Police to launch youth academy
Aaron Cedeño | Staff Writer
When Overland Park teen Kelsey Smith was abducted outside of a local Target last June, her disappearance caused a national stir. Parents across the country asked themselves what more they could do to ensure their children were better protected against such attacks.
The Lenexa Police Department may have answers this summer when it offers a youth version of its popular Citizens Police Academy. Sgt. Dan Owsley, one of the program’s coordinators, said increased safety was only one of the benefits the department hoped attendees would see.
“Even if they don’t have an interest in going into the law enforcement field, some of the things they learn might make them think about things that can make them more careful as they go about their business day to day,” he said.
It all goes back to education, Owsley said. The belief is if the department can provide better knowledge of how it works and the motives behind its actions, residents would better understand the department. Additionally, if students are interested in a career in law enforcement, the class may provide them with the information necessary to get started.
“Hopefully, it will help us by keeping these kids from becoming customers of ours down the road,” Owsley said. “And it’ll help them become safer in their own lives as they’re growing up.”
The academy will start with two sessions: June 2 to 6 and July 21 to 25. Owsley said the plan was to allow 30 students ages 13 to 17 at each session. Applicants must live or go to school in Lenexa, unless the department should have trouble filling the 30 slots. At that point, the remaining spots would be open to students in surrounding Johnson County cities.
Owsley said the department anticipated a few bumps in the road as the program gets started.
“It’s going to be hit and miss,” he said. “We’re going to see how the first class goes.”
School resource officers will spread the early word, and Owsley said it was appropriate to give as much advance notice as possible to help families plan ahead. The adult academy, which has been around since 1993, fills three sessions consistently each year. Owsley saw no reason why the youth academy couldn’t be as successful.
He said the department hoped to show Lenexa students there’s more to police work than kicking in doors and high-speed pursuits.
“It would be great if they understood that,” Owsley explained. “Because it would make a lot of them more interested in what we do.”
For more information, contact the department at 477-7300.

Chamber to answer questions on smoking ban
Lenexa Centennial staff
A new ordinance prohibiting smoking in all enclosed facilities within a place of employment is set to take effect Jan. 2 in Lenexa.
The Lenexa Chamber of Commerce will have an informational meeting on the new smoking ban from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Dec. 20 at the Lenexa Conference Center, 11184 Lackman Road.
City representatives will help clarify what will and will not be allowed under the ban, and attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions.
To read the ordinance, and for answers to a few common questions, visit www.ci.lenexa.ks.us/legal/Smoking_Ban_qa.html.

Family rings bells for Salvation Army annually at Hy-Vee
Aaron Cedeño | Staff Writer
Lenexa resident Patti Winkler wanted to celebrate her 40th birthday four years ago in a special way.
A couple of friends — both runners — suggested she run eight 5K races with them. Another suggested a true, honest-to-goodness party.
Neither option was to Winkler’s liking.
“So I came up with the idea that I wanted to help other people and kind of make myself feel better about turning 40,” Winkler said.
After some research, Winkler settled on the Salvation Army and became a bell ringer.
Each holiday season, volunteers don a Santa cap, pick up a hand bell and plant themselves next to one of the group’s signature red kettles to help ring up donations. Kim Gasper, director of special efforts for the Salvation Army in Kansas City, said her initial contact from Winkler was memorable.
“Patti is awesome,” Gasper said. “I don’t know where she got the idea (to ring) from, and her first message to me was so long that she had to leave me two messages.”
And so it was that Winkler traded her running and dancing shoes for a bell and a red kettle. The Winkler family rang outside the Hy-Vee at 87th Street Parkway and Pflumm Road for 40 hours that holiday season. Since then, Winkler, sons Nigel and Parker and her husband, Marc, have made bell ringing a family tradition and Hy-Vee their territory.
Patti Winkler said the activity provided them an opportunity to see the true nature of the human spirit.
“So many people cared enough to drop a little bit of change here, a couple of dollars there,” she remembered. “But it was all helping.”
The Winklers raised an average of $30 in donations an hour that first year, for a total of $1,200. Though Winkler said they would have liked to have raised $40 an hour, it was hard to be disappointed.
Gasper added that the Kansas City area is one of the most generous in terms of red kettle donations nationwide, and that she expected the 200 sites around the city to yield approximately $2 million in donations this year.
“We pay for all kinds of things that way,” Gasper said. “Food and shelter assistance, rent and utility assistance. We do toys for kids at Christmas through our angel tree program, and if they don’t get what they need, then they use this money to go buy toys for children.”
Winkler said the staff at Hy-Vee had gotten to know her family well, particularly her youngest son, Parker. With a flair for the dramatic and a love of superheroes, 10-year-old Parker dresses up as a different charitable “hero” each year. Four years ago, he was Super Kettle, and last year he was Super Bell. Patti Winkler said this year’s costume, Super Change, was difficult for some patrons to understand, which necessitated a switch to Super Jingle Bells.
Even so, Parker’s enthusiasm hardly was dampened.
“As long as he gets to wear a cape, life is good,” Patti Winkler said.
As a teacher, Winkler said she was a “people person” and enjoyed the high level of interaction that bell ringing provided. Getting to know people and their stories, she said, was rewarding. However, another motive may play a bigger role in her enthusiasm for the work.
“I truly think that this is a great learning experience for my boys,” Winkler said. “I want them to know that feeling of ‘I can help.’ That feeling of ‘I may be one person, but I can contribute.’ I think it’s so important to teach our kids that.”
For more information on becoming a bell ringer, contact Gasper at 816-968-0372, visit www.ringkc.com, or e-mail ring_kc@usc.salvationarmy.org.

