Summer Classics | Lawrence Magazine Summer 2015 by Sunflower Publishing

magazine smor.gas.bord / 42 Kate Gonzalez goes the way of the green chile.

$5 / sunflowerpub.com / summer 2015

ice cream, county fair ... and even cicadas

people / 64

Cute critters in danger? Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a hero for that.

places / 70

Three Kansas destinations for fun summer road trips.

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lawrence magazine

editor

Designer/ art director

Nathan Pettengill

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Shelly Bryant

from the editor

advertising John W. Kramer representative (785) 865-4091

ad designer

copy editor

Jenni Leiste Deron Lee Christy Little

Regular and Mick Braa contributing Becky Bridson writers Melinda Briscoe Katherine Dinsdale Mary R. Gage Cathy Hamilton Suzanne Heck Nadia Imafidon Susan Kraus Maggie Lawrence Deron Lee Linda Lewis Paula Naughtin Cheryl Nelsen Kate B. Pickert Katy Seibel Nick Spacek Julie Tollefson Nancy Vogel Liz Weslander CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

Fally Afani Jason Dailey Danton McDiffett Emily Steele Bill Stephens Doug Stremel

All the animals from our photo shoot at Operation Wildlife had their own charm, but this young red-eared slider was my personal favorite. Only about the size of a quarter, the turtle had swagger and heart in abundance. Every time photographer Bill Stephens placed the turtle on the backdrop, it hurriedly (by tiny turtle standards) scurried off to the far corner—while never dropping its locked stare on the lens. Operation WildLife is an animal rescue operation outside of Lawrence, whose story is told in our “Hometown Heroes” section. A few of the animals at this nonprofit organization are residents. Their injuries are such that they cannot be returned to the wild and live safely. So, they reside at the center as “ambassadors,” semi-domesticated and in service for visits and lectures.

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But this turtle, like the rabbit and the squirrel whose pictures are also included in this issue, remains a feral animal who should now be living somewhere in the wilds by the time this issue is in your hands. Look for him near the creeks and streams this summer. I would like to think that this turtle’s personality would make him immediately recognizable, though I know that is only wishful anthropomorphism. The important part isn’t whether his attitude is so big not even his shell can contain it, but that he’s back in the wild … as are so many other animals given a second chance to live out their lives in the parameters of nature. And that was made possible thanks to the care and diligence of volunteers who fed, nurtured and watched over the animals so they could run off into the wild rather than over the edge of an on-site photo studio.

E-mail comments to lawrencemagazine@sunflowerpub.com

Nathan, editor

CONTRIBUTING Lana Grove ARTISTs Sara Taliaferro Jessica Rold General manager Katy Ibsen

Lawrence Magazine is a publication of Sunflower Publishing, a division of The World Company.

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White House Tour

Kevin and Kim White take us inside their expertly remodeled Craftsmanstyle home

Porch Songs

Every summer in Lawrence, sisterhood sings out with snappy tunes thanks to this sorority tradition

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14 | LM Style A FAIR TO REMEMBER Country meets chic at the county fair

18 | LM Sounds Electric praise and camp chords sound out this summer

departments

Lawrence authors take reading outside with animals, lakes and storms

60 | People (Anniversary Article) The Godfather of Bronze

27 | LM Lingo Who’s Your Busker?

Elden Tefft inspired generations of young artists though his groundbreaking approach to sculpture

30 | LM Fit Challenged to Fight When the universe threw up hurdles, two local fitness enthusiasts responded with determination

36 | LM Gallery Augmented Reality Three Lawrence artists merge realism, illusion and allusion

42 | LM Flavor The Green Chile Way Kate Gonzalez serves up an entire family’s love of cooking

48 | LM Wild Cicada Crescendo

magazine Kate Gonzalez goes the way of the green chile.

ice cream, county fair ... and even cicadas

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$5 / sunflowerpub.com / summer 2015

people / 64

Cute critters in danger? There’s a hero for that.

places / 70

Three Kansas destinations for fun summer road trips.

Aunt Maggie has common-sense advice for those who would spoil two summertime traditions: the Sidewalk Sale and Farmers’ Market

23 | LM Bookmarks

Lawrence’s Busker Fest sheds light on an underused word—and a misunderstood vocation

smor.gas.bord / 42

56 | People Summertime Civility

ON THE COVER A young girl eats an ice cream cone in an original work of art (charcoal and paper) by Jessica Rold. Ice cream is the featured theme in this issue’s “Lawrencium” section, while Rold’s work is highlighted in our “Gallery” section.

Brood IV, featuring nature’s ultimate boy bug band, returns this summer for its full-volume, once-every-17-years performance

53 | Lawrencium The science of distilling one Lawrence theme into essential information …

64 | People Hometown Heroes Everyone needs one, and fortunately Lawrence has an abundance of them

70 | Places Try these 3 Kansas Summer Weekend Getaways

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fashion & style Story, styling & modeling by Katy Seibel with Ryal Mitchell Photography by Jason Dailey

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Style

a fair to remember

Country meets chic at the county fair

The county fair is a timehonored tradition for so many communities. When I step onto the grounds of the Douglas County Fair, I feel transported back in time. Not only do I have lingering nostalgia from trips to the fair as a kid, but there’s something so timeless about the event itself. You can always count on taking in the familiar sights and sounds—a motley crowd brought together by the festive annual occasion, generously fried foods, refreshing sips that taste too good to be true, stalls of friendly farm animals appreciatively accepting pets, dizzying carnival rides and so much more. I thought the fair had little in common with fashion until I met Ryal Mitchell, a bright high school student who swept the ready-buy and self-made categories in the state 4-H fashion competition with her collection of classic, expertly constructed pieces. Ryal, wearing outfits she made herself, joined me for some fun at the fair. From wrangling a stubborn goat named Jeffrey to nearly falling flat after a gravity-defying spin on a way-too-fast ride, we enjoyed quite the adventure … and we did it with style. With the fair as our muse, we tried out two opposing camps of style that corresponded with day and night.

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Daytime: Homage to Country As the midsummer sun beats down, dust flies up from the pathways and the smell of hay fills the air, hard work done on the farm is showcased for all to see. Channeling this aspect of the fair, I put together a simple, down-to-earth look with a retro spin, featuring a red and white polka-dot romper and boots. Ryal opted for a breezy eyelet sundress and no-fuss flats. Create your own carefree, casual vibe by reaching for the classics: true blue denim, gingham and plaid prints, airy cotton fabrics, earthy colors, rugged boots and anything else that calls to mind the simplicity of country life.

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Nighttime: Frenetic Fashion After the sun retreats, another side of the fair comes to life—a whirlwind of flashing lights, pastel puffs of cotton candy, exhilarated whoops from passengers on larger-than-life rides, kaleidoscopes of colorful prizes and the clamor of music and games. To capture this madcap atmosphere, I went with a whimsical, over-the-top evening outfit consisting of a dress that recalls the iconic image of a circus tent, an unapologetically ostentatious pouf atop my head and entirely impractical shoes. Ryal kept her look chic and elegant, yet still playful, with a twirly black-lace and silk organza cocktail dress. While I wouldn’t recommend traipsing around the fair in stilettos (unless you’re part of a fashion shoot, of course), I would encourage channeling the frenetic energy of a carnival at night for your next celebratory occasion. Step out of your comfort zone with bold, primary colors, large-scale patterns, textured or metallic fabrics and dramatic, unexpected shapes.

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sounds / summer riffs Story by Nick Spacek Photography by Fally Afani

The Greenhouse Culture The Greenhouse Culture house band is working its way through a loping number by John Mark McMillan called “Skeleton Bones”—a tune that wouldn’t be out of place at a festival concert by indie bands such as The Avett Brothers or The Head and the Heart. Except this is a church group, and the song is being prepared for worship service at Lawrence’s downtown congregation The Greenhouse Culture. Greenhouse music director Kalah Sipp explains the appeal of performing this type of contemporary music, rather than standard hymns, for worship. “We’re all using the same resource—which is, obviously, the Bible—so sometimes you can get the same song being produced often,” Sipp says. “Much in the same way that pop songs can be the same, all about love or whatever, you can get numb to what it’s saying. But McMillan is pulling these metaphors and ideas that I’d never sung in church before. We’ve integrated several of his songs so that our people can see God in another way.” Sipp is backed by a talented core of rock veterans, including Greenhouse Culture senior pastor Jared Scholz, whose musical roots connect to Lawrence’s indie scene as frontman for Reflector. There’s also bass player Aaron Riffel, who performs with Lawrence punk rock quartet Black Luck, and others. At full strength, the Greenhouse Culture band is seven members: two guitarists, a bassist, a drummer, a keyboardist and two singers—although that’s actually rather deceptive, as any member of the band is just as likely to be singing along or to take the vocals. The crossover from secular to Christian music appeals to the musicians. “When I play out and I’m playing secular music, it feels good, and I’m excited,” Riffel says. “But when I play worship music, it’s a whole different thing. You get the feeling of the Holy Spirit inside you, and it’s something you can feel all around you.” Together, the Greenhouse Culture band can serve up a strong rock sound or dip deep and perform a hymn like “The Apostle’s Creed,” which has been around for centuries. That musical mix is intended to offer a broad appeal for the diverse congregation. “What spurs joy in a 65-year-old man is not the same as what does for the 18-year-old,” Sipp says. “Because a church body has so many different people, we are always working really hard to not just grab songs that I would like, because my style only reflects one perspective.” Given that Greenhouse members view their church as a “movement,” the use of music for engagement is particularly important.

opposite The Greenhouse Culture Band includes, from left, Matt Duval, Kalah Sipp, Addison Sauvan, Izzie Duval and Sean Hatch.

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“If you combine music with a movement, you inspire people,” Sipp says. “‘Movement’ is the word that we prefer,” adds Scholz. “Not that we’re ashamed of the word ‘church’; it’s just that some people are allergic to the word, even though they’re highly motivated to move toward God.” So the music mirrors the message, appealing to a wide group, but Scholz and Sipp say they view music as the medium, not the goal itself. “It’s meant to give us a picture of who God is,” says Scholz. “It’s not meant to glorify its immediate creator here on Earth. It’s meant to, in some ways, inspire the people that He created to worship Him.” 80-Year Anniversary for Midwestern Music Camps Each and every summer for the past 80 years, groups of middle- and high school students make the trek to the University of Kansas for the School of Music’s Midwestern Music Camps. Matthew Smith, associate director of bands for KU, is set to begin his third year as the director of the camp, where he is in charge of the musical instruction and all else that comes with hosting a group of young teenagers away from their homes and staying in the dorms. “Obviously, with our middle-school camp, we’re dealing with younger students, and for many of them their first time away from home for a camp,” Smith says. The students become comfortable with the experience in their high school years and develop skills that will serve them in life, he says. “Usually students who participate in music are well-organized and have had to learn the responsibilities that are required for musical study,” Smith says. “Most are used to working in large-group environments and familiar with dealing with performance-driven goals.” That positive sentiment is echoed by the camp’s resident professor of saxophone, Vince Gnojek, who has taught 26 years in the program. Gnojek estimates that approximately a fourth of his current students attended the camp and notes that it is often a gathering for future fellow Jayhawks. “Many of them do attend the KU School of Music, where they reconnect with these friends for another four years of marching band, concert band, jazz ensembles, chamber music groups and classes,” Gnojek says. But, ultimately, the experience is about personal growth and the music the students will play, wherever that might be. “It’s truly amazing to see the collective growth in their ensembles in such a short amount of time,” Smith says. “It’s also inspiring to see the spark that can be revealed through their excitement in music.”

