste such as computers, televisions and handheld devices, metals, including scrap metal, colored and clear glass and magazines and newsprint.
“Our recycling center is located at our transfer station,” said Marcia Criqui of the Anderson County Engineers office.
The county asks that people check in at the station, open Mondays through Saturdays from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., before dropping off recyclables.
Garnett will accept a wider variety of plastics than Fredonia, from milk gallons to pop jugs to small dairy containers, said Criqui.
“We do like them better if they are rinsed out, because they have to be stored until we have a load,” Criqui said. The items are crushed and baled for storage, she said, and unclean containers lure vermin.
E-waste is taken to Topeka for processing every six months or so, said Jerry Leudke, who works at the transfer station.
There is no charge to drop off recyclables, Criqui said, unless an item is a large appliance such as a refrigerator or washing machine.
People can call Jay Sloan, the transfer station head, at 785-448-3109 if they are uncertain about an item, Criqui said.
Garnett also received grants to purchaser forklifts and balers for their recycling efforts, Leudke said. The community has been recycling for about a dozen years, he said.
Manager Todd VanEssen said the store still recycles internally, but “we’re not a recycling center for the community.”
The decision came from corporate headquarters after other stores around the country became dumping grounds for items considered hazardous waste, such as motor oil and pesticide containers, said a store employee not authorized to speak on the subject.
The store will still accept return of Walmart bags, VanEssen said.
Consumers who have been saving containers from juice, yogurt, dairy products and pop must now drive about an hour in order to recycle.
Both Fredonia and Garnett will accept Iola’s recyclables, employees with those county’s collection facilities said.
If people care to come, said Fredonia Recycling Center’s Chad Shaver, “That’s great.”
The center, at 1312 N. Second St., accepts both number one and two plastics.
“We do milk jugs and clear plastics,” said Shaver. “Look at the triangle on the bottom of the plastic,” to be sure of the type, he said.
In addition, Shaver said, “We can’t take anything poisonous. No oil or hazardous materials. And we prefer them clean, with the lids off.”
The center is run by the city of Fredonia as a service to the community, Shaver said.
“We don’t buy anything, but we do get a little something for it,” he said. “It’s never been profitable.”
The town of 2,700 has been offering community and curbside recycling for close to 20 years now, Shaver said. “We also pick up cardboard at restaurants and grocery stores.”
Shaver said response to the program has “really gotten gung-ho over the last five or 10 years.”
In addition to Fredonia’s recyclables, Shaver said the town of Neodesha brings its recyclables by once a week.
The center can take plastics, cardboard, paper, glass and aluminum and tin cans. The center does not accept scrap metal.
Everything is bundled using balers specific to the items. Some of the balers were purchased through grants the community received, Shaver said.
The Fredonia Recycling Center is staffed from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mondays, 7 to 4 Tuesdays through Fridays, and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays. For those who can’t come when the center is open, there are sorting bins in a shed behind the center, Shaver said.
Recycling isn’t a way to make money, Shaver said, but it is a great way to keep one’s community clean.
THE CITY of Garnett, about 3,000 strong, also recycles.
In addtion to their own materials, they send a recycling truck out to Colony, Kincaid, Welda, Westphalia and Harris every month. They will also accept Iola’s plastics.
In addition, they’ll take household hazardous waste, e-waste such as computers, televisions and handheld devices, metals, including scrap metal, colored and clear glass and magazines and newsprint.
“Our recycling center is located at our transfer station,” said Marcia Criqui of the Anderson County Engineers office.
The county asks that people check in at the station, open Mondays through Saturdays from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., before dropping off recyclables.
Garnett will accept a wider variety of plastics than Fredonia, from milk gallons to pop jugs to small dairy containers, said Criqui.
“We do like them better if they are rinsed out, because they have to be stored until we have a load,” Criqui said. The items are crushed and baled for storage, she said, and unclean containers lure vermin.
E-waste is taken to Topeka for processing every six months or so, said Jerry Leudke, who works at the transfer station.
There is no charge to drop off recyclables, Criqui said, unless an item is a large appliance such as a refrigerator or washing machine.
People can call Jay Sloan, the transfer station head, at 785-448-3109 if they are uncertain about an item, Criqui said.
Garnett also received grants to purchaser forklifts and balers for their recycling efforts, Leudke said. The community has been recycling for about a dozen years, he said.
Iolan solving microscopic problems
Iolan Keil Regehr had a paper on microfluidics published in “Lab on a Chip,” a journal of Britain’s Royal Society of Chemistry, this summer.
“Microfluidics is a relatively new field,” said Regehr. “The idea is you can do a wide range of diagnostic and analytical tests with very small volumes of fluid.”
Regehr’s research, for example, uses only 5 microliters of fluid per study sample. His test tubes are only 5 millimeters long, .6 mm wide and just .25 mm high.
“At that scale, the attractive forces between water molecules and simple diffusion ... dictate how the liquid flows,” he said. For example, he said, “If yellow and blue streams of water were flowing next to each other in a microchannel, they would not mix and look green, they would just look like a blue stripe and a yellow stripe.”
Scientists use the technology to replicate situations in which cells form in the body. “This gives scientists more clinically relevant results,” Regehr said.
Regehr, who is working on a doctorate in biomedical engineering at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, works in a lab that specializes in researching breast cancer.
Regehr’s research focused on deciphering problems had with certain cell cultures grown in the microchannels .
Regehr presented his data at a conference in Quebec City in April, where it was well received.
“In the end, the most satisfying thing about this paper will be that it was truly useful information that brought some subtle problems to light,” he said.
Regehr and his wife Stacy reside in Madison with their new baby, Zoey. He is the son of Iola Middle School teacher Donna and elementary physical education teacher Larry Regehr.
“Microfluidics is a relatively new field,” said Regehr. “The idea is you can do a wide range of diagnostic and analytical tests with very small volumes of fluid.”
Regehr’s research, for example, uses only 5 microliters of fluid per study sample. His test tubes are only 5 millimeters long, .6 mm wide and just .25 mm high.
“At that scale, the attractive forces between water molecules and simple diffusion ... dictate how the liquid flows,” he said. For example, he said, “If yellow and blue streams of water were flowing next to each other in a microchannel, they would not mix and look green, they would just look like a blue stripe and a yellow stripe.”
Scientists use the technology to replicate situations in which cells form in the body. “This gives scientists more clinically relevant results,” Regehr said.
Regehr, who is working on a doctorate in biomedical engineering at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, works in a lab that specializes in researching breast cancer.
Regehr’s research focused on deciphering problems had with certain cell cultures grown in the microchannels .
Regehr presented his data at a conference in Quebec City in April, where it was well received.
“In the end, the most satisfying thing about this paper will be that it was truly useful information that brought some subtle problems to light,” he said.
Regehr and his wife Stacy reside in Madison with their new baby, Zoey. He is the son of Iola Middle School teacher Donna and elementary physical education teacher Larry Regehr.
Retort hints at area's past
Some old pipes sticking out of the bank of a tributary to Elm Creek at Iola’s south edge have probably rested quietly for most of the past 100 years. Curiosity as to what the pipes were, and why they were there, led to inspection by some resident Iola old timers. Turns out, they knew.
“They’re retort pipes,” said retired City Clerk Vic Perkins. The pipes were produced, along with fire brick, at brick factories located near the creek in Iola’s younger days. They were most likely laid along the bank “to shore it up,” Perkins said.
Stub Heigele, who was born in the south Iola neighborhood in 1920, said the tributary, which he and local boys referred to simply as “the slough” was a popular play spot in their youth.
“We always came down here to get crawdads,” Heigele said.
Lining waterways with retort was apparently a common practice.
“At Concreto, they used retort to line the ponds,” Heigele said.
The pipe was originally made through a painstaking process that involved hand layering the two-inch thick clay walls around a mold, then drying over some weeks before firing in specially sized kilns.
Satndard retort was about 14 to 21 inches in diameter, and eight to eight and a half feet long. The finished pipe was used to burn coal to produce coal gas for illumination. The practice was used from about 1820 through the latter end of that century. Collections of 15 to 20 retort columns would be placed together to burn the coal. After burning the coal, coke remained.
“The cinders were used for driveways and such,” said Perkins. Later, they were removed as an environmental hazard due to their high lead content.
Retort pipes weren’t made at every brick factory. Because the pipes had to be heated at very high temperatures, it was natural for the same clay used for fire brick to be utilized for the pipes.
It isn’t known whether the pipes that line the branch that washes into Elm Creek were put in new or used, but Heigele said “if people had a use for them, they took them.”
In the same creek bed, a family’s old house dump has been exposed by recent rains. Large crockery shards and fragments of china plates jut out from the mud.
The pipes and kitchen-wear fragments are the only clues to a forgotten time on the edge of town.
Retort redux
Local history buff Johnny Womack brought more information about retort pipe used to shore up creek banks and line ponds in the area after reading an article in the Iola Register about the clay cylinders earlier this week.
Womack said retort pipes used in this area were only 3 1/2 feet long, and were used to melt metals such as tin and silver out of chunks of ore.
“Lead just came with it,” he said of the melted metal.
The liquid metal would float to the top of the burned ore, he said. Once cooled, that layer was broken off the pipes, and that is why there were so many waste pipes — and cinders — available free to whomever wished them, he said.
The metal was shipped back east for further refining, then used to make ball bearings and the like, Womack said.
“They’re retort pipes,” said retired City Clerk Vic Perkins. The pipes were produced, along with fire brick, at brick factories located near the creek in Iola’s younger days. They were most likely laid along the bank “to shore it up,” Perkins said.
Stub Heigele, who was born in the south Iola neighborhood in 1920, said the tributary, which he and local boys referred to simply as “the slough” was a popular play spot in their youth.
“We always came down here to get crawdads,” Heigele said.
Lining waterways with retort was apparently a common practice.
“At Concreto, they used retort to line the ponds,” Heigele said.
The pipe was originally made through a painstaking process that involved hand layering the two-inch thick clay walls around a mold, then drying over some weeks before firing in specially sized kilns.
Satndard retort was about 14 to 21 inches in diameter, and eight to eight and a half feet long. The finished pipe was used to burn coal to produce coal gas for illumination. The practice was used from about 1820 through the latter end of that century. Collections of 15 to 20 retort columns would be placed together to burn the coal. After burning the coal, coke remained.
“The cinders were used for driveways and such,” said Perkins. Later, they were removed as an environmental hazard due to their high lead content.
Retort pipes weren’t made at every brick factory. Because the pipes had to be heated at very high temperatures, it was natural for the same clay used for fire brick to be utilized for the pipes.
It isn’t known whether the pipes that line the branch that washes into Elm Creek were put in new or used, but Heigele said “if people had a use for them, they took them.”
In the same creek bed, a family’s old house dump has been exposed by recent rains. Large crockery shards and fragments of china plates jut out from the mud.
The pipes and kitchen-wear fragments are the only clues to a forgotten time on the edge of town.
Retort redux
Local history buff Johnny Womack brought more information about retort pipe used to shore up creek banks and line ponds in the area after reading an article in the Iola Register about the clay cylinders earlier this week.
Womack said retort pipes used in this area were only 3 1/2 feet long, and were used to melt metals such as tin and silver out of chunks of ore.
“Lead just came with it,” he said of the melted metal.
The liquid metal would float to the top of the burned ore, he said. Once cooled, that layer was broken off the pipes, and that is why there were so many waste pipes — and cinders — available free to whomever wished them, he said.
The metal was shipped back east for further refining, then used to make ball bearings and the like, Womack said.
Rodeo queen returns to fair
After a ten year absence, the Allen County Fair will again have a rodeo queen.
Four candidates are vying for the title, which will be determined by fair event ticket sales.
The queen candidates are selling tickets for $4 each through July 29. After that, the price increases to $5 per ticket.
Two tickets are required to attend the Aug. 4 and 5 URA-MRCA rodeos and Aug. 8 demolition derby. Only one ticket is needed for the ranch rodeo, draft horse pull and antique tractor pull.
Fair board treasurer Becky Robb said the return of the rodeo queen was prompted by the desire to increase advance ticket sales.
“In the past, we got 4-H clubs to help with sales and they got a percentage of the proceeds,” Robb said. The clubs used the funds for a scholarship for a club member, Robb said.
This year, the queen candidates each get to keep 10 percent of the proceeds from her ticket sales.
“It helps out the girls, it helps out us,” Robb said. “Our hope is that the girls will use this money for their college educations.”
Each club selected its own candidate.
The queen will be announced at the Aug. 4 rodeo, Robb said. The candidates won’t know before then who has won, she added.
Each girl was given 250 tickets to sell, and all are being assisted by their 4-H clubs.
CALLIE UMHOLTZ has been a member of Logan Pals for 11 years.
“I like helping the younger kids,” the 18-year-old said. “That’s always fun.”
Umholtz is active in horse, sheep, photography, foods and clothing construction. She will show sheep at the fair.
“You’d be surprised how high some sheep can jump,” she said.
Umholtz has also worked as a lifeguard at the Humboldt pool for three summers. She participated in basketball, soccer and softball all four years at Humboldt High School and will attend Allen County Community College this fall on a softball scholarship. She plans to use her proceeds for her college expenses.
“I’m going into communications and event planning,” she said.
After ACCC, she plans to go to Kansas State University and possibly live at the 4-H affiliated Clovia House, she said.
Ultimately, she would love to go into wedding planning.
“I like to bake and I like photography and I can flower arrange,” she said. “That’s some of the bits and pieces” of that career.
“I want to own my own business,” Umholtz said.
Contact Callie Umholtz at 620-473-2360 for tickets before July 29.
KASSANDRA TURNER calls Mildred home. She is a member of Prairie Rose, which has about a dozen member families, she said.
To enhance her sales, she put up fliers at Wranglers Salon in Iola and “gave each family in the 4-H group 20 tickets to sell.” That approach reflects Turner’s leadership skills, exemplified as a member of the Kansas Peer Education Group.
“There’s 16 of us in the whole state,” she said. “We go to different schools and teach them about career connections, job interviews, scholarship applications and traffic safety,” Turner said. Peers also “share dynamic leadership skills with the other schools,” she said.
Peer members are selected by former and current Peer participants. Potential members must submit a video application. Turner made her video about recycling.
In addition to Peer, the 17-year-old is active in Family, Career and Community Leaders of America.
“FCCLA is a very big organization, especially in Moran,” she said. Turner recently returned from a trip to Nashville, Tenn., with her FCCLA group.
“We won state competition and so we (went) on to nationals” she said.
She is also active in 4-H, Future Farmers of America, yearbook and forensics.
“I can’t play sports because I dance with South Street Dance Studio and that takes up a lot of time,” she said of another hobby.
Turner hopes to go to Allen County Community College.
“I want to go into graphic design and commercial arts,” she said of her career plans.
Turner reminds potential fair goers to get their tickets through the queen candidates.
“They’re cheaper this way than if you buy them at the door,” she said.
Contact Kassandra Turner at 620-496-7985.
LAUREN TONEY loves the fair.
“I think it would be fun to be queen,” she said. “I go to all the rodeos.”
Her favorite is the shodeo.
“It’s where the kids do their own rodeo,” she said. Shodeo events include sheep riding — known as mutton busting — and roping calves and goats. Ranch rodeo, explained the 15 year-old, reflects “what real cowboys do — It’s guys cutting cows,” she said.
Toney has been in City Slickers for eight years. She’ll show two steer and a meat goat at this year’s fair.
