Districts to push prevention education
Aaron Cedeño | Staff Writer
The De Soto and Shawnee Mission school districts recently received the results of the 2007 Communities That Care survey, which reports on factors such as student use of tobacco, alcohol and marijuana.
Sixth- and eighth-graders and sophomores and seniors statewide take the survey.
When asked at what age they first had “more than a sip or two” of an alcoholic beverage, Shawnee Mission students said 13 years old, and De Soto’s average was just under that mark and right in line with the state’s average. Additionally, in response to the question of how old they were when they began drinking “regularly,” which the survey deemed to be at least once or twice a month, Shawnee Mission students again were older than the state average at just under 15, and De Soto was directly in line with the state average of slightly older than 14.
Tonya Phillips, grants coordinator for the De Soto district, said that the survey was a valuable resource, and that the results could be used in a variety of ways. Phillips said she used the information in her grant proposals, such as one for the district’s Starside Elementary School, which received a five-year grant worth $95,691. That money will be used to provide Starside with additional after-school and summer programs.
“I think it’s very valuable to the buildings and the district as a whole in prevention planning,” she said. “You can see what’s affecting these kids and what they are thinking right now.”
Gillian Chapman, associate superintendent for educational services for Shawnee Mission, agreed. She said that the survey, which was the only one of its kind Shawnee Mission approved, provided information that could be useful at home as well as in the classroom.
“One of the other ways that we use this kind of data is to educate our parents,” she said. “It’s critical that they stay involved with the school and with their students.”
The results also showed that Shawnee Mission students said they were older, at 13, than the state average when they first tried cigarettes. De Soto students, while just slightly shy of Shawnee Mission’s mark, also said they were older than the state average, which was just above 12. Regarding the age when they first tried marijuana, the state average was just under 14. Students in both districts said they were about 14 when they tried it.
Phillips said there were two different perspectives from which to examine the results: as a parent and as an educator.
“There are two different ways of looking at it, and I see a lot more of what goes on (than a typical parent), which is scary because there are so many more issues facing kids today than there were five years ago.
“I think we have to do everything we can as parents to steer kids away from those things.”
Chapman added that the results were highly indicative of how important continued prevention education was not only at the middle school level, but also the elementary level.
“It’s critical that our prevention programs are very strong at both the elementary level and the middle school level,” she said. “Waiting to educate students at the middle school level is not acceptable. We have to educate them at the elementary age so that students have a strong connection to the school and their family.”
Both Phillips and Chapman said that the communities and families played a major role in the education of their students, and that De Soto and Shawnee Mission schools were fortunate to be within communities that understood that need.
“I think each of the communities does a good job in working with the issues that are facing their students,” Phillips said of the De Soto and Shawnee areas. De Soto schools draw from both communities.
Chapman added that the Shawnee Mission parents are supportive.
“That’s really the key,” Chapman said. “Our parents are very engaged in our schools and participate in activities, and our Shawnee Mission area PTA, with other PTA units, really have a strong focus in this area in prevention and in what kinds of things we can do to keep our students safe and healthy.”