Local doctor: TV medical shows different from reality
Aaron Cedeño | Staff Writer
Millions of viewers across the United States settle onto their couches each week for the next chapter in the life of Dr. Meredith Grey and her colleagues at Seattle Grace Hospital on the popular ABC series “Grey’s Anatomy.”
Dr. Lisa Hays is one of the newest and youngest physicians at Shawnee Mission Medical Center.
An endocrinologist, Hays also watches “Grey’s Anatomy.” But she understands the differences between life at Seattle Grace and reality.
“There’s definitely as much camaraderie as you see in those shows,” Hays said.
But, she laughed, she doesn’t recall any of the relationship drama seen on those shows.
A track and field athlete at the University of Kansas until graduation in 1998, Hays went on to four years of medical school, three years of residency training and two years of an endocrinology fellowship — all at KU Medical Center. Initially wanting to go into sports medicine, Hays said she realized early that endocrinology, the study of the body’s glands and the hormones they produce, was her calling.
“I really like the algorithmic thought process of endocrinology,” she said. “That one hormone controls another hormone.”
One of the common themes in all medical shows is the grueling schedule the characters work.
Especially during the first year of her residency, Hays said, those depictions weren’t far from the truth. With no work-hour restrictions, she said, it wasn’t uncommon to spend nearly 40 hours straight at the hospital while on duty.
Changes enacted later in her education ensured that residents could work only 30 hours at a time and only 80 hours a week, which Hays said provided relief.
“I would say I’ve been working nowhere near those hours (in private practice),” she said.
Hays said she also noticed a higher degree of respect between attending physicians and residents in the real world. As anyone who has seen an episode of “Scrubs” can attest, physicians-in-training often bear the brunt of their teacher’s wrath on TV. Residents, she said, found it more common to be treated as adults rather than merely as students.
“You can sometimes see it on some of the TV shows where they are belittling people, and you can start to think that at that phase in your life you’re 30,” Hays explained. “There are people out there who are earning a real living and have real jobs, and you deserve to be treated like an adult.”
As an endocrinologist, Hays finds herself treating patients of all ages. From a 20- year-old with a thyroid disorder to an 88-year-old with osteoporosis, Hays encounters the entire spectrum.
And while the responsibility may be greater now that she’s completed her education, so is the reward.
“It’s just, it’s a lot more work than the fellowship,” Hays said. “But it’s a lot more rewarding because they’re all your patients, and you’re their doctor. You get to see them all the time.”

