SOCCER PAGE 8 The students’ voice since 1901 • Vol. 111 No. 7 • Thursday, September 29, 2011 • Check us out online.
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Young writers meet WAW authors C harlie H eptas news@esubulletin.com
About 620 students from more than 40 elementary and middle schools in Kansas gathered for a day of activities centered around writing in honor of the 59th annual William Allen White Book Awards on Saturday. “It’s all about bringing authors, books and children together,” said John Sheridan, dean of libraries and executive director of the WAW Book Award. “Things like this bring children together with authors and it makes it more personal for them. Students can think
about becoming authors.” The awards ceremony began with the students marching from the Union and then around Campus Drive and into Albert Taylor Hall. They were led by the Emporia High marching band. The award has two categories – one for books for grades three through five and another for grades six through eight. The two winning authors were Patricia Reilly Giff for her book “Eleven,” and Susan Campbell Bartoletti for “The Boy Who Dared.” “Eleven” is about a boy named Sam who, while searching for birthday presents, discovers news-
paper clippings that make him believe he may have been a missing child when he was younger. Sam also has trouble reading, and Giff said that reading played a large part in her own life. She said that she used her own experiences with children with reading disabilities to help form the main character. Whitney Sparks, a sixth grade student at Emporia Middle School, said the most exciting part of “Eleven” was when the main character found the papers that had words that seemed to crawl across the page. Giff said she was honored to be
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Road to Recovery
STUDENTS HELP READING PICK UP THE PIECES
ESU students participate in tornado relief in Reading Saturday morning. Forty-three members ASG, Community Hornets and United Way attended the event and helped Reading residents clean up the debris after a tornado ravaged their town last spring. Yiqing Fu/The Bulletin
T ianhai J iang jiang@esubulletin.com When her son’s home and her business, Miracle Café, were destroyed by an EF-3 tornado last spring, Reta Jackson, who has lived in Reading for 40 years, realized that her hometown would never be the same again. “We just refuse to say that (we lost our town),” Jackson said. “We are building and we’re going to build it back. It won’t ever be the same, but we can build it back and build it better.” The storm claimed 56 of the
110 homes in Reading, and 14 of the 21 businesses, one of which was Jackson’s café. For their annual “Big Event,” 43 members of the Associated Student Government and the Community Hornets, partnered with United Way, travelled to Reading to assist with tornado relief on Saturday morning. “I was really touched that the students wanted to participate in this,” said Jami Reever, executive director of United Way. “When there’s a disaster, people react to it and they are so generous, and then it’s easy to forget and go on
their own. I’m so grateful they wanted to do this because it lets the people of Reading know that people still care and they’re not forgotten.” But Reading is not yet completely rebuilt, and Reever said that it would take the town another 18 months to return to where it was prior to the tornado. Many houses are still under reconstruction, and nails, trash, broken glass and debris litter the ground. “The students are wonderful and they are a great asset to us,” Jackson said. “Now that summer
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The Emporia High marching band leads the parade around campus Saturday morning. The parade was part of the 59th annual William Allen White Children’s Book Award activities. Students from all over Kansas participated in the parade. Chris Franklin/The Bulletin
Train restoration could provide economic and social boost for Emporia S imone C osper cosper@esubulletin.com The possible restoration of Emporia Amtrak train service, whose station burnt down in 1999, was the topic of discussion Tuesday evening. Interim President H. Edward Flentje, along with various other members in the Emporia community, spoke on the issue in Douglas Hall at the First Congressional Church. Around 50 people attended the forum. “The purpose of the Amtrak restoration is to make it accessible to Emporians,” said Andrew McHenry, pastor of the church. “In order to get on an Amtrak train, you either have to drive up to Topeka at 1 a.m. or Newton at 3 a.m.” McHenry said Amtrak provides a 15 percent discount for students with a savings card, which costs about $20, and provides an alternative to traveling in a car or by plane. “It’s a lot more convenient for (students) to go downtown and get on a train rather than having to find someone to take them up to Topeka to get on board,” McHenry said. Casey Woods, executive director of Emporia Main Street, said the Amtrak service ended in 1997 because of location, declining ridership and inexpensive gas prices. In 1999, a fire destroyed the station and no effort was made to restore it. “There was a dilapidated rail station and right next to it was
a lean-to with trains that were coming through at inconsistent times in an area the people would not want to hang around at two in the morning,” Woods said. “That situation is reversed – we have much higher gas prices, we have people that are interested in passenger rail and you have a system that is much more robust and on time.” Since Emporia’s Amtrak service was cut in the 90s, ridership has increased 50 percent for other stations throughout the U.S., according to McHenry. An expected 30 million will use rail service this year. Amtrak will benefit Emporia socially and economically. Woods said once the service operates, it will provide a social web for the city to other communities. “People will come in and visit, shop (and) more money will circulate,” said Frank Meinholdt, Emporia local. Woods said that every dollar invested in the Amtrak restoration would circulate about $2 into Emporia’s economy. “We have seen it in other areas, other rural states that have used passenger rails, a positive economic impact,” Woods said. “A lot of communities are building jobs, building houses, building and expanding businesses because they have more traffic – more traffic equals more sales.” An estimated cost to build a depot for the Amtrak rail system has not yet been determined.
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Hip-hop historian presents annual diversity lecture C harlie H eptas news@esubulletin.com
Jeff Chang speaks during the annual Bonner and Bonner Diversity Lecture Series about the history and evolution of hiphop last night in Albert Taylor Hall. Chang’s lecture was followed by a performance by hip-hop group DreamKillerUniversity in front of Plumb Hall. Jon Coffey/The Bulletin
For Jeff Chang, this year’s Bonner and Bonner lecturer and hip-hop historian, music has been a career, love and study in culture. “I’m pretty much a hip-hop cliché,” Chang said. “I heard ‘Rapper’s Delight’ when I was 12, and Bob Marley and hiphop played a really important role in shaping who I was at that time.” More than 650 students and faculty attended the lecture last night, nearly filling the floor level of Albert Taylor Hall. In his speech, Chang said that hip-hop had become more complex since its humble roots, but it has also become a symbol of hope.
“I really liked it,” said Austin Schopper, senior English and secondary education major. “I was really excited because I’m a big fan of hip-hop so I got to come out and support a multicultural event and learn some more about hip-hop.” Chang said hip-hop is one of the things that contributed to the increase in voter turnout in America among the youth in the 2008 presidential election. “Cultural change always precedes political change, and so in that respect, hip-hop has been a cultural force that has resulted in political change,” Chang said. Chang said that hip-hop has changed in the market with media consolidation, giving it a different feel than it had in the beginning.
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