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In loving memory of my dear friend Thad Haverkamp … It’s with a heavy heart that I remember the incredible adventures we shared through the lens of Lawrence Magazine. Thad’s words and my photographs captured the essence of Lawrence and her people. His ability to craft stories that resonated with our readers was a gift, and I was honored to be the one to visually complement his narratives.
Thad’s passion for storytelling, his unyielding curiosity, and his dedication to shining a light on the hidden gems of Lawrence were qualities that made him not only an exceptional writer but an even more remarkable friend. The countless hours we spent traveling to locations, covering events, conducting interviews, and piecing together each article are memories I will forever hold dear.
His words will continue to live on as a testament to his talent and the lasting impact he had on our community. As I look through the photographs we created together, I’m reminded of the laughter, the camaraderie, and the shared love for our craft.
Thad, you were more than a colleague; you were a kindred spirit. Your words and our images will forever tell the stories you held dear. Rest in peace, my dear friend.
features
The Legacy of Robert J. Dole
Senator Robert Dole, who would have turned 100 this past July, remains one of the state’s most influential political figures. These three essays examine the political giant’s legacy and relationship to Lawrence.
Lowrider Style
Kansas educator Erik
Erazo heads up a transformational lowrider bike-building club for high school students
smorgasbord
8 Replay for Three Decades
It’s a rock ’n’ roll ecosystem, it’s a pinball palace, it’s a haven for wild Norwegian bands, it’s the porch for up-and-coming DJs, it’s cheap late-night fun, it’s always reinventing itself … it’s 30 years of the Replay Lounge
38
12 ‘I Write Because’
Antonio Sanchez-Day’s posthumous collection of poetry explores the ability of writing and thought to transcend confinements of health and space
49 people
17 Lawrencium: Hot Rods Facts and Numbers for the Annual Rev It Up Street fest
18 Let’s Hear It for the Band
The University of Kansas Alumni Band Celebrates 50 Years
22 The Way of the Worm
Two Cordley educators bring in tiny creatures for big lessons
28 The Guide
Brian Ondrejka directs clients to crappie, walleye, wipers, sunrises and more on Clinton Reservoir places
33 Quantrill’s Raid
A brazen act of bloody terror!
Kelli Mayo of Skating Polly performs at the Replay Lounge. Originally from Oklahoma City, Skating Polly recorded their 2016 breakthrough album in Lawrence and have become huge Replay fan faves.
Nick Carroll, owner and founder of the Replay Lounge, opened Lawrence’s iconic bar and music venue 30 years ago this September for a specific reason—to be a musician’s venue that champions regional music.
Inspired by a trip to Austin’s South by Southwest music conference and a visit to the multi-staged venue Emo’s, the business major in Carroll saw the appeal of a place with a low but honest door charge that went to the musicians.
“When you’re a musician, you’re always upset with the places you play,” Carroll explains one sunny afternoon on the bar’s back patio at the corner of 10th and Massachusetts streets. “You always feel like the door’s not transparent or there’s always not enough money at the door.”
He recalls people being leery at first, but once local surf-rockers the Eudoras decided they were in and played the first show, things began to take off.
“It kind of became a venue where the musicians set up the system,” Carroll explains.
That respect for music has led to a virtual who’s-who lineup of Lawrence and regional bands who have played at the start of their careers and returned out of respect for the small-stage but boundless-energy venue.
Photography by Fally Afani2000s. “Since it was like two worlds, that outdoor crowd would have to come in to use the restroom and would be exposed to the band, and I think that brought something to a lot of people who wouldn’t have otherwise seen those cool bands. A lot of times you would see people really getting into the band who just came for the patio. I always loved seeing that.”
In addition to being a monumental music venue, the Replay Lounge has played an important role in the town’s culinary history.
Over the years, there have been various food vendors on the back patio, with downtown favorite Taco Zone getting its start in the northwest patio corner.
Other experiments have been less successful, but certainly memorable. From when the venue opened in 1993 until about 1997, you could get a burger at the bar, made from a machine called a Squish and Broil, which would press and cook a burger in about a minute, recalls Kuhlman.
Part of the Replay system involves featuring a front bar and a back patio, so the Replay became a place where you could have two shows going simultaneously. If you’ve been to the bar in recent years, that means a DJ out on the back stage on weekend nights, with a full music lineup in the front. Patrons can bounce back and forth between inside and out while also feeling free to pop out to any other downtown space.
“The great thing about the Replay is that there would be a fun original band playing inside and a different crowd perhaps outside on the patio,” explains Chris Kuhlman, a former employee who started as a bartender and went on to manage in the early
Carroll recalls a similar time when patrons had stepped into the front section just to use the bathroom—and ran into the Norwegians.
“We had some crazy band from Norway. Guys were all in sparkly suits and they were jumping all around the pinball machines, tearing the place up,” Carroll says. “And then there was all these kids, and they had to go to the bathroom. They would go to the bathroom and were just like, ‘I gotta go to the bathroom. I’m not into this at all.’ But on the way out, they would stop and watch the band!”
Carroll says Replay staff has also been at the heart and soul of the venue for the last three decades. He also credits the employees with keeping things exciting.
“Keep it fresh,” Carroll says. “Keep changing it. Get people with new ideas. They have to have a love for music and art and culture, or it’s not gonna work out.”
As we wrap up our patio conversation, bartenders start kicking on music and fans assemble in preparation for the Replay’s opening. Carroll sums up his whole approach to keeping the Replay Lounge open and vibrant after three decades, explaining that he has a herpetologist friend who has told him that 90% of pet snakes die the first year after they’re purchased.
“They have to have certain warmth,” Carroll relays. “They have to have a warm corner, a cold corner. You have to have overhead light. You have heating patterns. And I kind of look at the bar like that. This is an ecosystem. I have to keep it alive. This is a business for profit, but there are things we do to keep it a place for the community.”
It’s a rock ’n’roll ecosystem, it’s a pinball palace, it’s a haven for wild Norwegian bands, it’s the porch for up-and-coming DJs, it’s cheap latenight fun, it’s always reinventing itself … it’s 30 years of the Replay Lounge
Replay Lounge signature cocktails are one of the venue’s most recent ventures that began during the pandemic lockdown.