“I try not to name them because I get too attached,” she said of the animals she’ll say goodbye to in August. In the past she has shown pigs and a horse, she said.
The high school sophomore is also involved in basketball, softball and FFA.
Toney enlisted the help of her family to sell tickets, “because I have a big family,” she said. She plans to use her proceeds for next year’s animal projects. Her career goal is to become a veterinarian.
Contact Lauren Toney at 365-2556.
MAGGIE TERHUNE talks business, promoting the discount that fair goers receive if they buy event tickets from a rodeo queen candidate or other 4-H’er.
The incoming freshman at Iola High School is the only high-schooler in her Prairie Dell 4-H group, she said. She is involved in crafts, cooking and horseless horse.
“It’s for people who want to do horse projects but don’t have a horse,” Terhune said.
“I’m also in senior line dance,” she said. “I had about a month to learn the dance before I had to perform for 4-H Days,” she said of her last challenge. “It was fun.”
In school, Terhune participates in marching band and color guard.
“I’m also hoping to be in forensics and I’m going to be in drama club,” she said. She worked in concessions and played basketball last year as well.
Active in theater, the 14-year-old enjoys her time on stage.
“I did the summer theater in the park,” she said. “I was Candy Sprinkles.”
Next, Terhune will “try out for Godspell,” this fall’s Iola Community Theatre 18-and-under production.
Terhune, who lives with her mom and three siblings, will use her proceeds to purchase school clothes, she said.
“After I graduate from high school, I want to go to Allen County Community College (for) theater and then get into Southwestern University or Oklahoma University and major in theater,” she said. “I want to make my living as a professional actress.”
Contact Maggie Terhune at 228-3207 for event tickets before July 29.
Four candidates are vying for the title, which will be determined by fair event ticket sales.
The queen candidates are selling tickets for $4 each through July 29. After that, the price increases to $5 per ticket.
Two tickets are required to attend the Aug. 4 and 5 URA-MRCA rodeos and Aug. 8 demolition derby. Only one ticket is needed for the ranch rodeo, draft horse pull and antique tractor pull.
Fair board treasurer Becky Robb said the return of the rodeo queen was prompted by the desire to increase advance ticket sales.
“In the past, we got 4-H clubs to help with sales and they got a percentage of the proceeds,” Robb said. The clubs used the funds for a scholarship for a club member, Robb said.
This year, the queen candidates each get to keep 10 percent of the proceeds from her ticket sales.
“It helps out the girls, it helps out us,” Robb said. “Our hope is that the girls will use this money for their college educations.”
Each club selected its own candidate.
The queen will be announced at the Aug. 4 rodeo, Robb said. The candidates won’t know before then who has won, she added.
Each girl was given 250 tickets to sell, and all are being assisted by their 4-H clubs.
CALLIE UMHOLTZ has been a member of Logan Pals for 11 years.
“I like helping the younger kids,” the 18-year-old said. “That’s always fun.”
Umholtz is active in horse, sheep, photography, foods and clothing construction. She will show sheep at the fair.
“You’d be surprised how high some sheep can jump,” she said.
Umholtz has also worked as a lifeguard at the Humboldt pool for three summers. She participated in basketball, soccer and softball all four years at Humboldt High School and will attend Allen County Community College this fall on a softball scholarship. She plans to use her proceeds for her college expenses.
“I’m going into communications and event planning,” she said.
After ACCC, she plans to go to Kansas State University and possibly live at the 4-H affiliated Clovia House, she said.
Ultimately, she would love to go into wedding planning.
“I like to bake and I like photography and I can flower arrange,” she said. “That’s some of the bits and pieces” of that career.
“I want to own my own business,” Umholtz said.
Contact Callie Umholtz at 620-473-2360 for tickets before July 29.
KASSANDRA TURNER calls Mildred home. She is a member of Prairie Rose, which has about a dozen member families, she said.
To enhance her sales, she put up fliers at Wranglers Salon in Iola and “gave each family in the 4-H group 20 tickets to sell.” That approach reflects Turner’s leadership skills, exemplified as a member of the Kansas Peer Education Group.
“There’s 16 of us in the whole state,” she said. “We go to different schools and teach them about career connections, job interviews, scholarship applications and traffic safety,” Turner said. Peers also “share dynamic leadership skills with the other schools,” she said.
Peer members are selected by former and current Peer participants. Potential members must submit a video application. Turner made her video about recycling.
In addition to Peer, the 17-year-old is active in Family, Career and Community Leaders of America.
“FCCLA is a very big organization, especially in Moran,” she said. Turner recently returned from a trip to Nashville, Tenn., with her FCCLA group.
“We won state competition and so we (went) on to nationals” she said.
She is also active in 4-H, Future Farmers of America, yearbook and forensics.
“I can’t play sports because I dance with South Street Dance Studio and that takes up a lot of time,” she said of another hobby.
Turner hopes to go to Allen County Community College.
“I want to go into graphic design and commercial arts,” she said of her career plans.
Turner reminds potential fair goers to get their tickets through the queen candidates.
“They’re cheaper this way than if you buy them at the door,” she said.
Contact Kassandra Turner at 620-496-7985.
LAUREN TONEY loves the fair.
“I think it would be fun to be queen,” she said. “I go to all the rodeos.”
Her favorite is the shodeo.
“It’s where the kids do their own rodeo,” she said. Shodeo events include sheep riding — known as mutton busting — and roping calves and goats. Ranch rodeo, explained the 15 year-old, reflects “what real cowboys do — It’s guys cutting cows,” she said.
Toney has been in City Slickers for eight years. She’ll show two steer and a meat goat at this year’s fair.
“I try not to name them because I get too attached,” she said of the animals she’ll say goodbye to in August. In the past she has shown pigs and a horse, she said.
The high school sophomore is also involved in basketball, softball and FFA.
Toney enlisted the help of her family to sell tickets, “because I have a big family,” she said. She plans to use her proceeds for next year’s animal projects. Her career goal is to become a veterinarian.
Contact Lauren Toney at 365-2556.
MAGGIE TERHUNE talks business, promoting the discount that fair goers receive if they buy event tickets from a rodeo queen candidate or other 4-H’er.
The incoming freshman at Iola High School is the only high-schooler in her Prairie Dell 4-H group, she said. She is involved in crafts, cooking and horseless horse.
“It’s for people who want to do horse projects but don’t have a horse,” Terhune said.
“I’m also in senior line dance,” she said. “I had about a month to learn the dance before I had to perform for 4-H Days,” she said of her last challenge. “It was fun.”
In school, Terhune participates in marching band and color guard.
“I’m also hoping to be in forensics and I’m going to be in drama club,” she said. She worked in concessions and played basketball last year as well.
Active in theater, the 14-year-old enjoys her time on stage.
“I did the summer theater in the park,” she said. “I was Candy Sprinkles.”
Next, Terhune will “try out for Godspell,” this fall’s Iola Community Theatre 18-and-under production.
Terhune, who lives with her mom and three siblings, will use her proceeds to purchase school clothes, she said.
“After I graduate from high school, I want to go to Allen County Community College (for) theater and then get into Southwestern University or Oklahoma University and major in theater,” she said. “I want to make my living as a professional actress.”
Contact Maggie Terhune at 228-3207 for event tickets before July 29.
Budget woes worry school board
HUMBOLDT — Budget worries again overshadowed academic achievement at the USD 258 board meeting Monday.
Superintendent of Schools Bob Heigele said state budget predictions foretell another reduction in base per pupil state aid. Heigele said Kansas State Department of Education Deputy Commissioner Dale Dennis said in a series of memos that the district would receive only half its apportioned state aid, due to schools Nov. 1. “We’ve only received half of that,” Heigele noted.
Another memo said that, statewide, because of increased school enrollment, increased number of students receiving free and reduced price lunches and a decline in assessed taxation valuation, the state needs another $1 billion to fund state aid to schools. Without the money, Heigele said, base aid could drop from $4,218 to $4,068. At the beginning of the school year, Heigele estimated the district stood to gain $88,000 due to increased enrollment figures. Now, he said, schools may face a 3.6 percent decrease in funding if base aid is adjusted as proposed.
If state funds decline further, as some predict, the “state will probably reduce state aid another $200” per pupil, Heigele warned board members. “We could look at a $188,000 hit this year” in the district budget, he said.
“I can’t come up with that kind of money without considering a lot of significant cuts,” Heigele said.
Still, he told the board he did not think the district should, as yet, join a possible lawsuit by Schools for Fair Funding, the group responsible for raising legislative aid to schools through legal action in 1994. Joining the lobbying effort would cost $2 per pupil, he said. But, he noted, “the cost (of involvement in the suit) will go up depending on how long the lawsuit goes on.” Schools for Fair Funding is fighting to restore base aid to the Sept. 2008 rate of $4,488.
“At this point, I’m not recommending we get involved in this,” Heigele said. “I think if it comes about it will cause more ill feeling s between the legislature and school officials. When the legislature is back in session, I believe they will do the best they can for the schools. Right now, every agency in this state is suffering.”
HUMBOLDT Elementary School is sitting better, financially, than the rest of the district.
The school has been awarded a $28,168 Small, Rural School Achievement Program (REAP) grant. *note: comma is in official name* The grants, designed help schools meet annual yearly progress, can be used to purchase reading and mathematics supplies, technology and curriculum at the elementary level, said Kay Bolt, elementary principal.
In addition, Bolt said, “we’re looking into buying some playground equipment” for the northwest portion of the school yard to equalize use of the space. “We have money for it,” she said.
Humboldt schools administered 125 doses of the H1N1 vaccine to students Monday. The high school had about three weeks with greater than 5 percent absenteeism due to sickness, said High School Principal K.B. Criss. The elementary had “been pretty good up until today,” Bolt said. Monday saw 24 students out due to fever and coughs, she said.
The district received official notice from the KSDE that Humboldt Elementary had met the standard of excellence for fourth and fifth grade reading, third and fifth grade math and building-wide for reading and math. The middle school met the standard of excellence building-wide, seventh and eight grades for reading and math, and the high school building-wide for reading and math. In addition, the high school met 100 percent proficiency in science. AYP is judged on reading and math, Criss noted.
IN OTHER business, the board discussed a technology audit of all the schools’ equipment and wiring and creating a schematic of the current technology system. Heigele is also applying for a $125,000 tech rich grant.
“If we get it, it would probably allow us to make all our middle school classrooms tech rich,” he said. Criss noted the grant would cover four middle school classes. The grant requires a $50,000 match from the school district. “You have that in your capital outlay” fund, Heigele told the board.
Staci Hudlin resigned as high school volley ball coach; Stephanie Middleton Splechter was hired to replace her.
John Johnson was hired as assistant middle school girls basketball coach and Amy Welch as assistant girls high school basketball coach.
Craig Smith was hired as high school principal on a two year contract beginning with the 2010-2011 academic year.
School records of canceled checks, purchase orders, employee applications and the like from 2003-2004 were approved for destruction. Records are routinely destroyed after five years, Heigele said.
Superintendent of Schools Bob Heigele said state budget predictions foretell another reduction in base per pupil state aid. Heigele said Kansas State Department of Education Deputy Commissioner Dale Dennis said in a series of memos that the district would receive only half its apportioned state aid, due to schools Nov. 1. “We’ve only received half of that,” Heigele noted.
Another memo said that, statewide, because of increased school enrollment, increased number of students receiving free and reduced price lunches and a decline in assessed taxation valuation, the state needs another $1 billion to fund state aid to schools. Without the money, Heigele said, base aid could drop from $4,218 to $4,068. At the beginning of the school year, Heigele estimated the district stood to gain $88,000 due to increased enrollment figures. Now, he said, schools may face a 3.6 percent decrease in funding if base aid is adjusted as proposed.
If state funds decline further, as some predict, the “state will probably reduce state aid another $200” per pupil, Heigele warned board members. “We could look at a $188,000 hit this year” in the district budget, he said.
“I can’t come up with that kind of money without considering a lot of significant cuts,” Heigele said.
Still, he told the board he did not think the district should, as yet, join a possible lawsuit by Schools for Fair Funding, the group responsible for raising legislative aid to schools through legal action in 1994. Joining the lobbying effort would cost $2 per pupil, he said. But, he noted, “the cost (of involvement in the suit) will go up depending on how long the lawsuit goes on.” Schools for Fair Funding is fighting to restore base aid to the Sept. 2008 rate of $4,488.
“At this point, I’m not recommending we get involved in this,” Heigele said. “I think if it comes about it will cause more ill feeling s between the legislature and school officials. When the legislature is back in session, I believe they will do the best they can for the schools. Right now, every agency in this state is suffering.”
HUMBOLDT Elementary School is sitting better, financially, than the rest of the district.
The school has been awarded a $28,168 Small, Rural School Achievement Program (REAP) grant. *note: comma is in official name* The grants, designed help schools meet annual yearly progress, can be used to purchase reading and mathematics supplies, technology and curriculum at the elementary level, said Kay Bolt, elementary principal.
In addition, Bolt said, “we’re looking into buying some playground equipment” for the northwest portion of the school yard to equalize use of the space. “We have money for it,” she said.
Humboldt schools administered 125 doses of the H1N1 vaccine to students Monday. The high school had about three weeks with greater than 5 percent absenteeism due to sickness, said High School Principal K.B. Criss. The elementary had “been pretty good up until today,” Bolt said. Monday saw 24 students out due to fever and coughs, she said.
The district received official notice from the KSDE that Humboldt Elementary had met the standard of excellence for fourth and fifth grade reading, third and fifth grade math and building-wide for reading and math. The middle school met the standard of excellence building-wide, seventh and eight grades for reading and math, and the high school building-wide for reading and math. In addition, the high school met 100 percent proficiency in science. AYP is judged on reading and math, Criss noted.
IN OTHER business, the board discussed a technology audit of all the schools’ equipment and wiring and creating a schematic of the current technology system. Heigele is also applying for a $125,000 tech rich grant.
“If we get it, it would probably allow us to make all our middle school classrooms tech rich,” he said. Criss noted the grant would cover four middle school classes. The grant requires a $50,000 match from the school district. “You have that in your capital outlay” fund, Heigele told the board.
Staci Hudlin resigned as high school volley ball coach; Stephanie Middleton Splechter was hired to replace her.
John Johnson was hired as assistant middle school girls basketball coach and Amy Welch as assistant girls high school basketball coach.
Craig Smith was hired as high school principal on a two year contract beginning with the 2010-2011 academic year.
School records of canceled checks, purchase orders, employee applications and the like from 2003-2004 were approved for destruction. Records are routinely destroyed after five years, Heigele said.
Cuts not causing bleeding — yet — for health agency
Unlike other agencies which have had to reduce staff or services due to state budget cuts, the Southeast Kansas Multi-County Health Department is in status quo mode.
The agency, which serves Allen, Bourbon, Anderson and Woodson counties, is in the midst of its fiscal year, which runs July 1 through June 30.
The agency received approximately 31 percent of its funding this year from the state, said Diane Bertone, administrator and advanced registered nurse practitioner. That money comes in the form of grants, which must be applied for each year, Bertone noted.
Grants funds, when received, are directed to particular programs only, and do not go into a general operating budget, Bertone said.
The health department receives grants for five programs.
Women, Infants and Children is a federal program which gives funds to states to support prenatal and early childhood nutritional health. WIC is offered only in Anderson and Woodson counties, Bertone said.
Family planning, immunization and maternal/child health are grant-funded programs wherein “all the grant (funds) apply to all four counties,” Bertone said. Public health preparedness receives funding from both the state and the federal governement.
