LAHARPE — With walls covered in tropical vines, the heat turned high and humidity levels kept up, even in winter, Dee Bombagi’s home is a color-filled paradise complete with live birds.
From a corner cage big as a small room, a blue and gold macaw screams to wake the dead, then cocks his head and says hello. From a back room, a sulfur-crested cockatoo lets loose a stream of Hebrew. Additional birds screech in their native tongues.
It’s all music to Bombagi’s ears.
“My mom and I became tropical junkies,” the 50 year old said. “We’d go to the Caribbean at least once a year.”
Dee, her husband Charlie and Dee’s mom, Barbara Pace, would spend a week in turquoise waters and dove-white sands. The Bombagis brought their three children, Jazmine, Alex and Kayla, with them, too, and for that week, they’d forget about life in Kansas, where Charlie runs Doghouse Concrete and Dee has a daycare.
After her mom died about a year and a half ago, Bombagi said “I took my inheritance money and got the birds.”
With the addition of “Tatouage,” wall-sized decals that appear hand-painted, she has made her house into a replica of the tropical realm she and her mother loved so well.
“My heat goes non-stop,” Dee said. “I squirt water bottles on them twice a day,” she said of the birds. And, she has to have an air filter running 24/7, because the macaw, Lenny, is allergic to her white cockatoos.
“White birds have a lot of dander,” she noted. “They’re dusty.”
In the not-too-distance future, though, the birds will have separate quarters.
“Charlie’s building me a total bird room as soon as spring breaks,” Dee acknowledged.
“It will have Plexiglas walls between the birds,” Charlie said, so they can have more freedom without interloping on each other’s territory — Charlie plans to enclose their 20-foot by 20-foot patio entirely for the birds.
THE BOMBAGIS are relative newcomers to raising large birds — they began only two years ago, but Dee’s family had parrots in her youth, she said, so she is familiar with their exacting needs.
The couple currently have five large and three smaller parrots or cockatoos. Dee recently sold a couple other parrots, she said.
“We’ve got too many birds,” Charlie noted. Still, they plan on acquiring a breeding pair of sulfur crested cockatoos soon.
The unusual hobby doesn’t come cheap.
“It’s costly feeding all of them,” Dee said. “This fruit food costs $55 for 17 pounds,” she said of a dry food fed to all her tropicals.
In addition, the birds get a seed mix and fresh fruits and vegetables.
And then there’s the macaw.
“Lenny eats everything,” Dee said. “He gets eggs for breakfast. He eats meat. Regardless of what we’re eating, you’d better give him some. If you sit down and don’t bring him anything, he screams until you can’t think.” He also acts as the couple’s guard dog, Dee said, screaming at anyone who comes in. (If that doesn’t intimidate visitors, the couple also has five dogs.)
Lenny was a performer in a bird show in Branson, Mo., Charlie said. “We’re constantly discovering new tricks he can do.”
He “talks up a storm” and rides a tricycle, Charlie said. But the bird burned out on show business, and was sold off at a bird auction.
“There’s a company in Parsons that has a bird sale in Yates Center twice a year,” Dee said.
But she’s willing to go further for her birds.
Her cockatoos came from a breeder west of Wichita who hand raised them from babies. Unlike Lenny, they are as quiet as snails.
“Oh, they make noise,” Dee said. “They all yell twice a day, just to yell.”
The cockatoos are white as clouds, and clever enough to dismantle their cage, Charlie said. “They’ve taken apart two cages already,” he said.
And they have long, long lives. The Hebrew-speaking Monty is already 30, about half way through his 60 year expected life. The umbrella cockatoos can live to 80. Macaws typically live to 40.
“These birds are my children’s inheritance,” Dee said of the investment. “They’re my babies.”
Sunday, July 11, 2010
New Yates Center attorney happy to be here
YATES CENTER — It was fate — and a Sunday drive — that resulted in Constance Peebles taking office as Yates Center city attorney at the end of January.
Back in November, Peebles and her husband were in the area for the day.
He had grown up in Piqua and the couple was looking to move near his family farm once he retired from sales at Haldex in about five years, Peebles said.
Living in Atchison, Peebles, a family law attorney, and her husband, Frank Link, imagined house hunting would take a while.
Instead, in Iola, they found a 1960s ranch house that Peebles fell for.
They upped their time frame for moving and put their fully restored 1893 Queen Anne in Atchison on the market.
While settling into her new house, Peebles learned of a potential opening in Yates Center.
Mike Case, the city attorney, was leaving.
“That firm was leaving and I was coming in; it was just an opportune time,” Peebles said.
Peebles took office on Jan. 25.
As city attorney, “I advise the city on legal issues (and) I am the main prosecutor for the municipal court,” Peebles said. “But I’m available in Allen, Woodson and surrounding counties,” Peebles noted.
While her office is on the Yates Center square, “I do meet some Iola clients (in Iola) at the courthouse,” she said.
In addition to city work, Peebles “focuses primarily on family law and criminal defense,” she said.
Her office is at 120 West Rutledge on the Yates Center square, next to the pharmacy. Hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, although she will see clients on weekends or evenings as scheduled, she noted.
Peebles can be reached at 620.625.3400.
PEEBLES, who was born and raised in Georgia, likes Yates Center, she said.
“The people are extremely friendly; it reminds me of home.” And, she said, “I’m eager to become involved in the community.”
Her husband, she noted, graduated from Yates Center High School in 1964.
After living in larger communities, including working a number of years in Johnson County, she nonetheless said she thinks southeast Kansas will suit her just fine in her quest “to be very busy as a lawyer and have a rich personal life.”
Peebles talents include playing “piano, organ and all keyboards,” she said. “I’ve been a professional musician since I was 12,” she noted.
Peebles only just resigned her position as organist at her former church, Holmeswood Baptist in Kansas City.
“The drive was too much,” she said.
