Lawrence&State
Lawrence JournaL-worLd l LJWorld.com/local l Sunday, December 15, 2013 l 3A
Debaters advance but do not qualify for nationals
Volunteer one among thousands to view body of Mandela By Nikki Wentling nwentling@ljworld.com
A Lawrence woman was one of 100,000 people who viewed the body of former South African President Nelson Mandela as it lay in state at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, South Africa this week. D o n n a Reynolds, 61, of Lawrence, has been volunteering with Project Hope UK in Mandela a township outside Johannesburg since June. On Thursday, she and a fellow volunteer traveled the hour north to Pretoria, where people waited in mile-long lines to catch a glimpse of Mandela’s remains during the three-day viewing. Mandela died Dec. 5 at the age of 95. “Mostly, the feeling was one of celebration,” Reynolds said. “I can’t say enough about how peaceful everyone was and how friendly. There was a very warm, wonderful feeling that you got from everyone.” Reynolds and a 17-yearold South Africa native who accompanied her named Teboho arrived in Pretoria on Thursday afternoon. Reynolds was soon approached by a police officer who directed her to a shorter line for senior citizens. She took her place in Please see MAndelA, page 4A
By Peter Hancock phancock@ljworld.com
Mike Yoder/Journal-World Photo
DaviD Seibel, of lenexa, a biology profeSSor at Johnson County Community College, and Amelia MallettKass, of Lawrence, a student of Seibel’s, spot and tally birds at Clinton Lake Saturday morning while participating in the Jayhawk Audubon Society’s 70th Lawrence Christmas Bird Count. Among the birds spotted from the dam were six eagles and several hundred merganser mallards. Baldwin City and Perry Lake Christmas Bird Counts will be held today.
Christmas Bird Count offers surprises, even for experienced birdwatchers By Stephen Montemayor smontemayor@ljworld.com
Two young bald eagles swooped near the face of the Clinton Lake dam, just within view of a large cluster of ducks taking refuge Saturday morning in a swath of open water. David Seibel, a Johnson County Community College professor, trained a large scope on the ducks. He prepared to tally their numbers and species as part of
the annual Christmas Bird Count, a campaign organized by the National Audubon Society and Jayhawk Audubon Society to take stock of area bird populations. Though huddled in large numbers, danger loomed. “This time of year eagles eat about anything,” Seibel said. They prefer fish, he added, but will switch to ducks when the fishing is no good. “To my mind that’s where the phrase ‘like sitting
ducks’ comes from.” Just before 9 a.m., Seibel arrived at the dam with one of his JCCC students, Amelia Mallett-Kass, of Lawrence, and fellow birder Nick McHugh, of Kansas City, Kan. Each wore multiple layers to guard against the wicked gusts of cold air coming off the lake, their first stop of a campaign expected to span until dusk. As the sun set, all counters planned to convene for a chili sup-
per, at which point final numbers would be tallied and observations would be shared. Counters planned to visit 12 locations within a 15-mile radius by day’s end, Seibel said. Mallett-Kass joined her professor for a tradition he’s taken part in since 1969 — 33 of those years featuring stops in Lawrence before a Sunday count in Perry. She was a quick study, picking up on counting the Please see Birds, page 4A
Free State High School seniors Alex Houston and Hannah Moran looked dejected after their second, and final, loss at the nationalqualifier debate tournament this weekend. But the disappointment soon gave way to satisfaction at the fact that they had gone six rounds in one of the toughest debate tournaments of the year. “We kind of wanted to beat them,” Houston said about the loss to a team from Shawnee Mission East. “To be honest, we’re a little surprised to get this far,” Moran said. “But when you get to a tournament of this caliber, a lot of it is just luck, like who you end up getting paired with.” Houston and Moran made it further than any other Lawrence-area team in the East Kansas National Forensics League District tournament, one of the final debate tournaments of the season in Kansas, and the one that determines who will go to the NFL National tournament in the summer. The event was a doubleelimination tournament, Please see deBAte, page 4A
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