Besides state and federal funds, the health department budget relies on fees, donations and insurance, Bertone said.
Total operating budget for the four county region this year was $674,864, Bertone said.
WHEN IT comes to planning next year’s budget, there is little certainty, Bertone said, as “everything gets cuts every year.”
While funds are decreasing, she said user numbers are on the rise.
The growth was not unexpected, given the current economic climate.
“The economy is hurting and it hurts us, too,” Bertone said. “We’re seeing more people in need than we have in the past. There are more people who are unemployed, uninsured and underserved.”
In better times, Bertone acknowledged, such individuals have other sources of assistance, be it income or family help.
“We are in economic struggles here,” Bertone said of the region. “I’m just amazed how many people are calling us now.”
The agency has four full-time employees.
The agency, which serves Allen, Bourbon, Anderson and Woodson counties, is in the midst of its fiscal year, which runs July 1 through June 30.
The agency received approximately 31 percent of its funding this year from the state, said Diane Bertone, administrator and advanced registered nurse practitioner. That money comes in the form of grants, which must be applied for each year, Bertone noted.
Grants funds, when received, are directed to particular programs only, and do not go into a general operating budget, Bertone said.
The health department receives grants for five programs.
Women, Infants and Children is a federal program which gives funds to states to support prenatal and early childhood nutritional health. WIC is offered only in Anderson and Woodson counties, Bertone said.
Family planning, immunization and maternal/child health are grant-funded programs wherein “all the grant (funds) apply to all four counties,” Bertone said. Public health preparedness receives funding from both the state and the federal governement.
Besides state and federal funds, the health department budget relies on fees, donations and insurance, Bertone said.
Total operating budget for the four county region this year was $674,864, Bertone said.
WHEN IT comes to planning next year’s budget, there is little certainty, Bertone said, as “everything gets cuts every year.”
While funds are decreasing, she said user numbers are on the rise.
The growth was not unexpected, given the current economic climate.
“The economy is hurting and it hurts us, too,” Bertone said. “We’re seeing more people in need than we have in the past. There are more people who are unemployed, uninsured and underserved.”
In better times, Bertone acknowledged, such individuals have other sources of assistance, be it income or family help.
“We are in economic struggles here,” Bertone said of the region. “I’m just amazed how many people are calling us now.”
The agency has four full-time employees.
Cuts hurt crisis provider
“It’s been affecting everyone,” said Bob Chase of recent state budget cuts.
Chase, executive director of the Southeast Kansas Mental Health Center, noted that “already, as a result of the governor’s cuts, we’ve had to take $300,000 out of our budget as of Jan. 1.”
The agency works on a calendar year.
Chase said the cuts were difficult.
“We’d already passed our budget in November, and we took 3 percent out then. We eliminated any pay increases. We had already taken out $100,000 — then things got worse with the next state budget projection.”
The agency also laid off three support service employees before Christmas, left one such position unfilled, and will not replace one of four contracted psychiatrists who recently left to pursue other career options, Chase said.
“It’s going to be a huge impact,” Chase said of the psychiatric service cut. “That’s a critical service.”
Last year, 757 screenings were required for mental health clients.
“That’s the highest we’ve ever had,” noted Doug Wright, Director of Crisis Services, “but it’s going up every year.”
The number is rising “because there’s more anxiety and stress for individuals and families,” Chase said. “Our ability to cope is impacted” by the current economic crisis, he noted.
SEKMHC SERVES 3,000 clients in Neosho, Linn, Allen, Anderson, Bourbon and Woodson counties. There are seven offices under the umbrella organization.
“Half of our psychiatry is done in Humboldt,” Chase said. “Pittsburg’s Psychiatric Unit is closed. Coffeyville Medical Center is closed.” With the recent loss, Chase said, “new clients won’t be able to be seen.”
Not all services are structured.
“We also do 24/7 emergency services for the six counties,” Chase said. Such service can be critical. “Sometimes we have three crises going at once. This past weekend,” he said, “there were seven crisis assessments.”
Chase said the shortage of psychiatric care “creates more emergencies. If individuals can’t get timely intervention,” their situation is more likely to escalate, resulting in law enforcement involvement or placement at the state mental hospital in Osawatomie.
Another breech to the safety net is in lag time for services. If courts are involved, as they are in cases of involuntary placement to the state hospital, that client must, by law, be given a court hearing within 48 hours of intake, Chase said. But, “they’re cutting the courts, too.”
“We have an unfunded mandate that we have to serve (clients) in a timely fashion, regardless of ability to pay.”
Yet, he noted, “there are no hospitals that will take anybody for free, so (clients are) sent to the state” hospital.
“We’ve been asked (by Greg Valentine, the superintendent of the hospital) not to send people to Osawatomie because they’re over their census — but they have to take them,” Chase explained. The state hospital has 176 beds. As of Sunday, they had 200 patients, Clinical Director John Helton said.
If clients have been picked up by law enforcement due to a crisis situation, “We’ve been asked to keep them in jail, but they should be in the hospital,” Chase continued. As it is, “most of them are released back into the community for outpatient therapy,” he said.
It’s frustrating, Chase admitted.
“The system starts to break down at some point.”
THE MENTAL HEALTH center’s clients are a reflection of society.
About 150 children are served in an after school program; a summer program that runs four days a week, five hours a day, serves 200 children.
Children make up 34 percent of the agency’s clients. Almost 50 percent are not able to be in the workforce, due to age or disabilities; 28 percent are unemployed workers.
Slightly more women than men are served and clients tend to mirror societal norms for married/divorced/etc.
In additon, the agency receives about 30 crisis hot line calls routed through the Iola office each day, said Ernest Adams, crisis coordinator. To help deal with the heavy, and sometimes unpredictable, caseload, “everyone who’s a therapist is also trained as an emergency clinician,” Chase said. About 20 therapists and 30 case managers — 22 of whom work with children — serve the agency. There are three chemical abuse counselors. Three psychiatrists and one advanced registered nurse practitioner are contracted by the agency. They live in the Kansas City area and must be paid for their drive time, Chase noted.
“There are very few psychiatrists who live in southeast Kansas,” he said. “I have to pay them for driving, or you don’t get them.”
Altogether, the annual budget supports 91 full time equivalent and 55 part time (including summer) employees for the six counties.
Alan Hauser, Chief Financial Officer for SEKMHC said the total annual mental health budget for the six county area runs a little over $7 million. Any reduction is felt.
When the state recently cut Medicaid reimbursements by 10 percent, it had a greater impact than numbers alone can tell, Chase noted. “Our Medicaid revenue is probably 60 percent of our budget,” Chase said.
“Medicaid is a fee for service for the poor and disabled population,” Hauser explained. It is a federal payment administered by the state.
“Of the money we get paid, 30 percent is state money and 70 percent is federal,” he noted. The cut resulted in reduced payments to the state from the federal government as the balance swung to 27 percent state reimbursement and 63 percent federal, he said.
“So the federal government actually saves more money by the 10 percent cut than the state does,” Hauser noted.
“It’s money we’re paying salaries with,” Chase said. “When this happened, we cut positions.”
In addition Hauser noted, “they also cut our grant money $80,000.”
The cuts are especially stinging as Kansas law mandates that “every county musty have a mental health center,” Chase noted. “They may have their own or combine with other counties to save on costs,” he explained.
Throughout the state, 26 mental health centers serve about 70,000 clients in the 105 counties.
Nathan Fawson, director of children’s services, said the agency may face yet more cuts.
It is uncertain what will happen to a $175 Family Centered Sysytem of Care grant the six county area relies on. “It’s one of the potential cuts that may or may not come to pass,” Fossen noted, as the legislature continues deliberations to meet the state’s budget crisis.
“If people are concerned about these thngs, they should contact their legislators — NOW,” Chase empahasizsed. “That’s the only thing they listen to.”
Despite the cuts, Chase said, “we will meet our standards for emergency services. We have done amazing things here for a rural mental health system.”
Chase, executive director of the Southeast Kansas Mental Health Center, noted that “already, as a result of the governor’s cuts, we’ve had to take $300,000 out of our budget as of Jan. 1.”
The agency works on a calendar year.
Chase said the cuts were difficult.
“We’d already passed our budget in November, and we took 3 percent out then. We eliminated any pay increases. We had already taken out $100,000 — then things got worse with the next state budget projection.”
The agency also laid off three support service employees before Christmas, left one such position unfilled, and will not replace one of four contracted psychiatrists who recently left to pursue other career options, Chase said.
“It’s going to be a huge impact,” Chase said of the psychiatric service cut. “That’s a critical service.”
Last year, 757 screenings were required for mental health clients.
“That’s the highest we’ve ever had,” noted Doug Wright, Director of Crisis Services, “but it’s going up every year.”
The number is rising “because there’s more anxiety and stress for individuals and families,” Chase said. “Our ability to cope is impacted” by the current economic crisis, he noted.
SEKMHC SERVES 3,000 clients in Neosho, Linn, Allen, Anderson, Bourbon and Woodson counties. There are seven offices under the umbrella organization.
“Half of our psychiatry is done in Humboldt,” Chase said. “Pittsburg’s Psychiatric Unit is closed. Coffeyville Medical Center is closed.” With the recent loss, Chase said, “new clients won’t be able to be seen.”
Not all services are structured.
“We also do 24/7 emergency services for the six counties,” Chase said. Such service can be critical. “Sometimes we have three crises going at once. This past weekend,” he said, “there were seven crisis assessments.”
Chase said the shortage of psychiatric care “creates more emergencies. If individuals can’t get timely intervention,” their situation is more likely to escalate, resulting in law enforcement involvement or placement at the state mental hospital in Osawatomie.
Another breech to the safety net is in lag time for services. If courts are involved, as they are in cases of involuntary placement to the state hospital, that client must, by law, be given a court hearing within 48 hours of intake, Chase said. But, “they’re cutting the courts, too.”
“We have an unfunded mandate that we have to serve (clients) in a timely fashion, regardless of ability to pay.”
Yet, he noted, “there are no hospitals that will take anybody for free, so (clients are) sent to the state” hospital.
“We’ve been asked (by Greg Valentine, the superintendent of the hospital) not to send people to Osawatomie because they’re over their census — but they have to take them,” Chase explained. The state hospital has 176 beds. As of Sunday, they had 200 patients, Clinical Director John Helton said.
If clients have been picked up by law enforcement due to a crisis situation, “We’ve been asked to keep them in jail, but they should be in the hospital,” Chase continued. As it is, “most of them are released back into the community for outpatient therapy,” he said.
It’s frustrating, Chase admitted.
“The system starts to break down at some point.”
THE MENTAL HEALTH center’s clients are a reflection of society.
About 150 children are served in an after school program; a summer program that runs four days a week, five hours a day, serves 200 children.
Children make up 34 percent of the agency’s clients. Almost 50 percent are not able to be in the workforce, due to age or disabilities; 28 percent are unemployed workers.
Slightly more women than men are served and clients tend to mirror societal norms for married/divorced/etc.
In additon, the agency receives about 30 crisis hot line calls routed through the Iola office each day, said Ernest Adams, crisis coordinator. To help deal with the heavy, and sometimes unpredictable, caseload, “everyone who’s a therapist is also trained as an emergency clinician,” Chase said. About 20 therapists and 30 case managers — 22 of whom work with children — serve the agency. There are three chemical abuse counselors. Three psychiatrists and one advanced registered nurse practitioner are contracted by the agency. They live in the Kansas City area and must be paid for their drive time, Chase noted.
“There are very few psychiatrists who live in southeast Kansas,” he said. “I have to pay them for driving, or you don’t get them.”
Altogether, the annual budget supports 91 full time equivalent and 55 part time (including summer) employees for the six counties.
Alan Hauser, Chief Financial Officer for SEKMHC said the total annual mental health budget for the six county area runs a little over $7 million. Any reduction is felt.
When the state recently cut Medicaid reimbursements by 10 percent, it had a greater impact than numbers alone can tell, Chase noted. “Our Medicaid revenue is probably 60 percent of our budget,” Chase said.
“Medicaid is a fee for service for the poor and disabled population,” Hauser explained. It is a federal payment administered by the state.
“Of the money we get paid, 30 percent is state money and 70 percent is federal,” he noted. The cut resulted in reduced payments to the state from the federal government as the balance swung to 27 percent state reimbursement and 63 percent federal, he said.
“So the federal government actually saves more money by the 10 percent cut than the state does,” Hauser noted.
“It’s money we’re paying salaries with,” Chase said. “When this happened, we cut positions.”
In addition Hauser noted, “they also cut our grant money $80,000.”
The cuts are especially stinging as Kansas law mandates that “every county musty have a mental health center,” Chase noted. “They may have their own or combine with other counties to save on costs,” he explained.
Throughout the state, 26 mental health centers serve about 70,000 clients in the 105 counties.
Nathan Fawson, director of children’s services, said the agency may face yet more cuts.
It is uncertain what will happen to a $175 Family Centered Sysytem of Care grant the six county area relies on. “It’s one of the potential cuts that may or may not come to pass,” Fossen noted, as the legislature continues deliberations to meet the state’s budget crisis.
“If people are concerned about these thngs, they should contact their legislators — NOW,” Chase empahasizsed. “That’s the only thing they listen to.”
Despite the cuts, Chase said, “we will meet our standards for emergency services. We have done amazing things here for a rural mental health system.”
Iola is sunny for this Cloud
Jeanne Cloud is not a native Iolan, but she calls Iola home. “I’ve lived here longer than I’ve lived anywhere else in my life,” she said.
Though she hasn’t move far, she moved often.
“Both my husband and I grew up in Overland Park,” Cloud said. “We were both in college in Pittsburg when we married. Then we moved to Mansfield, Missouri” where Cloud’s parents had a chicken farm.
“My husband and I went in partnership with my parents raising 60,000 pullets,” Cloud said. Plus, she started her dog business.
The Clouds raised and showed St. Bernards. They owned four of them.
“One day, I realized the dogs were eating and we weren’t,” she said. “Raising pullets didn’t pay that much” and show dogs are an expensive hobby, so Cloud branched into grooming.
“The nearest groomer was 65 miles away, in Springfield,” she said. “People had been begging me to do grooming, so I go a pair of clippers and a book and I learned.”
“I found I had a real aptitude for it.” Cloud gave up the show dogs.
Then her husband was offered a job at Klein Tools.
“I moved to Iola in 1980, my husband and two little children and I.” She settled in “until I got divorced in 1988. I got stupid and thought I should just leave all the memories behind.”
So Cloud moved to Tulsa, where she had friends and her teenaged daughter could enroll in an accelerated learning program. “I knew after being there one year it was a mistake,” she said.
“I wasn’t a groomer there,” she said. “I had a corporate job with a bullet. I was climbing the ladder very quickly, but I missed my dog babies.” And she missed the friendliness of a small town. “I found out they would kill their mother,” she said of the cut-throat business world.
Still, she stayed six years, until her daughter completed high school. “She graduated May 24 of 1994; I moved back June 3.”
“I couldn’t wait to get back,” Cloud said. “My idea of a traffic jam is three cars.”
With her was her son, James. He was four months old when the family first came to Iola, eight years old when they moved to Tulsa, and 14 when he and Cloud returned.
“He’s 29 now,” Cloud said, and is married with two children. “He works for a company out of Kansas City. He goes back and forth everyday. We’d love to find him work here, but with the economy...” Coud trailed off.