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Organizers of the 2015 Midwestern Music Camps through the University of Kansas School of Music include, from left, Matthew Smith, Sharon Toulouse, Meghan Spreer and Emma Casey.

Lawrence the

sessions

A new project sponsored by Lawrence Magazine and Lawrence Public Library’s Sound + Vision Studio

We’re turning up the audio on our LM Sounds section! Each issue, we challenge one of the musical performers featured in this section to walk into the Lawrence Public Library’s professional-level recording room (the Sound + Vision Studio) and create a short song based on a provided theme. Oh, and there is an additional twist. The performer or group will be paired up with another Lawrence-based musician who tends to play music from an entirely different genre. We are not sure what will come out of it, but we are confident that the level of talent and creativity in this town can only produce some exciting tunes. Our first collaboration pairs members of the Christian indie-rock band Greenhouse Culture, featured on the previous page, with CS Luxem, a wildly experimental and innovative instrumentalist/vocalist. Their theme? The Love Song of the Lawrence Cicadas. The musicians head into the studio in late May, and Lawrence Magazine and Lawrence Public Library will be posting the results of their collaboration on our social media sites in the first part of June.

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Lawrence authors take reading outside with animals, lakes and storms

Photography courtesy Ken Armitage and Kansas Biological Survey

Erin Brown

marmots Who wouldn’t want to spend a career with marmots, one of the world’s cutest mammals? Ken Armitage, University of Kansas professor emeritus of evolutionary biology and ecology, has been fortunate enough to do just that, chronicling his experience in Marmot Biology (Cambridge Press, 2014). Armitage, who is 90, has devoted a good portion of his life to the project. “I would say the book took 50 years,” he says. “Forty years of doing the research, 10 years of what I’d call analyzing longterm data sets and writing the book.” Beginning in 1962, Armitage and a series of graduate students observed and documented a yellow-bellied marmot population at Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in western Colorado. As his publisher notes, Armitage’s research is the second-longest continual scientific observation of a mammal population in the wild, yielding only to Jane Goodall’s groundbreaking observations of chimpanzees. Armitage says that while the primary purpose of his book is to provide academics with “what is known on many topics of marmot biology,” he thinks the first chapter on marmots and human culture is of general interest. Plus, he adds, “That’s where I cover that great marmot event known as Groundhog Day.” The groundhog, who famously predicts how much longer we’ll have to endure winter, is one of 15 different species of marmots. Inevitably, when Groundhog Day rolls around, Armitage is sought out for his expert knowledge. He was also tapped as an expert in a bonus-material documentary released with an anniversary DVD edition of the movie Groundhog Day. But Armitage did not choose marmots in order to land a cameo. “I started this work because I was interested in the role that social biology might play,” he explains, “and the yellowbellied marmot, and all the marmots except the groundhog, live in social groups.” One bit of serendipity keeps Groundhog Day close to his heart, though—it is his youngest granddaughter’s birthday. Lakes When summer finally kicks in across Kansas, boaters and kayakers, windsurfers and jet-skiers, swimmers, campers and

short takes: Summer Reading Program May 30 The Lawrence Public Library kicks off its summer reading program with a community party featuring free activities, the Caddy Stacks mini-golf event and a children’s book sale.

when and where Lawrence Magazine Writing Murder, Kansas-style June 22 Lawrence Magazine hosts a panel of murder-mystery writers discussing their behind-the-scenes research. “Writing Murder, Kansas-style” is a free and open event, part of the 2015 Free State Festival.

Jon Ronson June 23 Author, screenwriter and This American Life commentator Jon Ronson appears at Liberty Hall to discuss his new book, So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed. The Raven also continues to host talented local and regional authors this summer in its “Big Tent” series on the fourth Thursday of each month .

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“There’s little I love more than to sit on the porch and watch the storms roll in …” – Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg

Storms When dramatic and disturbingly beautiful storm photographs by professional storm chaser Stephen Locke are paired with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg’s

slope of a hill, looking southwest, from where so much of our wild weather comes. There’s little I love more than to sit on the porch and watch the storms roll in, or shut

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resonant lines of poetry, the result is Chasing Weather (Ice Cube Press, 2014), an awe-inspiring tribute to the volatile heavens of the Great Plains. “When I moved to the Midwest,” Mirriam-Goldberg says, “I fell in love with the big skies out here and wide vistas. I now live in the country, just south of Lawrence, and we’re on the southwest

off all the lights in our living room and watch the lightning.” This project is Mirriam-Goldberg’s first collaboration with Locke, who is based in Roeland Park. Mirriam-Goldberg calls their book “a celebration and exploration of and meditation on weather. “The poems so much are about opening our peripheral vision to take into our lives the fuller view of the beautiful and wild world, always on the cusp of change,” she says. “Stephen’s photos are so poetic—you can look at them over and over, seeing new angles of light and action, new dimensions of reality.” The teamwork endures in the presentations they have given together, including a 25-city, five-state book tour. Mirriam-Goldberg recites her poetry against a background of Locke’s videos and photographs, which lead the audience on a virtual tornado chase.

Photography courtesy Stephen Locke

fishermen eagerly take up residence at local lakes. And while they may know the best beaches and the quietest coves, do they know what’s lurking beneath the surface? Now this information is available in a visually stunning and informative book, Atlas of Kansas Lakes (Kansas Biological Survey, 2014). Scientists and teams from Kansas Biological Survey, a research unit at the University of Kansas, have compiled data collected from 21 federal reservoirs and 55 state and local lakes, and consolidated it into a user-friendly, graphically pleasing compendium detailing much of what is known about the health of these 76 lakes in Kansas. “We had a tremendous amount of information, including the bathymetric maps that appear in the atlas that we knew would be of interest to folks,” says Ed Martinko, director of the Kansas Biological Survey. “We decided that this book was a way of conveying the information in a form that would be of interest and easily digested. “What you see is a portrayal of each of these lakes and reservoirs in the context that they appear,” Martinko says. This is an important reference point, he adds, because the reservoirs and lakes across the state are rapidly filling with sediment that will have a major impact on water quality. “People need to be aware of that because at some point there’s going to have to be expenditures of funds that will help remediate this,” Martinko says. Kansas Biological Survey has provided much of the research information free to the public online, but this visually appealing, coffee-tableworthy atlas makes an additional case to preserve the stunning beauty and health of the state’s reservoirs and natural lakes.

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Lawrence’s Busker Fest, taking place May 29-31, is becoming a town institution, now in its eighth year. But buskers themselves, the star attractions of the event in downtown Lawrence, face a never-ending battle for respect—especially in the U.S., where even the word “busker” still struggles for legitimacy. On my computer, Microsoft Word doesn’t recognize “busker”—maybe I need to update to a new version? Spell-check floats some alternate suggestions: Busier? Bucker? Bulker? (What’s a bulker, you ask? You’ll have to hunt down an unabridged dictionary for that one.) Of course, by now, most Lawrence residents know what my Microsoft Word does not: that a busker is, as Webster’s defines it, “a person who entertains in a public place for donations.” The Oxford English Dictionary suggests an origin in a 1600s French nautical expression, busquer fortune—“to go seek his fortune.” According to Lawrence Busker Fest organizer Richard Renner, “Busker comes from the Spanish word ‘buscar,’ which means ‘to seek.’ This aptly describes the inner nature of a street performer as a seeker of places, people and money.” This Spanish origin also pops up in the Webster’s definition, along with the Italian “buscare,” meaning to gain or procure. But, as Webster’s notes, modern English-language use of the word “busker” is “chiefly British.” Even though a few other busker fests have popped up nationwide, the word “busker” is still relatively uncommon in the States. When the city of Taos, New Mexico, was considering an ordinance regulating busking

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It’s a shame the word has been so slow to catch on in the United States. From my own perspective … “busker” serves a valuable function in the English language. There’s no other word that means what it means.

activity a few years ago, the local newspaper noted that most of the town council had no idea what the word meant. Most news stories that mention the word, even many here in Lawrence, begin with a definition, on the assumption that the average reader needs one. It’s a shame the word has been so slow to catch on in the United States. From my own perspective as a writer/copy editor/ word nerd, “busker” serves a valuable function in the English language. There’s no other word that means what it means. The phrase “street performer” is the closest thing to a convenient synonym, but even that term is not broad enough to capture the nature of an activity that can spread from sidewalks to public squares to subway stations. Maybe the word is slow to catch on because we are uncomfortable with the concept of people performing in public spaces, a practice that has a longer and more illustrious history in Europe than in the sprawling, car-oriented U.S. In our society, many people equate street performance with begging. The difference between buskers and panhandlers, of course, is artistry, but that artistry is easy to miss if you’re not looking for it. In 2007, The Washington Post conducted a revealing social experiment in which world-renowned concert violinist Joshua Bell dressed in the modest garb of a typical busker, entered a crowded D.C. metro station at morning rush hour, pulled out his priceless 1713 Stradivarius and began to play some of the greatest classical compositions of all time. Bell performed for 43 minutes and was heard by hundreds of commuters moving in and out of the station, but only one person recognized him. Few stopped or even slowed down to listen, and Bell netted a grand total of $32.17 for the effort.

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The lesson? Context is everything. One of the world’s greatest musicians, who has dazzled audiences from Carnegie Hall to the Royal Albert Hall, could scarcely draw a second glance from hordes of jaded Beltway commuters. Even what could have been the most talented “busker” in the world was effectively dismissed as a beggar. The advantage of Busker Fest is that, for once, these performers enjoy an audience of people who are there expressly to see them do their thing. Instead of having to seek—“busquer” to go back to the French origin of the word—buskers can enjoy having audiences come to them and appreciate them for what they are. The buskers can bask in audience appreciation and in the proper context of being received as artists, rather than as annoyances or obstructions. That’s why this festival, in many ways, represents what Lawrence is all about better than any other event. Sure, you can go see concerts the traditional way at Liberty Hall or the Lied Center or The Bottleneck; you can even head up the road on occasion to see Joshua Bell play his Stradivarius in Kansas City, as he has done several times recently (and you’d pay a lot more than $32.17 for the privilege). But in opening the downtown each year to the Busker Fest, Lawrence also stands up for the democratization of performance art, not only for the virtuoso violinist but for the underdogs— the unheralded banjo-pickers and break-dancers and fire-eaters and juggler/unicyclists—in a setting where, for once, no one will dismiss them as panhandlers. In other words, Lawrence lets the buskers be buskers.