She now hopes to become involved in music and theater in Iola, she said.
“I was the main musician at our theater in Atchison,” she said. “I played piano at Silver Dollar City for 10 years and was an actor in Branson,” she added.
Peebles is also an organic gardener who raises vegetables and flowers.
“I’ve already ordered my seed for my butter beans and field peas,” including pink-eyed and purple-hulled varieties, she said.
It’s food not typically seen this far north, she said, but she still likes to eat like a Southerner, she said.
“I make splendid grits and pecan pie,” she said. “I learned from my grandmother and my mother how to cook.”
Peebles holds a masters of music from the University of Arkansas and juris doctorate from the University of Missouri, Kansas City. Her undergraduate degree, in French, is from the University of the Ozarks.
The couple have one cat, although Peebles would consider getting a dog, especially once the Allen County Animal rescue facility opens.
PEEBLES’ work past reflects her life philosophy.
“I haven’t taken the traditional path,” she noted. “I have too many things I’m interested in.”
In Georgia, the slightly built Peebles worked for Continental Woodlands.
“The guys had a bet I wouldn’t last six weeks — so I stayed four years,” she said.
In that time, she “planted a million pine trees, operated bulldozers and fought fires,” she said.
“You have to make your mark or someone will make it for you,” Peebles noted, saying she prefers to define herself.
Back in November, Peebles and her husband were in the area for the day.
He had grown up in Piqua and the couple was looking to move near his family farm once he retired from sales at Haldex in about five years, Peebles said.
Living in Atchison, Peebles, a family law attorney, and her husband, Frank Link, imagined house hunting would take a while.
Instead, in Iola, they found a 1960s ranch house that Peebles fell for.
They upped their time frame for moving and put their fully restored 1893 Queen Anne in Atchison on the market.
While settling into her new house, Peebles learned of a potential opening in Yates Center.
Mike Case, the city attorney, was leaving.
“That firm was leaving and I was coming in; it was just an opportune time,” Peebles said.
Peebles took office on Jan. 25.
As city attorney, “I advise the city on legal issues (and) I am the main prosecutor for the municipal court,” Peebles said. “But I’m available in Allen, Woodson and surrounding counties,” Peebles noted.
While her office is on the Yates Center square, “I do meet some Iola clients (in Iola) at the courthouse,” she said.
In addition to city work, Peebles “focuses primarily on family law and criminal defense,” she said.
Her office is at 120 West Rutledge on the Yates Center square, next to the pharmacy. Hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, although she will see clients on weekends or evenings as scheduled, she noted.
Peebles can be reached at 620.625.3400.
PEEBLES, who was born and raised in Georgia, likes Yates Center, she said.
“The people are extremely friendly; it reminds me of home.” And, she said, “I’m eager to become involved in the community.”
Her husband, she noted, graduated from Yates Center High School in 1964.
After living in larger communities, including working a number of years in Johnson County, she nonetheless said she thinks southeast Kansas will suit her just fine in her quest “to be very busy as a lawyer and have a rich personal life.”
Peebles talents include playing “piano, organ and all keyboards,” she said. “I’ve been a professional musician since I was 12,” she noted.
Peebles only just resigned her position as organist at her former church, Holmeswood Baptist in Kansas City.
“The drive was too much,” she said.
She now hopes to become involved in music and theater in Iola, she said.
“I was the main musician at our theater in Atchison,” she said. “I played piano at Silver Dollar City for 10 years and was an actor in Branson,” she added.
Peebles is also an organic gardener who raises vegetables and flowers.
“I’ve already ordered my seed for my butter beans and field peas,” including pink-eyed and purple-hulled varieties, she said.
It’s food not typically seen this far north, she said, but she still likes to eat like a Southerner, she said.
“I make splendid grits and pecan pie,” she said. “I learned from my grandmother and my mother how to cook.”
Peebles holds a masters of music from the University of Arkansas and juris doctorate from the University of Missouri, Kansas City. Her undergraduate degree, in French, is from the University of the Ozarks.
The couple have one cat, although Peebles would consider getting a dog, especially once the Allen County Animal rescue facility opens.
PEEBLES’ work past reflects her life philosophy.
“I haven’t taken the traditional path,” she noted. “I have too many things I’m interested in.”
In Georgia, the slightly built Peebles worked for Continental Woodlands.
“The guys had a bet I wouldn’t last six weeks — so I stayed four years,” she said.
In that time, she “planted a million pine trees, operated bulldozers and fought fires,” she said.
“You have to make your mark or someone will make it for you,” Peebles noted, saying she prefers to define herself.
Old-time doesn't mean old to this fiddler
Richard Pearman, elder statesman of the Kansas Old-time Pickers, Fiddlers and Singers, was feted Sunday for his 93rd birthday.
Although the regular monthly gathering was canceled due to inclement weather, the party, attended by over a dozen friends and family members, went on in Pearman’s living room.
A chocolale-on-chocolate cake, bedecked with icing garland and roses, was enjoyed after a performance by Pearman on fiddle and “French harp” (harmonica), followed by a few classical violin pieces performed by Matthew Cunningham, one of the many Iolans for whom Pearman rehaired bows or fixed instruments over the years.
Pearman has been fiddling since he was 10 years old, and repairing such instruments since he was 12, after reclaiming his father’s fiddle from his older brother’s house.
When his father, Ernest Lee, died of lung cancer at 46, “My mom gave (the fiddle) to my oldest brother,” Pearman said. Pearman was just 9 at the time.
“He had four or five children and they’d taken it apart. The back was off, the neck was off — I took it home and fixed it.” Then he taught himself to play.
As the youngest boy, and second youngest child, of eight siblings “spread out over 20 years,” Pearman never received lessons from his father, who had had to fight to keep his fiddle.