But James and his family won’t move. They prefer life in Iola, and his wife Katy has parents in Humboldt that she is very close to, said Cloud. It’s one of those benefits of small town living — keepng your family close.
Having lived elsewhere, Cloud finds aspects of life in Iola amusing. “People consider me way out in the country,” she said of her business location near Gates Manufacturing. “I live in north Iola,” she said. “It’s exactly two miles from my driveway to here. It takes me five minutes to get to work.”
To Cloud, that proximity represents a lifestyle.
“It means a much less hectic way of life,” she said. “It means actually having the time to get to know people. It means having a grocery store half a mile from my house.” It’s the lifestyle that hooked Cloud, and keeps her — and her son, and his family — in Iola.
And it’s Iola’s sense of community, Cloud said. “If you’re having a problem, people will jump in and help you.” And she likes the Bowlus. “It pulls a lot of people in.”
But, Cloud said, “It seems the powers that be are all in the Good Ol’ Boys Club. A lot of times, they’re not open to new ideas.
We need to move into the 21st century. We need a recreation center. We need a bigger city commission.
If the people have the vision to do what is necessary to attract people, Iola will prosper. If they do not, we will disappear.”
“As the president said, we all need to buckle down and jump in. The question has to be asked, what do we have to offer people coming into this community? If it’s not enough , people won’t settle here.”
As for her favorite part of Iola, Cloud said “There’s so many, I have to sort through.”
“I love my handbell choir,” she said. “I love my bridge group. I love my church. And I love working on the board of the Allen County Animal Rescue Facility. My favorite activity is running the concessions stand for ACARF.”
“We currently have just about $100,000,” she said. “We need about $150,000 more to get finished. We now have a donor who will match donations up to $10,000, so if people give $1 we get $2.”
“I’m a shameless promoter of ACARF,” she laughed.
Even with all those things to keep her busy, her favorite activity is still the one she does everyday.
“I love, love, love my job,” she said. “God put me on earth to work with animals. I’m lucky enough to have found my vocation.” And a place to call home.
Though she hasn’t move far, she moved often.
“Both my husband and I grew up in Overland Park,” Cloud said. “We were both in college in Pittsburg when we married. Then we moved to Mansfield, Missouri” where Cloud’s parents had a chicken farm.
“My husband and I went in partnership with my parents raising 60,000 pullets,” Cloud said. Plus, she started her dog business.
The Clouds raised and showed St. Bernards. They owned four of them.
“One day, I realized the dogs were eating and we weren’t,” she said. “Raising pullets didn’t pay that much” and show dogs are an expensive hobby, so Cloud branched into grooming.
“The nearest groomer was 65 miles away, in Springfield,” she said. “People had been begging me to do grooming, so I go a pair of clippers and a book and I learned.”
“I found I had a real aptitude for it.” Cloud gave up the show dogs.
Then her husband was offered a job at Klein Tools.
“I moved to Iola in 1980, my husband and two little children and I.” She settled in “until I got divorced in 1988. I got stupid and thought I should just leave all the memories behind.”
So Cloud moved to Tulsa, where she had friends and her teenaged daughter could enroll in an accelerated learning program. “I knew after being there one year it was a mistake,” she said.
“I wasn’t a groomer there,” she said. “I had a corporate job with a bullet. I was climbing the ladder very quickly, but I missed my dog babies.” And she missed the friendliness of a small town. “I found out they would kill their mother,” she said of the cut-throat business world.
Still, she stayed six years, until her daughter completed high school. “She graduated May 24 of 1994; I moved back June 3.”
“I couldn’t wait to get back,” Cloud said. “My idea of a traffic jam is three cars.”
With her was her son, James. He was four months old when the family first came to Iola, eight years old when they moved to Tulsa, and 14 when he and Cloud returned.
“He’s 29 now,” Cloud said, and is married with two children. “He works for a company out of Kansas City. He goes back and forth everyday. We’d love to find him work here, but with the economy...” Coud trailed off.
But James and his family won’t move. They prefer life in Iola, and his wife Katy has parents in Humboldt that she is very close to, said Cloud. It’s one of those benefits of small town living — keepng your family close.
Having lived elsewhere, Cloud finds aspects of life in Iola amusing. “People consider me way out in the country,” she said of her business location near Gates Manufacturing. “I live in north Iola,” she said. “It’s exactly two miles from my driveway to here. It takes me five minutes to get to work.”
To Cloud, that proximity represents a lifestyle.
“It means a much less hectic way of life,” she said. “It means actually having the time to get to know people. It means having a grocery store half a mile from my house.” It’s the lifestyle that hooked Cloud, and keeps her — and her son, and his family — in Iola.
And it’s Iola’s sense of community, Cloud said. “If you’re having a problem, people will jump in and help you.” And she likes the Bowlus. “It pulls a lot of people in.”
But, Cloud said, “It seems the powers that be are all in the Good Ol’ Boys Club. A lot of times, they’re not open to new ideas.
We need to move into the 21st century. We need a recreation center. We need a bigger city commission.
If the people have the vision to do what is necessary to attract people, Iola will prosper. If they do not, we will disappear.”
“As the president said, we all need to buckle down and jump in. The question has to be asked, what do we have to offer people coming into this community? If it’s not enough , people won’t settle here.”
As for her favorite part of Iola, Cloud said “There’s so many, I have to sort through.”
“I love my handbell choir,” she said. “I love my bridge group. I love my church. And I love working on the board of the Allen County Animal Rescue Facility. My favorite activity is running the concessions stand for ACARF.”
“We currently have just about $100,000,” she said. “We need about $150,000 more to get finished. We now have a donor who will match donations up to $10,000, so if people give $1 we get $2.”
“I’m a shameless promoter of ACARF,” she laughed.
Even with all those things to keep her busy, her favorite activity is still the one she does everyday.
“I love, love, love my job,” she said. “God put me on earth to work with animals. I’m lucky enough to have found my vocation.” And a place to call home.
Homecoming bittersweet for Beine
Like many in Iola, Barbara Shafer Beine moved here to be closer to family. Now she says, “All the reasons we wanted to move down here are gone.”
Beine and her husband Phil moved from Ottawa in 2005 to assist her mother, who was in need of frequent dialysis treatments.
Her mother passed on three years ago, but Phil and Barbara have remained. A little over two years ago, their youngest daughter, Jessica, moved from the Kansas City area to be closer to them. Now the family includes granddaughter Alyssa, two, as well.
Although she had been gone from Iola for decades, Beine grew up in the area. Her parents and grandparents did, as well.
Barbara Shafer was raised on a farm five miles north of Iola. “It was Route 2 back then,” she said of her address.
Her father raised Herefords and she and her siblings tended 4-H pigs. When the wind blew the smell of the swine to the house, her father told them, “That’s the smell of money.” She didn’t like the odor, but the cash after selling the pigs was nice, she admitted.
Barbara attended Iola schools and graduated from Iola High School in 1968.
“We had to wear dresses to our knees,” she said of the school’s dress code. “The next year, they got to wear jeans — I missed out.”
In addition, she said, living on a farm at that time was socially isolating. Highway 169 didn’t exist for easy travel. With parents busy with farm work and other siblings to care for, “We didn’t get to go out very much,” she said. “At that time five miles was too far to go into town but once a week.”
Barbara moved to Yates Center after high school, where she “worked for Newtex, a sewing factory.” There, she met Phil Beine.
Phil had already enlisted with the army to pursue his chosen field, avionics. The couple married and together they moved to Georgia where Phil was based.
Phil was sent to Germany, and Barbara returned to Iola where she said she discovered “I was pregnant.”
She moved in with her parents, Harry and Juanita Shafer, while Phil was overseas. In December of 1973 their son John was born. A couple months later, Barbara and the baby joined her husband in Germany, where they spent the next year.
Back state side, Phil worked in at King Radio in Ottawa. “They build airplane radios,” Barbara explained. King offered Phil a better position in Gardener, so the family moved to Wellsville to be closer to the job.
Later, after being laid off, Phil found work in Olathe.
The family returned to Ottawa when Phil was offered a position with Dodson Aviation. He had that job until just before the couple moved to Iola. Phil had gotten laid off form work, and the closest place he could find employment there was in the Kansas City Area. In addition, the crime rate was going up in their area.
Phil “left his truck at a Park and Ride one day, and when he came back, his windshield wipers had been stolen,” Beine said. With her mother needing assistance, the move to Iola made sense.
Phil found work in Gas at Microtronics. Jessica works there now, too, as a secretary.
“I’ve always been a stay-at-home mom,” Beine said of her job.
For fun, Beine said she likes to ride scooters with friends on Iola’s streets. “We love riding them,” she said. “We just take off and ride all around town. The traffic’s a lot better here than in bigger towns,” she said.
“When we moved down here, they had the cheapest houses and property taxes and utilities were cheaper than where we came from,” she said. Now, however, she noted those prices are all on the rise.
She also misses the restaurants that have left town, like Burger King and Kentucky Fried Chicken. Those that remain, aside from fast food, she said, “are expensive.”
“One thing that’s neat is the drive in,” she said. “My daughter was 30 years old and had never been to a drive in movie.”
Beine also likes the fall here. “I love it when it’s cool,” she said. But winter’s ice she could do without. “They don’t scrape the streets,” she said of the city. “I was shocked when I first came here that they don’t do that.
But I do like the fact they go around and spray for mosquitoes,” Beine said. In addition, “I like the Bowlus Fine Arts Center and the Christian events there.”
Plus, Beine said, “It’s neat they kept the Funston Memorial up. It used to be out in the country,” she said of the historic home, “and it’s condition was so bad.”
Although she doesn’t see her family moving at this point, Beine would like to see some improvements in Iola.
“The hospital needs to upgrade,” she said. “If anything major happens, you have to go to the hospital Wichita.”
Also, she hopes the community will rally around providing transportation for dialysis patients.
“I’d ride up there and sleep in the car for four hours,” while her mother received treatment, Beine said of her thrice-weekly trips to Chanute. Beine had to have her mother at her treatment at 4:30 a.m., she said. She said she saw others from Iola doing the same thing, and thinks a van service might be helpful for patients in need.
Beine said she was “encouraged by the tea party, that they were allowed to pray. But more people should have turned out.”
Beine and her husband Phil moved from Ottawa in 2005 to assist her mother, who was in need of frequent dialysis treatments.
Her mother passed on three years ago, but Phil and Barbara have remained. A little over two years ago, their youngest daughter, Jessica, moved from the Kansas City area to be closer to them. Now the family includes granddaughter Alyssa, two, as well.
Although she had been gone from Iola for decades, Beine grew up in the area. Her parents and grandparents did, as well.
Barbara Shafer was raised on a farm five miles north of Iola. “It was Route 2 back then,” she said of her address.
Her father raised Herefords and she and her siblings tended 4-H pigs. When the wind blew the smell of the swine to the house, her father told them, “That’s the smell of money.” She didn’t like the odor, but the cash after selling the pigs was nice, she admitted.
Barbara attended Iola schools and graduated from Iola High School in 1968.
“We had to wear dresses to our knees,” she said of the school’s dress code. “The next year, they got to wear jeans — I missed out.”
In addition, she said, living on a farm at that time was socially isolating. Highway 169 didn’t exist for easy travel. With parents busy with farm work and other siblings to care for, “We didn’t get to go out very much,” she said. “At that time five miles was too far to go into town but once a week.”
Barbara moved to Yates Center after high school, where she “worked for Newtex, a sewing factory.” There, she met Phil Beine.
Phil had already enlisted with the army to pursue his chosen field, avionics. The couple married and together they moved to Georgia where Phil was based.
Phil was sent to Germany, and Barbara returned to Iola where she said she discovered “I was pregnant.”
She moved in with her parents, Harry and Juanita Shafer, while Phil was overseas. In December of 1973 their son John was born. A couple months later, Barbara and the baby joined her husband in Germany, where they spent the next year.
Back state side, Phil worked in at King Radio in Ottawa. “They build airplane radios,” Barbara explained. King offered Phil a better position in Gardener, so the family moved to Wellsville to be closer to the job.
Later, after being laid off, Phil found work in Olathe.
The family returned to Ottawa when Phil was offered a position with Dodson Aviation. He had that job until just before the couple moved to Iola. Phil had gotten laid off form work, and the closest place he could find employment there was in the Kansas City Area. In addition, the crime rate was going up in their area.
Phil “left his truck at a Park and Ride one day, and when he came back, his windshield wipers had been stolen,” Beine said. With her mother needing assistance, the move to Iola made sense.
Phil found work in Gas at Microtronics. Jessica works there now, too, as a secretary.
“I’ve always been a stay-at-home mom,” Beine said of her job.
For fun, Beine said she likes to ride scooters with friends on Iola’s streets. “We love riding them,” she said. “We just take off and ride all around town. The traffic’s a lot better here than in bigger towns,” she said.
“When we moved down here, they had the cheapest houses and property taxes and utilities were cheaper than where we came from,” she said. Now, however, she noted those prices are all on the rise.
She also misses the restaurants that have left town, like Burger King and Kentucky Fried Chicken. Those that remain, aside from fast food, she said, “are expensive.”
“One thing that’s neat is the drive in,” she said. “My daughter was 30 years old and had never been to a drive in movie.”
Beine also likes the fall here. “I love it when it’s cool,” she said. But winter’s ice she could do without. “They don’t scrape the streets,” she said of the city. “I was shocked when I first came here that they don’t do that.
But I do like the fact they go around and spray for mosquitoes,” Beine said. In addition, “I like the Bowlus Fine Arts Center and the Christian events there.”
Plus, Beine said, “It’s neat they kept the Funston Memorial up. It used to be out in the country,” she said of the historic home, “and it’s condition was so bad.”
Although she doesn’t see her family moving at this point, Beine would like to see some improvements in Iola.
“The hospital needs to upgrade,” she said. “If anything major happens, you have to go to the hospital Wichita.”
Also, she hopes the community will rally around providing transportation for dialysis patients.
“I’d ride up there and sleep in the car for four hours,” while her mother received treatment, Beine said of her thrice-weekly trips to Chanute. Beine had to have her mother at her treatment at 4:30 a.m., she said. She said she saw others from Iola doing the same thing, and thinks a van service might be helpful for patients in need.
Beine said she was “encouraged by the tea party, that they were allowed to pray. But more people should have turned out.”
To catch a mockingbird
As an English teacher, Charles Shields loved to teach “To Kill a Mockingbird.” When a student asked him if the man who wrote the book was still alive, he discovered how difficult it was to find biographical information about its author, Miss Harper Lee.
“The kids wanted to know about her,” Shields said. “Did she just make this up, or was this something she lived? How old is she?”
He assigned his students the task of doing a biography on Lee. It was the days before Google, and they found encyclopedia entries conflicted.
“Some say she has a degree in law from the University of Alabama. Some say she has a degree in English... but the actuality is she has no degree. She dropped out her senior year.”
One thing “all the encyclopedias agree” on, Shields said, is that Nelle Harper Lee “is a direct descendant of Robert E. Lee.
“Which is wrong,” he said. “I found that if something is printed once, it is repeated over and over,” Shields said.
It was at that point Shields realized, to teach Harper Lee, accurate information had to be found.
Shields began four years of research on Lee. He interviewed over 600 people who had known her, and researched both her papers and those of her best friend, Truman Capote.
In Capote papers, Shields “found 150 pages of typed single-space notes taken by Harper Lee” while the two were in Kansas researching Capote’s book “In Cold Blood.”
Capote and Lee were neighbors growing up, Shields said, and he became the character Dill in her book.
