Emporia Living 2019

INSIDE

Spring 2019

Midtown Transformation Turning ordinary into unique

Shaping Young Artists Art and life lessons

Teens up to the Task

Balancing school, social life and a job

Offering more medical specialties and convenience than ever.

24/7 Cardiovascular Cath. Lab 24/7 Emergency Department Air Ambulance Anesthesia Breast Care Center Cardiac Rehab Cardiopulmonary Care Coordination Clinical Decision Unit Diabetes Education Express Care Family Medicine Full Lab Hospice Infusion Clinic Inpatient Rehabilitation Unit Intensive Care Unit Labor/Delivery Medical Equipment Newborn Nursery Obstetrics/Gynecology Occupational Therapy Orthopedics & Sports Medicine Pain Management Pediatrics Pharmacy Physical Therapy Pulmonary Radiology & Nuclear Medicine Sleep Disorder Center Speech Therapy Surgery (Inpatient & Outpatient) Urology Wound Care

Quality Healthcare, Close to Home.

1201 W. 12TH AVE. | EMPORIA, KS | 620-343-6800 | NEWMANRH.ORG |

@NRHEMPORIA

Text HEALTH to 620-213-8668 to receive the latest Newman Regional Health updates related to Health, Community Wellness, Events, Activities and more!

Gourmet Chocolate Shop with 200 handmade chocolates and the home of Pop-Choc 803 CommerciaL • Emporia • 620-342-9600

Gymnastics Fitness Flexibility ★ ★ OWNED AND OPERATED BY JOSH WRIGHT

Specializing in all levels of Flipping, Twisting, and Tumbling Tiny Flippers Tiny Tots Trampoline & Tumbling

Skywalkers Cheer Cheer & Dance Tumbling Cheer Tumbling Class

Traditional Girls Gymnastics Private Lessons Birthday Parties

526 Albert St. ★ Emporia, KS ★ 620-757-3813 ★ skywalkergymnastics@gmail.com w w w. s k y w a l k e r s g y m n a s t i c . c o m ★ f a c e b o o k . c o m /s k y w a l k e r s e m p o r i a k s CALL, TEXT OR EMAIL TODAY FOR YOUR FREE TRIAL CLASS!

We build futures and make Emporia a great place to live, learn, work, play and raise a family!

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PUBLISHER

C hris W alker E D I TO R

A shley W alker M AG A Z I N E & A RT D I R E C TO R

30

K elsey Q uintana P H OTO G R A P H Y

J ason D ailey T homas F elts D ave L eiker WRITERS

R yann B rooks B obbi M lynar J essie W agoner C O P Y E D I TO R S

Z ach H acker A shley W alker MARKETING

S herri G rowden R onda H enery C assi O linger A DV E RT I S E M E N T D E S I G N

D an F errell M argie M c H aley D ania O rellana ONLINE facebook . com / emporialiving

F or

more information ,

please contact :

517 M erchant S treet E mporia , KS 66801 620-342-4800 E mporia L iving M agazine is a publication of

TABLE OF CONTENTS

58 Culture Club

Lunch connects ESU students with the community

Emporia Spanish Speakers bridges the gap between cultures

Spaghetti!

6 Advertising Index 50 Destination Madison 7 Editor’s Note 52 A Hometown 8 Destination Chase County Favorite Defining Mexican cuisine in Emporia for 20 years 10 Shaping Young Artists, One Piece at a Time

Grant Charpentier has made a name for himself

64 Destination Council Grove

66 Emporia First Fridays

Downtown Emporia comes to life for First Fridays

22

20 Destination North Lyon County

22 Teens up to the Task

High school students learn how to balance

30 Midtown Transformation

Rick and Colleen Mitchell transform a typical house on Garfield Street into something unique

40 Spotlight:

Newman Regional Health Express Care

On the Cover: Grant Charpentier [Photo by Jason Dailey]

4 | EmpoRia Living

42 Eat, Pray, Love ‌

52

66

C H E L S E A P L A Z A & LO F TS

K E L LO G G P L A Z A & LO F TS

G R A N A DA P L A Z A & LO F TS

RO OS E V E LT P L A Z A & LO F TS

LIVE.WORK.PLAY

W I T H

D O W N T O W N

L O F T

L I V I N G

COMING SOON! CITIZENS NATIONAL PL AZA & LOF TS

1102 COMMERCI AL ST., SUITE A | EMPORIA , KS | 620-341-94 0 0 EMPORIARENTALS .COM | HAAG@EMPORIARENTALS .COM

ADVERTISERS INDEX Ad Astra Food and Drink. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Adams Lumber and Homestore. . . . . . . . . . . 64 Advanced Dermatology and Skin Cancer Center. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Bluestem Farm & Ranch Supply. . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Bobby D’s Merchant St. BBQ. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Brown-Bennett-Alexander Funeral Home. . . . . 8 Brown’s Shoe Fit Co.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Carpet Plus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Chase County Chamber of Commerce . . . . 8 City of Emporia . . . . . . . . . . . . Inside Back Cover Coffelt Sign Company, Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Commercial Street Diner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Community National Bank. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Council Grove/Morris County Chamber of Commerce & Tourism. . . . . . . 64 Dr. Thomas A. Kriss, DDS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Emporia Main Street. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Emporia Regional Development Assoc. of East Central Kansas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 ESB Financial. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Inside Front Cover Evergreen Design Build. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Excellent Home Solutions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Farmers & Drovers Bank. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 First Start Pool & Patio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 First Start Rental Sales & Service. . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Geotech, Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Grand Central Hotel & Grill. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Griffin Real Estate & Auction Service, LC. . . . . . 8 Haag Management, Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Haag Pharmacy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Hannah Orthodontics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Harry & Lloyds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 High Gear Cyclery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Hill’s Pet Nutrition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 IM Design Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Jack’s Lawn & Pool Store. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Joseph Laudie Dental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 K & S Service Center. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Kansas Foot Care. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Kansas Maid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 KansasLand Bank. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Kohlmeier Dental, LLC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Longbine Autoplaza. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Lore & Hagemann . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Lyon County Fairgrounds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Lyon County History Center. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Lyon County State Bank. . . . . . . . . . . Back Cover Lyon County Title. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Marlin Flanagin, DDS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 McKinzie Pest Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Memorial Union, Emporia State University. . . 39 Modern Air. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Mr. G’s Carwash. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Mulready’s Pub. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Newman Regional Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Newman Regional Health Express Care. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40-41 Nex-Tech Wireless. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Plumbing By Spellman. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 PrairieLand Partners. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 PT Associates of Emporia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Rolling Hills Bar & Grill. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 S & A Telephone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Schankie Well Service, Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Shelter Insurance, Dave Watts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Skywalkers Trampoline & Tumbling. . . . . . . . . . . . 2 State Farm Insurance, Pete Euler. . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Sutherlands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Symmonds & Symmonds, LLC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 TCT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 The Sweet Granada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Thomas Transfer & Storage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Thompson Family Dental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Tyson Foods. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 USD 251, North Lyon County. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 USD 253, Emporia Public Schools. . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Valerie’s Gift & Such. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Vektek. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Wagner’s Automotive General Service. . . . . . 50

620.342.6622 GRAHAM ST. EMPORIA, KS

f : 62 0 - 3 42 - 6 62 0 w w w. e ve r g re e n d e s i g n - b u i l d . co m

Commercial * Retail * Office * Manufacturing Warehouse * Banks * Medical Clinics

EDITOR’S NOTE Welcome to our new edition of Emporia Living Magazine!

Spring has finally arrived in Emporia, and it was long overdue. Our winter was far too long — one of the coldest and longest in recent years.

Seeing the trees and plants start to bloom is a very welcome sight. People are outside once again, taking walks and working in their yards.

We hope you will slow down and take time to notice and enjoy these simple pleasures this spring and summer.

From the beauty of our region, to the friendless of our communities and the fun activities we get to share in, it creates a unique quality of life for us.