“It was pretty scary,” recalls Replay owner Nick Carroll. “We were closed for a long time. It’s like, ‘Okay, our backs are against the wall. If there’s ever been a time that you just swing for the fences, it’s right now. We have nothing to lose because it’s a very good chance we’re gonna lose everything.’”
Thanks to work from Chris Maddox, Dana Wiseman, Taylor McClure, and Taylor Donovan, the Replay bar began to craft and can cocktails.
At first, Carroll thought canned cocktails sold because people were worried about the bar, but he realized they could stand on their own even after the lockdown.
After three years of development and a deal with Crown Distributors, the Replay Lounge canned cocktails are heading to liquor stores.
Carroll likens the venture to swimming out to an island, getting more than halfway, and realizing you might not have the strength to swim back: “You got to reach the island because you’re too far. We’re past the point of no return.”
Heather Lofflin performs with the Vedettes on the Replay stage. The Salvation Choir gave a rousing Replay patio show in March 2023. Replay fans react to a show. Stiff Middle Fingers took their performance through the Replay’s front doors.
After poet Antonio Sanchez-Day died in 2021, his longtime friend and mentor Brian Daldorph asked SanchezDay’s aunt if he might be allowed to look through any manuscripts her nephew left behind.
A few weeks later, Daldorph received a plastic storage crate from the family. He describes poring through a neat stack of files, folders and plastic sleeves filled with “excruciatingly neat tiny writing” that yielded 123 pages of new, unpublished work by the 46-year-old writer. Over the next months, Daldorph edited the collection into a new anthology that has been published by Meadowlark Press.
I’ve Been Fighting This War Within Myself is Sanchez-Day’s second volume of poetry. The first, Taking on Life, was published in 2019.
Sanchez-Day died from a host of serious health issues related to Type 1 diabetes. But he had struggled with—and triumphed over—numerous challenges, some of which he named in this excerpt from his poem “I Write Because”
I write because…
It unclutters my mind purges the negativity and replenishes peace while holding my demons at bay
Daldorph met Sanchez-Day in 2013 when the young man was an inmate at Douglas County Jail. Sanchez-Day spent 13 years in and out of incarceration, serving time for charges that ranged from drug possession to burglary and assault. As a way to spend time out of his cell, he enrolled in a creative writing class that Daldorph taught.
Daldorph’s class was a turning point in Sanchez-Day’s life. “I began to write, and I found that my mind escaped for the time being,” he said. “For a short amount of time, I didn’t see the walls or hear the clanging doors or smell the disinfectant odor of the jail. It was just the paper, and me alone in the universe. I would carry what I had written back to my cell and I would work on it more. I began anticipating each class, and it was the highlight of my week. For that one hour, it was as though I was getting out of jail for a time. It wasn’t that I was escaping reality of the situation or the consequences, but I was getting away from the guilt and the shame.
Photography by Brian Goodman“I began writing not to seek others’ approval, but just to get the feelings out. I found the power of the written word,” he says. He continued writing the rest of his life, including the poem “Solitude,” which appears in the new collection.
Finding stability
In a chemically unbalanced mind Is like searching
For a needle in a haystack the constant commotion the ups the downs the highs the lows the blitzkrieg of emotions attacking serenity amplified anxiety slight skepticism bits of paranoia hinder decision-making so I find solace in seclusion while struggling with sobriety only by placing these fragmented lines and dissected thoughts together on paper does it all come together
Sanchez-Day continued exploring these themes in the poem “Train Wreck of Addiction.”
So it’s full speed ahead all aboard this locomotive this crazy train destination unknown check your baggage regret, pity, anger, insecurities there’s plenty of room proceed without caution
Antonio Sanchez-Day’s posthumous collection of poetry explores the ability of writing and thought to transcend confinements of health and space
Many other writers took note of the power in Sanchez-Day’s words. American Book Award winner and poet Jimmy Santiago Baca contributed a back-jacket blurb for the new anthology.
Sanchez-Day used poetry, Baca wrote, to holler out the truth in the way birds and oceans and trees reveal their true selves every minute of every day. Sanchez-Day’s poetry, “breaks shackles, honors beauty, endures sorrow, and keeps climbing, keeps digging, keeps in the hand what is meaningful and sacred.”
Sanchez-Day’s words are full of humor and gratitude, as well as raw despair; he speaks of grief, resolve and hope. He is honest about his addictions and mental illness. On one page there are only a few wry words:
I hate being bi-polar
It’s awesome
Sanchez-Day describes memories of a Lawrence childhood in the ’80s marked by the disability of Type 1 diabetes and leading to the realization that waiting on a call announcing a needed kidney and pancreas donation meant waiting on a call that would mean a donor’s death.
Ultimately his body was too weak to receive a transplant.
Daldorph says in a preface to the book that he imagined Sanchez-Day still with him as he assembled the anthology, sitting still and silent, as he most often did in class at Douglas County Jail, watchful as always, encouraging him to do this vital work well.
Daldorph taught the creative writing class at the Douglas County Jail weekly from 2001 until pandemic restrictions forced cancellation of the class in 2021.
While Daldorph has published Sanchez-Day’s legacy, his former student also recorded the history and tremendous impact of Daldorph’s weekly presence in the lives of so many men sitting at a table, in a jail, with a pen and paper before them.
This pen and paper is my salvation words forged in ink soothing my spirit thoughts congregate as I decipher the meaning grasping dissected thoughts emotions birthed from feelings cascade onto paper I trust this process to break me through the other side.
them. Call
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“The emphasis of our show has always been inclusiveness of all makes, models and years,” says Rev It Up Street Fest founder and organizer Stephen Chronister. “Lots of shows are limited to older years or a particular style, or manufacturer.” That includes every aspect of custom car (and bicycle, motorcycle, and truck) culture. “We have been really excited the last few years that the local low-riders have embraced our show and we have embraced them,” says Chronister. “They are a great bunch of guys that sometimes are not part of the average car show.”
Chronister welcomes the public to come out to the show, bring lawn chairs, listen to the live music and browse the cars, merchandise and food vendors. The Rev It Up Car Show and Street Festival takes place Saturday, September 30, from 8am-3pm at South Park in Lawrence.
Best Stock Antique, Best Antique Street Rod, Best Rat Rod, Best American Muscle Car, Best Race Car, Best Motorcycle, Best Truck, Best 4 x 4, Best Foreign Import, Best 1920s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s car, and many more.