“I don’t know of any other situation in American literature where you have two writers who are the same age living next to each other separated by a rock fence,” Shields said.
“I traced her family back to Virginia piedmont,” Shields said. Lee’s family were farmers, and migrated south looking for better land. “The family got poor and poorer the farther South they went,” Shields said. “Her grandfather was in the bottom third of income of all farmers in Alabama.”
After completing his research, he sent the genealogy to Lee and her older sister, Alice.
He has never met the reclusive author, he said, but he did correspond with Alice for a time. After receiving the family history, Shields said she told him, “You are thorough.”
Shields said each year brings 100,000 new readers of Lee’s only novel, a story of racial unrest in the segregated south. It is most often read by high schoolers.
In the generations between when the story is set, when the story was written and the present, much has changed. Students are surprised to learn segregation was a forced system, Shields said. “They thought it was a southern custom, that blacks and whites just wanted to be separate.” Students in the world of cell phones and instant messaging are amazed by the pace of Maycomb, the book’s fictional setting.
Yet Maycomb accurately reflected Monroeville, the town Lee grew up in.
“The town was so small, they didn’t even have a policeman,” Shields said.
When four high schoolers in Monroeville decided to go on a spree, they figured they wouldn’t get caught.
“They were wrong,” Shields said.
That incident birthed a central figure in Mockingbird.
Boo Radley was based on one of the four boys who one night raided the town’s soda fountain and broke its high school windows. While three of the boys were sent to reform camp, the fourth was released to his farther, who said he’d take care of the matter.
The father confined his son to his home, where he spent the next 25 years or so until he died at age 42 from tuberculosis.
“He only went out at night,” Shields said of the real-life Arthur Bullwar.
And the children of the town did treat him as a specter, Shields said, warning each other not to breath the air around the Bullwar property, as it was “Arthur’s air.”
There are many other autobiographical foundations to the book, Shields said. Like Scout in the story, young Harper Lee was a tom boy with an attorney father. Unlike Scout’s father Atticus, however, Lee’s father was very formal. Even his wife called him “Mr. Lee,” Shields said.
Shields said Lee did not include a mother figure in the story as her own mother was a victim of bipolar disorder, and during her depressive states was emotionally unavailable to her children.
“She was just lost in her own sadness,” Shields said. “Then, during her manic phases, Mr. Lee had to plead with her to stay on the property,” as she would wander the town weaving elaborate tall tales, he said.
In Mockingbird, “Scout matter-of-factly says ‘My mother died when I was two so I don’t remember her.’” In real life, Shields said, Lee’s mother attempted to drown her at that age. “Only Alice walking in on her saved her life.”
It’s no wonder, he said, that Lee would omit any mother figure in the book.
The book, Shields said, is an homage to her father.
As a young attorney, he was given the case of two young black men who had murdered a shopkeeper during a botched robbery attempt. It was Mr. Lee’s first criminal case. He was 24.
In Alabama at the at time, Shields said, there was something called “Negro Law.”
“You gave cases to young white lawyers to practice on. They might get it wrong, but it didn’t matter,” because the defendants were black, was how the thinking went, Shields said.
Her father posted six objections in the case, the first being that the dead man’s son was on the jury. The next was that the sheriff, in selecting jurors, had thoroughly discussed the case with them all. All his objections were overruled. The defendants hanged.
“But there was worse to come,” said Shields. That Christmas, the shopkeeper’s other son received a package in the mail. “It was the scalps of the two hanged men.” Included was a note, “Justice has been served.”
Disgusted, “Mr. Lee never took another criminal case as long as he lived,” Shields said. “His view was, why participate in a system that’s broken?”
Harper Lee wrote the book to honor her father’s stance. She spent eight years of weekends and evenings after work writing Mockingbird.
She lived in a 12 by 14 foot apartment in New York City, with a closet door as a desk and no hot running water. Capote found her an editor, and she was told she had a natural voice, but no story.
“What have I got, then?” Shields said she asked.
She was told she had a series of character sketches, but no plot line.
Lee spent the next two years re-writing Mockingbird. She was assisted by a gift from two dear friends, a couple who believed in her ability. They gave her a year’s living expenses so she could seriously focus on her book. She did. After two revisions, she was given an advance by J.P. LIppincott to finish the book.
By November of 1959, she was on her third draft. But by then, “Nelle was tired of the book,” Shields said. “She realizes, ‘I hate this book. Everyone has gone on with their lives and I’m still sitting at a door.’”
She opened her window and threw the pages to the wind. Then she called her editor and told her what she had done.
Ty Hohoff, her editor, saved the book, Shields said. “She told her ‘It’s not your book to throw away. I have worked with you for two years and my professional hand is on those pages.’”
“Then,” Shields said Hohoff continued, “there’s the little thing about the advance. If you do not turn in that book, you owe us $8,000.”
Lee went to the alley, gathered the pages, typed them up and turned them in, he said.
J.P. LIppincott retitled the book, which Lee had called “Atticus” as “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
“Mockingbird says South,” Shields said, “and kill is always a zinger in a title.”
Hohoff warned Lee the book would probably sell about 2,500 copies.
“Before the civil rights movement, a book about racial injustice was not going to make people sprint to the bookstore,” Shields said. Instead, after publication in 1960, the book met with steady positive reviews. “By the end of 1960, it had sold half a million copies.”
In May 1961, Mockingbird won the Pulitzer prize for literature.
“She took her $500 prize money and gave to her local library in Monroeville. They bought their first set of encyclopedias with it.”
The book was then made into a low-budget film. “You can tell it was low-budget,” Shields said. “It’s not that they didn’t have color in 1961.” Plus, he said, “The movie only has three sets.”
Major studios thought the move would never sell. Popular movies had big sets and guns, he said. “A movie about a small town in Alabama wasn’t going to be popular,” Shields said.
Actor Gregory Peck ended up footing half the bill for the film’s production. The film won three academy awards.
By 1964, Shields said, “Harper Lee discovers she doesn’t enjoy being famous. There are some people who just crave attention. She’s not one of them.”
“She’s had a bellyful of ‘What’s your next book about? Does Atticus make a comeback?” So she retired to Monroeville, where she still lives today, he said.
Harper Lee and her sister Alice, now 96, share the family home. After church on Sundays, they go for catfish and then they go get Nelle’s letters, Shields said.
“The third generation is still asking ‘Are you Scout? Is your dad Atticus?’ And just sending plain fan letters saying ‘I love your book.’”
The only book that consistently outranks “To Kill a Mockingbird” in its influence is the Bible,” Shields said. “That’s not being blasphemous, it just is.”
“It’s the kind of book that sticks with you,” Shields said. “You get something out of it every time you read it. It changes as you get older.”
“It’s a great piece of literature,” Shields said, because it asks each individual who reads it ‘What would you do?’
“It puts you in those shoes. It tackles the biggest issue everywhere on the planet: Getting along with people who are a little bit different. It doesn’t mean they’re wrong, just different,” he said.
“It just stands the test of time.”
“The kids wanted to know about her,” Shields said. “Did she just make this up, or was this something she lived? How old is she?”
He assigned his students the task of doing a biography on Lee. It was the days before Google, and they found encyclopedia entries conflicted.
“Some say she has a degree in law from the University of Alabama. Some say she has a degree in English... but the actuality is she has no degree. She dropped out her senior year.”
One thing “all the encyclopedias agree” on, Shields said, is that Nelle Harper Lee “is a direct descendant of Robert E. Lee.
“Which is wrong,” he said. “I found that if something is printed once, it is repeated over and over,” Shields said.
It was at that point Shields realized, to teach Harper Lee, accurate information had to be found.
Shields began four years of research on Lee. He interviewed over 600 people who had known her, and researched both her papers and those of her best friend, Truman Capote.
In Capote papers, Shields “found 150 pages of typed single-space notes taken by Harper Lee” while the two were in Kansas researching Capote’s book “In Cold Blood.”
Capote and Lee were neighbors growing up, Shields said, and he became the character Dill in her book.
“I don’t know of any other situation in American literature where you have two writers who are the same age living next to each other separated by a rock fence,” Shields said.
“I traced her family back to Virginia piedmont,” Shields said. Lee’s family were farmers, and migrated south looking for better land. “The family got poor and poorer the farther South they went,” Shields said. “Her grandfather was in the bottom third of income of all farmers in Alabama.”
After completing his research, he sent the genealogy to Lee and her older sister, Alice.
He has never met the reclusive author, he said, but he did correspond with Alice for a time. After receiving the family history, Shields said she told him, “You are thorough.”
Shields said each year brings 100,000 new readers of Lee’s only novel, a story of racial unrest in the segregated south. It is most often read by high schoolers.
In the generations between when the story is set, when the story was written and the present, much has changed. Students are surprised to learn segregation was a forced system, Shields said. “They thought it was a southern custom, that blacks and whites just wanted to be separate.” Students in the world of cell phones and instant messaging are amazed by the pace of Maycomb, the book’s fictional setting.
Yet Maycomb accurately reflected Monroeville, the town Lee grew up in.
“The town was so small, they didn’t even have a policeman,” Shields said.
When four high schoolers in Monroeville decided to go on a spree, they figured they wouldn’t get caught.
“They were wrong,” Shields said.
That incident birthed a central figure in Mockingbird.
Boo Radley was based on one of the four boys who one night raided the town’s soda fountain and broke its high school windows. While three of the boys were sent to reform camp, the fourth was released to his farther, who said he’d take care of the matter.
The father confined his son to his home, where he spent the next 25 years or so until he died at age 42 from tuberculosis.
“He only went out at night,” Shields said of the real-life Arthur Bullwar.
And the children of the town did treat him as a specter, Shields said, warning each other not to breath the air around the Bullwar property, as it was “Arthur’s air.”
There are many other autobiographical foundations to the book, Shields said. Like Scout in the story, young Harper Lee was a tom boy with an attorney father. Unlike Scout’s father Atticus, however, Lee’s father was very formal. Even his wife called him “Mr. Lee,” Shields said.
Shields said Lee did not include a mother figure in the story as her own mother was a victim of bipolar disorder, and during her depressive states was emotionally unavailable to her children.
“She was just lost in her own sadness,” Shields said. “Then, during her manic phases, Mr. Lee had to plead with her to stay on the property,” as she would wander the town weaving elaborate tall tales, he said.
In Mockingbird, “Scout matter-of-factly says ‘My mother died when I was two so I don’t remember her.’” In real life, Shields said, Lee’s mother attempted to drown her at that age. “Only Alice walking in on her saved her life.”
It’s no wonder, he said, that Lee would omit any mother figure in the book.
The book, Shields said, is an homage to her father.
As a young attorney, he was given the case of two young black men who had murdered a shopkeeper during a botched robbery attempt. It was Mr. Lee’s first criminal case. He was 24.
In Alabama at the at time, Shields said, there was something called “Negro Law.”
“You gave cases to young white lawyers to practice on. They might get it wrong, but it didn’t matter,” because the defendants were black, was how the thinking went, Shields said.
Her father posted six objections in the case, the first being that the dead man’s son was on the jury. The next was that the sheriff, in selecting jurors, had thoroughly discussed the case with them all. All his objections were overruled. The defendants hanged.
“But there was worse to come,” said Shields. That Christmas, the shopkeeper’s other son received a package in the mail. “It was the scalps of the two hanged men.” Included was a note, “Justice has been served.”
Disgusted, “Mr. Lee never took another criminal case as long as he lived,” Shields said. “His view was, why participate in a system that’s broken?”
Harper Lee wrote the book to honor her father’s stance. She spent eight years of weekends and evenings after work writing Mockingbird.
She lived in a 12 by 14 foot apartment in New York City, with a closet door as a desk and no hot running water. Capote found her an editor, and she was told she had a natural voice, but no story.
“What have I got, then?” Shields said she asked.
She was told she had a series of character sketches, but no plot line.
Lee spent the next two years re-writing Mockingbird. She was assisted by a gift from two dear friends, a couple who believed in her ability. They gave her a year’s living expenses so she could seriously focus on her book. She did. After two revisions, she was given an advance by J.P. LIppincott to finish the book.
By November of 1959, she was on her third draft. But by then, “Nelle was tired of the book,” Shields said. “She realizes, ‘I hate this book. Everyone has gone on with their lives and I’m still sitting at a door.’”
She opened her window and threw the pages to the wind. Then she called her editor and told her what she had done.
Ty Hohoff, her editor, saved the book, Shields said. “She told her ‘It’s not your book to throw away. I have worked with you for two years and my professional hand is on those pages.’”
“Then,” Shields said Hohoff continued, “there’s the little thing about the advance. If you do not turn in that book, you owe us $8,000.”
Lee went to the alley, gathered the pages, typed them up and turned them in, he said.
J.P. LIppincott retitled the book, which Lee had called “Atticus” as “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
“Mockingbird says South,” Shields said, “and kill is always a zinger in a title.”
Hohoff warned Lee the book would probably sell about 2,500 copies.
“Before the civil rights movement, a book about racial injustice was not going to make people sprint to the bookstore,” Shields said. Instead, after publication in 1960, the book met with steady positive reviews. “By the end of 1960, it had sold half a million copies.”
In May 1961, Mockingbird won the Pulitzer prize for literature.
“She took her $500 prize money and gave to her local library in Monroeville. They bought their first set of encyclopedias with it.”
The book was then made into a low-budget film. “You can tell it was low-budget,” Shields said. “It’s not that they didn’t have color in 1961.” Plus, he said, “The movie only has three sets.”
Major studios thought the move would never sell. Popular movies had big sets and guns, he said. “A movie about a small town in Alabama wasn’t going to be popular,” Shields said.
Actor Gregory Peck ended up footing half the bill for the film’s production. The film won three academy awards.
By 1964, Shields said, “Harper Lee discovers she doesn’t enjoy being famous. There are some people who just crave attention. She’s not one of them.”
“She’s had a bellyful of ‘What’s your next book about? Does Atticus make a comeback?” So she retired to Monroeville, where she still lives today, he said.
Harper Lee and her sister Alice, now 96, share the family home. After church on Sundays, they go for catfish and then they go get Nelle’s letters, Shields said.
“The third generation is still asking ‘Are you Scout? Is your dad Atticus?’ And just sending plain fan letters saying ‘I love your book.’”
The only book that consistently outranks “To Kill a Mockingbird” in its influence is the Bible,” Shields said. “That’s not being blasphemous, it just is.”
“It’s the kind of book that sticks with you,” Shields said. “You get something out of it every time you read it. It changes as you get older.”
“It’s a great piece of literature,” Shields said, because it asks each individual who reads it ‘What would you do?’
“It puts you in those shoes. It tackles the biggest issue everywhere on the planet: Getting along with people who are a little bit different. It doesn’t mean they’re wrong, just different,” he said.
“It just stands the test of time.”
Funding Hope
When a person becomes a victim of domestic violence, their whole world is turned topsy-turvy. What was safe is no longer.
Sometimes, victims are left homeless. Sometimes, the victim is a child.
Iola’s Hope Unlimited seeks to serve such victims, providing services as diverse as referrals to medical or counseling providers, advocacy in court, a staffed domestic violence shelter and a supervised location for children of violence to meet with their non-custodial parent.
Kansas Attorney General Steve Six, in Iola Thursday to commemorate Domestic Violence Awareness Month, said his office “provides financial grants to child exchange centers” and victims services throughout the state — including those at Hope Unlimited.
“October is the month we really focus on remembering the struggles these families are facing,” Six said to a welcoming crowd in pouring rain outside the Allen County courthouse.
