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Vol 45 No. 8
Kansas’ Largest Newspaper
www.theactiveage.com
August 2024
Printed at Valley Center, KS
Just for Kicks Weekly soccer game draws players of all ages and backgrounds
By Carl Williams Working in Wichita’s aircraft industry during the 1960s, Herb Schnoetzinger met many other immigrants from around the world. Whatever the cultural and language barriers, they often shared a love of the world’s most popular sport — soccer (actually, “football” to most of the world). It was through those new friends Photos by Carl Williams that Schnoetzinger, a native of Javier Miermier controls the ball Germany, joined the Wichita Soccer Club. But the Soccer Club played during the weekly soccer game competitively, meaning older players at Linwood Park.
often didn’t get to participate as much as they liked. So in 1974, Schnoetzinger started a weekly pickup soccer game at Linwood Park in south Wichita. Fifty years later, it’s still going strong. “At first, the weekly kick-around was meant for players 35 or older,” Schnoetzinger said. “But, over the years, as players faded away due to age, moving away or other reasons, we opened it up to players of any age. The younger players filled spots left by the
The Long-Term Care Community Coalition’s latest summary, based on the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ five-star quality rating system, showed 24.6% of nursing facilities in the United States were designated “problem facilities”
after receiving a one-star rating. In Kansas, 25.2% of nursing homes had that lowly score based on inspection reports, staffing levels and other quality measures. Nine facilities in the three-county area served by The Active Age currently have one-star ratings.
See Soccer, page 8
Herb Schnoetzinger and Jacob Tef are soccer-playing pals from Germany and Ethiopia, respectively.
One-fourth of Kansas nursing homes ‘problem’ facilities
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By Tim Carpenter Kansas Reflector A national coalition’s report says one-fourth of Kansas’ 300 nursing homes were categorized as problem facilities due to substandard care and persistent compliance issues.
Dan Goodman, executive director of Kansas Advocates for Better Care, called it a “really bleak picture. “Particularly we’re concerned with the lack of staffing at these facilities. See Nursing, page 6
With journalists in short supply, Wichita Documenters keep eye on public meetings
By Joe Stumpe The journalism industry is in crisis, and there aren’t nearly enough reporters around to cover all the public meetings they used to attend. So what if a small army of citizens could be recruited to attend and make a record of those meetings? That’s kind of the idea behind Wichita Documenters, a program launched earlier this year. Retired librarian Sharon Ailslieger is one of the Documenters. “I believe in civic engagement, and I think people should be aware of what’s going on in their government,
Linda Shriver, left, and Sharon Ailslieger are Wichita Documenters. especially at the local level,” Ailslieger said. Affiliated with the national
Documenters Network, Wichita Documenters is funded by the Wichita Foundation and managed by the Kansas Leadership Center in partnership with members of the Wichita Journalism Collaborative (of which The Active Age is a member). The program’s initial funding is for three years. The work of Ailslieger and other Documenters can be found online at documenters.org. Ailslieger spent her career as a librarian for Boeing, Friends University, Garden City and See Documenters, page 7
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