Rotary Club announces essay contest winners
Aaron Cedeño | Staff Writer
The Lenexa Rotary Club recently announced the winners of its annual Wesley Fry Rotary Four Way Test Speech Contest.
Named in honor of Fry, the former Lenexa mayor and Rotary president responsible for starting the contest, applicants are asked to apply the Rotary Four Way Test to a topic of their choice and present a five- to six-minute speech on the topic.
Richard Morton, chair of the event and a Rotarian for more than 15 years, said the Four Way Test provided guidelines by which Rotarians strove to live.
“When Rotary first became a civic organization, those four questions were established as things that Rotarians were supposed to use in their everyday life,” he said. “Their business life as well as their personal life, to determine whether or not they were doing the right thing.”
The test requires that students determine if their topic is the truth, if it is fair, if it will bring good will and better friendships and if it will be beneficial to all concerned. Out of an initial field of 22 contestants from high schools around Johnson County, three students were selected as finalists: Thomas Hiatt and Rachel Thornburg, both seniors at Shawnee Mission Northwest High School, and Thomas Braslavsky, a senior at Shawnee Mission East High School.
Hiatt took first place and spoke on a potential mandatory year spent in community service for all recently graduated high school students. Braslavsky placed second with his speech on an increased effort of the United States to help fight malaria in Africa, and Thornburg came in third, speaking on the virtues of a strong work ethic.
The first-place finish garnered Hiatt a $1,500 scholarship from the Lenexa Rotary Club, and Braslavsky and Thornburg received $1,000 and $500 respectively. Outside of the scholarship money, Morton said participating in the competition had other benefits.
“It also gives them a great opportunity to go ahead and present their thoughts in front of someone,” he said.
“The nice thing about that is obviously they get an opportunity to learn to speak in front of a group.”

Robotics team to compete in regional competition in March
Aaron Cedeño | Staff Writer
Teacher Anita Welch wants to make it clear that her Shawnee Mission South High School robotics squad is not a club, nor is it a simple after-school organization.
“It’s a team,” she said. “It’s a competitive team.”
This year, 20 students at SM South participate on the team, coming from all classes and abilities in the field of science. Welch said there was plenty of work to go around, from computer programming and actual construction of the robot to simply donning the Raider mascot head at competitions, complete with custom safety goggles.
Part of the nationwide FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) program founded by Segway inventor Dean Kamen in 1989, the team competes each year in regional competitions for a trip to the world championship.
Welch said one of the goals of FIRST was to promote the idea that science could be fun.
“We do all kinds of things to show people that science and technology are really fun,” she said.
“You don’t have to be a nerd; you don’t have to be the smartest kid in the school to do this.”
NASA recently awarded the team a $6,000 grant to help cover the entry cost of the upcoming Wisconsin Regional in Milwaukee this March, as well as the basic kit of equipment each team will receive. Each FIRST Robotics Competition has a central task that teams are asked to complete. For example, Welch said that last year the task had to do with placing inflatable inner-tubes upon a moving, three-dimensional structure.
Teams around the globe will find out simultaneously Jan. 5 via live Webcast from FIRST headquarters in Manchester, N.H., what this year’s task will be. From that moment, teams will have six weeks to design and build their robots.
A passable robot could be built with the basic kit, but teams are allowed an extra spending limit of $2,500, though they are responsible for raising the necessary funds.
“If you want something that’s really going to be spectacular, something’s going to have the arm, that’s gonna have some power to it, that’s going to be able to do things, then yeah, you’re going to have to put in a little bit more money,” Welch said.
The solution to the problem of the extra costs lies in sponsorships, much like those that can be found in NASCAR. For a donation of parts or money, companies or individuals can have a decal put on the robot for display during competition. Welch said the response last year had been great, but in order to sustain the robotics team into the future they’d need to keep donations and sponsorships at a high level.
The team will host an all-you-can-eat pancake dinner Jan. 5 for $5 a head. All costs go to helping the team meet the necessary budget to improve its robot, meet travel costs and pay registration fees.
Welch, who helped start a similar program at Kansas City’s Washington High School before coming to the Shawnee Mission school district, said her experience with the team had been fun and rewarding.
“It’s a ball,” she said.
“It’s the coolest thing I’ve done in my entire teaching career.”
For more information on the robotics team, call Welch at 993-7500.