Ernest Lee — “that’d be bout 150 years ago now,” Pearman said — “hid his fiddle in a hollow log in the woods.” Ernest Lee’s parents had objected to his playing, Pearman said. “They said the devil was in the fiddle.”
Pearman was luckier. Although his mom, Geneva, couldn’t help him learn, “my older sister played piano and one brother played banjo and another played guitar, so me and Otis,” — at a year and a half older, Pearman’s closest sibling — “just sort of picked it up. We’d go to a party and hear a tune and went home and tried to play it. Maybe we got it right and maybe we didn’t; anyway, I played my version of it.”
Pearman never learned to read music, he said. But he became an expert at repairing instruments and restringing bows.
“I fixed fiddles for people all over Kansas and also in Arkansas. I haired bows for people all over the country,” he said.
Last year, Pearman gave his father’s fiddle to his nephew Mark Pearman in Branson, Mo. Mark, a musician who played with Roy Clark, will pass the fiddle on to his son, who is 14, Pearman said. Pearman has no children of his own. The fiddle will “stay in the family.”
After his father died, “I didn’t get much schooling. When I was on the farm and the weather was good, I worked,” Pearman said.
“We owned about 200 acres” south and east of Gas, Pearman said. “We raised flax, corn and calfer corn — it’s called milo now,” he said.
In addition the family had a big garden and the usual array of chickens, geese and ducks common at that time.
“The first years” after his dad died, “we weren’t getting the crops in” Pearman noted. His older siblings were gone, and just he, Otis and 3-year-old Marie were left.
His oldest sister, Julie McGee, her husband, and neighbors came to help.
“We’d go to school and my mom shucked corn all day. Then we’d come home and take it to market. We’d sell it for 10 cents a bushel,” Pearman said.
As an adult, Pearman held two main jobs.
Pearman met and married Agnes McIntyre in 1938. Then, “we hauled milk the first 14 years,” Pearman said. “Then I was a drywall and painting contractor.” Agnes worked with him.
“She was the banjo taper on the sheet rock. We hired two more guys and worked for several carpenters.”
Agnes was as good a worker as any man, Pearman said, maybe better.
The couple retired “when I was 63,” he said. Agnes was 62.
Instrument repair was always his hobby, he said. But playing music — ”I don’t know that I would have lived without it,” Pearman said.
For 27 years, he served as president of the Blue Mound Old-time Fiddlers, Pickers and Singers. When that group disbanded in 2008, he joined Fort Scott’s group, then last year, Iola’s organization.
Before KOFPS formed, Pearman played with a number of bands, including Harvey Orcutt’s Moonlight Ramblers. They played regionally at dances that had standing room only crowds.
Pearman noted one venue that seated 300; the crowds were out the door, he said.
Agnes never played music with Pearman. “She played piano, but she didn’t play our kind of music,” he jibed. “We were swinging.”
Pearman still has a set list of about 40 songs, he said, that he uses for nursing homes “where I play for the old people” and KOFPS performances.
The past 30 years, Pearman has kept busy putting in an average of 300 hours per year as a volunteer, predominantly playing music at nursing homes. The residents appreciate his music “because I play the songs they grew up with,” he said. A box overflowing with volunteer appreciation pins on a table and a wall of similar plaques attest to that truth.
But “I crushed a vertebra in my back about a year ago,” Pearman said, “and I had to cut back. I only did about 160 hours last year.”
The secret to his recovery, Pearman said, was Agnes. “She took care of me,” he said. Also he said, “I had a stroke in 2000. I thought that was the end.” With her help, he kept on.
Pearman believes in staying busy.
“I don’t think hard work will hurt you,” he observed. “It’s the worry and the stress. When you’re having fun, you don’t worry.”
And as long as he has Agnes, and music, he’ll keep on having fun, he said.
note: This article was written March 22, 2010. Agnes Pearman later died, in July 2010. Richard is hanging in there.
Although the regular monthly gathering was canceled due to inclement weather, the party, attended by over a dozen friends and family members, went on in Pearman’s living room.
A chocolale-on-chocolate cake, bedecked with icing garland and roses, was enjoyed after a performance by Pearman on fiddle and “French harp” (harmonica), followed by a few classical violin pieces performed by Matthew Cunningham, one of the many Iolans for whom Pearman rehaired bows or fixed instruments over the years.
Pearman has been fiddling since he was 10 years old, and repairing such instruments since he was 12, after reclaiming his father’s fiddle from his older brother’s house.
When his father, Ernest Lee, died of lung cancer at 46, “My mom gave (the fiddle) to my oldest brother,” Pearman said. Pearman was just 9 at the time.
“He had four or five children and they’d taken it apart. The back was off, the neck was off — I took it home and fixed it.” Then he taught himself to play.
As the youngest boy, and second youngest child, of eight siblings “spread out over 20 years,” Pearman never received lessons from his father, who had had to fight to keep his fiddle.
Ernest Lee — “that’d be bout 150 years ago now,” Pearman said — “hid his fiddle in a hollow log in the woods.” Ernest Lee’s parents had objected to his playing, Pearman said. “They said the devil was in the fiddle.”
Pearman was luckier. Although his mom, Geneva, couldn’t help him learn, “my older sister played piano and one brother played banjo and another played guitar, so me and Otis,” — at a year and a half older, Pearman’s closest sibling — “just sort of picked it up. We’d go to a party and hear a tune and went home and tried to play it. Maybe we got it right and maybe we didn’t; anyway, I played my version of it.”
Pearman never learned to read music, he said. But he became an expert at repairing instruments and restringing bows.
“I fixed fiddles for people all over Kansas and also in Arkansas. I haired bows for people all over the country,” he said.
Last year, Pearman gave his father’s fiddle to his nephew Mark Pearman in Branson, Mo. Mark, a musician who played with Roy Clark, will pass the fiddle on to his son, who is 14, Pearman said. Pearman has no children of his own. The fiddle will “stay in the family.”