Additionally, Six said, “we try to coordinate victims services,” including providing a crime victims compensation fund that can pay for immediate medical expenses, transportation and therapy for victims of domestic abuse.
For providers, “we look to see how we can make shelters better,” Six said. “We want to set minimum standards; we help with training; we provide policy and procedure manuals.”
The Attorney General’s office also provides operational funds.
Approximately 60 percent of Hope Unlimited’s victims services budget comes through the Attorney General’s office, said Hope Unlimited Executive Director Dorothy Sparks. Without that funding, “we would not be here, we absolutely would not,” Sparks said.
Funds from Six’s office partially fund one of three full time positions at Hope’s emergency shelter, which is staffed round the clock, 365 days a year, Sparks said. Volunteers also help staff the house.
“We had 90 people come through the shelter last year,” Sparks said. That equates to 1,914 “shelter units used,” she said. Shelter units are determined by calculating “the number of people that come in the shelter times the number of nights they stay,” Sparks said.
The shelter can house a maximum of 22 individuals, “and that is really pushing it. That is using pull-out beds and counting baby cribs. By the time we get 14 in there it getting really crowded,” she noted.
In addition to emergency housing, Hope Unlimited provided outreach support 493 times last year, including taking victims to hospitals and accompanying them to court appearances, Sparks said. The hotline fielded 657 crises calls in 2008 as well, she said.
Service area for the agency is primarily Allen, Neosho and Anderson counties. Some clients are served from Woodson and Wilson counties, as well, Sparks said.
“We try to keep everything within 30 minutes,” she said.
ANOTHER HOPE Unlimited service funded through the Attorney General’s office is the Child Exchange and Parenting Center. The center’s $44,000 annual budget “is bare bones” Sparks said. Six agreed.
His office provides half the funding for the center, located within the Hope Unlimited office, that allows non-custodial parents to visit with their children in a safe, supervised environment, said Michelle Meiwes, Visitation Coordinator.
Meiwes said 88 families used the center last year, for a total of 257 visits.
The Attorney General’s office will also seek additional funding for shelters, Six said, beyond the operational grants his office normally provides.
“We had some requests from facilities that needed improvements to their shelters last year,” he said. “We approached Walmart and they funded it.” The shelters in question used the money to repair roofs and complete facilities maintenance, Six said.
“We try to think out of the box when it comes to finding a way to help,” he said.
Sometimes, victims are left homeless. Sometimes, the victim is a child.
Iola’s Hope Unlimited seeks to serve such victims, providing services as diverse as referrals to medical or counseling providers, advocacy in court, a staffed domestic violence shelter and a supervised location for children of violence to meet with their non-custodial parent.
Kansas Attorney General Steve Six, in Iola Thursday to commemorate Domestic Violence Awareness Month, said his office “provides financial grants to child exchange centers” and victims services throughout the state — including those at Hope Unlimited.
“October is the month we really focus on remembering the struggles these families are facing,” Six said to a welcoming crowd in pouring rain outside the Allen County courthouse.
Additionally, Six said, “we try to coordinate victims services,” including providing a crime victims compensation fund that can pay for immediate medical expenses, transportation and therapy for victims of domestic abuse.
For providers, “we look to see how we can make shelters better,” Six said. “We want to set minimum standards; we help with training; we provide policy and procedure manuals.”
The Attorney General’s office also provides operational funds.
Approximately 60 percent of Hope Unlimited’s victims services budget comes through the Attorney General’s office, said Hope Unlimited Executive Director Dorothy Sparks. Without that funding, “we would not be here, we absolutely would not,” Sparks said.
Funds from Six’s office partially fund one of three full time positions at Hope’s emergency shelter, which is staffed round the clock, 365 days a year, Sparks said. Volunteers also help staff the house.
“We had 90 people come through the shelter last year,” Sparks said. That equates to 1,914 “shelter units used,” she said. Shelter units are determined by calculating “the number of people that come in the shelter times the number of nights they stay,” Sparks said.
The shelter can house a maximum of 22 individuals, “and that is really pushing it. That is using pull-out beds and counting baby cribs. By the time we get 14 in there it getting really crowded,” she noted.
In addition to emergency housing, Hope Unlimited provided outreach support 493 times last year, including taking victims to hospitals and accompanying them to court appearances, Sparks said. The hotline fielded 657 crises calls in 2008 as well, she said.
Service area for the agency is primarily Allen, Neosho and Anderson counties. Some clients are served from Woodson and Wilson counties, as well, Sparks said.
“We try to keep everything within 30 minutes,” she said.
ANOTHER HOPE Unlimited service funded through the Attorney General’s office is the Child Exchange and Parenting Center. The center’s $44,000 annual budget “is bare bones” Sparks said. Six agreed.
His office provides half the funding for the center, located within the Hope Unlimited office, that allows non-custodial parents to visit with their children in a safe, supervised environment, said Michelle Meiwes, Visitation Coordinator.
Meiwes said 88 families used the center last year, for a total of 257 visits.
The Attorney General’s office will also seek additional funding for shelters, Six said, beyond the operational grants his office normally provides.
“We had some requests from facilities that needed improvements to their shelters last year,” he said. “We approached Walmart and they funded it.” The shelters in question used the money to repair roofs and complete facilities maintenance, Six said.
“We try to think out of the box when it comes to finding a way to help,” he said.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Wicoff wins word contest
A field of 24 was quickly winnowed down in the Allen County Spelling Bee in Iola Wednesday. The Dale Creitz Recital Hall at the Bowlus Fine Arts Center held a smattering of parents and school officials who watched as three contestants each from eight area middle and elementary schools battled their wits more than each other by grappling with words such as “deluxe,” “rehearsal” and “measure.”
The biggest gaff was placing an ‘a’ where an ‘o’ ought to be, in words like stethoscope and bonanza.
Words of non-English origin felled a few others. “Bambino” and “polka” and “mahi mahi” all took their toll on the spellers.
After three swift rounds, only 10 contestants remained.
Through each round, McKinley’s Jacob Marlow and Marmaton Valley’s Payton Wilson gave each other hand slaps and big grins as they beat the words. Though Payton fell to “nightingale,” he still received a shake from his pal.
Jacob succumbed to luau in the next round, anglicizing the Hawaiian word to “louow.”
Throughout the bee, some contestants asked for definitions or country of origin of their words. Occasionally, this tripped them up, as when Taylor Hessop learned “grotto” was French, then spelled it grauteau.
Pronouncers had more problems with “guru” than did Alexis Hessop, who spelled it in a flash.
After round three, only Emily Boyd, in sixth grade at Marmaton Valley, and Clara Wicoff, a fifth grader from Jefferson Elementary in Iola, remained.
They battled through seven more rounds, Emily whipping out her words without much ado, and Clara asking, consistently, for a sentence and origin and definition.
In round twelve, Emily stumbled on triumvirate.
Clara continued, correctly spelling clapboard (after wisely asking for an alternate pronunciation of what sounded to be “clabbered”) and doing the same for “rupee” (which could otherwise have been thought to be ruby).
She spelled the words on her hand before speaking them, a trick that seemed to save her at least once.
Whatever the method, Clara was winner of the Allen County bee.
This is her second year in that role, and she’ll move on to the Sunflower Spelling Bee at Barton County Community College in Great Bend on March 14.
Clara’s prepared. She said of the regional bee, “It’s a lot of fun, and it’s not as nerve wracking because you don’t know the people there.”
She’ll keep studying, though, “Every night as long as I can.”
The biggest gaff was placing an ‘a’ where an ‘o’ ought to be, in words like stethoscope and bonanza.
Words of non-English origin felled a few others. “Bambino” and “polka” and “mahi mahi” all took their toll on the spellers.
After three swift rounds, only 10 contestants remained.
Through each round, McKinley’s Jacob Marlow and Marmaton Valley’s Payton Wilson gave each other hand slaps and big grins as they beat the words. Though Payton fell to “nightingale,” he still received a shake from his pal.
Jacob succumbed to luau in the next round, anglicizing the Hawaiian word to “louow.”
Throughout the bee, some contestants asked for definitions or country of origin of their words. Occasionally, this tripped them up, as when Taylor Hessop learned “grotto” was French, then spelled it grauteau.
Pronouncers had more problems with “guru” than did Alexis Hessop, who spelled it in a flash.
After round three, only Emily Boyd, in sixth grade at Marmaton Valley, and Clara Wicoff, a fifth grader from Jefferson Elementary in Iola, remained.
They battled through seven more rounds, Emily whipping out her words without much ado, and Clara asking, consistently, for a sentence and origin and definition.
In round twelve, Emily stumbled on triumvirate.
Clara continued, correctly spelling clapboard (after wisely asking for an alternate pronunciation of what sounded to be “clabbered”) and doing the same for “rupee” (which could otherwise have been thought to be ruby).
She spelled the words on her hand before speaking them, a trick that seemed to save her at least once.
Whatever the method, Clara was winner of the Allen County bee.
This is her second year in that role, and she’ll move on to the Sunflower Spelling Bee at Barton County Community College in Great Bend on March 14.
Clara’s prepared. She said of the regional bee, “It’s a lot of fun, and it’s not as nerve wracking because you don’t know the people there.”
She’ll keep studying, though, “Every night as long as I can.”
Local girl wins state spelling bee
Jefferson Elementary fifth grader Clara Wicoff won the Sunflower State spelling bee Saturday in Great Bend.
Wicoff bested 85 other challengers to grab the state title, and a chance at national fame.
Wicoff toppled the competition in the ninth round with solecism, a word, it’s safe to say, that is not in everyday parlance
Saturday’s bee went quickly, she said, until the second place winner was to be determined. After Wicoff beat the three remaining contestants for first, they battled it out “for quite a while” she said, to determine who would take second place.
That honor went to Danielle Routh, an eighth grader from Augusta, representing Butler County.
Third place was shared by Evan Newlin, a sixth grader from Winfield in Cowley County, and Jakob Eck, a sixth grader from Wichita in Sedgwick County.
Along with the champion title, Wicoff received a Dell laptop computer, $300 in savings bonds, a one-year subscription to the Encyclopedia Brittanica online, a gift certificate to Amazon.com, “A really big trophy” and Merriam-Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, the official dictionary used at spelling bees, Wicoff said.
Now, “I keep studying until May 24, and then I go to DC for a week.”
The Great Bend Tribune, sponsor of the state bee, will send Wicoff and her mom to Washington DC for the week-long national Scripps Spelling Bee the last week of May.
“I’m a little bit nervous,” Wicoff said. Between 250 and 290 contestants will compete in the national bee, and the contest runs three days, Wicoff said.
Monday is a barbecue, she said. “You just get to know the other people.”
All contestants take a written test Tuesday, followed by two verbal contests Wednesday. Winners of those three contests are chosen based on a point system, with the top 50 competing in Thursday’s semi-finals and finals spelling bee. Friday is for sight-seeing and a closing ceremony, Wicoff said.
“A lot of kids have been there four or five times,” WIcoff said of her competition. “But I’ve also seen the words they’ve used in past sessions,” she said. “They weren’t really hard.”
“She’s very motivated,” Clara’s father Joel said of his daughter.
She will keep up with her two-hours a night spelling habit, but this week, she said, “I’m taking spring break off.”
Wicoff bested 85 other challengers to grab the state title, and a chance at national fame.
Wicoff toppled the competition in the ninth round with solecism, a word, it’s safe to say, that is not in everyday parlance
Saturday’s bee went quickly, she said, until the second place winner was to be determined. After Wicoff beat the three remaining contestants for first, they battled it out “for quite a while” she said, to determine who would take second place.
That honor went to Danielle Routh, an eighth grader from Augusta, representing Butler County.
Third place was shared by Evan Newlin, a sixth grader from Winfield in Cowley County, and Jakob Eck, a sixth grader from Wichita in Sedgwick County.
Along with the champion title, Wicoff received a Dell laptop computer, $300 in savings bonds, a one-year subscription to the Encyclopedia Brittanica online, a gift certificate to Amazon.com, “A really big trophy” and Merriam-Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, the official dictionary used at spelling bees, Wicoff said.
Now, “I keep studying until May 24, and then I go to DC for a week.”
The Great Bend Tribune, sponsor of the state bee, will send Wicoff and her mom to Washington DC for the week-long national Scripps Spelling Bee the last week of May.
“I’m a little bit nervous,” Wicoff said. Between 250 and 290 contestants will compete in the national bee, and the contest runs three days, Wicoff said.
Monday is a barbecue, she said. “You just get to know the other people.”
All contestants take a written test Tuesday, followed by two verbal contests Wednesday. Winners of those three contests are chosen based on a point system, with the top 50 competing in Thursday’s semi-finals and finals spelling bee. Friday is for sight-seeing and a closing ceremony, Wicoff said.
“A lot of kids have been there four or five times,” WIcoff said of her competition. “But I’ve also seen the words they’ve used in past sessions,” she said. “They weren’t really hard.”
“She’s very motivated,” Clara’s father Joel said of his daughter.
She will keep up with her two-hours a night spelling habit, but this week, she said, “I’m taking spring break off.”
Bee results 'palatable' to Wicoff
Clara Wicoff used her previous winning form of asking for a word’s definition and use in a sentence, plus spelling it out on her hand, to win the Iola Middle School spelling bee Wednesday.
Most of the 15 competitors made it through to round four, when they began to succumb a few each round.
Claire Moran looked straight ahead and spoke clearly when spelling squeeze and author.
As words got harder, more students asked for definitions or contextual use of words.
After round eight, six students remained. All made it through round nine, which brought chuckles when “luxury” was used in a sentence.
“In college, having a clean pair of underpants is sometimes considered a luxury,” English teacher Ona Chapman pronounced. “I didn’t make these up,” she remarked to bursts of laughter.
Ashley Cary nonetheless spelled the word correctly.
Another round, though, saw Cary and Claire Moran fall to subterranean and quarantine, respectively.
Round 11 was populated by eighth graders Sydni Haen and Mickey Ingle, seventh grader Kaleb Mock and sixth grader Wicoff.
The penultimate round brought foibles of pronunciation.
Wicoff received the word “financier,” but confusion over whether to pronounce it ‘financer’ or ‘finance-ier’ prevailed. The word was tossed. (Both pronunciations, it turns out, are correct, with financer being preferred.) Larynx, mispronounced larnix, received the same fate.
“I live in Kansas,” Chapman quipped later, noting she had seen some of the bee’s words in print, but never heard them spoken.
Chapman wasn’t alone. Mock, one of three contestants left in round, misstated ‘infatuation’ as ‘infactuation’ and spelled it accordingly. Mickey Ingle’s misspelling of fallacy knocked her out.
That left Wicoff to spell ‘palatable’ for the trophy.
Wicoff, Ingle and Mock will all participate in the Allen County Spelling Bee Feb. 3 at the Bowlus Fine Arts Center.
Haen is alternate.
Earlier in the bee, Cooper Wade fell to guard. He said he was disappointed he didn’t progress further.
“Usually I mess up on longer words,” he said of his at home practice.
Still, he reckoned, “it’s better to mess up here” than on stage at the Bowlus.
Wade, in seventh grade, will try again next year, he said.
Most of the 15 competitors made it through to round four, when they began to succumb a few each round.
Claire Moran looked straight ahead and spoke clearly when spelling squeeze and author.
As words got harder, more students asked for definitions or contextual use of words.
After round eight, six students remained. All made it through round nine, which brought chuckles when “luxury” was used in a sentence.