SM South junior is finalist in Kansas City essay contest
Aaron Cedeño | Staff Writer
Mark Thomas has seen a change come over his peers.
The Shawnee Mission South High School junior said his peers’ concerns expand beyond their homes, cities and state as they become increasingly unwilling to leave the world’s affairs to their elders.
“There’s definitely, at least it seems to me, an upsurge in interest in politics — particularly international politics,” Thomas said.
It’s an interest Thomas shares. As an international studies student, Thomas is taking Arabic as a foreign language and said he hopes to gain fluency in the language while in college.
Recently, one of his teachers informed him of the Eliot S. Berkley essay contest, sponsored by the Kansas City area International Relations Council. The council, founded in 1954 by Kansas City native Eliot Berkley, is a nonprofit organization that aspires to promote interest in international affairs among people of all ages. The roster of speakers the group has brought to Kansas City includes Eleanor Roosevelt and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
Thomas entered the contest, and from a pool of three topics chose to give his thoughts on the United States’ involvement with international organizations such as the United Nations and whether that involvement was worth continuing. His work earned him a spot as a finalist, and he was honored at the annual council luncheon Dec. 3.
In his essay, “Multilateralism or Unilateralism?: The United States and International Institutions,” Thomas argued that the United States should remain involved and active in the international community for a number of reasons, including maintaining influence over policy that would directly affect Americans.
“My second argument was that we’ll be able to influence issues that affect us because these kinds of organizations make international regulations and things like that, that have an impact on U.S. policy,” he explained. “So then we ought to maintain our involvement so we can influence our policy.”
Thomas pointed to globalization — thanks to advances in areas such as transport and communication technology — as one possibility for the increased interest in international relations and politics.
“As (the world) gets smaller, people need to adapt to that,” he said. “So I think that they are adapting because their interest is growing larger. We’re not just concerned about things in our immediate vicinity, but we care about global issues, and that makes sense.”

Murray heads all-state selections
Tod Palmer | Sports Editor
Heading into and during the 2007 football season, Bryce Murray didn’t receive the acclaim and attention many of his Shawnee Mission Northwest teammates received.
That changed when the all-state lists were announced.
Curiously, Murray was left off the Kansas Football Coaches Association’s all-state list, but the Topeka Capital Journal and Wichita Eagle didn’t overlook the Cougars’ defensive end.
Both publications named Murray to the first-team All-Class 6A for his defensive play.
“Making all-state was one of the goals I set for myself at the beginning of the season,” Murray said. “I wasn’t sure if I had done enough, but I felt like I worked hard enough to receive the recognition.”
While it was a goal, receiving postseason accolades wasn’t Murray’s top priority.
“The one main thing I wanted was for our football team to have a good senior season,” Murray said. “To find out I got these awards really was just icing on the cake for me.”
That Murray was a near unanimous first-team selection came as no surprise to SM Northwest coach Aaron Barnett, who guided the Cougars to a 9-2 record and an outright Sunflower League championship in his second season.
“He (Murray) was by far our most consistent defensive player,” Barnett said.
A second-team all-league performer as a junior, Murray was named to the first team All-Sunflower League this year. With good reason.
“I don’t think anybody got a toss sweep against us for more than five yards all year, especially to his side,” Barnett said. “And he’s a good enough athlete that if you try to run away from him, he can run things down. But he can hold his own because he’s strong enough if you run right at him.”
Sheer athleticism isn’t all that set Murray apart. He also played with ferocious determination.
“I think coaches recognized my hustle,” Murray said. “I know that I went 100 percent every play, so it was probably just my overall effort. I’m not that big of a guy, but going all out every play got me where I am.”
Standing 6 feet, 3 inches tall and weighing 225 pounds, Murray hasn’t drawn many looks from NCAA Div. I programs because he’s too small, but practically every Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association squad, a collection of Div. II programs, has inquired about Murray.
He’ll definitely play and make an impact for some football team at the next level, Barnett said.
It all depends on what he wants to study and which school offers the best program and scholarship.
“The academic part of it is also important for Bryce, so that’s going to weigh heavily into it,” Barnett said.
Murray hopes to major in business management, but he hasn’t ruled out finance or health science. He’s also willing to switch to outside linebacker, a position he played as a freshman and sophomore, if asked to do so.
Murray was one of only two players from area football programs named first team by either newspaper.
Mill Valley senior wide receiver Miles Malec was a first-team choice by the Eagle.
The KFCA named Olathe Northwest senior tight end Nick Williams and two SM West players, senior linebacker Tony Ritzman and senior defensive lineman RJ Fiava, to its first team.