“The
Number of bands performing
“The
15
Registration fee for participants
$0
However, donations are accepted, and all donations go to the Ballard Center, which provides early education and other services to underserved families, so participants are encouraged to donate generously.
Oldest and newest vehicles on display
1920s through the 2020s
Total amount raised by the car show for the Ballard Center
APPROXIMATELY $160K
Number of cars attendees can expect to see
APPROXIMATELY IN 40 CATEGORIES 400
low-rider bicycle category has been added this year.”
–Stephen Chronister, Festival Organizer
Kaw Tikis are instrumental surf, Strawbilly is country/ western swing, and the Mexcal Brothers are straight-up rockabilly.”
–Stephen Chronister
Kaarin Haig had an unexpected start to her bachelorette weekend in the fall of 2022. On October 1, 8:30 on Saturday morning, she was dressed in a blue University of Kansas Alumni Band T-shirt and holding a 30-pound sousaphone. It was a far cry from what many might consider standard bachelorette scenes: manicures, a sleepover, and matching outfits—with one in white, of course.
It just so happened that Haig’s bachelorette weekend coincided with KU’s Homecoming, and her sister had decided that the first event of the weekend would be performing with KU’s alumni band. Every year since 1974, alumni of KU’s marching band have been returning to the Kansas Memorial Stadium to join current band members in the halftime performance of the Homecoming football game. This fall marks the band’s 50th anniversary.
Haig and her sister, Kirsten Hoogstraten, were two of over 200 KU alumni who returned to campus last fall to participate in the alumni band. And, while Hoogstraten had participated in the band numerous times, it was Haig’s first time back out on the field since 2011.
“I really didn’t think I would have as much fun this past year as I did,” Haig notes. “It reminded me of everything I used to love about marching band and everything I missed about it.” Despite the unique start to her bachelorette weekend, Haig still had a
bridal signifier. The sousaphone she was given to use had a white bow tied around it.
Haig says that her favorite part of playing in the alumni band was sharing the experience with her sister: “Even though we went to the same high school and the same college, we never attended at the same time. So I never got to share that aspect with her.”
This feeling of connection and homecoming is what makes the band performance “like a big family reunion,” according to Sharon Toulouse, a KU alumna and assistant director of bands at KU.
“Everyone is just thrilled to be there,” Toulouse adds. “We get to see our friends that we went to school with.”
The KU Alumni Band was established in 1974, when thenband director Robert Foster found the perfect opportunity to begin a tradition he had long wanted to develop. Foster had attempted to start alumni bands at two of his former universities, but he had always moved before seeing the conception of those traditions. Foster became band director at KU in 1971, and he says, “I knew from the beginning that at some point in time, it needed to happen.”
In 1974, that perfect opportunity arose when a retirement celebration was held to honor the former director of bands, Russell Wiley.
Foster contacted a number of former band students about gathering for a performance at Wiley’s celebration.
Story by Lauren Fox Photography by Fally AfaniSee the KU Alumni Band perform take the field this fall at the University of Kansas Homecoming game against the University of Oklahoma on October 28. The KU Alumni Band also performs at some basketball games during winter break.
“They all thought it was a great idea,” Foster recalls, “so we launched that year, and it has continued every year since then.”
Foster now estimates that first KU Alumni Band performance had around 60 participants. He has conducted the performances every year since and estimates the numbers now exceed 120 participants. Matthew Smith, KU’s acting director of bands, notes that around 120 to 150 alumni typically come back to perform with the band, but in 2022 that number jumped to about 200. He estimates that the higher numbers were due to the success of the football team. This year, he expects similarly high participation due to the 50th anniversary.
Asher Dean is a 2018 graduate of KU who plans to return for this year’s performance. He has performed with the KU Alumni Band for the past two years, and called the experience an “adrenaline rush,” noting that “the energy and appreciation that we get from the crowd is overwhelming.” Dean said he enjoys being a part of something much bigger than himself and seeing the generations of Jayhawks come together. He encourages all band alumni, even recently graduates, to come play.
When the alumni band gathers on campus, they do a roll call by the decade and recognize the alumni who are the oldest and the alumni who have traveled the farthest.
Often, the alumni are so busy catching up around coffee
and donuts that it sometimes takes them a while to pick up the instruments.
“They are all so excited to be there, and it’s like herding cats trying to get them to rehearse just because they are enjoying catching up with each other so much,” Toulouse says.
Though the alumni band members are given the music they will perform in advance of homecoming, their only ensemble practice consists of one rehearsal the morning of the game.
For the KU Alumni Band’s 50th anniversary performance this fall, they will play a series of Wizard of Oz songs by KU composer James Barnes. Toulouse describes this music as an “epic arrangement” and a “chop burner,” a workout for all the muscles in one’s face. But the band will also take part in other KU band traditions throughout the day, such as the band’s concert on the Hill and “Hog Calling,” a special performance that takes place in the tunnel right before the game and is led by the sousaphone section.
The band takes pride in their own traditions as well as in the university-wide traditions. “The clap in the Fight Song … the Alma Mater. Things like this we hold dear to our hearts,” Smith says.
One of Smith’s favorite parts of the alumni performance is seeing veteran drum majors strut down the field.
“It’s hard work—and some of them are doing it in their 40s, 50s and 60s,” he says. “That’s cool to see.”
Two Cordley educators bring in tiny creatures for big lessons
Story by Amber Fraley Photography by Jason Dailey
Amy Farmer, a special education teacher at Cordley Elementary, has a second job at the school as the coordinator for Cordley’s ten raised-bed gardens containing a mix of tomatoes, squash, pumpkins, watermelons, and flowers for pollinating insects and birds.
As of this year, the beds also contain hundreds and hundreds of worms.
Farmer recalls that at the beginning of the 2022 school year, her colleague Chrystal Hunter, who is also on the school’s garden committee, had a question about starting a new garden project.
“Do you think I’m crazy if I want to raise worms?” Hunter asked.
“No, not at all,” Farmer replied. “As long as you do it.”
“Good, because I’ve already bought five hundred!” agreed Hunter, who is a special education paraprofessional at the school.
Hunter had researched the best worms for raising and releasing into the gardens and determined red wigglers were their go-to crawlers. This breed is noninvasive and incredibly effective at breaking down compost materials into soil.
Soon, Hunter began creating worm lesson plans and games for each grade level at Cordley that fit into the school science curriculum. She also created a “worm cart” that can be rolled from classroom to classroom for lessons.