After his father died, “I didn’t get much schooling. When I was on the farm and the weather was good, I worked,” Pearman said.
“We owned about 200 acres” south and east of Gas, Pearman said. “We raised flax, corn and calfer corn — it’s called milo now,” he said.
In addition the family had a big garden and the usual array of chickens, geese and ducks common at that time.
“The first years” after his dad died, “we weren’t getting the crops in” Pearman noted. His older siblings were gone, and just he, Otis and 3-year-old Marie were left.
His oldest sister, Julie McGee, her husband, and neighbors came to help.
“We’d go to school and my mom shucked corn all day. Then we’d come home and take it to market. We’d sell it for 10 cents a bushel,” Pearman said.
As an adult, Pearman held two main jobs.
Pearman met and married Agnes McIntyre in 1938. Then, “we hauled milk the first 14 years,” Pearman said. “Then I was a drywall and painting contractor.” Agnes worked with him.
“She was the banjo taper on the sheet rock. We hired two more guys and worked for several carpenters.”
Agnes was as good a worker as any man, Pearman said, maybe better.
The couple retired “when I was 63,” he said. Agnes was 62.
Instrument repair was always his hobby, he said. But playing music — ”I don’t know that I would have lived without it,” Pearman said.
For 27 years, he served as president of the Blue Mound Old-time Fiddlers, Pickers and Singers. When that group disbanded in 2008, he joined Fort Scott’s group, then last year, Iola’s organization.
Before KOFPS formed, Pearman played with a number of bands, including Harvey Orcutt’s Moonlight Ramblers. They played regionally at dances that had standing room only crowds.
Pearman noted one venue that seated 300; the crowds were out the door, he said.
Agnes never played music with Pearman. “She played piano, but she didn’t play our kind of music,” he jibed. “We were swinging.”
Pearman still has a set list of about 40 songs, he said, that he uses for nursing homes “where I play for the old people” and KOFPS performances.
The past 30 years, Pearman has kept busy putting in an average of 300 hours per year as a volunteer, predominantly playing music at nursing homes. The residents appreciate his music “because I play the songs they grew up with,” he said. A box overflowing with volunteer appreciation pins on a table and a wall of similar plaques attest to that truth.
But “I crushed a vertebra in my back about a year ago,” Pearman said, “and I had to cut back. I only did about 160 hours last year.”
The secret to his recovery, Pearman said, was Agnes. “She took care of me,” he said. Also he said, “I had a stroke in 2000. I thought that was the end.” With her help, he kept on.
Pearman believes in staying busy.
“I don’t think hard work will hurt you,” he observed. “It’s the worry and the stress. When you’re having fun, you don’t worry.”
And as long as he has Agnes, and music, he’ll keep on having fun, he said.
note: This article was written March 22, 2010. Agnes Pearman later died, in July 2010. Richard is hanging in there.
Science center a fun finale
They stood in tornados. Overhead, planets swirled. Around them, the long, fierce bones of cetaceans hung beside their Maori names.
Thursday marked the final field trip of the summer SAFE BASE program for about 120 children in USD 257. They shuttled off in yellow buses to the Exploration Place in Wichita, a stunning science center filled with hands-on displays about flight mechanics, Kansas’ landscape and skeletal whales.
Whales are sacred to the indigenous Maori people of New Zealand, who see the giant beasts as “taonga,” a treasure from the sea. Carved whale bone pendants and ceremonial paddles were on display along with a life-sized replica of a blue whale heart.
At 100 feet long, the blue whale is the largest animal to ever live on earth. It’s heart easily held five fourth graders.
The children learned through a “whale activity” the difference between baleen, or filter-feeding, and toothed whales, those that hunt fish and seals for their food.
The students were fascinated by the hanging bones and videos of whale scientists and Maori carving the massive bodies of beached whales for both food and scientific study. Sound displays played the mournful calls the leviathans use to locate food — and each other.
It seemed amazing, education program specialist Steve Kimball told the students, that the largest whales eat the smallest food. Baleen whales simply swim through the sea with their mouths agape, he said, filtering shrimp and plankton from sea water as they go. The baleen, he said, is made of the same material as hair or fingernails; another commonality in all mammals.
Kimball acted as a low-key tour guide for the group, introducing an IMAX film about the changes in Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets and leading the whale activities. He explained even whales get the bends if they rise too quickly from the depths of the seas.
The students had to do short presentations for one another about what they had learned. A group of second and third graders, including Blake Middlemeyer, Devon Wilson, Matthew Karr and Blake Haar did a great job of describing how toothed whales hunt using echolocation.
In the Kansas display, large crystal blocks of native rock salt sat within reach of tanks holding tarantulas and lizards. Nearby, a tornado generator created a swirl of vapor to replicate formation of a storm.
In the flight center, hands on activities were the rage. A tall tower generated wind on a curving wall of silver disks — the patterns changed as children turned the dials. Flight simulators for planes spanning the realm of aviation history lured in eager youth. The Wright brothers’ plane was steered by a joystick that foiled attempts at level flight. Jets were crashed or landed at their young pilots’ delight.
The day ended with a whirl through a three-story playroom, complete with a giant bubble machine that kept the youngsters busy.
The bus ride back in 100-degree heat was made bearable by a treat provided by Wanda Kneen, SAFE BASE health coordinator.
Soaked in cool water were gel-filled neckerchiefs. Wrapped around the necks of even the bus drivers, the reusable neck bands were a welcome gift.
In all, it was a successful end to a summer season where education seemed circumstantial to fun.
Thursday marked the final field trip of the summer SAFE BASE program for about 120 children in USD 257. They shuttled off in yellow buses to the Exploration Place in Wichita, a stunning science center filled with hands-on displays about flight mechanics, Kansas’ landscape and skeletal whales.