The rush of life can keep us hurried to the point we don’t get to truly appreciate where we live.

So, this spring, work to commit to be a little more unhurried and take some time to enjoy the blessings our community has to offer.

On the pages to follow, you will find many stories highlighting fellow Emporians who are doing their part to make our community a better place to live.

We hope this magazine will inspire you. Once again, we encourage you to support all the local advertisers who made this project possible. With their help, this magazine is delivered free to you as well as all the doorsteps throughout our region.

Chris Walker Editor and Publisher

Destination

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Shaping Young Artists,

ONE

PIECE AT A

TIME

BY RYANN BROOKS Photography by Jason Dailey and Thomas Felts

As an artist,Grant Charpentier has made a name for himself.

Inside the walls of EHS, most of his students just call him “Sharp,” an affectionate nickname for a teacher who they know believes in them and believes that creating art is about so much more than, well, creating art.

Throughout the Midwest, the name “Charpentier” is synonymous with beautifully sculpted glass. His work, influenced by nature and man-made designs, features the colors and textures reminiscent of the objects by which it was inspired and has been displayed in galleries around the region.

Not bad for someone who never really considered himself to be an artist.

“In the seventh grade, I looked at a cheeseburger that was drawn on the wall and it was incredible,” Charpentier says, sitting in his classroom at Emporia High School. “It looked just like a cheeseburger, and at that very moment I was like, ‘I can’t draw that.’

That’s where I got really disconnected from my creativity at a young age.”

It was a jarring moment, he said, believing he could never develop the skills that would enable him to create something like that cheeseburger.

That fear of failure kept him from taking art classes in high school.

“I thought, ‘I can’t do that; I’ll fail,’ and so I was without it for many years until college.”

That’s when Charpentier, who had thrown himself into sports and dreamed of becoming a professional baseball player, found himself suffering from multiple knee injuries that eventually sidelined his athletic career while a student at Johnson County Community College.

Spring 2019 | 11

WITH A NEWLY DISCOVERED LOVE OF CREATING ART TAKING HOLD, CHARPENTIER SAID HE BEGAN EXPLORING THE IDEA OF BECOMING AN ART TEACHER.

“My doctor was like, ‘You’re done with sports and you’ll need to find a different hobby,’” Charpentier said. “I always wanted to take a clay class, and so I took it and it was terribly difficult, and I was so close to dropping the class. In fact, I was going to drop the class because I was struggling so hard and I had missed the due date by a couple of days to drop for a full refund. My dad told me to just try my best, and I did, and I ended up falling in love with it.”

With a newly discovered love of creating art taking hold, Charpentier said he began exploring the idea of becoming an art teacher.

“My whole family, almost every single person in my family, have been educators,” he said. “I’m not really a natural with anything, but if there would be one thing that I kind of come to more naturally, it would be teaching my knowledge to others.”

After shadowing an uncle in a classroom, Charpentier realized how gratifying teaching could be and ultimately transferred to Emporia State University, where he pursued a BSE in Art Education and a BFA with an emphasis in glass forming.

It was at ESU where Charpentier’s love for glassblowing was sparked.

“Everybody kept saying I should try glass because I’d love it,” he said. “I was like, ‘There’s no way, I love ceramics,’ and then I tried glass and I fell in love with it. It’s terribly difficult, but I loved the immediacy of what you’re creating.

And I loved the teamwork aspect of glass as an ex-athlete. I missed that camaraderie that glass holds, making things as a team, and I really missed that from being a baseball player.”

The inherent danger of working with material that’s sitting in a

furnace heated to 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit was also exciting.

“I think there’s something mysterious about glass in there’s this gelatinous material that looks like honey, but if you touch it you’re going to be burned really bad,” he said. “It’s super dangerous, but if you have the right tools, you can touch it and interact with it. It’s not something that you can sit down and walk away from and then come back to and create. Once you take that gather and put that glass on the end of the rod, you’re committed.”

“Glass kind of pushes us toward perfection,” Charpentier continued. “We can’t always reach perfection, but we practice toward it and we’re constantly striving to be the best we can be and it’s pushing us to become better people because we’re constantly trying to be that way.”

Spring 2019 | 13

Now a Ceramics and Glass Forming teacher at Emporia High School, Charpentier knows how easy it is to get disconnected from your creativity. He strives to make sure his students never experience that sort of disconnect. His past experiences and hesitation have given him

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a unique perspective when it comes to his students.

“I understand where some of the kids are struggling,” he said.

“I can empathize with them and make them feel not so ostracized.

I can pull them back in, and it really helped going to college where it was, like, ‘sink or swim’

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“Glass kind of pushes us toward perfection.” — Charpentier

and you’re there taking classes with kids who had programs like this at their high schools, that have really good prior knowledge coming in.”

Charpentier said he had to work through some discomfort and feeling like he wasn’t as good as his classmates, but the more he delved into his art, the more empowered he became.

That’s become something that he wants his students to feel, both when they’re in the classroom and when they’re out in the real world.

And to do that, he said, he has to get them excited.

“Deep down inside, I’m a pretty quiet, laid back, relaxed person, but in here I’m like this spastic, excited, super-pumped person

Spring 2019 | 15

because that’s how I feel deep down inside when I get to create art,” Charpentier says, his face lighting up. “I’m trying to almost make students go, ‘Wow, this guy’s crazy,’ or ‘Wow, this guy’s really comfortable with being himself,’ so then maybe they can feel more comfortable to be themselves.”

For students, Charpentier’s enthusiasm has had a lasting effect.

Skyler Miller, a senior at EHS, said he started taking art classes at Emporia Middle School, but it wasn’t until he reached high school that his love for art really blossomed. He credited much of that to the support he received from his teachers.

“I took Ceramics with Mr. Charpentier and it was a really fun class,” Miller said. “He really teaches you to work hard on your stuff and to make a name for yourself. You know, your name is all you have.”

Miller is one of Charpentier’s advanced glass forming students, having developed skills that have earned him a full-time summer job

16 | EmpoRia Living

at a glassblowing studio once he graduates. He’s even considering applying to ESU’s glassblowing program to follow in Charpentier’s footsteps.

“I think with glass, if you don’t really pay attention to your material and what the piece looks like, it’s not something you can really just go through the motions to do,” Miller said. “You have to do what the glass needs at that time. You have to really pay attention to that detail to really get somewhere working with glass.”

The frustrations that can come from working with a medium like glass are easier to overcome, Miller said, thanks to Charpentier’s advice.

“He’s like, ‘We didn’t get it today, but we’ll try it again tomorrow and we’ll do better tomorrow,’” Miller said.

“He just keeps motivating you to try harder and be better.”

Lance Dall, a senior who will be studying glassblowing at ESU in the fall, said he appreciates his teacher’s thoughts on failure and how to learn from one’s mistakes.

“When I started out with glassblowing, I was one of those who would be like, ‘Oh, I screwed this up, I’m gonna throw it away,’ and he’d be like, ‘Oh, you can still fix this,’” Dall said.

Charpentier’s encouragement helped him learn and grow as an artist — something that makes him different than other educators in Dall’s eyes.

“He really wants you to succeed,” Dall said. “He definitely puts the time in to push you farther and farther than anyone else, just to make sure you succeed.”

Samantha Mattas is a junior who has known Charpentier most of her life — he’s a friend of the family. When she had the chance to take some ceramics classes from him, she was excited.

“He’s so energetic and he’s so inspiring,” she said. “He’s pushed me in a way that wasn’t really hardcore, but maybe made me

go outside my limits. I stuck to really simple forms because I was scared of things, but now you can see me sculpting things that are out of the ordinary. I’m making a human face right now and I didn’t think I’d ever be doing that. It’s really because of him.”

Senior Grace Walker has taken a number of classes with Charpentier. Although she was hesitant about taking 3-D art classes, she ended up loving them, something she credits to having an inspirational teacher.