On top of the worm cart are the worms themselves, which reside in the Worm Factory 360 Composter for a short time, breaking down food scraps and cardboard, until they multiply and are released.
The composter—and thus the worms inside it—go home with Hunter, who keeps them safe inside and can hear the hundreds of worms wriggling and eating their way through the compost at night.
It’s a comforting sound, for those who know and love it.
“They have this distinct smoosh, smoosh, smoosh,” Hunter describes.
When the worms are back on the cart, they travel with a small “worm library” of books with information about worms for all grade levels, as well as several worm games the kids can play.
“I really took to heart the whole mission of USD 497 and inclusion,” Hunter explains. “I wanted a project that
“We don’t use any chemicals in our gardens. There’s no sprays or anything like that.We rely on companion planting, and the worms are giving us compost.”
–Amy FarmerOPPOSITE A red wiggler worm emerges from the Cordley Elementary compost pile.
every child could participate in on some level, no matter their circumstance or age or ability level.” As part of the garden committee at Cordley, Hunter had seen firsthand how much enjoyment and peace the gardens bring to many of the students, and she wanted to build on that. “I thought, we should expand our whole life-science experience with our kids.”
“The PTA got involved, and that’s when it really took off,” Farmer adds. Hunter had already set up the worm cart, which she displayed at parent-teacher conferences, where the PTA ran an Adopt-a-Worm campaign, asking for a dollar donation to
sponsor a worm. “Parents were amazing during those parentteacher conferences,” Farmer recalls. “They were stopping at the worm cart and looking at the worms and talking about worms.”
The Adopt-a-Worm fundraiser was a huge success, raising money for tools and a wheelbarrow to move the worms around the gardens. It also got the kids excited about the worms themselves. “We had kids naming worms, and we had a big wall where we put all the names and all the drawings the kids did,” Hunter says. “We had names like Cotton Candy Tail Worm and Stumpy the Worm and four different Bob the Worms. It was really great. We said we’re definitely doing this again next year.”
The school released their first batch of worms into the Cordley gardens on Earth Day while the kids snacked on gummy worms.
“Everybody was so, so excited,” Farmer says.
Hunter explained that red wigglers double in population every 90 days, so by the time they released them, those 500 worms had become 1,500—each of them doing their part to improve soil quality.
“We don’t use any chemicals in our gardens,” Farmer emphasizes. “There’s no sprays or anything like that. We rely on companion planting, and the worms are giving us compost.”
Farmer notes that the garden committee tries to grow food that will be available during the school year, such as lettuce, radishes, tomatoes, watermelons, cucumbers, and winter squashes. That way, kids can harvest the food and take it home to share with their families. One year the school grew three different varieties of sweet potato, prepared them for lunch in the school kitchen, and surveyed the kids afterward to see which variety they liked best. By this fall, it’s hard to even estimate how many worms will be breaking down the soil, but the rich texture and the abundant growth of vegetables and blooms this summer testified to the worms’ presence and effectiveness.
Some of Cordley’s adoptable and hard-working garden worms gather before being released into the
The worms have inspired several class lessons at Cordley.
Chrystal Hunter, educator and worm farmer
Amy Farmer, educator and garden guru
garden soil.
But for a school, perhaps the worms’ most important successes have been in education. Some kids, Hunter explains, learn best through tactile means such as spraying the worms’ garden plot with water to keep it moist and moving compost around the garden. Other kids don’t want to touch the worms, but they like reading about them—and eventually, some of them learn to hold the worms. The worm games appeal to kids who learn through play.
Hunter and Farmer’s next big garden project? Compost.
“Part of the curriculum for the fifth graders is talking about decomposers, which the worms fit into,” Hunter explains. When she started her research, Hunter learned each school building sends thousands of pounds of food waste to the landfill every year. She’s attended an online composting seminar and has started gathering materials to integrate the compost project into the 2024–2025 school curriculum. Hunter also hopes to compost lunchroom leftovers to reduce waste and further enrich the gardens.
So, if you drive by Cordley this fall, you are likely to hear the sound of young students happily playing on the playground. But if you listen closely—and add in some imagination—you can also hear the worms, hard at work as educational tools and munchers: smoosh, smoosh, smoosh!
Brian Ondrejka, professional fishing guide
Brian Ondrejka, too, has a commute. But rather than driving from his west Lawrence home to an office on The Hill or some business amid the Kansas City sprawl, Ondrejka usually heads to Clinton Reservoir to launch the boat that serves as his floating office. Ondrejka, 35, holds the rare job of being a fulltime fishing guide in northeast Kansas. His Kansas Angling Experience Guide Service has hosted hundreds of clients from both coasts and many states in between. Many have fished with him several times.
“Brian is probably the most intelligent and knowledgeable fishing guide I’ve ever been around, and I’ve been around a lot of them,” says veteran Omaha angler Josh Meisinger. “I’ve probably fished with him 12 times the last few years and have three more dates booked for this year. My wife and I went down and fished with Brian for our anniversary last year. It was so much fun, we’re doing it this year.”
Ondrejka routinely takes out 280 to 300 guide trips annually. Much of the work, he says, takes place before and after he has clients afloat.
“A lot of people romanticize about fishing for a living but there are really so many layers to it,” Ondrejka notes. “What those people aren’t seeing is all of the work that goes on when I’m not out on the water. I no sooner get home from one trip than I’m getting ready for the next. That’s often a couple of hours of work. I need to keep the boat clean and all of the equipment working perfectly. A customer doesn’t want to lose the fish of a lifetime because the line broke because it hasn’t been changed in six months of heavy use.”
He spent most of his childhood in Wisconsin and fished often with his dad, Bob Ondrejka, for everything from salmon in sprawling Lake Michigan to northern pike and yellow perch in small, natural lakes. He was in for a bit of a shock when his dad took a job in Johnson County in 2000.
“My first impression was just awful,” recalls Ondrejka. “It was out at Hillsdale, and I saw all those trees sticking up out of the water—and that water was muddy. There weren’t any weeds or reeds like we were used to fishing up north. We adapted pretty quickly, and it wasn’t long before we started catching fish.”
In 2010, Ondrejka moved to Lawrence because he “thought it would be a fun place to live.” Much of the fun was at Clinton Reservoir, which sits just a few minutes from town. It’s also where he’s focused his guiding since he went part-time in 2015 and then full-time since 2019.