Cookie company receives local, national best regards
Aaron Cedeño | Staff Writer
There’s just no substitute for quality.
That’s the philosophy that Lenexa residents Robert and Cherrie Duensing have applied to their business life at Best Regards, the Kansas City Cookie and Craves Chocolate.
“Yeah, I think it’s worked out OK,” Robert Duensing said.
Indeed it has. What started as a home-based gourmet gift basket enterprise has blossomed into a business specializing in gift baskets filled with cookies and chocolate that are the Duensings’ own creations from the recipe to the oven.
Cookie and chocolate production, however, never was part of the original plan. What it was, Robert Duensing said, was a response to the economic recession that hit after the events of Sept. 11. In a time when prices on nearly every consumable good were rising, Best Regards was struggling to find a way to provide their customers with the premium quality they had come to expect — a venture made more difficult by the fact that the Duensings’ suppliers were starting to cut corners and costs.
“We’re only as good as the products that go into (our gift baskets),” Robert Duensing said.
The answer, they decided, was to make their own product. The original plan was only to make chocolate chip cookies. The reasoning behind that, he said, was that if they could get customers hooked on their cookies, then they would need to come to the only place they could be found: Best Regards. Everything was going as planned, until Cherrie Duensing asked him to try to replicate a lemon tea cookie that had been popular. Tapping into a hidden talent with recipe creation, Duensing re-created that cookie. Then came the margarita tea cookies.
And the raspberry ones.
And then the snickerdoodles.
Soon it was six varieties of tea cookies on top of their signature chocolate chip, and the Kansas City Cookie was born.
Even then, the Duensings were reluctant to market their product wholesale despite several requests to do so. It took a trip to the Junior League of Kansas City’s Holiday Mart in 2005 — and a flood of requests — to get the Duensings to warm to the idea.
“By the time we got to Saturday, we’d had so many requests that we started thinking maybe we should do this,” Robert Duensing said of their experience at the three-day event.
Thus, the growth process began anew. By Christmas 2006, the Duensings were shipping their cookies — everything but the closely guarded chocolate chip — to 40 retailers in the Midwest. At that point, they decided to take the plunge and go national and sell their goods at the Fancy Food Show in July in New York, the mother of all gourmet food shows.
“That was the scariest thing we have done,” Robert Duensing said. “I did a database search when I was there, and according to it there were 256 companies who made and sold cookies at that show.”
With the Kansas Department of Commerce helping defray some of the costs for the Duensings and a few other Kansas gourmet food companies, the move turned out to be not just good, but great. In the middle of the second day, a man moseyed up to their booth and asked Robert Duensing to “give him his best shot.”
The man turned out to be an assistant producer for the “Rachael Ray” show, and the rest, as they say, is history. After sampling the margarita tea cookies, the producer asked the Duensings to send samples of their products to the show’s head food producer. The snickerdoodles were selected and featured as Ray’s “Snack of the Day” on Sept. 14 episode.
Not bad for a company that started out at home in 1994.
“We’re having fun at it,” Cherrie Duensing said. “We have found the thing that we can do together. Before this, (Robert) worked for a company where he had to travel four to five days a week and sometimes weekends.”
“We get to do things our way,” Robert Duensing added. “We don’t have to apologize for someone cutting corners on something.”

City discusses civic center as part of City Center
Aaron Cedeño | Staff Writer
At a study session Sept. 11, the city discussed the possibility of adding a new component to the rapidly growing City Center project — one that would have more of a civic utility than a commercial or residential one.
Assistant City Administrator Molly Deckert is overseeing the project, which is in the earliest stages of development. Deckert said they were trying to figure out what the development would entail, but the southwest corner of 87th Street Parkway and Renner Boulevard is being discussed as a potential home.
“We’ve started discussions with a variety of potential civic partners to collaborate on a civic center,” she said. “Right now, we’re actually looking at what may be in the facility, what potential partners are interested and what they would like to see.”
The initial vision, Deckert noted, is to make a potential civic center into something more than a typical recreational community center. Potentially, the building would include more facets and other aspects, such as more cultural activity.
Deckert said topics such as this one would be ideal for discussion during the Vision 2030 process, which Deckert said is intended to be guided by the Lenexa community. Vision 2030’s predecessor, Vision 2020, led to such developments as City Center and the Rain to Recreation program.
The city is looking for Lenexa residents to serve as members of the 2030 steering committee or in a number of other groups involved in the process. Deckert said those seeking more information might want to attend one of the two informational meetings in the coming weeks.
One is Oct. 3 at Lenexa Fire Station No. 3, and the other is Oct. 4 at the Lenexa Conference Center. Both meetings will start at 6:30 p.m.
“Those discussions are going to be guided by the public,” Deckert said of meetings during the 2030 process. “But (civic center) is something that could definitely come up.”

Everest to have concert as ‘thank you’
Aaron Cedeño | Staff Writer
To hear Phil Spencer, CEO of Everest Connections, tell it, his company’s livelihood hinged on Lenexa. The community was the first to grant Everest a franchise agreement and give the fledgling company a chance to compete.
“As you can probably imagine with a new start-up business, the ability to expand into other areas totally depends on how successful you are in the first,” Spencer said. “Our investors wouldn’t allow us to expand unless we could prove that we could be successful in Lenexa.”
Spencer said that Everest wanted to be unconventional and creative in the way it reached out to the community and got to know its new neighbors.
Sponsoring elementary school events, donating money to various organizations and organizing block parties in Lenexa neighborhoods were only a few ways Spencer said Everest went about its grass-roots effort.
What started as a few thousand residents in 2001 in Lenexa has expanded into half the homes in the city and the opportunity to bring Everest’s services to Overland Park, Shawnee and south Kansas City.
Without the support of Lenexa, Spencer said, none of that would have been possible.
“We love Lenexa, and we couldn’t have done it without them,” he said. “If we had not been successful in Lenexa, we could not have gone into other markets.”
This week, Everest will continue to utilize the hands-on model of communication that proved so successful in Lenexa — only on a bigger stage, so to speak. The company will sponsor a free concert at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 21 at Theater in the Park, 7900 Renner Road.
The event will feature three-time Grammy Award-nominated band Trout Fishing in America, “Mr. Stinky Feet” Jim Cosgrove and an appearance by the Kansas City Chiefs cheerleaders.
Spencer said the family-oriented event was meant as a thank you to the community.
“Having the concert in Lenexa is the least that we could do to thank them,” he said.
Ezra Idlet is half of the Arkansas-based Trout Fishing in America along with longtime friend Keith Grimwood.
Idlet said the group, which has a style as varied and unique as a record collection, was looking forward to playing the Lenexa show. Idlet said anyone who attends would be in for an evening of good music and good times.
“Get ready for a good time,” he said. “It’s just going to be a lot of fun.”

