The Junior League of Kansas City, Missouri is pleased to launch Healthy U, the League’s new Community Impact signature program.
The Healthy U program includes several layers of programming focused on Nutrition and Undernourishment, Healthy Choices, Eating on a Budget and Fitness programming – all focused on building a healthier Kansas City Community.
Through the League’s Healthy U program, the Junior League of Kansas City, Missouri is adopting University Academy in conjunction with our new impact area of Children’s Nutrition & Fitness.
University Academy is a K-12 college preparatory public charter academy that emphasizes college preparation, career development, community service and leadership.
The signature project will bring layers of programming focused through one school community over the next five years. The Junior League’s programs will focus on fighting food insecurity, student nutrition education, parent nutrition and cooking education, obesity prevention programming and fitness programming at all levels of the University Academy.
The Junior League of Kansas City, Missouri (JLKCMO) is an organization of women committed to promoting voluntarism, developing the potential of women and improving communities through the effective action and leadership of trained volunteers. Its purpose is exclusively educational and charitable.
JLKCMO will accomplish their mission by:
Providing a motivating and supportive environment that stimulates members.
Participation increasing their impact in the Kansas City community by effectively coordinating our resources with community needs.
Maintaining financial stability through their endowed funds and fundraising events.
Providing comprehensive training opportunities to develop volunteers to better serve the community.
Communicating and promoting the organization’s mission and historical significance to their membership and the community.
Additionally, the Junior League of Kansas City, Missouri has a vision to be a visible group of active volunteers focused on improving the quality of life in our community.
Samaritan’s Feet is on a quest to put shoes on the feet of 10,000 impoverished children in our own backyard. What compels hundreds of volunteers from churches in rural Missouri to join together to bring new sneakers to students at Martin Luther King Elementary School in the Kansas City, Missouri School District? While they live only about an hour apart, there is a world of difference. They discovered they all shared one unique experience and a gift that was much more than shoes.
This video report was compiled for The Local Show by Bryan Shepard, a video producer for the Local Investment Commission. LINC is a Kansas City based organization supporting under-served families and children in the metro.
Bob Petersen’s background reflects a lifetime commitment to agriculture. Most recently, he has operated his own consulting business which provides management services to various agricultural trade associations, including the Agricultural Business Council of Kansas City. From 2000 to 2004, he served as president and CEO of the Kansas City Board of Trade. For 20 years prior to that he worked for the Washington, DC-based National Grain Trade Council, serving as its president for the last 18 years of that stint. He is a native of Nebraska where he grew-up on a family ranch.
The first American Royal started in 1899 as the National Hereford Show, the first nationwide show for the exposition and sale of purebred cattle. It was held in a tent in the West Bottoms from Oct. 23-28, 1899, and featured 541 registered Herefords. During the 3-day sale, 300 Herefords were sold, at an average price of $334. The estimated attendance was 55,000.” Printed in the KC Star, 10/13/1908: “A small young lady was among the spectators in the ‘big top’ yesterday. With intense interest she watched the great cattle led into the ring by their attendants. Each of the men who led the entries wore placards, sandwich-man fashion, showing the number of the animal entered, its age and weight. The little girl puzzled over the cards for some time. At last turning to her father she said, in a loud whisper, ‘Papa, those men must have got their cards all mixed up. That little man there must be more than two years old, and he can’t possibly weight 1,430 pounds.’” On November 7, 1921, the cornerstone was laid for the first American Royal building. The building was dedicated on November 19, 1922. The estimated cost of the building was $800,000. The floor area was 7.5 acres.
Here is a look at the history of this Kansas City institution:
The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum has recently experienced some changes in leadership as well as potential competition as other cities look to open similar exhibits. Nick Haines sits down with Dr. Raymond Doswell, Board President and Vice President of Curatorial Services, to discuss what the future holds for this Kansas City institution.
Through the inspiration of Horace M. Peterson III (1945-1992), founder of the Black Archives of Mid-America, a group of local historians, business leaders, and former baseball players came together to create the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in the early 1990s. It functioned out of a small, one room office in the Lincoln Building, which is located in the Historic 18th & Vine Jazz District of Kansas City, MO. It quickly incorporated, built a board of directors and staffing, and created a licensing program to support operations.
In 1994, it expanded to a 2,000 square-foot space in the Lincoln Building, which include a number photographs and interactive displays. Designed by ESA Design of Abilene, KS, this exhibit became the flagship for redevelopment in the historic district. Several hundred visitors, including school groups and dignitaries, marveled at this once “untold American history.”Highlights of our stay in the Lincoln Building included the 75th Anniversary Reunion of the Negro Leagues and a visit from Vice-President Al Gore.
The 18th & Vine historic district was the center for black culture and life in Kansas City from the late 1800s-1960s. It was the hub of activity for homeowners, business, jazz music, and baseball enthusiast. Just outside of the district stands the Paseo YMCA building, which was built as a black YMCA in 1914. It served as temporary home for baseball players, railroad workers, and others making the transition to big city life in the Midwest. It was here that the Negro National League was founded in 1920. Although the district and the YMCA building were becoming blighted by the 1980s, they were recognized on the National Register of Historic Places.