In his early days of guiding, Brian Ondrejka offered trips of four or eight hours. He sometimes did two short trips a day to accommodate as many clients as possible.
Now, his trips are four and six hours, which satisfies most clients. His two-a-days are becoming increasingly rare and are often used to help someone reschedule a canceled outing.
Ondrejka’s 2023 rates are $400 for a fourhour trip and $500 for up to six hours. Those rates are for two anglers. Additional anglers are $100 each. His boat can comfortably hold four clients, plus Ondrejka.
Cleaning fish is part of the package, and Ondrejka says he does it willingly.
The guide says his mind works even harder than his body as he’s constantly planning how to ensure any excursion on the lake turns into a stellar angling experience. He has to have several back-up plans for those days when the fishing is difficult.
Fortunately, Ondrejka has no shortage of great angling experience to draw on.
“I’d say I spend 85% of my guiding time on Clinton. It has such an amazing fishery. It has virtually everything you could ask for,” Ondrejka says. “It has great crappie, walleye, wipers, white bass—and we even do some smallmouth bass fishing. Everything is also so handy. The lake is five minutes from town, and some of the best fishing is usually as little as five minutes from the boat ramp.”
For the other 15% of his guiding time, Ondrejka takes customers to Melvern Reservoir, south of Topeka, for smallmouth bass fishing, especially in the fall when those fish are shallow and easy to catch.
Ondrejka estimates he has a steady client base from Nebraska and Iowa, states without as many fishing options as Kansas. He’s had guests from both coasts and many do the half-day drive up from the Wichita and Hutchinson regions. Why they’re booking the trips can be as varied as the hometowns of the clients.
“Some are pretty avid fishermen who want to get in on great angling. Some are real beginners wanting to learn as much as they can,” Ondrejka says.
Brian Ondrejka first began shooting videos of friends riding skateboards in the early 2000s.
“It’s just been a steady procession from there,” Ondrejka says. “I’ve learned a lot, and it’s just so easy to bring people along on all states of adventures, from top to bottom.”
Now he uses his video skills for fishing, and his Kansas Angling Experience YouTube channel has over 30,000 followers.
Earlier this year he started a podcast, “You Don’t Own the Lake.”
Ondrejka says the videos and podcasts have attracted people to his guiding operation, but they have also helped spread his messages about the right approach to fishing, such as taking a few extra measures to preserve fisheries.
For instance, when he brings people on trips, clients and guests are welcome to keep enough fish for a few nice meals, but large fish, like walleye over 21 inches and crappie over 14 inches usually get released.
Those larger fish, Ondrejka notes, can spawn a lot of new fish the following spring. They also pass along the kind of genetics that help their spawn also grow to large sizes.
Ondrejka says clients rarely object if they’re asked to release such fish, even if it’s the largest they’ve ever caught. Most go home with a bag of fillets and plenty of good memories.
He’s frequently guided longtime buddies or relatives who meet up for a fishing trip and people who’ve been given a guided trip as a birthday or Christmas gift by family members. Whatever the experience of the guest, getting into Ondrejka’s boat raises the odds of success exponentially, both on that day and later when the client is fishing on their own.
“I can hire Brian for four hours and almost be assured we’ll get into a lot of fish,” says Jeff Miller, an avid angler from Lee’s Summit, Missouri. “One of the main reasons I fish with Brian is because I learn so much from him, and it saves me so much time and money than learning totally on my own. I hired Brian one time just to get in my boat and teach me how to use all of my electronics. That was a tremendous help. I’ve learned enough I can go out by myself and catch crappie in the wintertime on my own. I haven’t mastered the other species yet,
but I’m learning more and more by fishing with Brian.”
Of course, it isn’t just about the fish.
“Catching fish is important, but so many people just enjoy getting out on the lake. It’s so pretty out there. I’ve had grown men get quiet and tell me they haven’t watched a sunrise in 30 years,” says Ondrejka. “People seem to be already super-excited and happy when they haven’t even picked up a rod yet.”
Wanting to share those kinds of experiences with loved ones is one reason Ondrejka often goes fishing on his rare free days. Ideally, he’ll take one of his two favorite fishing buddies. One is his wife, Dani. The other is his father, who is now retired.
“Pretty neat that when I was a kid, he took me fishing so often and taught me so much, but 30 years later I’m the one taking him,” Ondrejka remarks. “I feel blessed we get to do that sometimes.”
fish is important, but so many people just enjoy getting out on the lake. It’s so pretty out there. I’ve had grown men get quiet and tell me they haven’t watched a sunrise in 30 years. People seem to be already super-excited and happy when they haven’t even picked up a rod yet.”
–Brian Ondrejka
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On August 21, 1863, a Confederate militia rode into the antislavery town of Lawrence and massacred 150–200 people. Even against the backdrop of the ongoing Civil War, it was a particularly brutal outrage. Now, 160 years later, historian Sarah Parsons guides us through some key moments of the raid.
by
It began here.
I’m on a rise of land east of Lawrence. Perhaps as many as 450 raiders rode through the night to assemble under the command of William Quantrill. They came with purpose.
The years leading up to the Civil War were often called Bleeding Kansas because of attacks and retaliations between antislavery and proslavery forces. As a Free State stronghold, Lawrence had been the focus of raids from Missouri even though fears of a direct attack had largely abated two years into the war.
Lawrence from the south, Quantrill directed 11 of his men to occupy the city’s high ground of Mt. Oread and ordered the others to “rush on to the town.”
The sound of shots echoed from the farmland into town. Residents awoke in panic. They began hiding valuables, arming themselves, and fleeing before the rush of mounted gunmen.
The raiders stopped at Rev. Snyder’s house on what is now East 19th Street. Some accounts say the attackers found Snyder milking his cows. They approached the clergymen and repeatedly shot him. Snyder died a few minutes later, one of the day’s first victims.
Hugh Fraser, an army chaplain home on sick leave, hid inside his home until the raiders set it on fire. His wife, Elizabeth, on the pretext of saving belongings, dragged out a rug with Hugh hiding either inside or under it.
West of town, Free State leader James Lane raced from his home in his nightshirt and hid with others in a cornfield.