“In college, having a clean pair of underpants is sometimes considered a luxury,” English teacher Ona Chapman pronounced. “I didn’t make these up,” she remarked to bursts of laughter.
Ashley Cary nonetheless spelled the word correctly.
Another round, though, saw Cary and Claire Moran fall to subterranean and quarantine, respectively.
Round 11 was populated by eighth graders Sydni Haen and Mickey Ingle, seventh grader Kaleb Mock and sixth grader Wicoff.
The penultimate round brought foibles of pronunciation.
Wicoff received the word “financier,” but confusion over whether to pronounce it ‘financer’ or ‘finance-ier’ prevailed. The word was tossed. (Both pronunciations, it turns out, are correct, with financer being preferred.) Larynx, mispronounced larnix, received the same fate.
“I live in Kansas,” Chapman quipped later, noting she had seen some of the bee’s words in print, but never heard them spoken.
Chapman wasn’t alone. Mock, one of three contestants left in round, misstated ‘infatuation’ as ‘infactuation’ and spelled it accordingly. Mickey Ingle’s misspelling of fallacy knocked her out.
That left Wicoff to spell ‘palatable’ for the trophy.
Wicoff, Ingle and Mock will all participate in the Allen County Spelling Bee Feb. 3 at the Bowlus Fine Arts Center.
Haen is alternate.
Earlier in the bee, Cooper Wade fell to guard. He said he was disappointed he didn’t progress further.
“Usually I mess up on longer words,” he said of his at home practice.
Still, he reckoned, “it’s better to mess up here” than on stage at the Bowlus.
Wade, in seventh grade, will try again next year, he said.
Know storm signs to stay safe
Tornadoes — just the word makes people panic, said meteorologist Chance Hayes.
Hayes, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service, presented “Storm Fury on the Plains” Wednesday night at the Bowlus Fine Arts center to a crowd of about 100 people. Many were interested in becoming storm spotters, the ground crew that watches the development of dangerous weather systems throughout southeast Kansas. Others were there simply to learn.
About storms, about hail, about tornadoes.
“I want you to know these cloud formations and the hazards they present,” Hayes told the crowd. “I don’t expect you to become a spotter for the county, but I want you to be a spotter for yourself.”
Hayes showed video clips of swirling clouds with anvil tops and imposing fronts that pour heavy rain and hail down upon communities. “If you see a dark forward flank of rain and hail, stay out of it,” Hayes advised.
The storm cells, as they are called, are huge. They cover miles and poke upwards of 50,000 feet into the atmosphere. It is this rise that causes the anvil-shaped head, Hayes said, as bubbling cumulus clouds hit the sheering winds of the stratosphere and are pushed flat and to the side.
Hayes said the storms that cause the most damage are supercells, “one storm all by itself with persistent rotating updrafts.” These storms are called mesocyclones, and these are the storms that spawn tornadoes.
“We’ve already had ten tornadoes in our jurisdiction,” Hayes said of the 26-county area he supervises. “And then by golly we got a blizzard and an ice storm.” Hayes said that’s typical of Kansas weather: fast and frequent change of conditions.
In Allen County, Hayes said, hail, wind and flooding are more problematic, causing far more damage than tornadoes. In fact, “flooding is the No. 1 killer of all severe weather,” Hayes said. A video showed the power of flooding, as a paved roadway was eaten away and within seconds became a raging stream. An audible gasp went through the audience when Hayes showed a video of a person being lifted up and tossed through the air, then slammed into the ground, during a high-wind event.
The best way to avoid the impact, Hayes said, is to know what’s coming.
JUST 50 years ago, Hayes said, the number of tornadoes reported was considerably lower than today. It’s not that there are more tornadoes, Hayes said. It’s just that now, thanks to storm spotters and radar, “I can guarantee almost every tornado is reported.”
The state records an average of 92 tornadoes a year — 50 percent higher than before such technology was in place.
Radars are the meteorologist’s most useful tool for tracking storms, Hayes said. You can see the same ones Hayes studies by going to the Weather Service Web site at www.weather.gov/wichita, he said.
There, you can follow a page designed as “one stop shopping,” Hayes said, with current radar conditions, hazardous weather outlooks, the current forecast and many more layers of information available through the click of a mouse. “It plots warnings as they are issued,” he said, and boasts graphics “designed for a specific region and relative closeness to storms.” In contrast, TV forecasts often use a broad stroke and issue a warnign to an entire county even though a storm might be localized. Still, Hayes said, “TV and radio are doing a much better job of disseminating information.” After all, he noted, “Weather sells.”
Hayes said the N.W.S. works closely with broadcast media to get the latest information to the public as rapidly as possible.
“We realize we have one common goal,” he said: keeping people safe.
As good as radars are, though, Hayes said, “the radar can’t see below 4,000 to 5,000 feet. That’s why we will always need people on the ground.”
Spotters are trained to know the difference between a truly hazardous storm and “scary looking clouds.” They know to look for a hook echo, an area where the storm is “rotating so rapidly it’s actually wrapping rain around the back of the storm.” It is this curl that can evolve into a tornado.
The N.W.S. watches for this curl on radar, and notifies counties who send out on-the-ground spotters. The spotters keep in contact with county officials, who then relay information back to the National Weather Service, so they can warn additional communities as necessary.
It’s one big cooperative effort that ensures most people never encounter a severe storm.
JUST AS dangerous as mesocyclones are “strong straight line winds” — linear storm systems with winds blowing 100-125 mph. Such storms “will knock everything down in its path,” Hayes said. “Trampolines become parachutes.” If you are facing such a storm, it is imperative to seek shelter, Hayes said.
If you’re out driving when you encounter a squall line, bow cloud or mesocyclone, Hayes said, point your car into the storm, as windshields are far more durable than the side windows of cars. Best, he said, is to seek shelter. If you are facing a tornado, “get out of your car. Cars don’t stand a chance,” he said. Hayes said to quickly drive 90 degrees fromthe path of the storm if there is no shelter available.
If you are indoors when a tornado or deadly storm strikes, try ot get to the lowest floor in your house, he said, and into a room with no windows. “Put as many walls between you and the storm as you can,” he advised. And be sure to have a whistle handy.
He showed video of one storm victim who had been trapped under 25 feet of debris for four hours while search parties moved on, oblivious to his screaming.
“You may not be able to scream, but if you can breath, you can blow a whistle,” Hayes said. That atypical sound would be noticed by searchers, he said.
Most important when dealing with severe weather, Hayes said, is to use common sense.
“Stay away from windows. When thunder roars, go indoors. If a road is under water, turn around, don’t drown,” he said, relaying the sayings designed to keep weather safety easily in mind.
And listen, listen, listen Hayes said, to radio, television, the Internet and the skies. Most importantly, he said, “use your eyes.”
Hayes, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service, presented “Storm Fury on the Plains” Wednesday night at the Bowlus Fine Arts center to a crowd of about 100 people. Many were interested in becoming storm spotters, the ground crew that watches the development of dangerous weather systems throughout southeast Kansas. Others were there simply to learn.
About storms, about hail, about tornadoes.
“I want you to know these cloud formations and the hazards they present,” Hayes told the crowd. “I don’t expect you to become a spotter for the county, but I want you to be a spotter for yourself.”
Hayes showed video clips of swirling clouds with anvil tops and imposing fronts that pour heavy rain and hail down upon communities. “If you see a dark forward flank of rain and hail, stay out of it,” Hayes advised.
The storm cells, as they are called, are huge. They cover miles and poke upwards of 50,000 feet into the atmosphere. It is this rise that causes the anvil-shaped head, Hayes said, as bubbling cumulus clouds hit the sheering winds of the stratosphere and are pushed flat and to the side.
Hayes said the storms that cause the most damage are supercells, “one storm all by itself with persistent rotating updrafts.” These storms are called mesocyclones, and these are the storms that spawn tornadoes.
“We’ve already had ten tornadoes in our jurisdiction,” Hayes said of the 26-county area he supervises. “And then by golly we got a blizzard and an ice storm.” Hayes said that’s typical of Kansas weather: fast and frequent change of conditions.
In Allen County, Hayes said, hail, wind and flooding are more problematic, causing far more damage than tornadoes. In fact, “flooding is the No. 1 killer of all severe weather,” Hayes said. A video showed the power of flooding, as a paved roadway was eaten away and within seconds became a raging stream. An audible gasp went through the audience when Hayes showed a video of a person being lifted up and tossed through the air, then slammed into the ground, during a high-wind event.
The best way to avoid the impact, Hayes said, is to know what’s coming.
JUST 50 years ago, Hayes said, the number of tornadoes reported was considerably lower than today. It’s not that there are more tornadoes, Hayes said. It’s just that now, thanks to storm spotters and radar, “I can guarantee almost every tornado is reported.”
The state records an average of 92 tornadoes a year — 50 percent higher than before such technology was in place.
Radars are the meteorologist’s most useful tool for tracking storms, Hayes said. You can see the same ones Hayes studies by going to the Weather Service Web site at www.weather.gov/wichita, he said.
There, you can follow a page designed as “one stop shopping,” Hayes said, with current radar conditions, hazardous weather outlooks, the current forecast and many more layers of information available through the click of a mouse. “It plots warnings as they are issued,” he said, and boasts graphics “designed for a specific region and relative closeness to storms.” In contrast, TV forecasts often use a broad stroke and issue a warnign to an entire county even though a storm might be localized. Still, Hayes said, “TV and radio are doing a much better job of disseminating information.” After all, he noted, “Weather sells.”
Hayes said the N.W.S. works closely with broadcast media to get the latest information to the public as rapidly as possible.
“We realize we have one common goal,” he said: keeping people safe.
As good as radars are, though, Hayes said, “the radar can’t see below 4,000 to 5,000 feet. That’s why we will always need people on the ground.”
Spotters are trained to know the difference between a truly hazardous storm and “scary looking clouds.” They know to look for a hook echo, an area where the storm is “rotating so rapidly it’s actually wrapping rain around the back of the storm.” It is this curl that can evolve into a tornado.
The N.W.S. watches for this curl on radar, and notifies counties who send out on-the-ground spotters. The spotters keep in contact with county officials, who then relay information back to the National Weather Service, so they can warn additional communities as necessary.
It’s one big cooperative effort that ensures most people never encounter a severe storm.
JUST AS dangerous as mesocyclones are “strong straight line winds” — linear storm systems with winds blowing 100-125 mph. Such storms “will knock everything down in its path,” Hayes said. “Trampolines become parachutes.” If you are facing such a storm, it is imperative to seek shelter, Hayes said.
If you’re out driving when you encounter a squall line, bow cloud or mesocyclone, Hayes said, point your car into the storm, as windshields are far more durable than the side windows of cars. Best, he said, is to seek shelter. If you are facing a tornado, “get out of your car. Cars don’t stand a chance,” he said. Hayes said to quickly drive 90 degrees fromthe path of the storm if there is no shelter available.
If you are indoors when a tornado or deadly storm strikes, try ot get to the lowest floor in your house, he said, and into a room with no windows. “Put as many walls between you and the storm as you can,” he advised. And be sure to have a whistle handy.
He showed video of one storm victim who had been trapped under 25 feet of debris for four hours while search parties moved on, oblivious to his screaming.
“You may not be able to scream, but if you can breath, you can blow a whistle,” Hayes said. That atypical sound would be noticed by searchers, he said.
Most important when dealing with severe weather, Hayes said, is to use common sense.
“Stay away from windows. When thunder roars, go indoors. If a road is under water, turn around, don’t drown,” he said, relaying the sayings designed to keep weather safety easily in mind.
And listen, listen, listen Hayes said, to radio, television, the Internet and the skies. Most importantly, he said, “use your eyes.”
Storyteller brings context to Kansas history
MORAN — Storyteller Richard Pitts began his visit to Derek Trabuc’s sixth grade social studies class at Marmaton Valley Elementary School Thursday by asking each student to give his name and one thing he liked to do. After the introductions, Pitts told them “I am Richard Pitts and I like to tell stories and play drums.”
Pitts, from Manhattan, incorporates African drum rhythms into some of his tales. He tailors the stories to the grade level and maturity of the classes, he said.
Pitts’ stories for the social studies class centered on the history of slavery, the Civil War and the Underground Railroad in Kansas.
He said slaves traveling the Underground Railroad often communicated in coded language through songs or rhythm beats that acted as passwords to allow entry to safe houses.
He taught the class a song, “John the Rabbit,” sung by slaves working in fields. The song seems to be about a thief who absconds with garden produce, but Pitts told the class to interpret the song based on their new knowledge.
“John the Rabbit was really John Brown,” he told the class. “His really bad habit,” Pitts said, referring to a line in the song, “was going to Missouri and pulling slaves to freedom.”
Pitts asked the class if they had heard of John Brown. “He came here and decided his mission in life was to free slaves.”
After an attack on pro-slavery supporters, “Kansas became known as Bleeding Kansas,” Pitts said.
Pitts, who is also a historical researcher, told the class that at Gettsyburg, Pa., “more than 60,000 people died in three days over this slavery issue.” The battle was a turning point in a war that divided families and neighbors, Pitts said.
“I’m thankful, because otherwise I would be here under a different set of circumstances.”
PITTS MOVED to Kansas in 1985. After leaving the military at Fort Riley, he attended school at Kansas State University, where he met his wife.
That he tells stories to schools is his “daughter’s fault,” he said. “She asked her teacher if I could come tell stories, and I had never told stories before to group of people,” he said.
His daughter, Parre, then in elementary school, was accustomed to hearing her father’s tales at home and felt her class would enjoy them, too.
They were so well-received that Pitts, cofounder and executive director of the Wonder Workshop Children’s Museum in Manhattan, made a career of the hobby.
He added African drumming to his performance because of his heritage, he told the students.
His great-great-great grandfather was from Africa, though he doesn’t know where on the continent, he said.
As a gift one year, his wife sent his DNA to National Geographic, which offers a service that determines where one’s male ancestry originates.
“I love West African drumming, so I must be from West Africa,” he said. His wife countered, “I’ve seen your skinny little legs — you’re from Kenya.”
“So I took the test,” he told the class. “And do you know where my ancestors are from?”
All eyes starred at a map at the world’s second largest continent while Pitts slowly pointed to — “France.
“Sometimes you don’t know where you’re from until you do the test,” he said. “In America, we’re all so mixed.”
PITTS BECAME interested in history as a youth growing up near Atlantic City in Pleasanton, N.J. He spent countless hours on the pier, he told the students.
One day, after spending all his money on carnival games “trying to win my mother a $2 bear,” he used his last 25 cents to enter the boardwalk’s wax museum.
“We saw presidents, kings and queens,” Pitts said.
As they left the museum, however, they came upon a “diorama of Africans in loin cloths. They had bones in their noses and plates in their lips.” Underneath was a sign that said “Savages.”
Pitts was troubled. “I thought, they look like me, except for the bones and the plates.”
At home he told his mother about the sign.
Pitts’ mother told him about explorers who sailed the world before Columbus, seeking trade routes to Asia. She told him about Columbus getting lost, thinking he’d found India, but he really found the Caribbean.
She told him how some “Africans were willing to sell other black people into slavery” to work the land in this new world.
“‘That sign that says savages,’” Pitts said his mother told him, “‘there’s no such thing. That’s just somebody’s way of trying to make themselves feel better.’”
Pitts agreed. “We are all the same,” he told the class. “We all have special abilities. I can’t play football, but I’m not bad at telling stories.”