De Soto voters defeat bond issue
Aaron Cedeño | Staff Writer
De Soto school district voters didn’t pass the district’s latest bond issue, and the district now must figure out how to manage growth.
The first question — which proposed $51 million for expansions, especially to Mill Valley High School — failed 53 to 47 percent. The second question proposed $19.5 million for upgrading the theaters at De Soto and Mill Valley high schools and putting artificial turf on the two schools’ athletic fields. That question failed 65 to 35 percent.
Sept. 18’s bond proposal was the second to fail in the district in the last year. Voters defeated a $105.7 million bond in November 2006.
“We’ve got a lot of students that we have to figure out where we’re going to put,” said Janine Gracy, president of the school board. “I think the next course of action is that we’re going to have to get a committee together to figure out what we can do.”
Much of the bond’s money would have expanded Mill Valley to accommodate 1,300 students, up from its current capacity of 1,000. District spokesman Alvie Cater said the school’s enrollment as of Aug. 17 was 950 students.
The district’s boundary lines may have to be adjusted, with some Mill Valley students going to De Soto.
Board member Bill Fletcher said the “no” vote was a sign of the public’s dissatisfaction with the board’s planning.
“We haven’t built the schools right, and we just come back with Band-Aid approaches,” Fletcher said.
“We had a lot of icing on this one and not a lot of classrooms.”
Superintendent Sharon Zoellner said the board had some unique challenges.
“It’s going to take a lot of board time, a lot of community input, so I do hope the community will send their thoughts, concerns and input to us on the direction they would like to see the district head, in order to manage growth,” Zoellner said.

Mill Valley newspaper earns national accolades
Aaron Cedeño | Staff Writer
Sometimes it’s nice to have things made official.
Mill Valley High School students who have worked for the school’s monthly student news publication, the JagWire, have long known the quality of their work. Recently, however, the National Scholastic Press Association bestowed All-American honors upon the publication for the 2006-07 academic year.
Senior Ashleigh Meyer, now one of three editors-in-chief for the JagWire, has worked on the paper’s staff since starting out as a reporter two years ago. She said news of the award was a welcome surprise.
“I think I screamed,” she said of her reaction. “It was really exciting to be like, ‘That’s our stuff. We got All-American.’”
The JagWire now is staffed by 18 students, and adviser Kathy Habiger said the students are accountable for every step of the publication process — from ad sales to page design and everything in between. She said the students try to cover all aspects of student life.
“It’s a mix,” Habiger said of the paper’s content. “But I think if you look at the paper, you’ll see that they’re pretty savvy. They want to be taken seriously, and they want it to be as professional as possible.”
Habiger said the paper has top-notch technology, including several professional-quality digital cameras and the latest in editing software. She attributed that access to a high level of support from the De Soto school district and the Mill Valley community.
Any bumps in the road were all part of the learning process, Habiger said, and one of the most important things the students learn is how to be accountable to each other.
“Technically, my title is ‘adviser,’” she said. “That’s what I do; I advise them. That’s kind of how I see my role, and I don’t do it for them. Sometimes, it’s a big fat mess, and sometimes it’s fabulous.
“That’s just part of the learning process — to give them as much of a real-world experience as we can give them in a classroom.”
Mollie Morovac, also a senior, is another member of the editor-in-chief trio along with senior Mike VanWalleghem. She said the biggest challenge the students face is time management, considering the additional hours that making sure a publication is done right can require.
“We also have to think about what the school is going to think about it,” Morovac said of the publication. “That’s hard to do because it might be a really cool idea to us, but then we have to think about if the students are going to read it.”
Still, Meyer said, taking the time to put out a quality product provided its own rewards.
“It’s awesome to see your work right in front of you and for everyone else to see it, not just you,” she said.
“It goes out to everyone, so it’s like everyone knows what you’re doing. I think that’s really cool.”