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lm fit / challenged to fight Story by Becky Bridson Photography by Emily Steele

When the universe threw up hurdles, two local fitness enthusiasts responded with determination

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Creating a naturally beautiful smile designed specifically for you!

Carrie Rangel Carrie Rangel had her first brush with cancer when her mother fell to the disease—the same illness and the same cancer-causing gene-mutation that had killed her grandfather. Still in her 20s at the time, Rangel opted not to determine if the gene had been passed on to her. “I didn’t want to have the test done because I was like, ‘What do I do with that information?’—at 27 years old at the time,” she recalls. Four years later, Rangel had recently married her husband, Patrick, when she felt an itch and a lump. She asked Patrick to palpate the same area, and they agreed it was only her rib cage, but decided to do a biopsy just in case. On a beautiful fall day, as they were heading off to Memorial Stadium to enjoy a game, Rangel received the results. “When I got the news that it was cancer, I wasn’t expecting it,” she says. Instead of enjoying the day, Rangel arranged consultations and faced decisions on whether it was wise to have copious amounts of toxins injected into her body. She said the prospect was scary, but it was what she had to do to survive. “At that point, you just do it,” she says. “You do everything they tell you. I started treatment the following Friday.”

The Anchors family

“It really, really changed who I am.” – Carrie Rangel Rangel, herself a surgical nurse at Lawrence Memorial Hospital, continued to work a half-day’s stint in the operating room; then she would walk down the hall for her course of eight treatments spread out over 16 weeks. The convenience was unbeatable, and Rangel credits her colleagues and doctors with helping her combat cancer and work reduced hours in the same period. As a nurse, Rangel had been part of countless mastectomies and reconstructive surgeries, so she felt confident in her surgeons and in the familiar facilities. “Because I had seen it firsthand, I understood the whole process, but of course that makes it scary, too,” she says. “Sometimes I think it is more scary knowing every step of the process.” Going through treatments, she drew inspiration from a stranger she had encountered at her fitness club about a year before her own diagnosis. That woman, who sported a shaved head, presumably from cancer treatment, presented a vision of how Rangel thought she should respond to her illness. “Every time when I was sick going to the gym, I thought of that woman,” Rangel says. “She was an inspiration to me, and she probably thought she never inspired anybody.”

opposite Carrie Rangel goes through her workout routine at Hutton Farms gym.

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Workout recovery

Carrie Rangel and Katie Hastings-Lewis suggest essentials and extras for getting into a routine after medical treatment:

Small Steps

Take it slow. Progression is key. After her operation, Hastings-Lewis started out alternating 100-yard runs with walks. Gradually, she added longer, more frequent running intervals.

A Trainer on Your Side

Both Rangel and Hastings-Lewis say a qualified trainer can motivate and help keep you on track.

Water

Hydration is always important, now even more so.

Bedtime

Sleep well and sleep as many hours as your body needs.

Food

Eating right is essential. Reward yourself with healthful food.

New Rewards

Traditional indulgences might be of the fatty and salty variety, but think of alternatives such as long baths, favorite movies or meditation.

Close Support

Don’t be afraid to lean on family members and friends.

New sensations

Switch things up in your routine. Ride new bike paths. Cross-train. Hike new routes.

Presently, Rangel does the inspiring. Exercise and nutrition, she says, are key to remaining cancer-free. Though never particularly active in her youth, she now lifts weights four times a week, works out with a trainer once a week, runs and participates in a variety of group exercise classes. She and Patrick, a marathoner, maintain healthy habits … most of the time. “As the years have gone on,” Rangel says, she’s realized that “there has to be a happy medium, and just trying to figure out that life balance. You can go a little nutty with exercise. You can go a little nutty with diet. We try to do local, organic when possible. I still eat junk from time to time. I’m not perfect.” Rangel describes the cancer she had as “aggressive,” but she believes—after having gone through seven years of post-treatment—that recurrence is unlikely. After all the hard work and determination, she relaxes a little more as time passes. “It’s always in the back of your mind,” she says. “You worry about every little thing—every ache, every pain, every lump, every bump. The further out I’ve gotten, the less I feel like that. To be seven years out from triple-negative breast cancer is a very good thing.” Rangel is also making realistic choices, however. Earlier this year, she underwent a full hysterectomy at LMH after learning that she does carry the hereditary genetic mutation that attacked her mother. The unthinkable was upon her, and the danger of being diagnosed with potentially fatal ovarian cancer outweighed the potential for having children of her own, not to mention dealing with hormone replacement the rest of her life. She has since relied on a healthy lifestyle, love and support from Patrick, her own will to live, and being surrounded by like-minded individuals. All of this has culminated in a new perspective. “Honestly, the experience maybe sucked, but it’s made me a better person,” she says. “I—swear to God—look back on it and say it was a positive experience because it makes you put the brakes on, and think about what’s important and what’s not. It really, really changed who I am as a person. “I love watching the sunrises and sunsets. I love watching the colors change in the fall. I don’t know that I did as much before. I feel like I’ve always had faith, but I feel like my faith is way stronger now. I have to remember to be thankful for what I have. Life is a blessing every day.” Katie Hastings-Lewis Growing up, Katie Hastings-Lewis was not particularly active, but she had her reasons. Born in 1983 with a heart-valve deformity, her parents and physicians were concerned that too much activity might place dangerous levels of strain on the heart. Medical teams monitored her closely throughout her childhood and adolescence, knowing the inevitable valve failure would one day be upon them. In 2004, they decided it was time to replace the valve. Hastings-Lewis faced a choice of valves for this operation. The most reliable was a mechanical valve—something that was generally chosen for all male recipients. But a mechanical valve would require a recipient

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“It was literally my valve failing in my chest, and I had no idea,” she says. “I thought it was like a bird in our room. And, then I asked my husband about it, and he said, ‘Yeah, I’ve been hearing that for a while. I just didn’t know what it was.’” They quickly consulted specialists, who surmised that the valve had been failing for perhaps a month and had continued to function only because of Hastings-Lewis’ general strong health. Within a two-week period, she earned her bachelor’s degree in exercise science from the University of Kansas, survived a failed valve, walked down the Hill and underwent her second open-heart surgery. Surgeons once again split open her chest cavity, this time introducing a mechanical valve—meaning Hastings-Lewis could never have children because she would be required for the rest of her life to take a blood-thinner medication that shared a similar composition to rat poison.

“I’ve always felt like the underdog.” – Katie Hastings-Lewis

to take blood-thinner medication for life, which could interfere with a pregnancy. So Hastings-Lewis went with a porcine valve. This valve, from the heart of a pig, would eventually fail, but it did allow for the possibility of having children should HastingsLewis choose do so. With the porcine valve in place, Hastings-Lewis approached life with renewed energy. For the first time, she hired a trainer to provide the extra push she needed to begin a regimen. “I remember thinking, ‘Whoa, he ran to my house,’” Hastings-Lewis says. “It might have only been like five miles, but he ran to my house, and he was like not even out of breath.” The trainer directed Hastings-Lewis to throw on a pair of running shoes, and he efficiently ushered her out the door. He prescribed 20 minutes of running without stopping while holding his hand on her back, pushing her, encouraging her. “I got my first runner’s high,” Hastings-Lewis says. “He kind of sparked it for me.” A few years later, Hastings-Lewis and her replacement valve were still on a brisk regime. She had married her husband, Peter, and they began planning for a child. Then, on a routine run in May of 2012, Hastings-Lewis lost all feeling in half of her face, arms and legs. Shortly afterward, she started hearing strange chirping noises.

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“At first, I was really upset,” she says. “I saw a therapist for a while, and she said, ‘Don’t call it rat poison; that’s not helping you.’ I’ve become more relaxed about it.” Hastings-Lewis, who now works as a message therapist, had to adjust in other areas as well. In November 2013, she and Peter adopted their son, Nelson. “Luckily, the universe, I think, had another plan. I can’t even imagine not having him,” she says of Nelson. “Obviously, there’s always going to be that, ‘Oh, I’m never going to know what it feels like,’ but also, people who are pregnant may never know how awesome it is to adopt. So there are a lot of really cool things about adoption.” Hastings-Lewis adds that the experience of adoption and motherhood in general has permitted her to let go of trying too hard to plan and control events in life. “I’m a total control freak, so it’s like a total lesson for me,” she says. Her running regimen, too, has calmed over the years. She doesn’t race as often, though she runs three or four times a week for three to five miles at a time. She also works out a couple of times a week with a trainer. Upbeat and energetic, Hastings-Lewis chooses to see the positive from her experience and live life fully. “I’ve always felt like the underdog,” she says. “I’ve noticed that when someone doesn’t go through anything really hard, sometimes they take that for granted. Sometimes when you feel like you have to jump over some challenge, it pushes you to keep going.”

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gallery / Augmented Reality Story by Mick Braa photography by Bill Stephens

Three Lawrence artists merge realism, illusion and allusion

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Margie Kuhn / Karin

Mirick / Jessica Rold

talented artist can interpret real-world scenes and objects in images called representational, realistic, photo-realistic, illusionism, fool-the-eye or trompe l‘ oeil—but whatever the term used, the artist creating this type of work will use visual and mental filters selectively to describe and connect places and things we see out of their original context and often allude to some comparison or message about what the artist views. These three Lawrence artists have different backgrounds, specializations and approaches, but they all excel in exploring and sharing a reality augmented by their own vision. Margie Kuhn Attending the University of Kansas in the 1970s, Margie Kuhn found that, for her taste, art education at that time concentrated too much on creative expression and too little on technical instruction. “Realistic drawing and painting skills were not taught very well unless you found an older professor,” Kuhn says. “I wanted to learn formal skills and found Robert Green in the years before he retired. I put together my own major in scientific illustration, requiring a lot of biology-department coursework.”

