Last month, Union Station hosted Maker Faire to allow DIYers to show off things they have created themselves. From robots to homemade clothes, the creativity of area residents was on display. The Local Show was there and now offers you this look.
If you missed the Union Station event and you need some inspiration to get your own creative juices flowing, you still have another chance. Kansas City’s original grass-roots mini Maker Faire is returning again this year as part of Parkville Day’s Riverfest, August 19 – 21. For more information, click here.
It’s hard to believe given the affluence of America that so many people grow up in our community and across the country unable to read. Imagine if you couldn’t make out the words on a menu, figure out what it says on your prescription label or even read a birthday card from your children. It is estimated that 225,000 adults in our metro are functionally illiterate. They can’t do these things. Recently, Nick Haines had the privilege to host the Power of Reading Event for Literacy KC, a Kansas City organization that uses volunteer tutors to help adults learn to read. Several of those adults who have overcome great odds shared their stories in front of a large audience at the Plaza Branch of the Kansas City Public Library.
You can become a tutor if you can spare two 90 minutes sessions a week. Training is provided.
We are all becoming increasing aware of the crippling impact of Alzheimer’s disease, but what if you could double your chances of maintaining a healthy brain for the rest of your life by following a few common-sense lifestyle suggestions? Researchers at the KU Alzheimer’s Disease Center, one of just 29 National Institute of Aging designated Alzheimer’s Centers in the country, are receiving international attention for a radical new way of thinking about the memory ravaging condition.
KU scientists are exploring the big difference that simple diet and exercise can make in how well your brain ages. Did you know that 90 percent of what’s now known about Alzheimer’s disease has been discovered in the last 15-years? Doctors at KU Alzheimer’s Disease Center are always looking for volunteers to help them conduct research. Adults of any age with Alzheimer’s Disease or Mild Cognitive impairment, as well as all healthy adults without memory problems ages 60-and-over are eligible.
Also, you can wear your favorite hat, watch the run for the roses and help the Kansas University Alzheimer’s Disease Center raise money all at the same time this Saturday in downtown Kansas City. The Derbyfest runs from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Maker’s Mark in the Power and Light District. Tickets cost $35 apiece, and walk-ups are welcome.
All proceeds from the 2013 Kentucky Derby Fest will stay right here in Kansas City to help find a cure for Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
Next Tuesday is Mardi Gras. If you come from New Orleans and suddenly find yourself transported to Kansas, you may experience culture shock on Fat Tuesday. That’s exactly what happened to Mike West and Katie Euliss. The musical duo known as Truckstop Honeymoon moved to Kansas after Hurricane Katrina. For the last several years, they’ve been bringing the Big Easy to their adopted hometown of Lawrence with their Mardi Gras Parade which is now attracting upwards of 400 people. We’re pleased to have Truckstop Honeymoon with us in Studio A performing Mardi Gras in Kansas.
If you are interested in joining the Mardi Gras festivities, the parade (more like a Mardi Gras flash mob) will begin next Tuesday (2.21) at noon at Aimee’s Cafe and Coffeehouse and the procession will continue down Massachusetts St. to Freestate Brewery.
If you weren’t able to make it to the parade this year, here is a look at what you missed:
Help educate others: Spread the word by talking to the people in your community who have the power to put an end to bullying. Here are a few groups you may want to visit or call:
Your family: If you have kids, teach them that bullying is wrong. Use the government resources provided for bullied kids and bullied teens to help them come up with a plan for what to do if they experience bullying as a victim or an observer.
Your friends and neighbors: Take a few minutes to share this bullying information with people in your neighborhood. Encourage adults and children to speak up and stop bullying wherever they see it.
Your local schools: StopBullying.gov has a wealth of free anti-bullying material aimed at helping teachers, school administrators, and students recognize and prevent school bullying. Print some of the school bullying articles and give them to your local school district or email officials the link. You may also want to suggest that school children take the Anti-bullying Pledge from Bullying.org.
Stop bullying when you see it: By now, you know what to do. The next time you see an innocent child being victimized by a bully, don’t let the abuse continue. Your actions to stop bullying will help victimized children have hope again and will pave the way for others to stop letting senseless bullying harm young lives.