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

Three ink their intent to play at next level
Andy Marso | Sportswriter
Young female athletes at Shawnee Mission West didn’t have to look far for inspiration last week.
Brit Bahr, Hilary Erbert and Sara Ladner showed them the rewards of hard work and dedication to a sport as the three of them signed with college programs in ceremonies at SM West.
Bahr signed to play volleyball at Northwest Missouri State, Erbert signed to play softball at Pittsburg State, and Ladner signed to swim at the University of Denver.
Ladner will join an NCAA Division I program and will train for one of longest seasons in all of college sports. But she said her time with the Kansas City Blazers swim club had prepared her for the workload.
“I swim year-round with the Blazers,” Ladner said. “It’s a tough program, and I’ve been able to balance that with school. I understand that class is going to be harder, but I think I’ll be all right.”
Ladner said she already knows a couple of the girls on the Denver swim team, so not everyone will be a stranger, although she’ll be nine hours from home.
Ebert and Bahr won’t have to go nearly as far, which contributed to their decisions.
“I was also looking at Central Arkansas, which is in Conway,” Ebert said. “That’s like six hours away. A big factor came down to Pitt State being closer, which will let my family come (watch games). They’re big supporters of me.”
Ebert, who has played for the Olathe Rockets club team, will pitch for the Gorillas. She said the pressure of taking the circle for an NCAA Div. II school wouldn’t faze her.
“I’m the type of person that wants to be in charge, and I feel like my position lets me do that,” Erbert said. “So I embrace it, but it does get nerve-wracking sometimes.”
Bahr was a key player for the SM West volleyball and basketball teams the last two years.
She said she had some offers from colleges to play basketball, but chose her other sport after going to a number of volleyball camps this summer. One of those camps was at Northwest Missouri and spurred her to make an official visit to the school.
“Everything just felt perfect,” Bahr said. “They have a really good education program and I’m going into elementary ed., so that helped seal the deal. ... I really love coach (Anna) Tool and all the girls on the team were really nice to me. It just felt like a place where I would fit in well.”
Bahr, Erbert and Ladner each feels like she’s found her fit. With their college decisions behind them, they’re free to just enjoy the rest of their time at SM West.

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

Loaded Vikings get new addition
Andy Marso | Sportswriter
The Shawnee Mission West girls basketball team doesn’t lack tall players, but junior Lauren Brown is still hard to miss when the Vikings get together.
At 6-foot-5, Brown dwarfs even 6-foot-3 junior Heather Howard and 6-foot-1 senior Brit Bahr, two of the Sunflower League’s most intimidating post players.
Brown’s arrival at SM West after moving from Wichita has given the already-loaded Vikings one more physical presence inside.
The appropriate buzzword for Brown might be “potential.” She played behind some extraordinary post players for a state championship Wichita Heights team last year and this year might split time between the junior varsity and varsity squads at SM West because Howard and Bahr are already established.
“She’s a great kid, and she’s learned a ton,” SM West coach Ryan Darst said of Brown. “She’s coming along, and in our first two games she’s gotten some significant minutes with our varsity team.”
Going from Wichita Heights to SM West has been a definite adjustment for Brown. But she started playing with some of the Vikings on an AAU team in the summer and then played in a fall league with them.
She said the SM West girls have welcomed her.
“It’s definitely different, but I’m getting used to it,” Brown said. “It’s really fun, too.”
Brown left a Wichita Heights squad that was head-and-shoulders above nearly every other team in the state. But she’s joining a team that’s not too shabby either.
The Vikings took fourth at state last year and return a boatload of talent from that team. Howard and Bahr provide tough matchups in the post, and SM West’s perimeter game, led by senior guards Jessika Downing and Kaitlyn Biehl, is also plenty dangerous.
In one memorable performance last year, Downing hit her first six 3-pointers to rupture Olathe East’s usually reliable 2-3 zone defense.
“I think we’ve got a pretty good inside-out game,” Darst said. “Heather Howard and Brit Bahr are very good down low, and if people want to double us we’ve got some shooters out there. I like who I have.”
So far, Brown said she’s impressed with what she has seen at SM West. She knows what a state championship team looks like after her time at Wichita Heights and said that the Vikings have some of those same qualities.
“The teamwork and the effort are great,” Brown said. “We’re just doing everything together.”
Darst said he’s done speculating about how the season might go and ready to get out on the court and see for himself.
The Vikings started with a 39-17 victory against Shawnee Mission Northwest, but followed that with a 57-51 loss to Topeka Hayden. At this point in the season, Darst doesn’t want his players thinking too much about state, no matter how much talent they have this year.
“We haven’t won anything yet,” Darst said. “We’re 1-1 right now. I’m just trying to get them focused on the upcoming game. We just have to be 1-0 every night we play.”