“I try to explore how we interpret the sublime through visual imagery…” –Margie Kuhn After working for a time as a scientific illustrator, Kuhn returned for her MFA in painting, taught at Baker University and Washburn University, served as the Mulvane Art Museum’s education coordinator, then joined KU’s design department. These different segments of her career seem to have influenced the style of art she has come to develop, blending a base of technical expertise with creative expression. “My paintings often begin as groupings of objects that appear as if they’re mounted like museum specimens or artifacts in a display,” Kuhn says. “They suggest associations between, and interpretations of, things from contemporary culture that have become artifacts or icons.” These objects include Coke cans, Tootsie Roll

OPPOSITE Course of the Empire, acrylic on panel by Margie Kuhn ABOVE, FROM TOP Detail of Staples, acrylic on panel by Margie Kuhn; All American Male, acrylic on panel by Margie Kuhn

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wrappers, vintage toys and other items that Kuhn paints into works she describes as having elements of still life, landscape and even figure painting. The process of creating them is just as layered. “My work starts out as drawings in pencil and colored pencil on clayboard built up with multiple thin glazes of gouache or translucent acrylic color,” Kuhn explains. “The finished pieces appear under plexi or glass in shadowbox frames to enhance their 3D appearance. I have to lay the colors down very thinly and carefully because the clayboard is so absorbent; it’s very tricky, but I like the way the images look.” Working mostly with five or six colors, and leaving the scenes on a white background that conjures the clean space of a museum wall, Kuhn creates a sense of continuity among her different series of works. “Tools of the Cenozoic Era,” for example, is a series of intriguing and unexplained artifacts that seem to merge modern implements and prehistoric nature. The series “Eyecandy” seems to be all about indulgences and compulsions, while “All-American Paintings” explores familiar American mementos that suggest larger themes when grouped in isolation. Cycles of social change and gender issues are strong themes in Kuhn’s examination of society. “I try to explore how we interpret the sublime through visual imagery—how we consider beauty, value, preservation and personal or social hierarchy,” Kuhn says. “These are all transient. Civilization runs through stages or phases, and our material culture are indicators of those stages.” Karin Mirick “I always did drawing and painting,” Karin Mirick says. “I always loved storybooks, and I sewed a lot and loved costumes. So theater arts were a way to sort of merge it all. That’s where I began to learn how to think and paint in large, in bigger and in different contexts.” After taking a degree in theater design from Loretto Heights College, a private school in Denver with a big arts program, Mirick went on to work for many years as a scenic artist at the Denver Center Theatre Company, while also creating scenes and murals for television commercials, films and private spaces. Through these projects, Mirick developed a style of transposing a very realistic-appearing scene onto a setting where it would not naturally occur or, as she says, “creating environments that aren’t really there.” For example, she created realistic-looking control rooms for a fantastical miniature submarine, she has decorated ceilings to appear as open-sky horizons, and she has painted realistic window scenes onto walls. Often, she is commissioned to create children’s scenes, from storybook lands to prehistoric jungle forests. It is

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Karin Mirickâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work includes large-scale paintings such as this transformation of Denver Universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bell tower interior, right, as well as room-sized landscapes and faux mosaic decorations, above.

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a style of work that allows her complete freedom in giving visual plausibility to an alternative world. “I really felt happiest doing children’s murals and creating spaces and environments they can get lost in,” Mirick says. “In a way, storybook and fantasy and cartoon scenes can be a kid’s reality—even if it’s imaginary.” But perhaps her most awe-inspiring project is the interior of University of Denver’s Williams Bell Tower. Leading a team of artists, Mirick transformed the tower’s 70foot high, empty cream-white interior to a feast of colorful faux-painted mosaics, sculpture, architectural embellishment, stained glass, fresco, marble panels and more. The faux-relief fresco work between painted architectural elements presents a pictorial timeline for the history of communication. It begs the viewer to reach out and touch everything to see if it is all real or not. One can only imagine the planning, designing, scaling, scaffolding and other equipment and techniques needed to create this grand illusion. Mirick has strong ties to the area, including her father, James Mirick, a Kansas City art professor who retired in Lawrence and continues to paint. She relocated to Lawrence with her son last year to create new scenes, including smaller projects on paper and canvas. “Now I’m working from my own studio on projects, while trying to just see where I go with traditional canvases,” Mirick says. “I’ve done some ocean-scapes and other scenes, learning to downsize and focus more on specific subjects in creative ways.” Jessica Rold As an award-winning “Best of Show” honor student at the American Academy of Art, Jessica Rold excelled in the genre of photo-realism, creating paintings so realistic they could be mistaken for a digital image. Then, she walked away from art for several years, moving from Illinois to Iowa, North Carolina and finally to Kansas, where she made her home in Lawrence. Here she was introduced to Jeromy Morris, Jeremy Rockwell and other artists of SeedCo Studios and the Fresh-Produce Art Collective, who helped inspire a return to the craft. However, Rold took up her brush with a new approach. Realistic art was now her tool, not her goal. “When I was at school, I was so enamored by people who could make an image look just like a photograph,” Rold says, “but after doing it for a while, I feel like there is so much more fun in having a little expressionism in a painting. It makes it so much more alive.”

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ABOVE, FROM TOP Cherry Still Life is a recent work that Jessica Rold describes as a still life with characteristics of a portrait. Apprehension is a classical portrait, the type of art that Rold first excelled in as a student. OPPOSITE, FROM LEFT How To, Buttons is literally a primer on drawing buttons and a stand-alone piece of art. A section of Love Her, but Leave Her Wild shows Rold’s attention to detail.

Throughout her new works, Rold explores—often in a series of repetitious groupings and in technical detail—how an object looks, feels and is made, bringing fresh insight to something that might otherwise be overlooked, such as lichen in Love Her, but Leave Her Wild. But often she leaves evidence of her process to remind viewers that they are standing in front of an artist’s creation. She points to her painting How To: Buttons as a playful variation of revealing the process to viewers, an attempt “to allow them to see the painting, from start to finish, in one glance” that still holds up as a coherent piece of art. Rold has long specialized in classical portraits such as Apprehension, and this style is reflected in other creations, such as still-life paintings. In her work Cherry Still Life, she sees a cup with “personality” and a grouping of cherries as “an older person, sitting in a chair. … Calm and wise, they are what they are; they’ve seen so much and they are at peace.” Realism, Rold says— whether in lichen, buttons or cherries—is “my foundation, what I will always have in my back pocket,” but her works created in Lawrence mark a progression for this young, accomplished artist. And new combinations of realism and expression might still evolve in her works. “Before I was doing everything so literal, and now I feel like I am transcribing more of what I feel, rather than what I see,” she says. “I’m getting warmed up.”

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flavor Story by Paula Naughtin Photography by Doug Stremel

Green ChileWay The

Kate Gonzalez

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Kate Gonzalez grew up on her family’s 80-acre farm just north of Lawrence. Here, they raised grapes, rhubarb, asparagus, snap peas, cherries and apples. Her mother, Elizabeth Cronemeyer, would turn this produce into delicious meals, passing her zeal for cooking on to Kate. “I just love to be in the kitchen,” Kate says. “I love eating. I love cooking food. More than cooking it, I love cooking it for people. I love watching them eat it, seeing them enjoy it.” These family cooking experiences continued when Kate left home for college and shared an apartment with one of her brothers, Josh. “We always were in the kitchen together,” Kate says. “We were always cooking; we were always drinking. We had a great house full of friends, always.” Soon, Kate and her family developed ties to the restaurant business. Around the same years that her dad, Jack Cronemeyer, opened Badd Jack’s restaurant

in Tonganoxie, Kate took a job at the first iteration of Pachamama’s—as a hostess, then a server, then a bartender. Taking a break from work and studies, Kate spent a summer traveling and photographing around Taos, New Mexico. Here, she met her future husband, Rafael, who was born in the Canary Islands, grew up in Venezuela and came to the U.S. for his studies. Like Kate, he shared a love for cooking and a background in the restaurant industry. After a year of traveling back and forth between Taos and Lawrence, Kate offered Rafael, who had been selling Persian rugs and African art, an additional reason to move to Lawrence. “I was walking down the street by Wheatfields, and there was a little store for rent,” Kate recalls. “I went in and then called Rafael and said, ‘I think you need to come here and open your own store. There’s nothing like it in this town, and this is a town that would appreciate it.’ And he said, ‘OK,’ and in a week he was here with a U-Haul with his stuff.” At first, Rafael and Kate ran an art-import retail store, moving it onto Massachusetts Street. After the

“We were always cooking; we were always drinking. We had a great house full of friends, always.” – Kate Gonzalez

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move, Rafael began lobbying his skeptical spouse to turn their business into a restaurant. “I’ve seen how hard it is working for my dad. I’ve seen how much work it is. I’ve seen how little money you make,” Kate says. “Finally, after two years of him saying, ‘I really want to do this,’ I said, ‘You know what, I’m not going to crush your dream. If you really want to do it that bad, I totally support you.’ And thus, Global Café was born, slowly and painfully.” The restaurant does, as Kate knew it would, demand an enormous amount of time. But after eight years it has become a Lawrence staple and a large focus in the lives of the expanded Gonzalez family, whose daughters Sofia, 10, and Isabella, 6, spend much of their time in the café. “We always joke that Isabella was cooked at Global Café,” Kate says. “I was the opener cook, and I rode my bike every day at 6 in the morning and opened and cooked until the day before she was born.” Sofia is now a budding manager, having become a champ at running the restaurant.

At home, the family prepares lots of meat and vegetables. “Our grill is always going in the summer,” Kate says. The couple frequents Cottin’s Farmers Market for dinners and canned goods provided by restaurant suppliers. “Some of our farmers, like Phil Hodson, bring in boxes of extra vegetables,” Kate says, “and Rafael brings them home—‘I’ve got to pickle them right now.’ So then it’s July and you’re sweating in the kitchen with all these jars boiling.” And together, the family continues its cooking traditions, such as the great green chile pilgrimage. When her father opened Badd Jacks in 2002, he proclaimed, “I’m doing green chile sauce.” But authentic green chile was harder to obtain then, and so he would order large quantities to be flown into Kansas City. Even after he closed the restaurant, the family would make a trip to New Mexico to pick some up during the harvest. Kate and Rafael, with her father’s

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enthusiastic approval, decided to make green chile sauce a focal point when they created the Global Café menu. And so, says Kate, “We decided this is a perfect opportunity to have an excuse to drive down to New Mexico every year, have a small family vacation and come back with our green chiles. In August, every year, we take our kids out of school for a week, we drive with a U-Haul trailer, and we get thousands of pounds of green chiles.” Of course, those chiles have to be processed. And the way the couple accomplishes this is a perfect example of how they meld home and restaurant life, family and friends, all with hospitality and good food. They park a large grill in the alley behind the restaurant for a week and prepare food for their friends, who help them process some 1,400 pounds of chile in an assembly line. Kate jokes that she and Rafael tell their friends: “Come! We feed you, we give you beer and wine, and you do all the work.” But when the food is prepared by a family of chefs with a love for cooking, who minds the work?