Underclassmen help lead team
Garth Sears | Special to the Lenexa Centennial
The two sophomores who complete a varsity volleyball team with seven seniors look out of place.
Or at least they usually would.
But Shawnee Mission West’s senior-heavy team has welcomed their two underclassmen, sophomores Nikki Harms and Laura Murphy, with open arms.
“They’re really supportive,” Harms said. “The whole team has been comforting and supportive, and they treat us like we’re in their grade. We get along really well and click as a team.”
Perhaps their success isn’t a coincidence, then — the Vikings have gone 4-1 in league play, and 10-3 overall. They were ranked as high as fourth in the state this season. Above all, they expect to be a serious contender for the state championship.
Their success is due in no small part to their two sophomores, either.
Coach Mary Hall said Harms is leading the team with a 98 percent successful serving rate and a 78 percent digging rate. She is a force from the libero position, where she has taken over for last year’s senior standout, Crystal Foss.
“Nikki is playing a pretty vital role right now as libero because she took over for a senior that was all-state last year,” Hall said. “She knew those were some pretty big shoes to fill going in, but she stepped up and has done really well.”
At the net, Murphy is having similar success. Her 32 kills have led to a kill success rate of 30 percent, which leads the team along with her 17 blocks. Those 17 blocks compare favorably to the 38 blocks the rest of the team combined has accumulated.
The sophomores’ help and success this year will be important for the Vikings’ chances of doing well at the state meet, but their most important contribution might be what happens after this year.
Murphy and Harms will be the only returning players next season. The two are friends — they live down the street from one another and have been friends since the first grade — and will have to work with Hall to forge a new team when this season is complete.
“Laura and I are going to be the best leaders we can be,” Harms said. “The whole program of Shawnee Mission West volleyball is built well. I’m excited for the years to come.
“I’ll be sad to see everyone leave, but I think the future will be good for us.”

Unlikely doubles pair a winner
Andy Marso | Sportswriter
When watching Olathe Northwest tennis players Layne Anderson and Kaylee Thibault, it’s hard to believe it’s their first year playing doubles together.
The two get along like old friends, laughing and high-fiving after nearly every point. In fact, if Northwest coach Jim Hix had one criticism about the pair, it would be that they sometimes lose focus because they’re overly giddy.
“Definitely, if we’re up like three games to zero, we’ll get real excited, and we’ll start having a little bit too much fun, I guess,” Anderson said. “We might make some stupid errors, but we’ve kind of calmed down a little bit. Now if we get up we’re like, ‘No, we’re gonna stay focused until we win and then we can have fun.’”
The two have had plenty of fun early in the season, starting 8-2 while shuttling between No. 1 and No. 2 doubles.
It’s a surprisingly quick start for a pairing that seemed like a less natural fit than Northwest’s other top doubles team, twin sisters Alexis and Candace Boeh.
Anderson is a senior and a state tournament veteran who has been playing competitively for many years. Thibault is a junior who hadn’t picked up a racket until joining the Ravens last year.
After Anderson’s doubles partner, Lindsey McNeese, graduated, Thibault might not have seemed like the first choice to replace her. But Hix is known for pairing up the right players (Olathe East coach Jeff Hulse calls him “The Doubles Guru”), and he thought the two would be a good fit.
“What makes them go, I think, is a combination of Layne’s ground strokes, which are very good, and then Kaylee is just so darn quick with her athletic skills at the net,” Hix said.
Anderson’s long, whip-like arms and Thibault’s small but cat-quick frame made them a match physically. But pairing them up was still a hard sell because of their difference in experience.
The two had become friends during Thibault’s first season, but never really had played at the same level.
“I knew that she really had some high goals, and it was kind of intimidating at first because I didn’t want to let her down,” Thibault said. “I just kind of came to the realization that I just have to work as hard as I can, with no regrets.”
It took some time for Anderson to warm up to the pairing as well.
“I can’t say it wasn’t hard because it was, especially considering she’s a junior and I’m a senior, and I’ve been to state and she doesn’t exactly know how hard it is to get there,” Anderson said. “But she’s a very hard worker, and I really think we’ll be able to get to state this year. I have full faith in her.”
Thibault already has proven she’s not an ordinary second-year player. Hix calls her one of the most coachable athletes he’s had in his 20-plus-year tenure. Within a short time, she’s learned to compensate for her lack of power by adding spin and placement to her serve.
Hix also taught her a one-handed backhand volley that makes her a terror at the net, even though she doesn’t have the reach of many of her opponents.
“What that girl has done in 15 months is just short of sensational,” Hix said.
Thibault’s continuing improvement and Anderson’s power and determination make the pair a good bet to qualify for state.
Anderson will settle for nothing less in her final season. She plays with both legs tightly wrapped to ease painful shin splints that kept her out for her entire sophomore season.
“I have a lot of respect for Layne because she never complains,” Hix said. “I know she’s in pain, but she just keeps playing through it, and you wouldn’t even know it.”
Anderson said there was potential for stress fractures in both her legs, but the only concession she would make to the pain was to try not to “overdo it.”
“If I feel them hurting during practice or a match I’ll take it down a level,” Anderson said. “But right now I really don’t care if they hurt. I will push through this season and I’ll deal with it after the season is over.”
Anderson hopes the season won’t end until she’s won a match at the state tournament.
Whether that happens, she’s bound to make plenty of memories and leave Northwest knowing she helped the development of one of the program’s budding stars, Thibault.
“I’m having so much fun this year,” Thibault said. “Last year as a beginner, it was kind of nerve-racking, but this year I’m getting more comfortable. It’s just kind of all flowing, and it really makes me feel good about the season.”