“The teacher made it so much more enjoyable to me, I think,” Walker said. “You can tell he really has a passion for wheel throwing, ceramics and glassblowing. I think you can just see it through how he helps the students and how excited he is every day in class. He wants to make us better artists.”

As Walker prepares to head to Baker University in the fall, she

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“I’m trying to balance both being a professional artist and a teacher, because my goal is for my students to see how hard I’m working, not only as an artist but as a teacher.” said she believes she will be able to use a lot of what Charpentier taught her.

“He’s just been a great teacher, and he’s been the reason I wanted to come back and keep taking classes in the art department,” she said.

Mattas said Charpentier knows how to see potential in his students and, because of that, he’s able to help them grow as artists and as people.

“I struggle with patience and putting myself down,” she said.

“It’s really hard for me to learn patience, but he’s kind of always

been there to support me. It was nice having that — and I’ve learned that from him — so I know that when I get out of here I can learn from my mistakes and it’s not going to be the end of the world.”

“The way he goes about communicating with you on a personal level is just — I can go to him for guidance and he supports me in my artistic goals,” Katie Davis, an EHS junior, added. “That’s always nice because I don’t always feel like I’m doing a good job. I think he goes above and beyond what the normal expectations are

of a teacher. He’ll stay after school if you need help, he started a wheel throwing club for people who can’t take the class, and that takes away from his personal life.”

Even though that’s sometimes true, Charpentier said he loves working with his students every day.

He also loves working on his own projects in his spare time.

Charpentier rents space and sells his own glass blown pieces at Rollin Karg’s art studio in Kechi, near Wichita.

“I’m trying to balance both being a professional artist and a teacher, because my goal is for my students to see how hard I’m working, not only as an artist but as a teacher,” Charpentier said. “I want my students to be motivated and say, ‘I had a teacher that worked really hard as a professional.’ I’m training them in tidbits of what I know. I’ve been trained formally at college and there’s no way we can ever teach them all of that stuff, but we can give them a really good head start.”

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Teens

BY RYANN BROOKS

UP TO THE

Task

Photography by Jason Dailey and Thomas Felts

Many high school students find themselves balancing school, friends, sports and other extracurricular activities. Sometimes they might even throw a job into the mix, whether it’s trying to save money, gaining some independence or trying to bulk up those college applications.

Some students at Emporia High School push it to the limit.

22 | EmpoRia Living

E

mma Wagner is a lot like other sophomores at Emporia High School. She gets good grades, is involved in sports and is a member of the National Honors Society.

She’s also a manager at McDonald’s on Industrial Road. Wagner, who started working in July 2018, has quickly risen in the ranks at the fast food restaurant. It’s fun, she says, but balancing everything can also be stressful.

“It gets stressful at times,” she said.

“You just have to prioritize your time.”

That may sound simple enough, but it’s a skill that many teenagers have not yet mastered — something that Wagner has to contend with during shifts with her peers. Having to be “the boss” when her friends are working can be difficult at times, but it’s something she is committed to working around.

“I’m determined to get through the day and to have everything run as it’s supposed to,” she said. “So, even though I’m friends with people, I still have to make sure they’re doing what they’re supposed to do. You just have to understand that things need to run smoothly; if somebody is having a

Emma Wagner

Spring 2019 | 23

situation in their day, like, you still have to take care of that situation, because everyone has bad days.”

Wagner said a typical day for her starts in the evening after school, where she would work a 5 - 6 hour shift. As a manager, she does a little bit of everything, but usually manages the grill area, making sure the other employees are staying on top of orders and keeping items stocked. On top of that, she is one of the people that customers see if they have questions or complaints.

“I just like to keep things in order and straight,” she said. “If someone’s not doing what they’re supposed to be doing; like, when you work in fast food and stuff, you just kind of have to get used to angry customers all the time and you need to be in your spot doing what you’re supposed to be doing, otherwise it’s not going to run smoothly.”

Wagner said she believes everyone should have to work

24 | EmpoRia Living

in fast food so they know what it’s like to be under that sort of pressure.

“I think everyone should work in fast food at least once because maybe they wouldn’t be as mean of customers to us,” she said.

“People get really mad with fast food and it’s really crazy. I just have to think in the back of my head, ‘OK, they’re leaving soon, so that’s good.’ But I just have to make sure that they’re pleased with their visit. So, we just get them what they need and then get them on their way, and try to do it as politely as possible.”

During the weekends, Wagner said she usually goes in around 5:45 a.m. to work a full day on the morning shift. It’s a lot, but Wagner said it’s important for her to work hard and give it her all, both at work and at school.

It’s hard, she said, balancing work with a social life. She doesn’t get to hang out with her friends as much as she would like to, and

“Most people don’t go to bed ‘til like 10 o’clock in my grade, so I just take a shower when I get home and then do my work after that.”

a lot of her friends don’t work.

That makes it hard for her when they ask her to go out to a movie or hang out and she can’t because she’s working.

Still, she said it just goes back to making sure her priorities are straight.

“In the end, I know that’s important,” she said. “I have a job because I want a bigger job than that, so I need to prioritize and manage. I know school work is more important, so yeah, you just get it done.”

Working long shifts after school doesn’t leave much time for schoolwork, but Wagner still gets it done on her breaks and after she gets home. Sometimes she’s up late to get it all done, just to get up early the next morning and do it all over again.

“Most people don’t go to bed ‘til like 10 o’clock in my grade, so I just take a shower when I get home and then do my work after that.”

On top of that, Wagner just joined the track and field team and has mandatory community service hours to complete for the National Honors Society.

She doesn’t mind the long hours, though, because she feels like that will just prepare her for the future.

“I really want to be a lawyer, but I watch a lot of Netflix and I’ve been hooked up to Grey’s Anatomy lately,” she laughed. “I think being a surgeon would be really cool, too. I’ve also wanted to be a psychiatrist, so something within those three.”

With a couple more years left in high school, Wagner has plenty of time to make those decisions.

Sophia Seeley It’s not easy maintaining a 4.0 GPA while playing sports, participating in orchestra and being involved with community servicebased groups at the high school. EHS Junior Sophia Seeley has managed to do it all with ease.

Now she has added another big commitment to her plate by working at the Sweet Granada.

“I’m definitely not just running on caffeine and no sleep,” she says with a laugh. “I’m not busy at all.”

Seeley applied to the Sweet Granada last summer, having been encouraged to look for a job by her parents, she said, as a way

26 | EmpoRia Living

to better understand how to manage her own finances on top of building up experiences for college later.

“I didn’t need a job, because my parents have always been really good about providing for me,” she said. “But my mom said, ‘Hey, they are hiring at the Sweet Granada and you’re thinking about getting a job!’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, sure, I’ll fill out an application,’ and then I talked to [Kim Redeker] and I had no idea how it was going to go.”

The interview with Redeker went well and Seeley left feeling like she had made a good impression. It turned out she had, and Seeley started working at the candy shop in July. It’s been a “sweet” experience, to say the least.

“It’s literally the best job,” Seeley said. “It’s not super hard.

The worst thing we have to do is mop the floors and that’s not

bad at all. Most of the people that come in, they’re very polite because, why wouldn’t you be happy? You’re getting chocolate.

All my coworkers are so sweet.”

Seeley said on a typical shift she tries to get to work at least 10 minutes early to make sure she has enough time to get herself together. She’s trained to work in both the front and back ends of the business, so her duties will change depending on where she is stationed on a particular shift.

Whether it’s bagging PopChoc or Granada Goo, cleaning and organizing or doing the dishes, Seeley said she has fun at her job no matter what is going on.

“It’s pretty laid back,” she said. “I just really love it.”

Seeley recently survived one of the biggest seasons for the Sweet Granada by work-

ing through the Valentine’s Day rush. While she didn’t have to go in super early to help put together chocolate-covered strawberries, she did help out during extended hours throughout the week leading up to the holiday.

“We would have, like, six people up in front and there’d be, like, three people pulling chocolate,” she said. “We have a card system for calling order, and we had to go boxing and bring people each register. We had two different registers because there was so many people coming through with the orders and stuff.”