Whales are sacred to the indigenous Maori people of New Zealand, who see the giant beasts as “taonga,” a treasure from the sea. Carved whale bone pendants and ceremonial paddles were on display along with a life-sized replica of a blue whale heart.
At 100 feet long, the blue whale is the largest animal to ever live on earth. It’s heart easily held five fourth graders.
The children learned through a “whale activity” the difference between baleen, or filter-feeding, and toothed whales, those that hunt fish and seals for their food.
The students were fascinated by the hanging bones and videos of whale scientists and Maori carving the massive bodies of beached whales for both food and scientific study. Sound displays played the mournful calls the leviathans use to locate food — and each other.
It seemed amazing, education program specialist Steve Kimball told the students, that the largest whales eat the smallest food. Baleen whales simply swim through the sea with their mouths agape, he said, filtering shrimp and plankton from sea water as they go. The baleen, he said, is made of the same material as hair or fingernails; another commonality in all mammals.
Kimball acted as a low-key tour guide for the group, introducing an IMAX film about the changes in Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets and leading the whale activities. He explained even whales get the bends if they rise too quickly from the depths of the seas.
The students had to do short presentations for one another about what they had learned. A group of second and third graders, including Blake Middlemeyer, Devon Wilson, Matthew Karr and Blake Haar did a great job of describing how toothed whales hunt using echolocation.
In the Kansas display, large crystal blocks of native rock salt sat within reach of tanks holding tarantulas and lizards. Nearby, a tornado generator created a swirl of vapor to replicate formation of a storm.
In the flight center, hands on activities were the rage. A tall tower generated wind on a curving wall of silver disks — the patterns changed as children turned the dials. Flight simulators for planes spanning the realm of aviation history lured in eager youth. The Wright brothers’ plane was steered by a joystick that foiled attempts at level flight. Jets were crashed or landed at their young pilots’ delight.
The day ended with a whirl through a three-story playroom, complete with a giant bubble machine that kept the youngsters busy.
The bus ride back in 100-degree heat was made bearable by a treat provided by Wanda Kneen, SAFE BASE health coordinator.
Soaked in cool water were gel-filled neckerchiefs. Wrapped around the necks of even the bus drivers, the reusable neck bands were a welcome gift.
In all, it was a successful end to a summer season where education seemed circumstantial to fun.
Iola EXPO back on track
By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK Register Reporter
This year’s Iola Chamber of Commerce Business Expo wil be the first since the Neosho River flooded Riverside Park and the Community Building there in July of 2007.
Although the building reopened to public use in May of 2008, the Expo, traditionally the last weekend of January, had no where to go before then and was canceled. This year, the date has changed, but the venue returns.
“It’s usually the last weeknd in January,” said Chamber of Commerce head Jana Taylor, “but the SuperBowl is then, and we didn’t want to compete with the SuperBowl.”
So, in deference to that great event, the Expo has been bumped up a weekend, to Jan. 24 and 25.
Iolans will find a wide array of businesses present, from non-profits like the Allen County Historical Museum and ACARF to traditional Expo attendees like Kitchens and More and Western Auto.
In all, Taylor said, there should be as many booths as in years past, or possibly more.
“I have new people adding booths every day,” she said.
In addition, the event should be far easier to maneuver through.
The old floor of the Community Building was concrete with an elevated wooden basketball court - a situation that “wasn’t handicap firendly,” said Parks Dept. Receptionist Kristy Sutherland. The new Taraflex flooring, however, is all one smooth, cushioned level — easier on the feet and bones as well as friendlier to the mobility impaired.
The flooring is a synthetic layered sysytem.
“It’s pretty thick plastic,” Sutherland said.
According to the company’s website, it’s layered vinyl, reinforced fiberglass and closed-cell foam “to provide shock absorption, help fight fatigue, deliver consistent ball bounce, and protect against skin burns.”
It’s certainly more comfortable than the old wood or concrete floors, Sutherland acknowledged.
The businesses representatives who spend two days standing during the Expo will probably appreciate that as well.
That single-level surface will provide more usable square footage, as well, said Taylor. Before, merchants had to work around the edge of the concrete. Now, booths can be rimmed around the building, as well as having a center grouping, wihtout needing to allow empty space for the elevation change. Traffic flow will be easier for patrons, she said. Merchants will set up in the earth-toned “Little Theater Room” as well as the new gym.
In all, there will be over 13,000 square feet of vendor dispalys, Taylor said.
“They always have goodies — freebies and promotional items,” Taylor said of the vendors.
Specials this year will include a masseuse offering chair massages and the Chamber’s daily give-away of $500 in Expo Bucks, credit that can be used at any of the participating vendor locations.
Also planned is a computer raffle, Taylor said. Tickets should run a buck a piece, or six for $5 she said.
It’s all with one purpose in mind: “The idea is to promote Iola business not only to our own local people but also to those outside the area.”
Attendance in years passed surpassed 2,00 visitors over the course of the weekend, Taylor said.
“We do publicize the event,” she said. The Expo has been promnoted from Yates Center to Fort Scott and Ottawa.
Food will be available this year, too, thanks to the new kitchen added during remodeling.
“We had an area before that was a concesion,” Sutherland said, “But we didn’t have freezers or a stove.” Sutherland said the new kitchen will be a boon to all the events held at the center, form community ball games to weddings and family reunions.
“We have a dodge ball tournament on the 31st and they’ll use the kitchen at that,” she said.
The kitchen and the new gym are the silver lining to the 2007 flood.
“We are better off than we were before,” Sutherland said. “We never would have gotten the floor that we needed otherwise.”
As for the EXpo, Major sponsors Copy Products, Diebolt Lumber, Personal Service Insurance and Windsor Place of Iola, need to be thanked for their assistance, Taylor said.
“They really make it happen.”
This year’s Iola Chamber of Commerce Business Expo wil be the first since the Neosho River flooded Riverside Park and the Community Building there in July of 2007.