By mid-morning, most raiders were retreating from Lawrence. In only 4 hours, the town of some 3,000 had been changed forever. At least 150—some say 200—men and boys were slaughtered. Most downtown buildings and many residences were reduced to charred ruins. The survivors sifted through ashes and carried the dead to a temporary morgue. Their day ended in grief and turmoil.
Other men were taken by surprise with no chance of escape.
Senator Robert Dole, who would have turned 100 this past July, remains one of the state’s most influential political figures. These three essays examine the political giant’s legacy and relationship to Lawrence.
UponenteringtheDoleInstituteofPoliticsinWestLawrence, visitorsaregreetedwithagranitemapofKansasattheirfeet. Themapstrategicallyhighlightsjustthreedestinations:Russell, Lawrence,andTopeka,thusmarkingtheKansasanchorsinthe lifeofthelatesenatorBobDole.
BorninRussellin1923,Dolespenthisfreshmanyearatthe UniversityofKansasbeforeenrollingforwarservicein1942He returnedfromthewarwounded,spentyearsrecoveringinRussell, andthenwenttoTopekatofinishhiseducationandtakealaw degreeatWashburnUniversity.Fromthere,hewenttothestate legislature,toCongress,andthenforabidattheWhiteHouse.
ThoughLawrencewasabriefstopinDole’slife,hislegacy attheUniversityofKansasandinLawrencebecamedeeply rootedwhenthesenatoragreedtoarequestfromformerKU chancellorRobertHemenwaytoentrustthepolitician’scomplete congressionalarchivetotheuniversity.
“Atsomepointintime,itcouldhavebeenconceptualizedas apresidentiallibrary.Knowingthat,itneededtobeaplacethat wasorientedtowardthefutureandwasaresourceforstudents, specificallyKUstudents,butreallyforstudentsanywhereacross Kansasorbeyond,”saysAudreyColeman,theinstitute’sdirector.
Itwouldneverbecomeapresidentiallibrary.TheDole InstituteofPoliticsformallyopenedin2003,sevenyearsafter DolelosthispresidentialbidtoBillClintonandhadeffectively retiredfromcampaigningforoffice.Hediedin2021,inayear whenhisinstituteandpoliticallegacyofbipartisanpolitics seemedalmostananomaly.
Colemanbeganherworkattheinstituteoveradecade agowhensheenteredasseniorarchivistin2012.Havingmet withDoleseveraltimes,sherecallsthelatesenator’shumble attitudetowardtheinstitution,recallinghisdisdainforany “monument”label.
“Thisisaplacewherepeopleneedtocomeandlearnabout serviceandpoliticsandengagement.Butdefinitelynotaplace thatneededtoespousehispoliticalbeliefsorbededicatedsolely tohisbiography,”Colemansays.“BobDolewasaRepublican,but ourmissionisbipartisan,”sheadds.“Youwillnevergeteverybody tobeonthesamepageallthetime,butthere’sallthisspaceand allthisroomtoworktogetheronthingswherethereisroomto compromise”
Dole’slegacyisofteninvokedinKansaspolitics.
GovernorLauraKelly,aDemocrat,turnedtoDole’s bipartisanspiritwhenshehonoredhimataspecialceremonyin LawrenceonJuly23tomark20yearsoftheDoleInstituteand whatwouldhavebeenthe100thbirthdayofoneofKansas’most influentialpoliticians.
Speakingtoanaudiencethatincludedrepresentativesof bothmajorpoliticalparties,GovernorKellylaudedDoleasan inspirationwho“alwaysputcountryoverparty.”
Butthatidealwouldbeineffectualifitweretiedtoonlyone person’scareer.
To continue this legacy, the Dole Institute regularly hosts programs where members of all parties work together. Maria Fisher, the institute’s development and outreach coordinator, recalls an event from this past spring when Kansas legislators Tory Marie Blew, a Republican, and Rui Xu, a Democrat, discussed state legislative issues facing millennials, Gen Z and younger generations.
“It was pretty interesting how they didn’t overtly say, ‘Oh, I look to Senator Dole for inspiration in bipartisanship,’ but it is an example of how that does still exist,” Fisher says. “The Dole Institute is a place where those kinds of conversations happen on a regular basis. That’s what we’re here for.”
I first met Bob Dole when I was 12. I was excited to serve that week as a Kansas House of Representatives legislative page who was paid to fetch and carry for the lawmakers. There were many distinguished gray-haired legislators who had been there for years, but it was the young ones, most of whom had served in the war, who impressed me the most.
Both Dole and my father, L. Lew Henry, each a World War II combat-wounded veteran, had just been elected to the Kansas House. To me, they were young, handsome, and heroic. Another similarity was that their injuries kept them from fulfilling their dreams to become doctors. My father rarely spoke of his military service, so, at that time, I likely knew more about Dole’s service than my father’s. What I didn’t already know about Dole’s military service and political career, I later learned from his memoir, One Soldier’s Story
That Dole, who served as a lieutenant with the 10th Mountain Division in Italy’s Apennine Mountains, had been grievously wounded was obvious. He was thin, and his right arm was paralyzed as a result of the shell that shattered his shoulder, fractured his collarbone and damaged his spine. Before the war he had been a six-foot-two, 192-pound athlete at KU, competing in football, track and basketball, his favorite sport.
He was wounded April 14, 1945, when his unit moved through a valley under heavy machine gun fire. He was losing men and looked for his radioman to call for reinforcements. The radioman, still clutching his radio, was slumped over and covered in blood. Dole crawled toward him, intending to pull him into the safety of a shell hole, when he was struck. Dole’s men pulled him behind a wall. His sergeant administered a dose of morphine and, using Dole’s own blood, drew an M on his forehead, so when the medics found him they would not give him another dose, which might prove fatal. It was six hours before he was removed from the battlefield.
He had hoped to return to KU after the war as a studentathlete. Instead, he spent the next three years and three months in hospitals, enduring surgery after surgery, including one to remove an infected kidney that shot his fever to 109 degrees and almost killed him. At one point, he weighed only 122 pounds.
When he accepted the fact that his life was changed forever, he decided to make the most of what he had left, rather than bemoaning what he had lost. Gradually, he regained the ability to walk, with only his right arm remaining paralyzed.
Dole served only one term in the Kansas House before being elected county attorney in Russell County, an office he held eight years before being elected to Congress in 1960 and reelected three times. When he learned that US senator Frank Carlson planned to retire in 1968, Dole threw his hat in the ring and defeated former governor William Avery to win the Republican nomination. He then won the US Senate seat with 60% of the votes. He was reelected to that seat four times.