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Chile

This can be served on a dish with the separate components or assembled as a taco by putting the chicken, pickled cabbage and salsa on a fresh corn tortilla and adding crumbled queso fresco, cotija cheese or fresh-chopped cilantro. Squeeze a fresh lime wedge over the taco for extra flavor.

braised chicken

Pickled Cabbage

Ingredients: Ingredients: 2 pounds chicken thighs 5 cloves garlic roughly chopped 1 yellow onion, quartered 1 cup green chile, chopped and roasted 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped 2 cups chicken stock 1 bottle beer 1 bay leaf Ground cumin Salt Pepper Olive oil Instructions: 1) Preheat oven to 300 degrees. 2) Rub chicken thighs generously with salt, pepper and ground cumin. 3) Heat a large cast-iron skillet with olive oil and brown chicken on both sides, approximately 4 to 5 minutes each side. When you flip chicken to the second side, add onion and garlic. 4) When both sides are browned, add green chile, beer, chicken stock, cilantro and bay leaf. 5) Bring to a simmer, then remove from heat, cover with foil and let cook for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. 6) When removed from oven and still warm, shred with fork.

1 1/2 cups red cabbage, thinly sliced 1 red onion, halved and thinly sliced 1 cup red wine vinegar 1/4 cup honey Instructions: 1) Mix all ingredients and let marinate while chicken is cooking.

green tomatillo salsa Ingredients: 5 medium fresh tomatillos 1 jalapeño 1/2 cup green chile, roasted and chopped 1/2 cup cilantro Salt to taste Instructions: 1) Put all ingredients in food processor and mix for 5 minutes until thoroughly mixed. There should not be any chunks left, only a smooth green purée.

wild / Cicada Crescendo Story by Julie Tollefson Illustration by Sara Taliaferro

Brood IV, featuring natureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ultimate boy bug band, returns this summer for its full-volume, once-every-17-years performance

heir noise may annoy you. Their sheer numbers—10,000 to a million per acre—may overwhelm you. You may even cringe at the sight of their little insectoid bodies, brilliant orange lacy wings and reddish-orange eyes as they swarm over trees. But one thing’s for sure: You will notice when the periodical cicadas emerge en masse from the soil of northeast Kansas this summer for the first time in 17 years. As early as mid-May, this year’s batch, known as Brood IV, will crawl out of the ground where they’ve been sucking the juice out of tree rootlets since 1998. Within days, after their final molt, the adult bugs will get on with the business of ensuring the survival of their species. And, on the part of the males, that involves singing. Lots of buzzy, noisy singing. “Step back for a moment and just imagine this mosaic of sound over the entire eastern part of the state,” says Zack Falin, collection manager of the entomology division at the University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute. Though there are places where the bugs don’t exist, and those desperate to get away from them may be able to find pockets of quiet, the bugs and their noise are going to be hard to avoid. “Imagining this happening on this scale for dozens, if not hundreds of miles in either direction, is pretty amazing,” Falin says. This summer’s emergence will be his second experience with Brood IV cicadas. When the brood last appeared in 1998, he says, “I was a still rather fresh graduate student, and I got a scholarship that summer. Instead of spending it on food, I bought a bicycle and I spent the summer riding the dirt roads, particularly south of town.” And that’s how he first encountered the Brood IV bugs. Over and over, as he rode toward stands of trees, their song grew stronger and louder and then, as he moved on, faded again. “It really was a pretty magical experience,” he says. “You’re going to hear them in a car, but on a bicycle it’s just this enveloping sound.”

Force of Nature For longtime Lawrence biology teacher Stan Roth, this summer will mark his third meeting with the area’s 17-year cicadas. His first, in 1981, is forever linked in his memory to another force of nature that longtime Lawrence residents still mention from time to time. On June 19 that year, the song of the cicadas drew Roth and a neighbor to Wells Overlook Park. “The red-eyed cicadas were just all over, and it was new for both of us,” he says. Throughout the afternoon, they collected specimens, examined the slits females cut into twigs when they lay eggs, and photographed the cicadas in various stages of adult life. Later, after

they had their fill of insect observation, they ended the day with dinner at now long-gone Ken’s Pizza at 27th and Iowa. “It was absolutely quiet and ominously dark all over,” Roth says. “As we went to our car, foam insulation began to rain out of the sky.” Lawrence residents who have been around long enough remember the cause of the falling debris: That day, a deadly tornado struck town, leaving one man dead. “The tornado and the periodical cicadas are intertwined in our recall of the summer of ’81 here,” Roth says. Roth, who turned 80 this spring, looks forward to another encounter with Brood IV. “In a way, it’s fortunate that they become prominent, and we can point to them as a component of nature that has no reason to be feared or be thought of as a hazard,” says Roth, still a biology teacher at heart, though he’s been retired from the Lawrence school district for 16 years. “They don’t do serious damage in any way, but they’re sure interesting.” Cicada Convergence In a twist that won’t happen again for more than two centuries, Brood IV won’t be the only periodical cicadas in the region this summer. Another type, a 13-year cicada, is due to emerge in Missouri, setting up the remote possibility—“unusual, not impossible,” says Falin—that their territories could overlap on the eastern borders of Kansas. Falin expects that some cicada enthusiasts will try to prove their coexistence in the state this year. They won’t get another chance. The next time the two types will emerge at the same time, he says, is in the year 2236. Do entomologists get excited about this kind of thing? Yes and no.

As early as mid-May, this year’s batch, known as Brood IV, will crawl out of the ground where they’ve been sucking the juice out of tree rootlets since 1998. “On one hand, they haven’t received as much scientific attention as you might imagine,” Falin says of periodical cicadas. The lengthy interval between appearances makes it difficult for scientists to conduct the kind of long-term, deep experiments they do with other, more available insects. “On the other, they really are fascinating critters.” Brood IV is one of about a dozen broods of 17-year cicadas. In any given year, a brood probably will emerge somewhere in eastern North America, the only place on the planet where periodical cicadas exist.

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Call them “big monsters” if you must, just not “locusts.” For the record, periodical cicadas, despite common usage, are not locusts. The brood actually contains three different species of the genus Magicicada. They all emerge at the same time and look so similar that it will be difficult to distinguish one from another. “As a matter of fact, looking at them is not really the best way of telling them apart,” Falin says. “Listening to their song is.” But even those differences are less distinct than the differences in vocalization between, for example, songbird species. Or perhaps they are simply less studied. There are many things scientists don’t know about cicadas, including the biggest mystery of all: Why do they burrow for 17 years? The prevailing theory, Falin says, is that the long hibernation enables the bugs to break the hunter-prey cycle (important, if you are the prey)—but that is only a theory. This summer may allow researchers to fill in some of the blanks in their Brood IV knowledge. Falin says he thinks some people will try to better map, county by county, where the cicadas can be found. The window will be short. By about the first week in July, adults will be gone. Their eggs hatch in late summer, and then the nymphs burrow underground, where they’ll stay for the next 17 years.

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Zack Falin of KU’s Biodiversity Institute says cicadas belong to a group of bugs that have piercing and sucking mouth parts and see-through wings that rest like a peaked roof on their backs. Their closest relatives are plant hoppers and little insects that look like thorns. “Cicadas are sort of the big monsters of that group of bugs,” Falin says. Another common misconception: Periodical cicadas damage trees. In reality, when females lay eggs, they use their ovipositors like little saws to cut slits in the bark of twigs in deciduous trees—elms, maples and the like. Then they deposit eggs in a row and move on to make another slice. “They can cause a little bit of branch dieback,” Falin says. “Unless you run an orchard—a fruit or nut orchard—and you have a bazillion of these things, they tend not to be a real problem.”

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10-12 Flavors

This issue’s theme:

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rotated from 65 total flavors

Sylas and Maddy’s flavor, Gold Dust, began as a happy accident. Manager Sarah England was mixing up a batch of Gold Rush (Oreos, pralines and caramel) and a batch of Snickers ice cream at the same time. (Kids, this is done only by ice-cream professionals;—do not try this at home!) Instead of putting pralines in the Gold Rush, England accidentally threw in Snickers, serendipitously creating Gold Dust, which has since become more popular than its parent flavor.

compiled by Nadia Imafidon

Ice Cream

Sources: Sarah England of Sylas and Maddy’s, Michelle Miller of Mass Street Sweet Shoppe, Marty Falkenstein of Iwig Family Dairy Store, and the International Dairy Foods Association

Scoopin’ up my g-ggeneration: All ages love ice cream, but some generations have particular favorites not equally appreciated by other age groups. Here’s the generational ice-cream divide. Pre-War and Boomers: Butter Pecan Generation X and Millennials: Cookie Dough YOLO Generation: Sherbet

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frozen-treat bylaws: Ice cream: Minimum of 10 percent milk-fat content before adding other ingredients; it also must weigh a minimum of 4.5 pounds to the gallon. Frozen custard: Minimum of 10 percent milk-fat content, as well as at least 1.4 percent egg-yolk solids by weight. Sherbet: Between 1 and 2 percent milk-fat content; it must weigh a minimum of 6 pounds to the gallon.

Flavor Recipe Sylas and Maddy’s is known for combination creations. Here’s a listing of the ingredients in their Top 3 combo flavors. Sweet cream ice cream (base) + fudge pieces (ingredient) + brownies (ingredient) + fudge swirl (ingredient) =

Rock Choc Jayhawk

Sweet cream ice cream + peanut butter (base) + Reese’s (ingredient) + fudge swirl (ingredient) =

how skinny is your

ice cream? “Reduced fat” ice cream contains at least 25 percent less total fat than the original product. “Light” ice cream contains at least 50 percent less total fat, or 33 percent fewer calories than the original product. “Low fat” ice cream contains a maximum of 3 grams of total fat per serving. “Nonfat” ice cream contains less than 0.5 grams of total fat per serving.

summer is the

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season:

Lawrence’s busiest ice-cream months: MayAugust (and the first warm day of spring). Ice-cream sales in June are typically three times higher than in December. June to December icecream sales ratio at Sylas and Maddy’s: 3:1.