Although the building reopened to public use in May of 2008, the Expo, traditionally the last weekend of January, had no where to go before then and was canceled. This year, the date has changed, but the venue returns.
“It’s usually the last weeknd in January,” said Chamber of Commerce head Jana Taylor, “but the SuperBowl is then, and we didn’t want to compete with the SuperBowl.”
So, in deference to that great event, the Expo has been bumped up a weekend, to Jan. 24 and 25.
Iolans will find a wide array of businesses present, from non-profits like the Allen County Historical Museum and ACARF to traditional Expo attendees like Kitchens and More and Western Auto.
In all, Taylor said, there should be as many booths as in years past, or possibly more.
“I have new people adding booths every day,” she said.
In addition, the event should be far easier to maneuver through.
The old floor of the Community Building was concrete with an elevated wooden basketball court - a situation that “wasn’t handicap firendly,” said Parks Dept. Receptionist Kristy Sutherland. The new Taraflex flooring, however, is all one smooth, cushioned level — easier on the feet and bones as well as friendlier to the mobility impaired.
The flooring is a synthetic layered sysytem.
“It’s pretty thick plastic,” Sutherland said.
According to the company’s website, it’s layered vinyl, reinforced fiberglass and closed-cell foam “to provide shock absorption, help fight fatigue, deliver consistent ball bounce, and protect against skin burns.”
It’s certainly more comfortable than the old wood or concrete floors, Sutherland acknowledged.
The businesses representatives who spend two days standing during the Expo will probably appreciate that as well.
That single-level surface will provide more usable square footage, as well, said Taylor. Before, merchants had to work around the edge of the concrete. Now, booths can be rimmed around the building, as well as having a center grouping, wihtout needing to allow empty space for the elevation change. Traffic flow will be easier for patrons, she said. Merchants will set up in the earth-toned “Little Theater Room” as well as the new gym.
In all, there will be over 13,000 square feet of vendor dispalys, Taylor said.
“They always have goodies — freebies and promotional items,” Taylor said of the vendors.
Specials this year will include a masseuse offering chair massages and the Chamber’s daily give-away of $500 in Expo Bucks, credit that can be used at any of the participating vendor locations.
Also planned is a computer raffle, Taylor said. Tickets should run a buck a piece, or six for $5 she said.
It’s all with one purpose in mind: “The idea is to promote Iola business not only to our own local people but also to those outside the area.”
Attendance in years passed surpassed 2,00 visitors over the course of the weekend, Taylor said.
“We do publicize the event,” she said. The Expo has been promnoted from Yates Center to Fort Scott and Ottawa.
Food will be available this year, too, thanks to the new kitchen added during remodeling.
“We had an area before that was a concesion,” Sutherland said, “But we didn’t have freezers or a stove.” Sutherland said the new kitchen will be a boon to all the events held at the center, form community ball games to weddings and family reunions.
“We have a dodge ball tournament on the 31st and they’ll use the kitchen at that,” she said.
The kitchen and the new gym are the silver lining to the 2007 flood.
“We are better off than we were before,” Sutherland said. “We never would have gotten the floor that we needed otherwise.”
As for the EXpo, Major sponsors Copy Products, Diebolt Lumber, Personal Service Insurance and Windsor Place of Iola, need to be thanked for their assistance, Taylor said.
“They really make it happen.”
Iolans help spread sight across globe
“And in that day ... the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness.” Isaiah 29:18
There is no moment so fulfilling as watching a person whose vision had been blurred for years suddenly see clearly, said Iolan Bob Hawk, who along with local optometrist Ellis Potter has been traveling the world distributing eyeglasses and teaching people in impoverished nations how to construct reading glasses with very simple materials.
One woman told Hawk, “they changed my life.”
The El Salvadoran woman, who needed +400 lenses, now can see to thread her sewing machine and earns a living making doll clothes. She could not see well enough to do the work before, Hawk said.
Potter and Hawk are both members of Rotary International, a service organization that sponsors the trips.
“I’ve been on seven trips,” Hawk said. “The first time, in 1994, I went to Honduras.”
The two go under the auspices of VOSH/International. Groups like Lions Club International collect used eyeglasses, Potter said. These are repaired, then Volunteer Optometric Service to Humanity “takes all the donated glasses and delivers them throughout the world where people could use them,” Potter said.
“We put glasses on almost 12,000 people,” Potter said of the six VOSH trips he and Hawk have been on.
New is creating reading glasses on the cheap, a project known as “6110 Vision Quest.”
“We started doing these VOSH trips and then discovered the Vision Quest” Potter said. It was serendipity that introduced the men to the concept at all, Hawk noted.
During a 2007 presentation in Wichita about disaster response, Hawk inadvertently left in a slide from one of Iola Rotary’s VOSH trips.
A woman in the audience came up to Hawk and “said, ‘We have this missionary friend in Florida who teaches people to make reading glasses for 35 cents.’”
After talking with her, she called Dale Rosell, the missionary, and “he called me the next day and I ordered the kit.”
The kits, an evangelical outreach for Rosell, contain a simple jig for making glasses using welding wire, plastic tubing and polycarbonate lenses.
A complete kit with instructions, tools and materials to construct 314 pairs of glasses costs only $250, Hawk said. He began taking the kits on VOSH trips.
“We could leave the kit and they could help themselves,” Potter said.
Though the cost of the kit is reasonable, it is expensive delivering the kits overseas, Hawk said. Shipping the 26 pound boxes outside of the United States costs more than the full kit, he said.
So, Iola Rotary established 6110 Vision Quest Foundation to purchase and distribute kits through international travelers.
“Any time someone is traveling outside of the country, we’d like them to take one of these kits along,” Hawk said. The kit box, smaller than a typical suitcase, can be included as a piece of checked luggage, then delivered to a Rotarian “on the other side,” Hawk said. That Rotarian then trains individuals to test vision and make eyeglasses in communities in need. The glasses cost approximately 45 cents per pair to make, Hawk noted.