People often talk about how Dole, though involved in politics at the highest level, still kept in touch with his friends and constituents. I know this is not a political myth. In 1973, my dad died of a brain tumor that his Menninger neurosurgeon said originated from a head injury in World War II. I wanted to learn more about that injury but knew many military records were lost in a fire earlier that year at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis.
When he learned that I was searching for these records, Senator Dole had Dad’s few records that escaped the fire sent to Wichita so I didn’t have to drive so far to view them. It was typical of his thoughtfulness.
In both of Dole’s senate runs in the 1980s, I managed Douglas County Republican Headquarters in Lawrence. During one of them, we set up a booth for all GOP candidates at Baldwin City’s popular Maple Leaf Festival. Another worker and I were stationed at a smaller table, covered by a long tablecloth, a couple blocks away. That table was devoted solely to Dole’s campaign literature, plus we gave out cups of Dole pineapple juice to those who stopped to look and chat. Many passersby asked if he owned the Dole Company and we told them that he did not.
When Dole finished riding in a decorated car in the parade, he visited our table. We had run out of Dole juice and were substituting another brand that we hid under the table, only bringing it out to quickly fill cups. He thanked us for our help and stayed there quite a while, visiting with people who stopped to talk with him. If he noticed there were no cans of Dole pineapple juice prominently displayed on the table, he did not mention it.
During his fifth US Senate term, Dole resigned to run for president in 1996. He easily won the primary in a crowded field but lost to incumbent President Bill Clinton in the general. Dole lost his chance at the White House but never his humor. A Visa commercial featured Dole returning to the small town of Russell, where he grew up and worked as a soda jerk. Because he was widely known and loved, in the ad he was warmly and enthusiastically welcomed home until he tried to pay for his lunch
with a check—and the woman who had been reminiscing with him and calling him “Bob,” asked for his ID.
When President Clinton awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom only two months after defeating him, Dole began his acceptance speech by saying, “I, Robert J. Dole, do solemnly swear,” beginning the presidential oath of office before saying, “Wrong speech.” He later joked that the award he expected to be getting was the key to the White House.
He appeared on Leno and Letterman, leaving audiences in stitches. Leno in his monologue called actress Susan Lucci, who failed to win an award after being nominated for the seventeenth time, “the Bob Dole of daytime television.” Dole then walked out from behind the curtain and said, “Bob Dole doesn’t like that joke. Bob Dole is fed up. Bob Dole has had five years of this, Leno...” before breaking up in laughter.
Dole recounted that Late Night experience in his book, One Soldier’s Story, published in 2005, which he autographed for me. His habit of referring to himself in the third person was often parodied, and he wrote in the book, “I don’t know how or why I ever started doing such a silly thing in the first place. False humility, I guess.”
When KU’s Dole Institute of Politics opened in 2003, it included a wall of pictures of WWII veterans. The war and its aftermath were a defining part of Dole’s life, but he chose to share that honor with others who had served.
When President Clinton asked Dole to be the national chairman of the World War II Memorial Campaign, he jumped at the chance. After the memorial opened in 2004, Senator Dole tried to meet and visit with WWII veterans from every Kansas Honor Flight touring the memorial—even when he required the use of a wheelchair.
In 2006, the WWII Ranger Battalions held their national reunion in Lawrence at my invitation. I had earlier contacted Senator Dole, who agreed to be the speaker at the Rangers’ Saturday night banquet. Unfortunately, he developed a health issue, and his doctors refused to allow him to make the trip. I was worried about getting a speaker at such late notice, but Dole saved the day by asking General David Petraeus, then commander at Fort Leavenworth, to speak in his place.
My last communication with Dole was on November 3, 2021, when he, or someone using his email, asked me to resend my request for him to endorse a Congressional Gold Medal for WWII Rangers. I complied but did not hear from him again. He died a month later, on December 5, 2021.
When someone told Bob Dole that he was a hero, he answered the way my father did when someone referred to him as a hero: “The heroes are still over there” or “The heroes never came home.”
With all due respect, I beg to differ.
Robert Dole’s connection to Lawrence represents a strange union between a loyal Republican who endorsed all his party’s candidates up to Donald J. Trump and one of the state’s bluest Democratic strongholds.
It’s a relationship that weathered, to some degree, tremendous political upheaval.
When Bob Dole entered Congress in 1961, Lawrence was still very much like the rest of Kansas—reliable moderate Republican territory.
Former University of Kansas professor Dennis Domer notes that he and many Kansas students of that era grew up as political moderates in Eisenhower-era households.
“Most of us did,” he says. “I came out of a Republican family.”
But as the war in Vietnam escalated, a shift began in Lawrence. American college campuses became centers of activism, and KU, which Dole attended prior to WWII, was no exception.
In March 1965, students staged a fair-housing picket and sit-in outside of Chancellor Wescoe’s office. In an interview with KU’s Kenneth Spencer Research Library staff, historian Rusty L. Monhollon notes this action “was perhaps the most successful civil rights protest ever in Lawrence.”
By December 1965, protestors in town were publicly questioning what victory in South Vietnam would look like. They opposed the policies of President Lyndon B. Johnson, and they had little trust in the promised peace plans of Richard Nixon.
After Richard Nixon took the presidency in 1969, he increasingly relied on the World War II hero from Russell—now a US senator—to carry the banner for war.
“Dole, he quickly became a spokesperson for President Nixon,” says former KU professor Bill Tuttle, who arrived in 1967 as Dole’s prominence rose.
After only two years in the Senate, Dole became the chair of the Republican National Convention in 1971. “He really had to support it all,” Tuttle says.
But in Lawrence, a new generation was discovering that they didn’t have to support it all—or any of it.
“The younger generations, they pushed to see the establishment of Black studies, Latin American studies. They championed women’s rights,” Domer notes. “This era saw the establishment of new departments around these ideas and movements—reproductive rights, human rights in general.”
And, for Tuttle, one particular Dole memory stands out. It was 1972, and Dole came to KU to speak on the Vietnam War.
Tuttle remembers a raucous crowd, boos, real anger at Dole for bringing his conservative, and, in the eyes of the campus community, out-of-touch views to town. He also feels Dole seemed to enjoy the sparring as it gave him something to take back to his western Kansas base.