Seeley said Redeker has always been easy to work with when it comes to her schedule.

With so many extracurriculars, Seeley said she was nervous about having to explain why she wouldn’t be able to work a particular shift. When she doesn’t

have a lot going on after school, Seeley said she lets Redeker know.

She was planning to work a lot over spring break and helping with St. Patrick’s Day. “I try to give her as much of my time as possible to make up for it,” she said.

Redeker said she’s happy to work with all of her students’ schedules because she knows how important it is for them to understand the importance of working. It’s just a bonus that Seeley is such a joy to work with.

“One of my favorite things about Sophia is she always has an amazingly positive attitude,” Redeker said. “She truly is just a joy to be around. As a boss, that is just wonderful and refreshing, but as coworkers we just really love her being in the space. And the customers just adore her because she is just so sincerely joyful. That’s really been fun, to bring somebody in with that uplifting positivity.”

And it’s not just at work where Seeley makes it a point to excel. She also makes it a point to work hard in class and in sports. Seeley has played tennis and softball for years, but this year decided to switch it up and join the track team.

“I give my best that I can at school,” she said. “I try to finish my homework in class and I get some of it done, but never all the way. I go to practice for track until 5 or 5:30 p.m. and then I get home around 6 p.m.. I eat or I just chill for like half an hour to let everything simmer down and then I go at it. Sometimes it’s a pretty big load, sometimes a pretty light load. Sometimes I’ll give myself a brain break and flip through my phone or watch something or just do something very simple that’s not requiring a lot of brain power. So then I can get through it and it actually helps a lot.”

On top of that, Seeley takes honors classes, which give her

some added responsibilities in her workload.

“People always wonder, ‘Why do you take any honors classes?

Why do you do that to yourself?’

And it’s honestly better for me, I think, to take honors because everyone’s working at the same level most of the time, and it’s

very refreshing, not feeling you need to do more than you’re already doing. My teachers are great and considerate.”

Seeley is also taking courses for college credit through EHS. “I’m majoring in atmospheric sciences and meteorology, so that’ll help a lot,” she said. “After

Whether it’s bagging Pop-Choc or Granada Goo, cleaning and organizing or doing the dishes, Seeley said she has fun at her job no matter what is going on.

I take college Algebra next year, I’ll have my basic requirements already for my undergrad.”

Seeley said she’s excited to be able to take that financial pressure off of herself and her parents as she looks at her educational future. And it’s a good way to remind herself that she’s heading in a good direction.

“I always give 110 percent to everything; I enjoy it and I always want to be the best at something,” she said. “What I would suggest to other people is that you can enjoy being a teenager, but really make sure that you’re preparing yourself for what you’re going to face afterward. Because if you’re not prepared for it and you get thrust into the whole reality of having to pay for things yourself and support yourself, you really want to know what you’re going to be doing. Because my parents have told me millions of times that their parents didn’t prepare them enough for what they needed and they’re not gonna do that with me.

“They’re going to make sure that I know everything I need to know in order to be successful and do well. And I think that’s really important for kids to do, because if you’re successful and great at things right now, it will be easier for you to be successful later on.”

Spring 2019 | 27

Diego Davila Emporia High School Senior Diego Davila knows he has a bright future ahead of him, thanks to his participation in the AVID program.

AAVID is a college readiness program designed to help students develop the skills they need to be successful in college.

The program places special emphasis on growing writing, critical thinking, teamwork, organization and reading skills.

Students are expected to maintain at least a 3.0 GPA, and it’s geared toward firstgeneration college families, meaning students who will be the first in their family to go on to college after high school.

Davila is looking forward to breaking down that barrier, with plans to major in business at Emporia State University in the fall.

“I’m majoring in business, but I want to be an entrepreneur,” he said. “I just want to get the basics so I can be successful. I don’t want one big business. I just want multiple small ones, you know, it doesn’t matter. Like it could be one clothing and other technology, like just multiple and see myself living out-of-state. I’d like to go back to Seattle, Washington, where I was born.”

Davila comes from a family of entrepreneurs — his uncle owns Casa Ramos — and he’s already had a few jobs under his belt. He’s helped out at the restaurant, but now works as a delivery driver at Mr. Goodcents 15 hours a week.

That’s on top of the volunteer work required of students in the AVID program.

28 | EmpoRia Living

“We do a lot of like volunteer work and stuff,” Davila said. “We’ve gone to the Salvation Army and we helped them fold clothes and we went to Logan Avenue and read to the kindergartners. So it’s just, like, a cool experience overall and helping with the community.”

Davila is also an athlete, running track and playing varsity soccer at the high school.

Between sports, AVID, work and keeping his grades up, he doesn’t have a ton of free time, but he credits his time management skills to the AVID program.

“I guess everyone’s a procrastinator, but I guess it’s helped me simmer down a little more,” he said. “I keep track of what I need to do. It’s helped me become a lot more organized just in, like, to-do lists — I create to-do lists even with my personal life, like clean room, do chores and stuff like that. It’s helped a lot.”

Davila said it’s important to him to stay focused on his goals, because he is working hard to achieve his dreams.

“I just want to work for myself and be in charge of my own business and carry on from there,” he said. “I feel like a lot of people don’t know that about me. I’m taking business classes, like marketing, at high school and I’m very thankful for that class because it’s helped me create an idea I have right now for, like, my entrepreneurship. It’s very useful because I’m going to be in the business world and there’s just a lot of key terms, a lot of information that you need to know. It’s just the basics, too. That’s what’s crazy about it.”

Rooted in Relationships.

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MIDTOWN Transformation

BY RYANN BROOKS

Photography by Jason Dailey

30 | EmpoRia Living

Nestled in the 700 block of Garf ield a little home has undergone a big transformation recently. A little unexpected for mid-town Emporia, but it’s doing a lot to bring a fresh, modern feel to the older neighborhood.

Spring 2019 | 31

ick and Colleen Mitchell moved into their home, a small but cozy 1940s bungalow located at 726 Garfield St., about two years ago after selling their old home — a larger Tudor-style on Rural Street. It was a big change, according to Colleen Mitchell.

“We’ve owned this home for a long time,” Colleen Mitchell said of the little white house on Garfield. “My son had lived in it and then he got married, had a baby and they outgrew it.”

The Mitchells decided to keep the home after their son’s family moved out, renting it out for about two years.

They had good tenants, according to Colleen, and they knew the home needed some work but was in otherwise good shape.

32 | EmpoRia Living

Then in 2017, Colleen, a retired educator, made the decision to step away from the David Traylor Zoo where she had served as the education coordinator for four years. That’s when the couple started thinking about downsizing, knowing they could move into their rental home on Garfield Street after their other house sold.

“I loved my house on Rural Street, but it was all done and we were just tinkering around,” she said. “I guess I was looking for a new project. Then our house on Rural sold in less than 48 hours and I was just like, ‘Oh my gosh, I better go over and

“Rick always has the vision. I always have the idea, and he has the vision.

He knows how to do it.�

Spring 2019 | 33

look’ and I almost had a nervous breakdown when I came here.”

The home, while in good shape, needed a lot of work.

After two years as a rental, its age was showing and the Mitchells knew they had their work cut out for them. But Rick, who’s a contractor and owner of Mitchell-Markowitz Construction, had the vision and know-how.

“Rick always has the vision.

I always have the idea, and he has the vision. He knows how to do it,” Colleen said with a laugh.

34 | EmpoRia Living

“It’s the timeframe that’s like, oh man, he never operates on my timeframe.”

Colleen said the first thing they decided to do was to put an addition to the back of the house, giving them more space for a large master bedroom suite, open dining room and a modern kitchen.

“I knew I needed a new kitchen,” she said. “We spent so much time in the kitchen because we wanted this area to be perfect.”

The kitchen features a one-of-a-kind light fixture built by their son and is used as a centerpiece on one of the walls. Another wall was removed completely, opening up a loft on the second floor to overlook the kitchen area.