Peanut Butter Freak Butter pecan ice cream (base) + cookie dough (ingredient) + chocolate flakes (ingredient) + Oreos (ingredient) =

Da Bomb

The 64 Holstein and Jersey dairy cows of Iwig dairy farm produce milk that tastes just right for old-time recipes, such as this one: Vanilla ice cream [base] + butterscotch [ingredient] + maple syrup [ingredient] + grain cereal [ingredient] =

Brown Bread

ice cream we all s . ice cream. c m f or ice crreeaam . July is National Ice Cream Month, as decreed by President Ronald Reagan in 1984. He called for “appropriate ceremonies and activities” during this time, so it’s an appropriate time of year to ditch the diet. Lemon cookie and black walnut are two flavors at Iwig that boom in popularity during summer months.

summertime

civility Aunt Maggie has common-sense advice for those who would spoil two summertime traditions: the Sidewalk Sale and Farmersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Market

Story by Maggie Lawrence illustration by Lana Grove

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Dear Aunt Maggie, I love summers in Lawrence, but there is one day I have started to dread: the third Thursday of July. (Cue the Jaws theme!) My best friend and I have attended the Downtown Lawrence Sidewalk Sale since we were in junior high. It was something we looked forward to for months. We’d meet up with friends, buy a year’s worth of shampoo and socks, and pop into Penny Annie’s for ice cream sundaes afterward. Those were the days when everything was chill, even at 103 degrees. Now, my bestie is married with a couple of kids, and everything has changed. Last year, she dragged me out of bed at the crack of dawn, her twins’ double stroller in tow and a “hit list” in her hand. She had a game plan and every intention of sticking to it, come hell or 99 percent humidity. She has always been the competitive type, but this time she was beyond Type A! Elbowing perfect strangers at shoe tables, trying to grab the size 9 TOMS out of an elderly woman’s hands! Bulldozing her way down the street, barking, “Babies on board! Coming through!” We saw some friends on the corner, and she wouldn’t even stop to talk. “No time to chat!” she yelled as she hightailed it to The Toy Store. Then, while craning her neck to check out the yoga mats, she crashed into the balloon man, knocking him and his Latex swan to the ground! Her kids started wailing, and all I could do was apologize to the artist and retrieve his dying swan. Maggie, she’s already making plans to do it again this year. I want to beg out, but I don’t want to give up our tradition. What should I do? Miserable in Meadowbrook

Dear miserable, Sounds to me like your BFF was having a BMD (Bad Mommy Day). She was obviously feeling pressure to get through her list before her little darlings had a meltdown due to heat, exhaustion or gas pains … just like the rest of us intrepid Sidewalk Sale shoppers. This year, tell your BFF you’d be happy to continue your tradition IF she takes an MDO (Mother’s Day Out). Help her find a sitter, even if it means–gasp!–hitting the sale AFTER dawn. Believe me, everyone will be happier … especially that poor balloon man. He’s not getting any younger, you know. Here’s to smooth sale-ing on July 16th!

Horrified on Harvard Road

Dear horrified, First, high fives to you and Hubby for taking steps to improve your health. Old Aunt Maggie hobbled onto that wagon a few years ago and never looked back. (The squirrels have nothing on my nuts-and-seeds stash!) Your husband is trying to atone for the unhealthy years by making sure you’re both getting the best, most natural food available. That said, nobody likes a food zealot. Tell him he gets two questions per server … MAX. And, for pity’s sake, cut the market vendors some slack. Those folks get up at 4 in the morning to haul their wares to market. Some day, a little old pie lady might get testy and throw a (certified organic, free-trade) banana cream in his face.

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Aunt Maggie, or Maggie Lawrence, is the pen-name for a longtime Lawrence resident who knows the Sidewalk Sale so darn well that she completes all of her holiday shopping before noon and spends the rest of the day shouting out words of encouragement from the outdoor patio of Free State Brewery.

illustration Shutterstock

Dear Aunt Maggie, In an effort to get healthier, my husband and I are following a “real food” diet. You know the drill: food in its most natural state, local or organic whenever possible, humanely raised meats in moderation, enough nuts and seeds to choke a squirrel. I’m not complaining. The change was long overdue. (We were on a first-name basis with too many fast-food workers.) Here’s the problem: My husband has not only embraced this new lifestyle, he preaches it everywhere we go. He cannot sit down at a restaurant without peppering the server with questions: “Where is your kale sourced? Is the rice GMO-free? Is the chicken really free-range? Was she allowed to run every day?” And he doesn’t stop at restaurants. He relentlessly interviews the vendors at the Downtown Farmers’ Market: What kind of fertilizer did you use on these tomatoes? Are they really heirloom or is that a marketing ploy? Was this piecrust made from ancient whole grains or a hybrid? Maggie, it’s getting to where the farmers see him coming and duck under their tables! What can I do to get him to practice but not preach?

The Godfather

of bronze Elden Tefft inspired generations of young artists though his groundbreaking approach to sculpture Story by Mick Braa photography by Jason Dailey

Editor’s Note: Marking 10 years of publication, Lawrence Magazine has been reprinting adaptations of some of our favorite stories that have run over the past decade. This edition’s story, with text by Mick Braa and photography by Jason Dailey, originally appeared in our magazine’s summer 2007 edition. We present it here as a tribute to Elden Tefft, Lawrence sculptor and educator, who died this February at age 95. This story ended with Elden’s goal of creating a sculpture of James Naismith—which he did before he passed away.

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lden Tefft, the foundry master, perches on the edge of a stool E IN Z AGA M E C N wearing his heavy work apron E LAWR and flip-up face visor as he confers with his son, Kim, about the bronze pouring they are overseeing. So far, fellow sculptor John McCoy and other foundry assistants have stacked a brick kiln around the thick, 5-foot-tall, 1,650-pound mold that was fired at 1,000 degrees during the better part of three previous days. Now, they remove the bricks and lift the still-warm mold by a moving chain hoist before lowering it into the sand pit recessed into the foundry’s concrete floor. They then shovel in sand to keep the mold in place and trap any spilt bronze. A dozen feet from the sand pit, a loud roaring comes from one of three gas-fired smelting furnaces blasting the large potlike crucible made of titanium oxide and filled with melting bronze ingots. Above the furnace, a movable steel hood funnels the exhaust away from the liquefying bronze destined to become a large bas-relief plaque. “I met Elden and Kim Tefft six years ago,” McCoy says. “I’d lived in Olathe for 18 years and had no idea that anything to do with bronze was in Lawrence. It’s become a mecca now and mostly because of Elden. I was fortunate to learn from the godfather of bronze!”

Rural Kansas Roots, Global Recognition Elden C. Tefft was born in 1919 in Hartford, Kansas. He recalls starting his education in a one-room schoolhouse, taught by his mother in nearby Madison, then moving with his family to Lawrence when he was about 10. The young Elden was always drawing and making things, so design and art were natural choices when he graduated from Lawrence’s Liberty Memorial High School and entered the University of Kansas. There, he became a studio assistant for famed sculptor Bernard “Poco” Frazier, who also encouraged Elden to explore metals and bronze. After he finished both his bachelor’s and master’s of fine arts degrees in design, Elden began his teaching career in 1950, founding KU’s undergraduate and graduate sculpture degree programs. At the time, university bronze foundries were nonexistent, and only a couple commercial foundries were left in the U.S. With a mind to build a foundry at KU, Elden researched and traveled to learn everything he could about foundry techniques and design. Only two years later, Elden began building for KU what is believed to have been the first complete collegiate bronze sculpture studio and foundry in the nation. He also championed a return of the sculptor’s role in casting bronze,

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“My wife says that I traveled threequarters the way around the world in order to stay in Lawrence.” – Elden Tefft

a radical break with trends from early in the 20th century, when most bronze sculptures were cast by commercial foundries from the original carving or wax form delivered to them by sculptors who were almost never involved in the actual casting process. In Elden’s studio, each piece was to be created, from start to finish, under the direct hand and physical control of the sculptor. Elden’s studio philosophy was adopted by sculptors worldwide. His word was spread partly through national sculpture conferences Elden created and first hosted at KU in 1960. These conferences evolved into the International Sculpture Center, the world’s largest sculptors’ association and research center, with headquarters in New Jersey and offices in Washington, D.C. Elden is commonly credited as the center’s founder and was named its first director emeritus in 1980. His self-acclaimed masterwork is the 10-foottall Moses that kneels before the large stainedglass burning bush at the entrance to Smith Hall, home to KU’s department of religious studies. It incorporates many of his finest techniques, and its see-through lattice construction seems to suggest the external and internal aspects of man’s spiritual struggle. Elden, like his reputation, has traveled through the world. He has mentored, designed, built and consulted at foundries across the U.S. as well as in Costa Rica, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, Paraguay and China. “My wife says that I traveled three-quarters the way around the world in order to stay in Lawrence,” Elden jokes. Next Generation In 1990, Elden retired from KU; his work, however, continued. He produced numerous commissions for schools and universities in the region, as well as a massive 11- by 30-foot wagon and oxen bronze relief called Trails West for the Kansas Travel Information Center in Olathe. He is completing the carving work on Keepers of the Universe, a 12-foot-tall monolithic limestone sculpture flanked by two additional pieces along the Kansas River in Lawrence’s Burcham Park. Elden’s large earth-bermed studio, Tefft Terra, on the southeast edge of Lawrence, is

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crowded with examples of his work. It was built by the Teffts as a combination studio, bronzecasting foundry and residence for Kim and his family—which is convenient with four homeschooled kids. Here, Elden has passed many of the heavier foundry duties to Kim. Growing up around his father’s work, Kim became a fine metalsmith, working mostly in custom jewelry. He was already immersed in jewelry-creation by high school and went on to study with Carlyle Smith, Olli Valanne, Jon Havener and Gary Nemchock at KU. Though he maintains his own smaller jewelry studio at Tefft Terra, Kim is also taking over more of the foundry’s management. “I’ve been around Dad’s studios and foundries so long that it’s almost second nature for me to take charge of a pouring here,” Kim says. And now, he turns his attention back to the pouring. On Kim’s signal, the blazing red-orange crucible is lifted by two hefty helpers using a long-handled steel device that clamps onto the crucible at a safe distance between them. The crucible is set on the grating while Kim carefully inserts what looks like an ultra-heavy-duty industrial probe into the molten metal to check its temperature. “It’s over 2,000 degrees!” Kim shouts. He calls for and is handed a measured scoop of a powdered substance that is stirred into the bronze. This is followed by a quick but careful skimming off of the impurities that have risen to the surface of the crucible. Kim directs the lifters to move the glowing crucible to the mold. As they raise and tip it, he pushes and pulls the pouring lip into a precise position over the mold’s mouth with a long hooked rod. The crucible is emptied, the bronze will cool for an hour or two, and the mold will be broken open later that evening. Across the room, Elden has other work heating up in his mind. His dream project is to celebrate the history of basketball with a sculpture garden that resembles a basketball court. Elden is also at work on a life-size seated sculpture of the game’s inventor, Dr. James Naismith. “And he will get Dr. Naismith done before he’s gone!” Kim says.

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Nature’s Nurturer If you’ve ever discovered an injured or abandoned animal in your yard, someone probably suggested you call Operation WildLife, the local rehabilitation center for injured and orphaned animals. What many don’t realize is that Operation WildLife receives no state or federal funding and has only one full-time paid employee, Diane Johnson. Diane and her husband constructed the organization’s main facility next to their home in Linwood 20 years ago using their own money, and they rely on donations, volunteers and interns to keep the center going. Operation WildLife is currently in the midst of its busiest time of year, “baby season,” when 50-60 new animals (the majority of which are baby rabbits or squirrel, such as the one pictured here) come to them each day. Below, Diane talks about some of the things Operation WildLife frequently covers when providing wildlife education to local school and civic groups.