Quidditch? Yes…you read that correctly. The Kansas University Quidditch team is now headed to the World Cup with a top ranking. They were #1 in the rankings in mid-October, but they fell one spot to #2 in the most recent rankings behind the sport’s originators from Middlebury College in Vermont. They will head to the World Cup on Nov. 11 to try to recapture that top spot.
Jonathan Cooper, KU Junior from Lee’s Summit, MO, recently produced a segment about the Quidditch team for his reporting class and The Local Show now presents an excerpt from the piece he produced after the rankings came out in October with KU atop the list.
Here is the accompanying story he wrote:
KU Quidditch Team Seeks World Cup Win
The University of Kansas has a new number one ranked athletic team, and it is not basketball. It’s not football or soccer or volleyball either. In fact, many people probably don’t even consider it a sport.
But for about 30 KU students, the news that their team is the best in the world, is the icing on the cake to a sport they started playing only two years ago. The sport is Quidditch, the Harry Potter inspired game where wizards fly to score goals in multiple rings.
“It’s different from the Harry Potter world in the fact that you can’t fly,” said Doug Whiston, team captain and founder. “We have to make certain concessions to actual physics.”
KU junior Doug Whiston organized the club his freshman year, which officially was recognized by the University in 2010. Whiston noticed the sport gain popularity at other schools around the country and gathered his friends to play in tournaments.
“It started just as casual talk and then Wichita State e-mailed us about a tournament they were hosting,” Whiston said. “We quickly scrambled and got a team together, and then we went down, competed and got third place.”
The team quickly grew and started playing in tournaments against other schools. Just last week the International Quidditch Association ranked KU as the number one team in all of human Quidditch.
“Now that we are ranked one we have a target on our back,” said Hai Nguyen, a player that is one of the founding members. “We have to bring our A-game every time or we could lose a step.”
The team’s success has come fast for Whiston who is unsure if they deserve it.
“A lot of schools on the East Coast say we only play Midwest schools,” Whiston said. “They tell us to face some real competition.”
Whiston and the rest of the team will get their chance starting Nov. 11 at the World Cup in New York.
“The World Cup is a tournament with about 100 teams,” Whiston said. “There will be schools there from around the county and a couple international ones.”
Whiston said the team is excited for the opportunity, but for him, winning is not everything.
“I just want to see us face some tough competition,” Whiston said. “It will be fun to see how good schools on the East Coast are.”
The tournament will run from Nov. 11 to 14, with the winner earning bragging rights as the best team in the world.
If you have content you think might be of interest to The Local Show, please email us at thelocalshow@kcpt.org.
He won eight Golden Gloves and played in five All-Star Games. Frank White played 18 seasons in the major leagues and all of them with the Kansas City Royals. Following his playing career he became a coach and a popular Royals broadcaster. That is until recently when his longtime club unceremoniously dismissed him from his contract.
Now, White is no longer spending his days at the K but across town at CommunityAmerica Ballpark, home to the Kansas City T-Bones, the metros’ minor league ballclub, where he recently took on the job of first-base coach.
Their new season gets underway next week. White joined Randy to talk about his life and career in baseball.
The term “life sciences” gets thrown around a lot these days. It is even a big part of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce’s Big 5. But what does it mean exactly? It is a concept that can be hard to understand, and sometimes quite complicated.
Life science is a multi-billion dollar industry in Kansas City, and it includes over 240 companies involved in the health of humans, animals and plants. One of these local life sciences organizations is the venerable Stowers Institute for Medical Research, which opened in 2000 with much fanfare on the site of the former Menorah Medical Center and was endowed with a jaw-dropping gift of $2 billion from the founder of American Century investments, Jim Stowers and his wife, Virginia.
Over the last decade, the Stowers Institute, located just off the Country Club Plaza, has attracted some of the world’s finest medical researchers to Kansas City to analyze our society’s most debilitating diseases and the keys to their causes. But after 13 years and such a large endowment, what kind of specific research and developments are actually taking place inside the Institute? Producer Pam James visits this center for life science research and discovery to show viewers what the Stowers Institute is all about.
It’s been a year now since the curtain opened on the much anticipated $415 million Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. The downtown venue designed by Moshie Safdie has quickly garnered both national and international attention.
Many of the center’s shows have earned rave reviews and there have been countless sold out performances. But one year on, is it meeting expectations?
Joining us for a status report is arts leader and philanthropist Julia Irene Kauffman, who chair’s the center’s board, and Symphony Board President Shirley Helzberg.