It brings in a lot of natural light, and Colleen

uses the space as her home office.

“We opened that up as much as we could, but here we really had the opportunity to open it wide open and we love that,” she said.

In the kitchen, an island features marble that was pulled out of the College of Emporia’s old Kenyon Hall, with more of that marble being used as window sills in the bedrooms.

It was a unique way to bring some of Emporia’s history into the home, Colleen said.

“We spent so much time in the kitchen because we wanted this area to be perfect.”

Spring 2019 | 35

36 | EmpoRia Living

It’s a lot of work, but it’s worth it. And it’s doable — with the right kind of help.

“Renovation needs expert advice and often requires a professional such as an electrician, a plumber and someone knowledgeable about city code,” Colleen said. “Just ‘fixing up’ often isn’t enough or even safe for the long term. A professional can give the suggestions/requirements and let you know what you can do. Restoring homes for modern use can take time and money, but gives back personal satisfaction and quality of life.”

The Mitchells are so dedicated to building up the neighborhood that they have also purchased the two homes on the block. 724 Garfield St. is in the middle of a renovation right now.

The plan is for the home to be used as an Airbnb, for visitors to the area to use “We don’t like to throw things away,” she said. “But we love to re-use materials if we can. The marble — it’s got the old wear and tear. So Rick was like, ‘Yeah, we can finish that, you can cut that, you can use that.’ And the island was a good use for it, but then he also saw how it could be used on window sills.”

Windows from Kenyon were also brought to the home, Colleen said, and siding from another project was brought over and used on the front of the home.

“I felt like that was, like, a brilliant idea and that was kind of a modern way to do things and Rick has the building expertise,” Colleen said of her husband. “I can never visualize what it’s going to look like. I have to see it and I have to have a picture, but he can. He can do that and visualize it.”

Colleen said it’s important to give these older homes in

Emporia the same love and attention that newer builds are getting. It’s important, she said, to keep the city’s older neighborhoods updated.

“We really need to revive some of the older central neighborhoods,” Colleen said. “I love these old homes and I love making them new again. I think that that really brings a new feeling, not only to your home but to a neighborhood to when you can make it yours. I know a lot of people don’t have the same resources or the same expertise that we do, but these houses can be transformed.”

“There is just great potential, but I do think it’s difficult because not everybody can see that,” she said. “I wish that we would have a lot of people who would go back into these old neighborhoods. Garfield, once upon a time, was the place to live.”

Spring 2019 | 37

during big events like the Dirty Kanza or the Glass Blown Open.

720 Garfield St. will be fixed up and used as a rental.

With the Mitchells living right next door, Colleen said she’s confident they will be able to keep that home updated even with tenants.

“I think that it’s important to go ahead and dream big and think about what you want,” Colleen said. “Not everybody can spend a fortune on a home, and a lot of people think, ‘Well, I don’t want to put more in it than it’s worth.’

And we really don’t have that same attitude. I’ve always felt like I’m going to make it the home I really want to live in, so I don’t think of that because it’s worth everything I put in it to me.”

38 | EmpoRia Living

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llness and injury rarely occur at a convenient time which is why Newman Regional Health Express Care is open seven days a week with no appointment necessary.

Newman Regional Health Express Care 1301 W 12th Ave Suite 110, Emporia, KS 620-343-7828 | www.newmanrh.org

Newman Regional Health Express Care is conveniently located inside the hospital, adjacent to the Emergency Department.

Dr. Bryce Heitman says it can be difficult for patients to determine when they should visit Express Care and when an Emergency Department visit is more appropriate. He says a good gauge is to ask yourself if you would make an appointment with your doctor’s office.

Newman Regional Health Express Care is a walkin facility that offers treatment for non-emergent illnesses and injuries. Those would include urinary tract infections, sinus or ear infections, coughs and colds, allergies, sprains, headaches and minor cuts and burns.

Heitman says the Emergency Department should be used for emergency situations.

“The ER is the place for life or limb,” Heitman said.

“Anything that is going to jeopardize your life or an extremity such as an arm or leg are emergencies.”

If someone is having chest pain, difficulty breathing, weakness on one side or the other, slurred speech, change in mental status, seizures, severe burns or cuts, they should go to the Emergency Department rather than Express Care.

URGENT CARES* vs. EMERGENCY ROOMS * Urgent Care and Express Care can be used synonymously.

Newman Regional Health Chief Quality Officer Cathy Pimple says a visit to Express Care averages far lower costs than going to the ER. Additionally, wait times at Express Care are much shorter than wait times at the Emergency Department.

“The average wait time is 30 minutes at Express Care versus 110 minutes [in the ER],” Pimple said. “The average charge in Express Care is $130. However, the average charge is $625 in the Emergency Department. Costs vary depending on how many tests are ordered and provided.”

With Express Care and the Emergency Department located so closely together, Heitman says if someone comes to Express Care and needs more emergent care they can easily be transferred.

“If you go to Express Care and need more than they can provide in that setting, they can easily move you over to the ER and continue care,” Heitman said.

Express Care is open seven days a week, only closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. Hours of operation are Monday through Friday from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. For convenient access, utilize the new southwest parking lot and entrance H at Newman Regional Health.

WHEN MAKING A HEALTHCARE CHOICE, PLEASE CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING: EXPRESS CARE Unable to get an appointment with your doctor and have no symptoms that require an Emergency Room

EMERGENCY ROOM Illness, injury, symptom or condition so serious that a reasonable person would seek care right away to avoid severe harm

• Fever • Vomiting or diarrhea • Animal & insect bites • Rash or other skin irritations • Earache • Coughs, colds & sore throats • Sprains or strains • Mild asthma • Mild burns • Urinary tract infections • Physicals for sports or school • Minor cuts that may require stitches • Ear, nose and throat infections

• Chest pain or difficulty breathing • Weakness/numbness on one side • Slurred speech • Fainting/change in mental state • Serious burns • Head or eye injury • Concussion/confusion • Seizures • Facial lacerations • Severe cuts that may require stitches • Broken bones and dislocated joints • Severe cold or flu symptoms • Vaginal bleeding with pregnancy

Average length and charge for an outpatient express care visit: Newman Regional Health: 30 minutes Average Charge*: $130 * Does not include ancillary testing or supplies

Average length and charge for an outpatient emergency room visit: Newman Regional Health: 111 minutes National Average: 138 minutes Average Charge*: $625 * Does not include ancillary testing or supplies

WHEN SHOULD YOU CALL 911?

• Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing • Any symptoms of a heart attack, including chest pain, pain in the left arm, or the jaw, sudden weakness or dizziness • Signs of a stroke such as slurred speech, severe headache, weakness or numbness on one side of the face or body, or loss of consciousness • Life or limb threatening injury

Eat, Pray, Love‌.

By Ryann Brooks Photography by Jason Dailey

Spaghett Free lunch connects ESU with community members for more than 20 years.

It’s a little before 11 a.m. on a cold Friday morning and college students are filing into the Emporia Church of Christ. Although the aroma of warm bread, spaghetti and freshly-baked desserts draw them in, so does the community of people waiting for them inside.

Church members and volunteers have already been working in the kitchen for a few hours, filling large metal pans and setting out salad, corn and other homemade side dishes.

42 | EmpoRia Living

tti!

I

t’s a tradition that has endured for more than a decade.

Don Bright said the spaghetti lunch was his wife, Ruth’s, idea.

She thought it would be a great way to get students engaged with services at the Christian Student Center, located across the street from Emporia State University.

“Spaghetti was a cheap thing to fix, so she and her good friend, Anita Wright, started cooking and fixing up a few dishes,” Don said. “We would always have corn, salads, drinks and desserts.

That’s how it got started. My wife was really good at getting people to come in and volunteer to make spaghetti or desserts.

She’d always say, ‘I just need you to bring in a dessert,’ and people would bring it.”