— Contact Andy Marso at 764-2211, ext. 138, or amarso@theolathenews.com.

Backup keys crucial victory over Olathe North
Tod Palmer | Sports Editor
The entire Shawnee Mission Northwest offense received gift bags Sept. 19.
Well, everybody except Alex Reed that is, but there’s a good enough explanation for that.
Reed, who rushed for 201 yards and three touchdowns Sept. 14 in the Cougars’ 45-22 pasting of Olathe North, was the one who packed Gatorades and Pop-Tarts into the bags for the teammates who made his big night possible.
“I kind of made them for the whole offense and basically anybody who played offense,” Reed said.
A senior on the Cougars football team and the second-leading rusher in the Sunflower League through three games, Reed always hoped to be in this position but wasn’t sure he’d ever get the chance.
Reed spent most of his junior season buried behind then-sophomore Bryce Atagi and then-junior Elliott Kovach on the SM Northwest running back depth chart.
“It bothered me a little bit last year playing behind a couple guys, but I never complained to other people or the coaches,” Reed said. “I’ve always been one to work harder. I just felt like whenever I got my chance to run that I wanted to make a difference.”
That’s what Reed did on both counts.
During the offseason and through the summer, he dedicated himself to getting stronger and faster, becoming a better football player.
He definitely worked harder.
Still, he wasn’t sure if he’d reap the benefits.
“I had worked hard and wanted to be the feature back, but going into the first game I wasn’t,” Reed said. “I’m not a selfish guy. Helping the team is the most important thing, but of course I wanted to play and get some carries.”
Against the Eagles, Reed got his chance to run and made a huge difference.
He broke off a 49-yard touchdown run in the first quarter, which put the Cougars ahead for good, and then iced the game in the fourth quarter with TD runs of 62 and 47 yards.
All three scores came on counter or blast plays up the gut that Reed cut back toward the middle against an aggressive defense that got caught over-pursuing and got outrun to the end zone, Reed said.
But he also was quick to point out that he couldn’t have made the plays without plenty of help. Hence the gift bags.
“The key to the touchdowns was our receivers,” Reed said. “They did an awesome job blocking downfield on their secondary.”
The first play of the night was a toss to Reed, which OIathe North stopped for no gain.
That, of course, was the last time the Eagles contained the 5-foot-9, 160-pounder.
Enjoying such a big night against such a storied program and in a game where both teams came in perfect on the season only made the performance and the victory sweeter.
“The school has been open for 30 years, maybe more,” Reed said. “But going into the game, no one could recall a time when Northwest had beaten them (Olathe North). When that clock ran down, it was pretty awesome.”
Peeking at the league standings, which have SM Northwest and SM West alone at the top because both are 3-0, brings a smile to the Cougars’ faces, too.
“We talked about going into the game last week that the Olathe North game was basically going to determine our season,” Reed said.
And he helped make sure that SM Northwest’s season isn’t about to sink.
The Cougars host SM North at 7 p.m. Sept. 21 at SM North District Stadium.

— Contact Tod Palmer at 764-2211, ext. 140, or todpalmer@theolathenews.com.