Ninety-nine percent of the animals that come to us come because of something humans have done—something we’ve built, something we drive, the family dog. People often assume that there’s not a lot of wildlife in town compared with rural areas, but there is actually more wildlife living in suburban areas because there is more access to food and shelter there. This means that there are lots of instances of interaction between people and animals in suburban areas. The most common scenario we get is someone who has mowed over a nest of baby bunnies, and they are concerned because they don’t see the mother and they don’t want to get their own scent on the babies. Well, you’re not supposed to see the mother; she only comes by the nest twice a day. And your scent is already over the yard. Mother rabbits only abandon a baby if it smells different from the others, so people just need to gently touch all of the babies in the nest so that they all smell alike. It’s important to remember that the parents of the animal are better equipped to take care of it than a human, but we certainly welcome people to call us—(785) 542-3625—when they have questions.

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Story by Liz Weslander

photography by Bill Stephens

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The sustainer Since being selected in 2010 from a pool of more than 150 applicants, Eileen Horn has served as the sustainability coordinator for the city of Lawrence and Douglas County. The recently launched citywide recycling program is one of the most visible examples of this work in the Lawrence community, but Eileen says sustainability can also take the form of integrating bike lanes into resurfaced streets, installing energy-efficient LED lighting or solar panels in public buildings, or working with the Douglas County Food Policy Council to improve access to local food in the community. Below, Eileen talks more about her work and the concept of sustainability:

Sustainability is a pretty new term, and it’s such a quickly evolving field. It goes beyond the environmental—it also includes economic sustainability and social equity. I love looking at all the pieces of the puzzle and trying to find what programs address all of these things. People in Lawrence have a real passion for these issues, and we want to learn from our citizens. We also want sustainability to feel applicable for people, so we are really trying to share the story of what we do and let people know there are things they can do as well. I love my job. I love that I get to work with so many talented people in the city and county departments and in our community.

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The Naturalist Kelly Kindscher, senior scientist at the Kansas Biological Survey and professor of environmental studies at the University of Kansas, is one of the founders of the Kansas Land Trust, author of two books on native prairie plants, leader of yearly prairie wildflower walks and a champion of wild places in the Lawrence area. Currently, Kelly is working on a systematic inventory of prairies and forests on both private and public land in Douglas County, in order to identify high-quality natural areas that support plant and wildlife communities closely approximating the native landscape prior to Euro-American settlement. Identifying and working to protect these areas preserves our link to the natural and cultural heritage of the area. Below, Kelly expands on the nuances of his work.

When we talk about natural and cultural heritage, it refers to a pastoral and wild sense of where we are. We donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t usually think about having wild lands in Lawrence, but when the county was being settled in the 1850s, it was a pretty natural landscape. That biodiversity and natural history is part of our heritage. Many of the longtime families in the county are the ones who have helped protect these areas, so there is a link to local families. I have done studies on lots of native plants, and many of these original gems harbor medical qualities, so these spaces not only provide a link to our cultural heritage but offer things for the future. I think most people around here do appreciate prairie and woodlands, though they may not always recognize the difference between a patch of trees they see on the side of the road and a quality biodiverse habitat. Quality habitats have more wildflowers; they have more birds. When people experience that, they can easily see and appreciate it.

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LM su15 Kelly Kindscher

Try these three Kansas Summer

Weekend Getaways

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Story by Susan Kraus, Paula Naughtin and Linda Lewis

Trip 1:

wichita

A wild and wonderful weekend … in Wichita? Susan Kraus makes a case for the state’s biggest city.

Wichita has changed dramatically even in the last 10 years. What used to be an area filled with rusting warehouses has been transformed into a “district” with new restaurants, galleries, boutiques and a hopping music scene. A free trolley takes folks between city spots. Miles of biking and walking trails extend along the Arkansas River and through nature preserves. Only some 165 miles from Lawrence, you can hop in the car at 4 p.m. on a Friday afternoon and be checked into your Wichita hotel by 6:30. Or leave early Saturday morning and still have two days to explore and play. And if you haven’t stayed there lately, prepare to be surprised.

Photographs Go Wichita Convention + Visitors Bureau

Romantic Runaway Weekend For romance, stay in Old Town, where you can walk to dozens of restaurants, bars, galleries and shops. My favorite is the Hotel at Old Town, located right on The Farm and Art Market Square. It’s historic and elegant, and you can reserve a room with a whirlpool tub big enough for linebackers. The hotel offers very reasonable rates, free parking and full-course hot breakfasts in a lovely four-story atrium. Eat and Drink Leave your worries behind at Mort’s Martini and Cigar Bar, with more than 150 martini options, international beers and live music (see bands on the patio seasonally, solo and duo acts inside in winter). Oeno (rhymes with vino) Wine Bar features craft beers, pitchers of mojitos, great tapas and wood-fired pizzas. There is live music, with a DJ after 10:30. You can linger here for hours. The Brickyard has an outdoor band venue, and, more recently, a casual restaurant with darn good food. (The all farmto-table cuisine by an innovative chef left me drooling.) Enjoy a gelato at Caffe Moderne. Try Sabor Latin Bar and Grille for Latin cuisine, Wasabi Japanese Restaurant for sushi, Larkspur Bistro and Bar for seafood, Hana Cafe for Korean and Japanese, Taste and See for eclectic international … or ask a satisfied-looking local what their favorite place is and why. Daytime Fun Take in the Wichita Art Museum, with its extensive American art collection. I loved coming face to face with the originals of prints that I’ve had on my walls, and I gaped, open-mouthed, at the magnificent Chihuly glass creations. The Botanica has 26 themed gardens, sculptures and fountains, an oasis for those looking to take a stroll, with more than 150,000 tulips and daffodils in spring. Follow the Downtown Art Walk Guide to discover more than 40 public outdoor sculptures,

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murals and more. And these are just a few. Wichita has more than 30 unique museums, so look over the lists to see what grabs you. You’ll find oodles of shopping at Bradley Fair (outdoor/ chic/upscale) or one of several malls, but most fun are the locally owned shops in the districts, like the fiercely independent Watermark Books in College Hill or Hatman Jack’s for the perfectly fitted hat of your dreams. I knew I’d found my husband’s next birthday present the moment I walked in the door. Hats can be sooo sexy! Family Escape For the best in family fun, you will need to use your car, so choose any hotel with kid-friendly amenities in any section of the city. High on the kid-list: Exploration Place, an interactive, experiential “museum” that makes science and problem-solving fun; Old Cowtown Museum, for “living history” and total immersion, with wagon rides, gunfights, cowboys, blacksmiths and a cold sarsaparilla; Sedgwick County Zoo; Tanganyika Wildlife Park (open March-November) where you can walk with kangaroos and feed lorikeets; Kansas Aviation Museum; the Museum of World Treasures, with everything from T-Rex exhibits to mummies and the “stuff” of battlefields and ancient civilizations; the Kansas African American Museum; and the Mid-America All-Indian Center. For letting off steam in the summertime, the Rock River Rapids water park fits the bill, or take in a Wichita Wingnuts baseball game (family packages May-August). Festival Fun Riverfest, the Black Arts Festival, the Asian Festival, Cinco de Mayo, Wagonmasters Chili Cookoff (when thousands throng the downtown!), the Tallgrass Film Festival (which has been gathering buzz with each year) or a Final Friday—there are many events worth the trip. Visit the city’s official event page at www.gowichita.com to begin your scheduling.

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Travel with Ticket The Wichita Symphony (wichitasymphony.org) has a program that ranges from classical to pops, with “blue jeans” and free community concerts. The Wichita Grand Opera (wichitagrandopera.org) features classic and current productions, while Music Theatre Wichita (mtwichita. org) is all about Broadway. Crown Uptown Dinner Theatre (crownuptown.com) has first-class productions in a renovated facility. Intrust Bank Arena features national headliners like Taylor Swift (Intrustbankarena.com). For laughs, the Loony Bin offers up national and local comedians, with nightly food and drink specials.

Trip 2:

miltonvale

Photographs from left Go Wichita Convention + Visitors Bureau (3), Danton mcdiffett (2)

Tootlefest Time: Paula Naughtin touts the festival celebrating small-town living at its best

Every fourth weekend in August, residents of Miltonvale invite the world to enjoy their celebration quirkily named after the town’s founder, Milton Tootle. The town itself is not large, just over 500 residents. But festival organizers have perfected their three-day lineup of parades, performances, pedal tractor pulls and turtle races. There are many memorable and forgettable delights, but the festival’s quilt show should not be missed. The number, variety and artistry of the quilts are outstanding. Exhibitors at the quilt show include Pauline Lange, whose work was featured in 2014. Lange, a formidable quilter who is in her 90s, will once again have at least one quilt in the show. Every year, The Piecemakers, a group of Miltonvale quilters, work together almost year-round to piece and hand-quilt an item to raffle off. Dona Schultz, a Piecemaker who helps organize the quilt show, notes that each year the group hides an image of a turtle somewhere in the quilt design and challenges viewers to find it. The Piecemakers also help construct a human-size turtle costume for the Tootlefest mascot that made its debut in 2014. Why so many turtles? Why not? Schultz, one of the event organizers, says the turtle became the Tootlefest mascot because of the similarity between the words “turtle” and “Tootle.” And that is, in a sense, the spirit of Tootlefest: Parade what you’ve got. Tootlefest is a perfect example of a group of dedicated volunteers spending hundreds of hours to share small-town living at its best. “It brings people back to the community where they grew up,” Schultz says. “They bring their children and grandchildren to participate in the old-fashioned, small-town fun.” This year’s Tootlefest will take place August 21–23. The drive from Lawrence, approximately 2.5 hours, is lovely— through parts of the rolling hills and past small towns. And Lawrencians who remember and miss Vista burgers can pick one up at the surviving Vista Drive In just off U.S. Highway 24 (at 1911 Tuttle Creek Blvd.) on the outskirts of Manhattan. More information: The Miltonvale Chamber of Commerce posts schedules of Tootlefest events on its website and Facebook page; you can also call them at (785) 427-3115. Accommodations: In addition to the Miltonvale Chamber’s listings, the Cloud County Tourism office maintains a list of area hotels, bed and breakfasts and other accommodations on its website, or call (785) 427-2403.

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Trip 3:

maxwell wildlife refuge

Maxwell Game Preserve and Auction: Linda Lewis suggests a summer rendezvous with bison

More information: Tours of the preserve are arranged through the volunteer organization Friends of Maxwell and its website, maxwellwildliferefuge.com; the bison auction is held in Canton and open to the public. Maxwell Wildlife Refuge manager Cliff Peterson is available at (620) 628-4592. Accommodation: Several hotel and bed-and-breakfast options are available in Lindsborg, or “Little Sweden,” just under 30 minutes from Canton; listings are available through the Lindsborg CVB website or by calling (888) 227-2227.

