TEG
MONDAY, APRIL 25, 2016
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PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING
FAMILY OWNED SINCE 1895
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A SUNNY SUNDAY EARTH DAY
The Emporia Gazette
Emporians celebrated Earth
Day with fun and educational activities at the David Traylor Zoo
of Emporia Sunday afternoon.
Various educational stations included composting, air quality,
bird watching and information on
lemurs and mountain lions.
JAN BUCKMAN/SPECIAL TO THE GAZETTE
Mark Lee teaches children how to make seed bombs at Party for the Planet activities at the zoo on Sunday.
Tanner Seidl and Diego, Daniel and Karen Guzman listen to Carolyn
JAN BUCKMAN/SPECIAL TO THE GAZETTE
Turney talk about composting and what foods can be used to make
compost. This was one of many activities to teach children about
Kent Schnakenberg and his granddaughter Mia look for turtles at
our planet at the zoo on Sunday.
the Party for the Planet on Sunday.
EXPECTANT MOTHERS ATTEND
COMMUNITY BABY SHOWER
WWW.EMPORIAGAZETTE.COM
FIRES TAKING
TOLL ON
GREENWOOD
COUNTY FIRE
TRUCK FLEET
Greenwood County Commissioners reviewed an extensive
list of repairs needed on county
fire trucks at the meeting Monday morning due to the extreme
amount of fires crews have fought
in recent weeks.
County Fire Chief Doug Williams had compiled the list for all
county departments with repairs
estimated at just under $30,000.
The repairs ranged from many
tires, to transmissions and engine
issues. The excessively windy and
dry conditions have contributed
to a particularly dangerous fire
season.
Commissioners commented
that a frustrating factor in this
year’s out of control fires is the
presence of an isolated calm day,
when many farmers and ranchers
burn, and then the day immediately following has extremely high
winds, stirring up embers from
burns that day before.
Commissioner Cole Conard
asked for clarification on where
the majority of the fires have been
called out recently. Commissioner
Brian Hind said that by far the
Severy, Piedmont and Fall River
firemen have been called out the
most. Sheriff Rusty Bitler agreed,
adding that some of those firemen
had been called out so much lately
that they’ve only been able to go
home for a couple hours at a time.
Conard commented that he
is frustrated with a situation in
the south end of the county that
he feels is contributing to the increased fire calls. He explained
that there is a large presence of
out-of-area owners who have
bought smaller lots of acreage for
hunting and vacations around the
Severy area. He feels that a lot of
Please see Fires, Page 3
TEACHER OF
THE YEAR
CANDIDATES
VISIT EMPORIA
CLASSROOMS
By Cathryne Scharton
[email protected]
VOL. 124, NO. 254
We only get one
Earth, take care of it.
The Madison News
JAN BUCKMAN/SPECIAL TO THE GAZETTE
The first-ever community baby
shower in Emporia proved to be informative and well-received by expectant mothers and their guests.
“We just decided to do some
community education for new
moms,” said Gail Barrett. “My
husband and I have put together a
fundraiser every year for the past
six years, centered it around SIDS,
sudden infant death syndrome, that
we lost our son to over five years
ago and we had some really good
fundraising years the past couple of
years so we decided to use the money and give back to the community
and hold an event that they could
learn some safe sleep and get to
talk to some community partners.”
The baby shower was brought to
the community by the Wade Barrett
Memorial Fund, Newman Regional
Health and the Flint Hills Technical
College Practical Nursing Program.
The event was held at Flint Hills
Technical College and within the
first hour saw more than 75 expecting mothers; combined with
fathers and other family members
more than 150 people were in attendance.
Every mom who listened to the
Safe Sleep Presentation received a
free Pack ‘n Play and a package of
diapers.
“Pack ‘n Play is a safe sleep
portable crib that is perfect for
newborns to sleep in the parents
room and then it just folds up really nice and doesn’t take up a lot
VVV
By Tammy Seimears
JAN BUCKMAN/SPECIAL TO THE GAZETTE
Kathleen Waters talks to
children about the importance
of air quality at the Party for the
Planet on Sunday.
Good Evening
Special to the Gazette
CATHRYNE SCHARTON/GAZETTE
Jenessa Peres of Emporia talks with Vanessa Apodaca of Child Care Aware.
of room,” said Barrett. “But it’s just
a safe sleep environment to make
sure they are not sharing beds with
anyone and have their own place to
sleep.”
Trenton Miller-Mitts and Stacy
Putthoff came to the event for the
free information and a chance to
win prizes.
“I think it’s pretty good,” said
Miller-Mitts. “It’s really good for all
the moms ... there’s a little bit of information for the dads but not that
much ... .”
Miller-Mitts said he wished
there was more information for the
Please see Shower, Page 3
CATHRYNE SCHARTON/GAZETTE
Observing the instructional
strategies used for English
language learners in Emporia classrooms left a lasting impression on visiting teachers.
Five members of the 2016
Kansas Teacher of the Year
cadre spent the day in Emporia schools, hosted by Emporia
Middle School science teacher
Julie Voelz.
“None of our districts have
a lot of ELL students, so we
don’t see a lot of this,” said
Carol Denham, who teaches at
Southeast USD 247 near Pittsburg. “I was so impressed to
see how the English speaking
teachers were interacting with
the ELL students.”
Ottawa elementary teacher
Laura Jeannin agreed, and
noted that all students benefit from the teaching strategies
that include ELL students in
the regular classroom.
“It was really enhancing the
instruction for all students and
did not slow it down. (By including English and Spanish inPleas