Pitts, from Manhattan, incorporates African drum rhythms into some of his tales. He tailors the stories to the grade level and maturity of the classes, he said.
Pitts’ stories for the social studies class centered on the history of slavery, the Civil War and the Underground Railroad in Kansas.
He said slaves traveling the Underground Railroad often communicated in coded language through songs or rhythm beats that acted as passwords to allow entry to safe houses.
He taught the class a song, “John the Rabbit,” sung by slaves working in fields. The song seems to be about a thief who absconds with garden produce, but Pitts told the class to interpret the song based on their new knowledge.
“John the Rabbit was really John Brown,” he told the class. “His really bad habit,” Pitts said, referring to a line in the song, “was going to Missouri and pulling slaves to freedom.”
Pitts asked the class if they had heard of John Brown. “He came here and decided his mission in life was to free slaves.”
After an attack on pro-slavery supporters, “Kansas became known as Bleeding Kansas,” Pitts said.
Pitts, who is also a historical researcher, told the class that at Gettsyburg, Pa., “more than 60,000 people died in three days over this slavery issue.” The battle was a turning point in a war that divided families and neighbors, Pitts said.
“I’m thankful, because otherwise I would be here under a different set of circumstances.”
PITTS MOVED to Kansas in 1985. After leaving the military at Fort Riley, he attended school at Kansas State University, where he met his wife.
That he tells stories to schools is his “daughter’s fault,” he said. “She asked her teacher if I could come tell stories, and I had never told stories before to group of people,” he said.
His daughter, Parre, then in elementary school, was accustomed to hearing her father’s tales at home and felt her class would enjoy them, too.
They were so well-received that Pitts, cofounder and executive director of the Wonder Workshop Children’s Museum in Manhattan, made a career of the hobby.
He added African drumming to his performance because of his heritage, he told the students.
His great-great-great grandfather was from Africa, though he doesn’t know where on the continent, he said.
As a gift one year, his wife sent his DNA to National Geographic, which offers a service that determines where one’s male ancestry originates.
“I love West African drumming, so I must be from West Africa,” he said. His wife countered, “I’ve seen your skinny little legs — you’re from Kenya.”
“So I took the test,” he told the class. “And do you know where my ancestors are from?”
All eyes starred at a map at the world’s second largest continent while Pitts slowly pointed to — “France.
“Sometimes you don’t know where you’re from until you do the test,” he said. “In America, we’re all so mixed.”
PITTS BECAME interested in history as a youth growing up near Atlantic City in Pleasanton, N.J. He spent countless hours on the pier, he told the students.
One day, after spending all his money on carnival games “trying to win my mother a $2 bear,” he used his last 25 cents to enter the boardwalk’s wax museum.
“We saw presidents, kings and queens,” Pitts said.
As they left the museum, however, they came upon a “diorama of Africans in loin cloths. They had bones in their noses and plates in their lips.” Underneath was a sign that said “Savages.”
Pitts was troubled. “I thought, they look like me, except for the bones and the plates.”
At home he told his mother about the sign.
Pitts’ mother told him about explorers who sailed the world before Columbus, seeking trade routes to Asia. She told him about Columbus getting lost, thinking he’d found India, but he really found the Caribbean.
She told him how some “Africans were willing to sell other black people into slavery” to work the land in this new world.
“‘That sign that says savages,’” Pitts said his mother told him, “‘there’s no such thing. That’s just somebody’s way of trying to make themselves feel better.’”
Pitts agreed. “We are all the same,” he told the class. “We all have special abilities. I can’t play football, but I’m not bad at telling stories.”
Newcomer makes Iola home
Ardena Boyce likes Iola. Although she has only lived here two years, she’s sold on its charms.
“It’s a nice little community,” she said of her adopted home. “You have your neighbors and you have your friends and people want to take care of people, which is wonderful.”
Boyce is from Tucson, Ariz., but her husband, Travis, grew up here.
“My in-laws, Terry and Sandy Zornes, are from here, and that’s what brought us to Iola,” Boyce said.
“Travis lived in Iola from age seven through 15, then he went to live with his dad in Arizona. He went to high school out there, then went to Flagstaff for college. We met in college in Flagstaff,” Boyce said.
The couple married nine years ago. They moved for a time to the Netherlands.
“I’m actually a hotel and restaurant management major with an emphasis on international hospitality,” the 28 year-old Boyce said. “They made us study abroad,” she laughed. “I’m grateful for that.
“Travis had the same major so we got to travel together. We went over to the Netherlands and spent 10 months there in the town of Breda. It was a wonderful experience.”
After finishing their degrees, the couple moved to Kansas be closer to Travis’ family.
“We see Travis’ family almost every day, and his extended family occasionally,” she said. It’s a rare week, Boyce said, when she doesn’t see her in-laws “at least five times a week.” In addition, Travis helps out with his stepfather’s business.
“Terry and Sandy service vending machines and Travis helps Terry out,” Boyce said. In addition, Travis “delivers pizza in Garnet.”
A BIT OVER a year ago, the Boyces purchased a dog-grooming business downtown and renamed it Sunflower Grooming. Boyce received training from the previous owner, plus she pursued additional training on her own.
“I never would have guessed I’d end up grooming dogs,” she said. But the opportunity was hard to pass up.
The previous owner, Barbara Lynn Crites, is “friends with my mother-in-law,” Boyce said. She was looking to sell the business, and “We came in and talked with her and decided it was a good move for us all.”
Being a business woman allows Boyce freedom she wouldn’t otherwise have. Boyce doesn’t mind that the couple aren’t managing a hotel in some exotic land.
“I value my time and in a way I’m using my degree because it’s a business degree. But I like spending time with my family and we have dogs. A job in (the hospitality) field requires a lot of time and dedication to someone else, and I’m not ready to give (my freedom) up.”
In addition to loving her business, she loves her location.
The square is Boyce’s favorite part of Iola.
“I like the downtown square. I like the layout. A lot of businesses are here. I'm thankful for this location. Things are within walking distance.
“Occasionally I walk to my in-laws and I go through the square. I like the birds and the squirrels.”
Boyce saw a similar vibrancy in the town centers of Europe.
“In the Netherlands, everything surrounds the town square.”
Boyce likes other things about her adopted home as well.
“Fall, I like the fall. That’s one thing in Tucson you didn’t get. We didn’t have four seasons. It was cold or hot. Immediately it’s cold and winter, or immediately it’s hot and summer.”
In Iola, of course, the seasons linger, and there’s four of them.
“I love the leaves changing color — it’s the coolest thing. We drive around to see what’s going on in town, and we drive around watching nature.”
Boyce appreciates the landscape here. “It’s a different environment. It’s a nice change.”
For fun, Boyce says, “I like fishing. We take advantage of the Prairie Spirit Trail. I like being outdoors. We run around on our property — We have just under two acres; it’s big enough.”
The couple also has four dogs, three boxers and a miniature pinscher, and two cats. “He’s a little mighty dog,” she said of her min-pin, Zeus.
Between exercising their dogs and the grooming business, “That keeps us pretty busy.”
For urban fun, “We go up to Kansas City sometimes and take advantage of the city, and then feel really nice when we come back to the small town.”
After growing up in a city of over half a million people, with a metro area of one million people, Boyce finds the pace of Iola to her liking.
“It’s really down home,” she said.
ABOUT THE only downside to living in southeast Kansas is that Boyce doesn’t see her own “absolutely big extended family” very often. “My dad’s family and my mom’s family are all in Tucson,” she said.
Although she’s an only child, she said her family is close. But that closeness is now tempered with distance.
Her father died while Boyce and her husband were in the Netherlands. And her mom “has her job and she has her dogs, so she doesn’t travel much.” Plus, Boyce said, “My mom calls herself a desert rat, and she’ll stay in the desert. She likes to stay put.”
That makes Boyce appreciate all the more the proximity of Travis’ family.
“We had Easter dinner with Travis’ dad’s parents in Blue Springs, Mo.,” she said. The “families are close,” she said.
Despite Iola’s declining population, Boyce said she sees no reason Iola has to fade away.
“I think if the community remains strong within itself, it will stay together. It all goes with everybody helping everybody.”
“It’s a nice little community,” she said of her adopted home. “You have your neighbors and you have your friends and people want to take care of people, which is wonderful.”
Boyce is from Tucson, Ariz., but her husband, Travis, grew up here.
“My in-laws, Terry and Sandy Zornes, are from here, and that’s what brought us to Iola,” Boyce said.
“Travis lived in Iola from age seven through 15, then he went to live with his dad in Arizona. He went to high school out there, then went to Flagstaff for college. We met in college in Flagstaff,” Boyce said.
The couple married nine years ago. They moved for a time to the Netherlands.
“I’m actually a hotel and restaurant management major with an emphasis on international hospitality,” the 28 year-old Boyce said. “They made us study abroad,” she laughed. “I’m grateful for that.
“Travis had the same major so we got to travel together. We went over to the Netherlands and spent 10 months there in the town of Breda. It was a wonderful experience.”
After finishing their degrees, the couple moved to Kansas be closer to Travis’ family.
“We see Travis’ family almost every day, and his extended family occasionally,” she said. It’s a rare week, Boyce said, when she doesn’t see her in-laws “at least five times a week.” In addition, Travis helps out with his stepfather’s business.
“Terry and Sandy service vending machines and Travis helps Terry out,” Boyce said. In addition, Travis “delivers pizza in Garnet.”
A BIT OVER a year ago, the Boyces purchased a dog-grooming business downtown and renamed it Sunflower Grooming. Boyce received training from the previous owner, plus she pursued additional training on her own.
“I never would have guessed I’d end up grooming dogs,” she said. But the opportunity was hard to pass up.
The previous owner, Barbara Lynn Crites, is “friends with my mother-in-law,” Boyce said. She was looking to sell the business, and “We came in and talked with her and decided it was a good move for us all.”
Being a business woman allows Boyce freedom she wouldn’t otherwise have. Boyce doesn’t mind that the couple aren’t managing a hotel in some exotic land.
“I value my time and in a way I’m using my degree because it’s a business degree. But I like spending time with my family and we have dogs. A job in (the hospitality) field requires a lot of time and dedication to someone else, and I’m not ready to give (my freedom) up.”
In addition to loving her business, she loves her location.
The square is Boyce’s favorite part of Iola.
“I like the downtown square. I like the layout. A lot of businesses are here. I'm thankful for this location. Things are within walking distance.
“Occasionally I walk to my in-laws and I go through the square. I like the birds and the squirrels.”
Boyce saw a similar vibrancy in the town centers of Europe.
“In the Netherlands, everything surrounds the town square.”
Boyce likes other things about her adopted home as well.
“Fall, I like the fall. That’s one thing in Tucson you didn’t get. We didn’t have four seasons. It was cold or hot. Immediately it’s cold and winter, or immediately it’s hot and summer.”
In Iola, of course, the seasons linger, and there’s four of them.
“I love the leaves changing color — it’s the coolest thing. We drive around to see what’s going on in town, and we drive around watching nature.”
Boyce appreciates the landscape here. “It’s a different environment. It’s a nice change.”
For fun, Boyce says, “I like fishing. We take advantage of the Prairie Spirit Trail. I like being outdoors. We run around on our property — We have just under two acres; it’s big enough.”
The couple also has four dogs, three boxers and a miniature pinscher, and two cats. “He’s a little mighty dog,” she said of her min-pin, Zeus.
Between exercising their dogs and the grooming business, “That keeps us pretty busy.”
For urban fun, “We go up to Kansas City sometimes and take advantage of the city, and then feel really nice when we come back to the small town.”
After growing up in a city of over half a million people, with a metro area of one million people, Boyce finds the pace of Iola to her liking.
“It’s really down home,” she said.
ABOUT THE only downside to living in southeast Kansas is that Boyce doesn’t see her own “absolutely big extended family” very often. “My dad’s family and my mom’s family are all in Tucson,” she said.
Although she’s an only child, she said her family is close. But that closeness is now tempered with distance.
Her father died while Boyce and her husband were in the Netherlands. And her mom “has her job and she has her dogs, so she doesn’t travel much.” Plus, Boyce said, “My mom calls herself a desert rat, and she’ll stay in the desert. She likes to stay put.”
That makes Boyce appreciate all the more the proximity of Travis’ family.
“We had Easter dinner with Travis’ dad’s parents in Blue Springs, Mo.,” she said. The “families are close,” she said.
Despite Iola’s declining population, Boyce said she sees no reason Iola has to fade away.
“I think if the community remains strong within itself, it will stay together. It all goes with everybody helping everybody.”
Talking books feted in March
March 1-7 marks Talking Books Week in Kansas. Talking Books Week commemorates the Pratt-Smoot Act of 1931 that enabled the distribution of free library materials for the blind.
Talking Books are a little different from regular audio books, said Southeast Kansas Library Systems Special Needs Consultant Diane Stines.
“Talking Books is not audio books,” Stines said. In an audio book, “If it’s a story about cows there might be cows mooing.” In a Talking Book, “it’s just the words” Stines said. Aural clutter is eliminated because some hearing impaired individuals have trouble differentiating sounds, she said. And although the books are on tapes that look like cassettes, “It will not play in a regular machine” Stines said.
Talking Books are a service provided, free of charge, to the “print handicapped,” physically or visually impaired or blind adults and children who otherwise would not be able to enjoy the written word. Recorded books and magazines are sent directly to a user’s home, by mail, along with the equipment to use the materials.
Stines coordinates Talking Books and other services for 15 counties in southeast Kansas.
“I work with 90 activity directors,” she said, as well as schools’ special needs teachers, low vision support groups, Alzheimer’s support groups and others.
Those needing services should contact their local librarian, Stines said.
In Allen County, the Iola Public Library has a collection of Talking Books, reminiscing kits, Braille books and recreation therapy kits. They also have assistive devices such as large-print bingo cards, raised image dominoes and extra large magnetic poetry kits.
“These all can be checked out,” she said.
In Kansas, more than 40,000 individuals are eligible for the service, said Stines. Still, many are unaware it exists, which is the reason behind Talking Books Week, she said.
The service is set to go digital in the next few months, providing patrons with even more options.
Talking Books are a little different from regular audio books, said Southeast Kansas Library Systems Special Needs Consultant Diane Stines.
“Talking Books is not audio books,” Stines said. In an audio book, “If it’s a story about cows there might be cows mooing.” In a Talking Book, “it’s just the words” Stines said. Aural clutter is eliminated because some hearing impaired individuals have trouble differentiating sounds, she said. And although the books are on tapes that look like cassettes, “It will not play in a regular machine” Stines said.
Talking Books are a service provided, free of charge, to the “print handicapped,” physically or visually impaired or blind adults and children who otherwise would not be able to enjoy the written word. Recorded books and magazines are sent directly to a user’s home, by mail, along with the equipment to use the materials.
Stines coordinates Talking Books and other services for 15 counties in southeast Kansas.
“I work with 90 activity directors,” she said, as well as schools’ special needs teachers, low vision support groups, Alzheimer’s support groups and others.
Those needing services should contact their local librarian, Stines said.
In Allen County, the Iola Public Library has a collection of Talking Books, reminiscing kits, Braille books and recreation therapy kits. They also have assistive devices such as large-print bingo cards, raised image dominoes and extra large magnetic poetry kits.
“These all can be checked out,” she said.
In Kansas, more than 40,000 individuals are eligible for the service, said Stines. Still, many are unaware it exists, which is the reason behind Talking Books Week, she said.
The service is set to go digital in the next few months, providing patrons with even more options.
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