A June visit by Hawk to the International Rotary convention in England led to expanding Vision Quest training to India.
Hawk took just a few pairs of glasses and brochures to England with him. He figured the cost of shipping would dampen interest in the kits as an international project. Yet in England, opthamologist Dr. Samar Das and Rotarian Michael Ratcliffe both seized upon the project’s potential.
“You must go to India to train people to make the spectacles and duplicate the project there,” Hawk said Ratcliffe told him.
In November, Hawk and Potter taught Rotary-selected individuals at six Rotary eye hospitals and one community center in Calcutta (now known as Kolkota). “We ended up training 70 people,” Hawk said.
The Rotarians in India selected mainly unemployed young people to train, Hawk said.
“It provides a two-fold benefit because it helps people to see and provides an opportunity for employment,” he noted. “The plan is, they are going to totally replicate this project in India. They ordered enough lenses to make 10,000 glasses,” he said.
The glasses are made from three segments of 1/16 inch stainless steel welding rod bent to form ear pieces and the front piece to hold the lenses. Lenses are notched to snap into place on the frame. It takes about 15 minutes to complete one pair, Hawk said. The glasses require no electricity or water to produce, perfect for developing nations without such infrastructure.
“You’re not linked to the grid” Hawk noted.
Hawk sent the Indian Rotary a jig, plus drawing, with simple changes he has made to finesse the design. The Indians sent back a finished jig that works better than the one that comes with the kit, he said.
With an abundance of raw materials there, “the only thing they’ll have to get is these lenses that come from China,” he said.
In El Salvador, where Hawk brought the kits previously, a church now sells the glasses for $2 a pair. The person making them is paid $1 per pair, he said, noting coffee pickers in the region earn $5 for eight hours of labor.
In India, he said, they hope to sell the glasses for less than $1 per pair.
Potter noted that 60 percent of people with vision problems can be helped by reading glasses.
“It has earnings potential,” Hawk said.
There is no moment so fulfilling as watching a person whose vision had been blurred for years suddenly see clearly, said Iolan Bob Hawk, who along with local optometrist Ellis Potter has been traveling the world distributing eyeglasses and teaching people in impoverished nations how to construct reading glasses with very simple materials.
One woman told Hawk, “they changed my life.”
The El Salvadoran woman, who needed +400 lenses, now can see to thread her sewing machine and earns a living making doll clothes. She could not see well enough to do the work before, Hawk said.
Potter and Hawk are both members of Rotary International, a service organization that sponsors the trips.
“I’ve been on seven trips,” Hawk said. “The first time, in 1994, I went to Honduras.”
The two go under the auspices of VOSH/International. Groups like Lions Club International collect used eyeglasses, Potter said. These are repaired, then Volunteer Optometric Service to Humanity “takes all the donated glasses and delivers them throughout the world where people could use them,” Potter said.
“We put glasses on almost 12,000 people,” Potter said of the six VOSH trips he and Hawk have been on.
New is creating reading glasses on the cheap, a project known as “6110 Vision Quest.”
“We started doing these VOSH trips and then discovered the Vision Quest” Potter said. It was serendipity that introduced the men to the concept at all, Hawk noted.
During a 2007 presentation in Wichita about disaster response, Hawk inadvertently left in a slide from one of Iola Rotary’s VOSH trips.
A woman in the audience came up to Hawk and “said, ‘We have this missionary friend in Florida who teaches people to make reading glasses for 35 cents.’”
After talking with her, she called Dale Rosell, the missionary, and “he called me the next day and I ordered the kit.”
The kits, an evangelical outreach for Rosell, contain a simple jig for making glasses using welding wire, plastic tubing and polycarbonate lenses.
A complete kit with instructions, tools and materials to construct 314 pairs of glasses costs only $250, Hawk said. He began taking the kits on VOSH trips.
“We could leave the kit and they could help themselves,” Potter said.
Though the cost of the kit is reasonable, it is expensive delivering the kits overseas, Hawk said. Shipping the 26 pound boxes outside of the United States costs more than the full kit, he said.
So, Iola Rotary established 6110 Vision Quest Foundation to purchase and distribute kits through international travelers.
“Any time someone is traveling outside of the country, we’d like them to take one of these kits along,” Hawk said. The kit box, smaller than a typical suitcase, can be included as a piece of checked luggage, then delivered to a Rotarian “on the other side,” Hawk said. That Rotarian then trains individuals to test vision and make eyeglasses in communities in need. The glasses cost approximately 45 cents per pair to make, Hawk noted.
A June visit by Hawk to the International Rotary convention in England led to expanding Vision Quest training to India.
Hawk took just a few pairs of glasses and brochures to England with him. He figured the cost of shipping would dampen interest in the kits as an international project. Yet in England, opthamologist Dr. Samar Das and Rotarian Michael Ratcliffe both seized upon the project’s potential.
“You must go to India to train people to make the spectacles and duplicate the project there,” Hawk said Ratcliffe told him.
In November, Hawk and Potter taught Rotary-selected individuals at six Rotary eye hospitals and one community center in Calcutta (now known as Kolkota). “We ended up training 70 people,” Hawk said.
The Rotarians in India selected mainly unemployed young people to train, Hawk said.
“It provides a two-fold benefit because it helps people to see and provides an opportunity for employment,” he noted. “The plan is, they are going to totally replicate this project in India. They ordered enough lenses to make 10,000 glasses,” he said.
The glasses are made from three segments of 1/16 inch stainless steel welding rod bent to form ear pieces and the front piece to hold the lenses. Lenses are notched to snap into place on the frame. It takes about 15 minutes to complete one pair, Hawk said. The glasses require no electricity or water to produce, perfect for developing nations without such infrastructure.
“You’re not linked to the grid” Hawk noted.