During the late 1990s, plans were underway by city officials to create a new home to showcase Kansas City’s jazz heritage and to revitalize the Historic District. City officials and the mayor worked to raise over $20 million in bonds to build a new facility to host the new American Jazz Museum and a new, permanent and expanded, home for the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. This new 50,000 square-foot building opened in September 1997 and the Baseball Museum opened in November.
Our permanent home uses 10,000 square feet of the new space. Also designed by ESA Design, the new exhibit features multi-media computer stations, several film exhibits, hundreds of photographs, Field of 12 bronze sculptures and a growing collection of baseball artifacts. The museum raised over $2 million dollars to complete design and construction of this space. It has also welcomed several thousand visitors and dignitaries since, including Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, General (Ret.) Colin Powell, Jesse Jackson, Maya Angelou, Judith Jamison, Mike Dukakis, Walter Cronkite, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Barry Bonds, Tony Larussa, Isaac Hayes, Ossie Davis, Sinbad, and many, many others.
In 1995, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum appointed Raymond Doswell as its first curator. He has played an increasingly integral role in the growth and development of the museum since his appointment. As the interim President, Doswell oversees all museum operations, programming, development, marketing, and curatorial responsibilities. The museum’s collections include a few hundred photographs and artifacts. Doswell also directs all education initiatives and partnerships with universities and school districts.
Doswell was born in St. Louis, MO and spent his adolescent years in East Saint Louis, IL. He earned a Bachelors of Arts degree in History from Monmouth College in Illinois, where he was also trained to become a teacher.
He received his Masters of Arts Degree from the University of California at Riverside in Historic Resources Management in 1995. The program featured graduate course work in 19th & 20th Century American History with specialized training in museum curatorship, archival management, and historic preservation. Before completing graduate studies in California, he served as an intern for the Anacostia Museum, a division of the Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, D.C.
Doswell earned a doctorate from the College of Education at Kansas State University, where he researched the links between museums and education.
Doswell received a gubernatorial appointment to the Missouri Historical Records Advisory Board in 2003 and has served as a grant review panelist for the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 2006, Doswell served on the special selection committee for the National Baseball Hall of Fame, where 17 new Negro Leagues veterans were selected for induction. Doswell also serves as a board member for the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education, and an Education Committee member for the National World War I Museum. In addition, he serves on the editorial board for Black Ball: A Journal of the Negro Leagues and is a member of Rotary International.
Dr. Doswell travels extensively as a public speaker/lecturer and has appeared on several national media outlets on behalf of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, including ESPN, NPR, Showtime, and the BBC. His publications also include contributions to the Kansas City Star newspaper and Memories & Dreams Magazine for the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
You can follow the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum on Facebook. Just click on the logo below…
Much of the history of Kansas City can be told by looking into the stories of those people buried in the Elmwood Cemetery. Bruce Mathews, DJ Hyde Matheny and Anne Sutton Canfield collaborated on the new book, Elmwood Cemetery: Stories of Kansas City, that captures some of the rich history that can be traced to the cemetery. Mathews and Canfield join Randy Mason for a quick sampling of the amazing stories.
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places,Elmwood Cemetery opened in 1872. Its beautiful grounds were designed by renowned landscape architect George Kessler, the creator of Kansas City’s famed parks and boulevard system. Elmwood encompasses 43 acres in the heart of Kansas City and is the final resting place for over 36,000 souls from all walks of life, including many of Kansas City’s founders.
The mission of the Elmwood Cemetery Society is simple: Perpetuate the life stories of all who have chosen Elmwood as their final resting place, while maintaining a place of dignity and respect where their loved ones will find comfort in visiting, time and time again.
This video profile examines the soup kitchen that offers dignity to those reaching out for a helping hand. The Downtown Council teamed with Episcopal Community Services to build the facility at 1444 E. Eighth St. along with HGTV’s Design Star winner Jennifer Bertrand of Olathe who donated her talents to create what has been dubbed “the happiest community kitchen ever.”
In the 1950s, they perfected the candy coating for M&Ms and developed the first autodrip coffeemaker. Midwest Research Instituteis an independent, not-for-profit organization that performs contract research for government and industry. Founded in 1944, MRI has built a reputation for innovation, technical excellence, and problem solving.
Today, as one of the nation’s leading research institutes, MRI conducts programs in the areas of national security and defense, life sciences, energy and the environment, agriculture and food safety, and engineering and infrastructure.
With headquarters in Kansas City, MRI also has facilities in Rockville and Frederick, MD, and Palm Bay, FL. In addition to operating its own laboratories, MRI operates laboratories for the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Department of Defense.
MRI is one of two entities in the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC, which manages and operates the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, CO, for the U.S. Department of Energy. MRI has managed NREL since its inception in 1977.