Ruth was a constant presence at the meals until her death four years ago. Don has continued helping out as much as he can, but said he has started to scale back to let the younger people take over. It’s hard to step away completely, though. He just likes talking with the kids too much.

“We do it for them,” he said. “We get to know kids we wouldn’t otherwise know.

We used to have quite a few international students come in — Chinese, Japanese, Korean. I used to bring them to church on Sundays if they wanted to come.”

Although they have recently experienced some loss, the church is committed to keep the dinners going.

Pastor Neil Taylor said Don does more than he lets on, coming in on Fridays to slice and butter bread, pour drinks and get everything set up. With the way the meal has grown

Spring 2019 | 43

over the years, Taylor said Don and the rest of the volunteers really have the system down pat.

At first, the meal attracted only 10 - 15 students at a time. That number has grown to close to 400 over the years — enough growth that the church recently decided to relocate the meals to the main building on 12th Avenue to more comfortably accommodate the students.

“We have a student center located at 15th and Merchant and we’ve had that over 50 years now,” Taylor said. “In the 50 years we have had it, a lot of different things have happened over there. You hit these lulls where you have to figure out a different way to reach students, but what student doesn’t want food?”

Taylor said he remembered being a hungry college student who would always jump at the chance to eat with a friend’s family or professors.

“If it was free food, yeah, we would go,” he said.

A group of dedicated volunteers make the spaghetti week after week, boiling 60 - 80 lbs of pasta, heating up more than 40 loaves of bread and up to 10 bulk cans of corn.

Recently, the church has dealt with some loss. Long-time volunteer Ginger Lee Haas died suddenly in December, just when the church was preparing to get the meals started back up in January.

Taylor said the loss was devastating, but he knew that she would want them to move forward.

“She was just so crucial,” he said. “She was a pillar that held this meal together week in and

44 | EmpoRia Living

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week out. I’d be lying if I didn’t say that the first two weeks in January, as we were preparing for students to come back was an, ‘Oh no, what are we going to do?’ moment. It’s been tough, but we’ve gotten through it. I know God will take care of it.”

It’s about more than just free spaghetti, after all. The real benefit is showing the love of Christ through fellowship and friendship.

“It’s about the relationships we make with those students,” Taylor said. “We’ve gotten a lot of people from our congregation involved who wouldn’t have otherwise gotten involved. In the seven years my wife and I have lived here, we’ve seen a lot of people help when we’re serving the meals, but also a lot of people who are making desserts or coming in the day before for prep work.”

Spending time with college students has some other benefits for the congregation as well.

“I think it honestly helps keep us young,” Taylor said. “I know for my wife and I — we are in our mid-to-late 30s — just getting to sit down and hang out with college kids, and that kind of makes you feel old at times, because you realize that some of

these kids were born about the time that you were in college. But also just kind of staying in touch with the younger generation, that really helps keep you a little bit younger, too.”

It also celebrates Emporia’s rich and diverse population, something that isn’t always easy to find in the middle of Kansas.

It’s something that Taylor loves to see as a Chicago native.

“We are almost dead center in the state of Kansas and we are a small town,” Taylor said.

“And yet, you go throughout this community and you see just how diverse it is — and, obviously, that’s helped out a lot by the college students — but there’s still a lot of diversity in this community, even without the college students. I love seeing it.”

There have been times, he said, where the church has welcomed students from nearly every part of the world.

“There would be weeks where we have 300 or 400 students come in and we would have students from almost every continent,” Taylor said. “I mean, you’d have students from Asia, students from Africa, Europe and South America. It’s just so cool because you can get a location like that for a couple of

hours on a Friday where you get people from all over the world, where you can hear people speaking Korean, where you can hear people speaking in French and speaking Mandarin and Japanese or Spanish. You pick up little bits here and there, so you can maybe just welcome them in their own language.”

Taylor spends a lot of time each meal sitting down and visiting with the students who come in. He said he’s been “blessed” with being able to get to know students over the years.

Some of them have even asked him to perform their weddings.

It’s those relationships that help remind him of how important it is to reach out to the ESU community.

Some students might call or text him at 3 a.m. because they are in trouble. He’s always happy to help, and they know that.

Spring 2019 | 47

“We want them to feel welcomed when they come through these doors and make sure that they know that this is a place where they will find that love and they will be able to turn to us,” he said. “We’ve been able to build that relationship. We’ve made them feel welcome. We’ve made them feel love and they feel like, ‘I can text Neal at 3 a.m. and know that he’ll maybe not get to me right away, but that he’ll get back to me as soon as he can to help me out.’ And so, it’s been pretty cool.”

48 | EmpoRia Living

It’s pretty cool for the students, too.

Seth Surface has been coming for spaghetti for the last three years, first hearing about it during his sophomore year at ESU. “We kind of heard about it through word of mouth,” he said.

“I didn’t hear about it much during freshman year because I was in the dorms, but then I moved into a house with guys who were older than me and they kind of looked at me like I was crazy because I hadn’t heard about it. We pretty much made it

a thing every single Friday.”

Surface said, aside from the good food, he’s always felt welcome. That was what kept him coming back every week, and now every other week.

“You can tell that they really do it because of the kindness of their hearts,” he said. “They’re truly doing it because they love the students. It’s free, you know, so they’re not doing it to make money or anything. You can just tell how nice the people are and they care about helping us out.”

Jace McDown, another

ESU student, said he’s always felt welcome, too, often being greeted by name when he would come to eat at the student center.

“When you come eat here, it’s like coming to eat with family,” McDown said. “That’s what I like about it most. I’m from about three hours away, so it’s like coming home.”

For some students, the meals have given them a chance to see familiar faces each week. One of them, Barbara Unruh, has become a surrogate grandmother for many of the kids that come in each week.

“It’s just very welcoming,” Arzu said. “They want you to be here and they don’t care if you aren’t affiliated religiously with them.

They accept all kinds.”

It’s just a bonus that she also makes some scrumptious desserts.

“I love seeing Barbara,” Eadie Monaghan, who has been coming to the meals since her freshman year, said. “I have her on my phone case.”

Monaghan’s phone case does indeed feature a photo of her with Unruh and ESU President Allison Garrett.

“I love Barbara,” she said.

“She’s my absolute favorite person here. I don’t know that she actually knows my name, but she always gives me hugs and always makes good desserts. It’s wonderful. I love it.”

Ziarra Arzu and Erin Buckner also started coming out to the meals as freshmen. Now juniors, they said it has long become more than just a place to get free food.

“It’s just very welcoming,” Arzu said. “They want you to be here and they don’t care if you aren’t affiliated religiously with them. They accept all kinds.”

“They also don’t care if you go up and take five helpings of spaghetti,” Buckner added with a laugh.

Although they miss being able

423 Commercial Emporia, KS 66801

to walk just across the street, the girls said they feel like they can interact a little easier in the church’s hall.

Don Bright said that’s really what it’s all about.

“We grew close to those kids over the years,” he said. “We’ve had them in our home and they enjoyed coming to our house.

We’ve been to their apartments to eat with them.”

Because of the Brights’ love for those students, Don recently established the Don and Ruth Bright Scholarship for ESU students, too. The funds are currently sitting in a trust which will then start being designated to students after he dies. It will be another way to take care of those students, long after he’s gone.

Until then, Bright said he plans to keep helping out with the meals for as long as he can.

And Taylor is happy to keep them going.

“We’ve kind of hit the reset button and we’re going to come out of this, hopefully, to at least able to get back to a point of making it a regular week,” Taylor said. “For now, it’s first and third Friday of every month until the summer.”

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HometownF

“They have magic in the kitchen, it’s their gift. They can throw down in the kitchen.”

BY Jessie Wagoner

Favorite

PHOTOGRAPHY BY THOMAS FELTS AND DAVE LEIKER

For most Emporians to think that there was a time when Casa Ramos didn’t exist, seems unimaginable. For 20 years the restaurant has not only defined what chimichangas, fajitas, queso, margaritas and other classic Mexican dishes taste like, but Casa Ramos has become a part of the fabric of the community.