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

JCCC star leaves indelible legacy
Tod Palmer | Sports Editor
In only 44 games with the Johnson County Community College women’s soccer program, Rachelle Luster tallied 58 goals and 56 assists.
It’s no wonder, with career statistics that ridiculous, that Luster ended her two-year Cavaliers career as the most decorated player in program history.
“She’s got great pace, and she has a good knack for the goal,” JCCC coach Jim Schwab said of Luster.
“She’s a pretty laid-back kid, but when it comes game time, she comes to play. The goals that she scored, and the quality of goals she scored over two years, have just been so impressive.”
Luster had an offer to play at the NCAA Div. I level for Loyola University in Chicago leaving Shawnee Mission Northwest, where she graduated in 2006.
She also entertained a Div. II offer at Concordia University in St. Paul, Minn.
Ultimately, though, Luster stayed close to home for her first two years.
Still, no one predicted the success Luster would have with the Cavaliers.
“It was obvious she was special, but I wouldn’t have predicted she would have that many goals and that many assists in her career,” Schwab said.
A National Junior College Athletic Association second-team All-America choice as a freshman, when she scored 34 goals and dished 35 assists, Luster was an honorable-mention pick after scoring 24 goals with 21 assists this season.
She is the first player with more than 100 points in a season and the only two-time All-American in Cavaliers history.
“I wasn’t expecting to put up the numbers I did,” Luster said.
And she deflects complete credit for 172 points she compiled in such a short career.
“We had three or four other girls who could get me the ball and who I could get the ball, so that makes it a lot easier for me to get points,” Luster said. “We just had a good team this year, and we had a good team last year.”
It’s hard to argue Luster wasn’t the main reason for JCCC’s success.
She finished her career as the Cavaliers’ career leader in points (172), goals (58), hat tricks (6), assists (56), game-winning goals (15) and game-winning assists (9). She also holds the season records for points (103), assists (35) and game-winning assists (7).
“That’s the beauty about it — she had some great assists, too,” Schwab said. “She made the girls around her look good. Everybody was getting points around her, and she was very unselfish and very team oriented. She was remarkable for us for two years.”
Luster probably could have tallied 30 more goals, had she played selfish soccer, Schwab said.
JCCC went 19-3-1 during Luster’s first season and recently finished an 18-1-2 campaign.
Luster’s only regret is that the Cavaliers couldn’t advance farther in the playoffs, never having made it past the regional championship game.
She gladly would trade a few of her goals and team records for additional victories.
“I’d rather win games, so I don’t worry about how many goals I had,” Luster said. “I never want to know during the season.”
Plenty of programs across the nation, including the University of Texas-El Paso and other Div. I teams, are seeking Luster’s services for the next two seasons, but she hasn’t decided where she’d like to go.
Her parents moved to Minnesota after she graduated from high school.
Then again, she’d love to play somewhere warm.
At any rate, Luster is looking for a good dental hygiene program or a school that offers a social services degree.
Where she ends up remains uncertain, but one thing isn’t in doubt.
The Cavaliers are going to miss Rachelle Luster.
“Every year I say I can’t replace somebody, and this whole sophomore group we’ll be hard pressed to replace,” Schwab said. “But if I can replace her with two players, I’ll be lucky.”

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