Jake Wagner and Scott Lane from the Historic Kansas City Foundation discuss the value of preserving the history of Kansas City by saving endangered buildings. Here is a look at the buildings the foundation is currently focused on:
KC’s MOST ENDANGERED HISTORIC PLACES
Historic Kansas City Foundation announces the 2010 Most Endangered Historic Places in Kansas City:
The Historic Country Club Plaza and District, KCMO
The Holy Name Church, 23rd and Benton Blvd. KCMO
Cosby Hotel, KCMO
Wheatley Provident Hospital, KCMO
Savoy Hotel
Hawthorne Building
Satchel Paige and Buck O’Neil Residences, 2626 E. 28th and 3049 E. 32nd St.
Gumbel Building, 801 Walnut
Knickerbocker Apartments,
Janssen Place Entry Columns
Leona Pouncey Thurman Law Office Building, 1505 E. 18th St.
Donaldson House, KC Art Institute
9842 Aberdeen, Overland Park, KC (Case Study House)
Disney Building (Laugh-a-gram) East 31st St. (at Forest)
Watch List
18th and Vine Historic District
Kansas City Missouri School Buildings
Breuer House 67 + Belinder, Mission Hills, KS
Since its founding in 1974, Historic Kansas City Foundation (HKCF) has been the only Greater Kansas City nonprofit corporation dedicated to the preservation of the area’s architectural heritage. HKCF is a major advocate for, and participant in, the thoughtful and meaningful preservation and rehabilitation of historic buildings, landscapes, and neighborhoods. Through advocacy, public policy, outreach and educational programming, HKCF demonstrates the proven economic and cultural benefits of historic preservation.
Jacob A. Wagner, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Urban Planning and Design in the Department of Architecture, Urban Planning and Design at UMKC. He is Vice President of the Board of the Historic Kansas City Foundation and has served on the board of directors since 2006. Since December 2005 he has been active in the recovery of New Orleans following the disaster of Hurricane Katrina. In Kansas City he has worked with the Washington Wheatley Neighborhood, the Green Impact Zone and the Mid America Regional Council on a variety of projects related to historic preservation, neighborhood stabilization and community planning.
Scott Lane is a Vice-President and Managing Broker with Reece and Nichols Realtors since 1984. He is a Director for the Kansas Association of Realtors as well as involved in Professional Standards with the Kansas City Regional Association of Realtors. He is President of the Board of Historic Kansas City Foundation. In 2004 he co-founded KCModern an education and advocacy group promoting architecture, design, etc. of the recent past.
Skim through your daily newspaper or watch your evening news and you’ll often hear mention of Mattie Rhodes. It might be abut a new art exhibit…or a story about domestic violence or the challenges facing Latinos in the metro. As part of our Difference Makers series here on KCPT, we try to bring a brighter spotlight on our area non-profits. This week we go inside an agency that many of us have heard of…but few may know much about.
KCPT goes inside Operation Breakthrough, the nation’s largest low-income daycare facility. More than 600 kids a day are served at the facility on Troost Avenue. But with rising poverty, 1200 children are on the waiting list.
The Local Show is designed to highlight artists and entrepreneurs, leaders and overachievers from all walks of life – and in the process, help Kansas Citians discover substantially more about this place we call home.
“The Local Show is really going to allow us to tackle areas of the news that rarely get much television coverage in the metro. At KCPT, we tackle local politics and public policy well, but what about the arts and entrepreneurship, education, health and science? Finally, we have a place to regularly tell those stories.” Nick Haines, Executive Producer, The Local Show
Nick Haines is the show’s host and executive producer. Assisted by Randy Mason (and other guest interviewers from time to time), Nick will sit down for fast-paced chats with people who are making a genuine difference in fields as varied as education, health services, technology, and the arts.
The pilot episode, for example, features Kathleen Collins, retiring this year as president of the Kansas City Art Institute; and Bryan Hansel, whose company, Smith Electric, is manufacturing electric powered trucks right here in Kansas City. KCPT’s The Local Show will also spotlight “difference makers” in the community. In this first program, KCPT goes inside Operation Breakthrough, the nation’s largest low-income daycare facility. More than 600 kids a day are served at the facility on Troost Avenue. But with rising poverty, 1200 children are on the waiting list.
The Local Show will also feature segments showcasing items from the WWI Museum at Liberty Memorial, and from time-to-time, some aptly named “Start-Up Stories.” These profiles will peek behind the scenes at fledgling ventures across the metro, and then with the aid of expert analysts, pinpoint the companies’ strengths and weaknesses.
KCPT President & CEO Kliff Kuehl conceived The Local Show after spending much of his first year on the job meeting business and civic leaders all over town. “I was amazed at how many fascinating stories I heard, and how much of it might not be known by a lot of our audience,” he says.
As The Local Show launches in July and August, each half-hour program will air once a month. Beginning in September, it will have a more frequent presence on KCPT, agile enough to accommodate special editions of Imagine KC and other newsworthy topics as the need arises.
Submissions to The Local Show
If you have a suggestion for a Local Show interview, video segment or if you have some interesting HD video you would like to share, please contact us at thelocalshow@kcpt.org.
125 East Thirty-First Street
Kansas City, MO 64108
(816)756-3580
The Junior League of Kansas City, Missouri (JLKCMO) is an organization of women committed to promoting voluntarism, developing the potential of women and improving communities through the effective action and leadership of trained volunteers. Its purpose is exclusively educational and charitable.