A chance visit

Casa Ramos first opened on Sept. 1, 2004, at 201 Commercial St. Owners Ricardo and Maria Ramos were from Everett, Washington.

In Washington State they owned a successful restaurant which was regularly frequented by Boeing employees traveling from Wichita. Those customers encouraged the Ramoses to open a restaurant in Kansas.

In 2004, Ricardo and Maria, accompanied by their son, Juan Carlos, made a trip to Kansas. Their daughter-in-law Jenny Ramos said the family first explored Wichita, having never heard of Emporia.

“They drove through Emporia and stayed for three days and ate around,” Jenny said. “They knew then this was the spot, so that is when they opened up the restaurant at 201 Commercial.”

Serving up success The family spent 10 years in their first location, making 201 Commercial their home and gaining quite a following among Emporians. Customers who first began visiting Casa Ramos in 2004 are still regulars.

Stacy Baker of Emporia said she doesn’t think she has gone more than two weeks without eating at the restaurant since her first visit in 2004.

“I was in college the first time I ate at Casa Ramos and it quickly became my favorite place to go,” Baker said. “We would have girls night and get margaritas and gorge ourselves on their queso. Now, I take my own kids. I pass on the margaritas most of the time, but I still can’t skip the queso.”

Jenny said the delicious food comes from old recipes, tried and true over the years. Many of the items on the menu were also served at the restaurant in Washington. She also credits the skills of her husband and father-in-law.

“My husband is a great chef and so is his dad,” Jenny said. “They have magic in the kitchen, it’s their gift. They can throw down in the kitchen.”

Ricardo said one of his favorite menu items is Carne Asada, but his most favorite is the special meals his son prepares for him.

“The best of all and most special thing to eat are those special meals my son prepares for me that aren’t on the menu,” Ricardo said. “He cooks like a God. I’m so proud of my son and everything he has accomplished.”

Jenny credits the restaurant’s long-term success to the hard work and humility of her in-laws. The couple spent countless hours working at their restaurants over the years, sacrificing much, to ensure their customers were pleased.

“The Ramos family has worked very hard for over 25 years,” Jenny said. “My father-in-law and his wife worked very hard and they sacrificed so much. They have struggled and worked hard to make this happen, and they taught Juan Carlos and he has worked hard to become a good businessman.”

Making the move AAfter 10 years in the same location, the family made the decision to expand and acquired the property at 707 Commercial. Preparing the new location was quite the undertaking and took the family almost a year to complete.

When the doors opened in April 2014, customers were shocked by the renovation. The new location doubled the size of the restaurant and included beautifully carved booths and seating. In spite of the large space, guests could still enjoy intimate, delicious meals with their friends and family.

“I wasn’t sure about the move,” Joel Williams, a frequent customer, said. “I was used to the space being a bar. I remember the first time I walked in being blown away. It is still the nicest restaurant in town. It was

54 | EmpoRia Living

“He cooks like a God. I’m so proud of my son and everything he has accomplished.”

Spring 2019 | 55

bigger for sure, but the food and atmosphere was still just as good.”

Jenny said the move was a big turning point for the family and the business. The new location provided for more of everything — space, customers, staff and activity.

“It was a complete 360,” Jenny said. “It put us right downtown and made us part of the community. It was pretty awesome.”

Community connections

The Ramos family credits much of its success to the support of the community. The family has regulars who have been customers for 15 years now. As much as the customers enjoy coming to eat, the Ramos family enjoys being there to serve them.

“It is indescribable, really,” Jenny said. “It is a blessing to us, to see so many people, to

watch their children grow up.

It’s amazing to watch people transform and awesome to have such a connection with people.”

The connection isn’t limited to just people in Emporia. Jenny said many people from Wichita and Kansas City use Casa Ramos as their halfway meeting point.

With the Glass Blown Open and Dirty Kanza, the family has been able to connect with people from throughout the world.

“It is just a blessing, but we also have a reputation to hold, too,” Jenny said. “We are always working hard to make sure we live up to that.”

Ricardo said he is thankful for all of the community support.

“I thank Emporia for all the happiness from the community,” he said. “There are great people in the community who started as customers and have become friends and members of the Ramos family.”

Planning for the future Juan Carlos and Jenny now run Casa Ramos, giving their seniors a chance to rest after years of hard work. As Juan Carlos and Jenny look to the future, they hope to continue to grow the business while always maintaining the quality food and service customers are accustomed to.

They also hope their own children will one day work in the restaurant. Juan Carlos began working in his parents’ restaurant as a young teen

56 | EmpoRia Living

Casa Ramos — washing dishes and helping out for tip money.

Jenny also began working as a server in high school.

The experience taught them both the value of hard work, and they hope their own children will learn the lesson as well.

The family views their arrival and success in Emporia as part of God’s plan in their lives. They trust they will remain in business as long as God sees fit.

“This is such a receiving community,” Jenny said. “God wanted us here for a reason. I think we still have a lot of work to do, lives to touch, meals to serve, people to feed. We still have some unfinished business, for sure.”

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Culture

BY RYANN BROOKS

PHOTOGRAPHY BY THOMAS FELTS

It’s usually pretty quiet on Monday nights in downtown Emporia.

But tucked in the back of the Emporia Main Street office, the conversation is unmistakable. A chorus of Spanish and English voices from a small but steadily growing group of people looking to practice their language skills are bridging the gap between different cultures one word at a time.

58 | EmpoRia Living

e Club Leading this eclectic crew of townsfolk is LeLan Dains.

The idea for Emporia Spanish Speakers, he said, came out of a desire to practice his Spanish language skills in a meaningful way. The group consists of both native Spanish speakers and first-timers who are interested in learning a new language.

“It’s really meant to be for people who want to learn and also want to speak it,” Dains said. “Initially, when I started this group [in 2017], there were two other guys with me. Then I got connected with Sally Sanchez with Hispanics of Today and Tomorrow and that really seemed to accelerate our group.”

Dains, a co-owner of Gravel City Adventure and Supply Co., said the group is based around Duolingo — an online and web-based community language learning app that offers free language courses. Emporia is one of 400 cities in the country with a Duolingo community language group, and has even been recognized by Duolingo for its success in connecting native speakers with beginners.

It’s important for people to know more than one language, Dains said, especially in a town like Emporia with a prominent Hispanic community.

“We’re really trying to focus on the spoken language,” Dains said. “I could go on and on about why I think it’s important to learn any other

Spring 2019 | 59

language. The Hispanic population makes up a quarter of our total population [in Emporia] and there’s been a pretty big separation throughout the years. Sally and her group has really tried to bring a lot of Hispanic culture downtown and across the geographical lines. We’re going to see more of that, hopefully. I hope this group can become a big part in bridging those cultures.”

Using prompts provided by Duolingo, Dains said the goal was to help people have meaningful conversations in Spanish.

He recommends downloading the free app and practicing for 30 minutes per day with the language. Attending the group’s weekly meetings and activities is then a great way to practice the language in a stress-free environment.

“It’s overcoming the fear of using language skills,” he said.

“It doesn’t take a whole lot [to learn] another language. It’s just consistent repetition.”

Apart from regular group meetings — typically held once a week — the group also gets together for dinners, activities and

other celebrations. Recently, the group held a tortilla-making class at the Emporia Senior Center where Sanchez and other HOTT members taught the class how to make traditional flour tortillas.

Sanchez said it was important to connect people from different backgrounds and cultures through these types of activities.

“It’s good to share our culture,” she said. “I’ve been making tortillas since I was 10 years old, you know, and it’s a good experience to share. Sharing our culture is good, and some of that culture is our food.”

Sanchez said making the tortillas is all at once simple and complex. Her recipe has been passed down for generations and uses just four ingredients — unbleached flour, lard, salt and warm tap water.

She doesn’t follow exact measurements. For her, it’s all about how the mixture looks and feels — and using the right tools.