Hawk sent the Indian Rotary a jig, plus drawing, with simple changes he has made to finesse the design. The Indians sent back a finished jig that works better than the one that comes with the kit, he said.
With an abundance of raw materials there, “the only thing they’ll have to get is these lenses that come from China,” he said.
In El Salvador, where Hawk brought the kits previously, a church now sells the glasses for $2 a pair. The person making them is paid $1 per pair, he said, noting coffee pickers in the region earn $5 for eight hours of labor.
In India, he said, they hope to sell the glasses for less than $1 per pair.
Potter noted that 60 percent of people with vision problems can be helped by reading glasses.
“It has earnings potential,” Hawk said.
SEK-CAP grant helps garden grow
By spring, Elm Creek Community Gardens will almost quadruple the number of plots it offers and double the area currently in use. The changes are courtesy a $24,940.86 grant from SEK-CAP.
The grant is being distributed in two parts. Elm Creek received the first payment, $14,474.49, Monday morning.
Aaron McConnell, SEK-CAP coordinator, said the grant is the first distribution from $500,000 in government stimulus funds the agency will divide among 12 counties in Southeast Kansas.
“A lot of people are wondering how stimulus funds are being used,” said Travis Allen, SEK-CAP Sector 1 Community Capacity Specialist. “This came out of that. People wonder what jobs are being created. It’s also funding a full time garden coordinator and part time bookkeeper.” John Richards is Elm Creek’s garden coordinator, and Gerry Uphoff is bookkeeper.
Because the money comes from the federal government, there are limits on what can and cannot be done with the money. Representatives of the garden signed a contract delineating intended uses.
Primary among them is the garden expansion. Forty-four new 12 foot by 24 foot full-sized plots, plus 24, 40 inch by 48 inch container plots will be installed in the garden by spring. The container plots will be equally distributed between handicapped Iolans and SAFE BASE children. In addition, shade shelters with picnic benches and a memory garden honoring early ECCG participants Jeanie Larson and Vicki Lucas, both deceased, will be created with the funds.
The grant will also purchase tools sized for the SAFE BASE and handicap plots, put in paths, purchase seeds, plants and top soil and seven additional hydrants to provide water to the expanded garden.
“Pretty much the only thing we couldn’t do was concrete,” Allen said of allowed expenditures of the funds.
THAT ELM Creek was awarded the funds — and is the first project fully funded through the stimulus money — was a convergence of priorities for both the gardeners and SEK-CAP.
“The first thing we did,” when it was learned SEK-CAP would administer the stimulus funds, McConnell said, “was send an e-mail to the 240 employees of SEK-CAP” seeking ideas for use of the grants.
A timely article in the Register about the potential fund source sparked interest of Carolyn McLean, who, with her husband Val, have donated the land for the community garden.
“I saw the article in the Register and I said to Val, ‘I’m calling first thing tomorrow morning,’” McLean said.
“This is one of the first projects a community gave us,” plus it was also identified by SEK-CAP employees as a priority idea, McConnell said.
Expanding Elm Creek Community Garden will allow plots being available for those who cannot afford to pay the normal garden fee, or are otherwise unable to grow food where they live.
“That was a good thing for us to approve, because SEK-CAP is trying to eliminate poverty,” Ellis explained.
New plots should be in place by the garden’s opening Feb. 15, Richards said.
ECCG will receive its second grant payment in March.
The grant is being distributed in two parts. Elm Creek received the first payment, $14,474.49, Monday morning.
Aaron McConnell, SEK-CAP coordinator, said the grant is the first distribution from $500,000 in government stimulus funds the agency will divide among 12 counties in Southeast Kansas.
“A lot of people are wondering how stimulus funds are being used,” said Travis Allen, SEK-CAP Sector 1 Community Capacity Specialist. “This came out of that. People wonder what jobs are being created. It’s also funding a full time garden coordinator and part time bookkeeper.” John Richards is Elm Creek’s garden coordinator, and Gerry Uphoff is bookkeeper.
Because the money comes from the federal government, there are limits on what can and cannot be done with the money. Representatives of the garden signed a contract delineating intended uses.
Primary among them is the garden expansion. Forty-four new 12 foot by 24 foot full-sized plots, plus 24, 40 inch by 48 inch container plots will be installed in the garden by spring. The container plots will be equally distributed between handicapped Iolans and SAFE BASE children. In addition, shade shelters with picnic benches and a memory garden honoring early ECCG participants Jeanie Larson and Vicki Lucas, both deceased, will be created with the funds.
The grant will also purchase tools sized for the SAFE BASE and handicap plots, put in paths, purchase seeds, plants and top soil and seven additional hydrants to provide water to the expanded garden.
“Pretty much the only thing we couldn’t do was concrete,” Allen said of allowed expenditures of the funds.
THAT ELM Creek was awarded the funds — and is the first project fully funded through the stimulus money — was a convergence of priorities for both the gardeners and SEK-CAP.
“The first thing we did,” when it was learned SEK-CAP would administer the stimulus funds, McConnell said, “was send an e-mail to the 240 employees of SEK-CAP” seeking ideas for use of the grants.
A timely article in the Register about the potential fund source sparked interest of Carolyn McLean, who, with her husband Val, have donated the land for the community garden.
“I saw the article in the Register and I said to Val, ‘I’m calling first thing tomorrow morning,’” McLean said.
“This is one of the first projects a community gave us,” plus it was also identified by SEK-CAP employees as a priority idea, McConnell said.
Expanding Elm Creek Community Garden will allow plots being available for those who cannot afford to pay the normal garden fee, or are otherwise unable to grow food where they live.
“That was a good thing for us to approve, because SEK-CAP is trying to eliminate poverty,” Ellis explained.
New plots should be in place by the garden’s opening Feb. 15, Richards said.
ECCG will receive its second grant payment in March.
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