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Photographs Bill Stephens

Located six miles north of Canton, the Maxwell Wildlife Refuge is an open space with plentiful grazing and spring-fed waters. Since 1954, these 2,800 acres have housed a herd that has grown into a population of 200 bison and 90 elk, with approximately 100 bird species for company. Volunteers host year-round tours of the preserve, taking visitors on a tourist tram across the prairie, where bison have been lured toward the trail with “buffalo treats” (cubes of high-protein grain). The bison roam, congregate and wallow at will, but they are particularly active during the midsummer mating season. After seeing the bison, visitors can enjoy equestrian trail rides, the Gypsum Creek Nature Trail, a fishing lake or a shooting range. For more local color, return in the fall for wildflower season or the state’s annual November bison auction, with ranchers from across the Midwest arriving to load up fresh stock. In most years, 50 to 60 Maxwell bison are auctioned off in cow-and-calf pairs, as yearling heifers or heifer calves (their coats still the rust-red color they have worn since birth) and as yearling or 2-year-old bulls. A young bull with good potential for breeding can bring as much as $1,800, while a cow with calf usually sells for around $2,400. All sale proceeds are used for maintaining the refuge and providing the herd with supplemental feed until spring and summer return and they can graze on the Kansas prairie’s succulent mixture of bluestem, switchgrass, Indiangrass, sideoats grama and yucca.

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78 White House Tour Kevin and Kim White take us inside their expertly remodeled Craftsman-style home

87 Porch Songs Every summer in Lawrence, sisterhood sings out with snappy tunes thanks to this sorority tradition

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Kevin and Kim White take us inside their expertly remodeled Craftsman-style home

Story by Suzanne Heck / Photography by Jason Dailey

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You probably know the house— that cute limestone home near the corner of Iowa and Ninth streets, with its charming, south-facing front porch framed by two wide columns giving a special character and charm. The owners, Kevin and Kim White, often use that south porch as a place to entertain friends or enjoy the summer evenings. “We get a lot of people who honk or wave to us when we are out there,” Kevin says. “It makes us feel like they know the house, which is fun for us.” The Whites are University of Kansas fans, and they have signified their allegiance with the stone KU yard art adorning a rail on the porch. It’s all quintessentially Lawrence. Sitting on one-half acre of land with an unattached garage and a low-standing stone fence that aesthetically connects the entire property, the one-of-a-kind home was built around 1925. And it renews itself each spring and summer, when magnificent heirloom peony and lilac bushes bloom, adding splashes of color to complement the plantings at the window boxes. This is the work of the Whites, who bought the house six years ago. Already living in Lawrence at the time, they noticed the house for sale, walked through it and fell in love.

Kim and Kevin White bought and renovated a home familiar by sight to most Lawrencians.

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Cheri Drake

The home required a few renovations. But these were not a problem for Kevin, a carpenter who operates the couple’s business, K&K Contracting. While maintaining the overall integrity of the home’s original Craftsman style, the couple knocked out some interior walls and rearranged the space. “About the only thing we left were the original wood “About the only thing floors and some of the fixtures that were on doors and in the bathroom,” we left were the original Kevin says. As they stripped away layers, they discovered that some wood floors and some of rooms seemed to have been added on since the original construction, the fixtures…” meaning their approach was, in — Kevin White effect, returning the home closer to its original layout. Today, the house features a living room, an open kitchen/ dining area, a study, a bedroom and bath. The Whites also converted a lower-level room into a sitting space that includes

a large closet enclosed by a large Craftsman-style wooden door that Kevin built. Walls made of plaster and lath were replaced with textured drywall materials. The Whites also installed a vaulted ceiling in the kitchen that arches over the doorway. Windows were replaced, and wood casings made of oak were changed out to stay in keeping with the Arts and Crafts period. The kitchen has a wall of wooden oak cabinets and includes a kitchen island with solid-surface countertops and appliances. The couple also had new HVAC equipment, as well as electrical and plumbing installed. In all, the renovation took about 15 months to complete. After Kevin did most of the remodeling, Kim, who presently works as the vice president of marketing and development for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City, paired up with Kevin for the design, poring over interior design magazines and coming up with ideas for the house and grounds. On the outside, the home boasts three covered porches located on the front, back and west side, which the Whites use as extended living areas during the warmer months. The porch on the back side of the house, which faces north, is more private; this is where the couple goes to relax. Free from traffic noise and away from the street, this porch offers the Whites a serene view of their large backyard, which is lined to the north with trees. As added touches, Kevin has built a walkway through the backyard, and Kim takes care of the annual dragon-leaf begonias and the other plants they grow each year, which thrive in the shadier part of the home. The third porch, the smallest of the three, is located on the homeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s west side. This porch acts as an entryway to the lower level of the house and also leads to the garage. In the future, the Whites hope to add on to the house, but they say they are dedicated to preserving its Craftsman-style charm and character.

About Craftsmanstyle design and the Arts and Crafts Movement The Arts and Crafts movement began in Britain around 1880 and moved to America and Europe at the turn of the 20th century. It was anti-industrial and advocated for economic and social reforms that would circumvent mass production. One American proponent of the movement was Gustav Stickley, who founded the United Crafts movement; Stickley believed that mass-produced furniture was poorly constructed and overly complicated in design. A furniture manufacturer himself, he suggested that homes and furniture should be made of natural or organic materials and handcrafted for quality and design. He believed in using simple forms and straightline elements, styles that defined the Craftsman movement and that can be found in the construction and design of the home owned by Kim and Kevin White.

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Story by Nick Spacek Photography by Jason Dailey

Porch songs Every summer in Lawrence, sisterhood sings out with snappy tunes thanks to this sorority tradition

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If you frequently pass through the area around the University of Kansas campus, then chances are you have come across it: rows of identically clad young women standing on the front steps of their sorority houses, facing and singing to a group of slightly younger students, all dressed well and clutching water bottles. This occurs in late summer, during recruitment (formerly known as “rush week”), and what you’re witnessing is a porch song. Before classes resume each year, hundreds of young women go through the process of deciding which of the 11 sanctioned KU sororities they would like to join. Part of that process involves visiting the sorority houses and being greeted by the current members, who welcome their potential sisters with a choreographed song. According to Kaitlyn Carl, director of recruitment for KU’s Panhellenic Association, “A lot of meaning behind porch songs lies in tradition.” Each house has its own set of porch songs. “For the most part, porch songs are passed down from generation to generation and are passed between chapters of the same organization,” Carl says. “Many mothers of current sorority women can still sing the porch songs for most chapters.”

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PREVIOUS Members of the University of Kansas chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta, Ashley Maska, Britta Peterson, Olivia Klenda and Jenae Hesse, demonstrate one of their sorority’s porch songs. OPPOSITE Members of Sigma Kappa perform a welcoming porch song to prospective members during recruitment, the days before fall classes begin at the University of Kansas.

Members of the KU chapter of Gamma Phi Beta perform a porch song during recruitment.

Juliana Siegler, membership vice president for Gamma Phi Beta, says that a good porch song shows the personality and values of a sorority. For example, her sorority’s song, “Love, Labor, Learning and Loyalty,” expresses the four core values of the Gamma Phi Beta sorority. The best porch songs will do this while still being a memorable tune.

…a good porch song shows the personality and values of a sorority. “Initially when I listened to the songs, I found them fun and catchy,” recalls Siegler. “In fact, during recruitment, Gamma Phi Beta’s ‘snap song’ was stuck in my head the entire week!” For many years, sorority members would greet and send off potential members with a porch song. Now, says Carl, porch songs are limited to three minutes at the end of each

recruitment event, in order to encourage more conversations and interactions. But the porch songs are also heard when chapter members—past and present—gather. According to Carl, some alumnae return to campus and “immediately recognize or even sing porch songs that have been around for decades.” This was the case for Susan Donaghue, who pledged Gamma Phi Beta in 1958 and can recall all the songs she and her sisters would sing, including the “snap song” to which Siegler refers (officially known as the “Chant of Gamma Phi Beta”). She and her fellow sisters sang the tune while attending the chapter’s centennial celebration in April 2014, a wonderful chance to re-establish sorority connections. “You get to know each other really well and remain good friends,” says Donaghue of her time with Gamma Phi Beta, adding that she and her roommate from junior and senior year had eaten dinner together just days prior. “Sororities always have been and always will be a space where young women can be part of a sisterhood and make lasting friends. My dearest friends, to this day, are women I’ve known through my sorority.”

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Kaitlyn Carl, director of recruitment for KU’s Panhellenic Association, says that porch songs can represent the tradition and history of each chapter.

AVEDA

South Pacific June 12-28 Theatre Lawrence closes out its 2014-2015 with productions of this Rodgers and Hammerstein musical favorite where cultures clash and love conquers … all in harmony. Ticket and performance info can be found online at theatrelawrence.com

calendar

Free State Festival June 22–28 Lawrence Arts Center hosts a week-long celebration of the arts with headliners George Clinton of Parliament-Funkadelic fame and Shutter Island author Dennis Lehane; many events free to public. Ticket info and full schedule can be found online at freestatefestival.org

Writing Murder, Kansas-style June 22; 7:30-8:45 p.m. Kansas Public Radio Host Laura Lorson moderates a panel of Kansas mystery writers, including Alex Grecian of “The Yard” series, Susan Kraus and Julie Tollefson. Sponsored by Lawrence Magazine with Lawrence Public Library and The Raven, this is part of the Free State Festival, held at Lawrence Arts Center. It is free and open to the public.

Final Fridays

e page Last Friday of each month se Brave the summer heat to meet up with the city’s hard-working, talented artists (and a few complimentary drinks as well) to discover new art. For a full listing of shows and map, go online at finalfridayslawrence.wordpress.com.

Downtown Lawrence Sidewalk Sale July 16; Dawn to Dusk The biggest sales in the heart of the e page city happens each year at this event se as downtown merchants throw open their doors and set up additional racks outside their shops for discounted goods. Aunt Maggie would remind you to drink plenty of water and be plenty nice. Downtownlawrence.com

Douglas County Fair

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July 24-August 2 Our fashion and style correspondent just declared this event a fashion-outing e page possibility, but the attractions, rides se and demolition derby (drivers rate this fair the top demo in the state) can be enjoyed even in country casual. For a full listing of events and schedule, go online at dgcountyfair.com

“About Lawrence …” presents the Prairie Flaneur August 13; 7 p.m. Former Lawrence resident Henry Fortunato talks about his walking journeys across the state and provides foot-wise observations of pedestrian projects such as Lawrence’s Burroughs Creek Trail. Part of the “About Lawrence…” series sponsored by Lawrence Magazine and Lawrence Public Library, it is held in the library auditorium as a free and open event.

Photographs Lawrence Magazine, Theatre Lawrence, Lawrence Arts Center, Topeka Magazine

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