Sanchez said in the time since the group formed, she has seen many of the non-fluent group members make great strides in their language skills. For those trying to improve, Sanchez said practice makes perfect.

“Try to speak it every single day, whether it’s talking with someone or watching something on the Spanish channel,” she said.

“You’ll be amazed at how you can pick up some conversations — maybe not the whole thing — but a word here or there. It’s amazing for those who have been coming consistently how much they have improved. I’m learning, too. There are some words that are said differently and I’m in there in the trenches learning with them, too.”

Part of that is the differences between Spanish learned in schools and spoken dialects in Latin America and other Spanishspeaking countries. Even with those differences, though, group members have found themselves improving as well.

Dr. Michael Reynolds, an

opthalmologist in Emporia, joined Emporia Spanish Speakers a few months ago, but already had basic Spanish skills. Reynolds did his residency with the Jackson Health System in Miami, Florida, where many of his patients were fluent Spanish speakers.

“My Spanish was terrible because I was learning it on the fly when I was training in Miami,” he said. “I wanted to learn it in a proper way and I wanted to learn conversational Spanish outside of the exam room.”

Reynolds said he used to have that opportunity more often in Emporia, but more recently has felt like he has lost those skills.

Since joining the group, he’s already seen some of those skills start to return.

“It’s starting to come back,” he said. “When I was in Miami and learning on the fly, I didn’t even have to think about it. I took a year of Spanish in high school and now I remember being taught this.”

On top of speaking Spanish with the group and with patients, Reynolds also tries to practice as much as possible with other native speakers. While it can be nerve-wracking at times, he said overall it’s a positive experience.

“When you try to speak Spanish to Spanish speakers, they really try to make an effort to teach you,” he said.

“It’s really cool.”

Local Attorney James Bordonaro is a longtime member of the group, coming to meetings from the beginning.

Bordonaro said he’s a student of language — aside from Spanish, he’s studied Italian, French and Portuguese — and believed it would be beneficial to join a group where he could actively practice his Spanish.

“I thought it would be helpful for me both in a social way as well as for my business,” he said. “I do have Spanish speaking clients.

What’s been helpful to me is just going to the meetings repeatedly.

Looking at various publications or books and, in fact, I use The Gazette’s ‘La Voz’ publication and I’m able to read quite well and get the gist of things.”

What he wasn’t expecting was how much he began to learn about other cultures, and also how other cultures have learned from each other.

“We do have a wide variety of people from different skill levels and ages, but also, I’ve been really struck by how willing Spanish speaking people are to come and help us out,” he said.

“We have some people from a variety of countries, and they take particular interest in learning particular phrases or the way you say a particular word. We have people from Colombia, people from Cuba, Mexico.”

Bordonaro said he also enjoys listening to Duolingo’s podcasts, which offer a transcript to follow along. Each podcast features both English and Spanish.

“They come out weekly and

Spring 2019 | 61

I keep up with those,” he said. “The level of Spanish required stays the same, so you can binge them, too.”

Practicing your Spanish is key, along with having an understanding of how verbs and tenses work, too.

“If you can focus on the fact that there really are only three endings for verbs in Spanish, similar to Italian, you can start anywhere,” he said.

“You don’t need to necessarily start with the present-tense. There are obviously different conjugations, but you can just learn the basic pasttense and that will help you out. And still with the regular verbs until you have those down.”

Anyone interested in joining the Emporia Spanish Speakers can follow the group on Facebook by visiting www.facebook.com/groups/ emporiaspanishspeakers for the latest meeting dates and locations.

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DOWNTOWN EMPORIA COMES TO LIFE ON THE FIRST FRIDAY OF EACH MONTH ALIVE WITH

BY JESSIE WAGONER AND BOBBI MLYNAR

PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAVE LEIKER 66 | EmpoRia Living

In

2015, Emporia artists, Kaila Mock and Joel Smith, began having discussions about starting a First Friday Art Walk. They envisioned a partnership with local artists and businesses which would encourage community members to lace on their walking shoes and come out for an evening of art. Discussions went on for a year, and in Nov. 2016, the duo launched the first Art Walk to be held in Emporia.

“Joel and I have been active creatively and involved with the arts both in Emporia and elsewhere since we were kids,” Kaila said. “As adults who both work in the art industry and the downtown community, we found ourselves talking with artists and business owners every day about where more art could be shown and how that might even increase foot traffic to those businesses. It really was a constant topic of discussion, and we realized that not only did we have a large amount of artists and makers in this town, but we also had a lot of supportive businesses.We knew it was time to make the leap.”

The First Friday Art Walks have been embraced by community members. It isn’t uncommon to head downtown on a first Friday and find the area packed with people out enjoying the art. The casual environment and enthusiastic artists and business owners have allowed community members to explore art in a way never before possible in Emporia.

While art galleries may at times be overwhelming for children and intimidating for some adults, the art walk is the opposite. Family-friendly, open and encouraging are how Julie Simms of Emporia describes the art walk experience for her family.

“I have two young sons who I want to be exposed to art and music,” Simms said. “But have you ever tried to take a 6-year-old to an art gallery?

It’s challenging to say the least. I look forward to bringing them to the First Friday Art Walks because they have a chance to see many different types of art and we can walk and burn off energy. They are able to actually meet and visit with the artists, which is nice because it helps them realize art is something real people create, it makes art more lifelike for them.

The art walks are our favorite family activity.”

Mock said an encouraging artistic atmosphere was just one of many goals she and Smith had in mind when creating the art walks.

Since beginning the walks, they have continued to receive feedback from community members and artists alike.

“We’ve heard that Emporia First Fridays provides an atmosphere for artists, business owners and the art walkers that is casual and enjoyable,” Mock said. “Many young or new artists have gained confidence in talking to people about art, or how to sell their work. We’ve heard people say they’re inspired to go home and make something, or that they’ve just bought their first painting. Most of the businesses have said they see new faces every time and even have made new customers. And it’s always a heart-melter when kids tell us about their favorite pieces.”

Art can often be an under-appreciated economic and cultural benefit to communities. As the art walks have grown, the impact has become even more obvious to Mock and Smith.

The casual environment and enthusiastic artists and business owners have allowed community members to explore art in a way never before possible in Emporia.

Spring 2019 | 67

Additional businesses and new artists are reaching out to the pair to participate in the walks. Each walk brings more foot traffic downtown and is even bringing in people from out of town to experience the event. Though organizing the event is a lot of work, the couple said they are seeing so many signs of the impact made by the walks. They are encouraged to not only continue the walks, but hopefully grow them in the future.

“Well the most obvious sign of the impact is the sheer amount of people out on a Friday night with Passports in their hands,” Mock said. “Rain, sleet or snow, people are coming out and having a good time. Having hosted an art walk every month for well over a year, it has quickly become a regular outing for a lot of people. They are doing a good deal of their shopping on First Fridays and buying from both the artists and the venues. And, in general, it seems that more people are excited about participating in art-related activities as a form of entertainment.”

Art has served as an inspiration in both Mock and Smith’s lives. They are hopeful the art walks will inspire others as well.

68 | EmpoRia Living

“Whether for shopping or entertainment, we hope that people think local first and spend their money where it can do the most good.�

Spring 2019 | 69

“Whether for shopping or entertainment, we hope that people think local first and spend their money where it can do the most good,” Mock said. “We would like kids growing up in Emporia or studying here to realize that it’s not outside the realm of possibility to pursue their artistic dreams here. We hope that neighboring communities recognize Emporia’s rich art scene and come visit. And, finally, we hope that people get inspired to go home and create something.”

Their passion for art may have served as a launching point for the art walks, but Mock insists the walks would not be possible without the support of the community.

“We really can’t express enough how thankful we are to have such a supportive community,” Mock said. “The local businesses involved are incredibly generous to stay open beyond hours, offer specials for art walkers and they’re all a pleasure to work with. We’re incredibly lucky that this town really loves art.”

70 | EmpoRia Living

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