“In all honesty, he seemed to really just want to get Lawrence agitated,” Tuttle says.
At that time, Dole’s traditional politics held sway—even in Lawrence.
“You have the University of Kansas, which becomes in the ’60s and ’70s kind of a symbol of that era. Liberalism, hippies, drugs, whatever. But the rest of the community remains pretty conservative throughout that period,” notes historian Virgil Dean, who has worked with the Dole Institute and tracked Dole’s political career closely. “Looking back at election returns, for example, in ’72, Douglas County—I don’t have a breakdown for Lawrence, but Lawrence was a big majority of Douglas County— went for Nixon and Agnew.”
The big shift would begin from 1972 to 1974.
“Watergate hits, and then the election of ’74,” Dean says. “That’s dragging Dole down.”
Dole went out of his way in 1973 to tell the besieged Nixon he felt Watergate would blow over. Nixon’s own papers cite a May 22 visit by Dole where the Kansan offered personal encouragement.
By 1974, when Dole won statewide in his first Senate reelection, Dean goes so far as to say Dole was probably on course to lose. The campaign turned nasty in the end, and Dole turned to the emerging anti-abortion crowd to carry the day.
A June 1996 New York Times story looking into Dole’s past focused on the 1974 campaign. “Abortion, Dole’s Sword in ’74, Returns to Confront Him in ’96,” the headline reads.
Times reporter Elizabeth Kolbert reported the ’74 campaign was, at that point, Kansas’ most expensive. And, she noted, it “may still rank as the ugliest.”
“It began with insinuations of corruption and incompetence and soon escalated to accusations of slander and sleazy campaigning,” she wrote. “It featured, quite literally, a round of televised mudslinging. And it ended with a last-minute barrage of leaflets distributed anonymously.
“The leaflets featured pictures of discarded fetuses in garbage cans. ‘Vote Dole,’ they said.”
Dole did carry Kansas in ’74 by a small margin, but he lost Douglas County fairly significantly.
“But that’s the only time,” Dean says. “After that, he rebounds.”
Jerry Seib, a Hays native who worked as a journalist at the Wall Street Journal for nearly 45 years and recently served as a research fellow at the Dole Institute, notes that attitudes toward Dole on the KU campus had softened by the time Seib graduated in 1978.
“The campus political environment was very much left of Bob Dole,” Seib says. “I would say even in those days there was a grudging respect for Bob Dole because he was an accomplished national politician who had done a lot for the state, whatever you thought about his politics at the 10,000-foot level, he had done an enormous amount of good for the state, and that was respected.”
Tuttle notes that Dole seemed to change some after the war.
“He became closer to George McGovern on issues on food stamps, poverty, hunger,” Tuttle says of Dole’s political partnership with the senator from South Dakota and Democratic presidential candidate in 1972.
Dole lobbied for tax increases, seeing one enacted in 1982, a surprising move for a Republican of any era. And, Dole was an ardent supporter of the landmark 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act.
Seib also tells Washington folklore that attributes Dole’s 1975 marriage to Elizabeth Hanford, who would later become Senator Elizabeth Dole, to “softening” the senator’s political views.
“I think he would tell you that also; we have had that conversation,” Seib recalls.
Seib says his relationship with the senator evolved over the years throughout his work reporting on national politics. “I think not just my impressions, but I think the general perception of Dole changed a lot over the years, and that’s why I find him such an interesting person,” Seib says. “He went from having a reputation as kind of a partisan slasher, to being probably the best legislator of his generation.”
That evolution almost allowed Dole to carry Douglas County during his 1996 presidential run. Douglas County went for Clinton/Gore in ’96, but it was close—only by about 2,000 votes. Domer says by that time, Lawrence had become “the blue island that we think about now.”
As time wore on and the Republican party lurched more and more to the right through the Gingrich years and beyond, did Dole remain a moderate?
His work at the Senate featured compromises but also earned him the nickname of “Mr. Gridlock” for stalling Democratic proposals.
In 2004, he joined in the smears against Vietnam War veteran
and Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. He also went so far as to endorse Trump in 2016, a move that, in 2021, Politico noted was signature for a man who had always been a die-hard party loyalist.
“He was a Republican whose party loyalty was immutable; so much so that in 2016, he was the only one of the five living previous GOP presidential nominees to endorse Donald Trump,” the article reads.
Tuttle himself gives Dole some room on his Trump endorsement. “I think that’s probably just Dole as a Republican,” Tuttle notes.
By the time he died, Dole had begun expressing less support for Trump, but never fully repudiated Trump’s politics or legacy. Asked point blank if Dole was Mr. Compromise or Mr. Gridlock, Domer says, “Mr. Compromise.” But, he adds, “Dole was no McCain,” a reference to the late Senator John McCain who spoke out against many of Trump’s political policies—at some cost to his own influence in the Republican party.
But refraining from those types of gestures—whether morally right or wrong—was consistent with Dole’s strategic practicality.
In the end, Dole was interested in governing, notes Dean. “He was very conservative, but he learned in D.C. he had to compromise to get things done.”
Kansas educator Erik Erazo heads up a transformational lowrider bike-building club for high school students
Story by Amber Fraley Photography by Jason Dailey
Erik Erazo grew up in California, where he didn’t feel connected to school or learning. He describes himself as “kind of getting into trouble” as a teenager.
At fifteen, he became a dad.
He joined the military to provide for his family, but when his term of service was up, didn’t see a future for himself in his home state.
“I didn’t feel like it was a place for me to grow,” he says.
The cost of living was prohibitive for a young family, and Erazo thought work opportunities were limited. Luckily, a cousin living in Kansas contacted him and invited him to check out the job market. Soon after they saw Kansas housing prices, Erazo and his wife moved to Olathe in the early 2000s.
Erazo initially wanted work as a mechanic, but when that didn’t pan out, he changed tactics and landed a job as a security guard with Olathe North High School.
After being hired, Erazo began to engage with the kids, especially the Hispanic ones. “I saw kids like me, that were
struggling with their identity, really trying to belong, because the Hispanic community was just barely starting to grow in Olathe.”
Erazo came to love interacting with the kids, but more than that, began to find value in the school itself, a place he felt had pushed him away in the past.
“I really fell in love with education,” he says, as he recalls asking one of the school counselors what it would take to become a teacher. Erazo worked to earn a bachelor’s degree, and then his masters, by taking college classes at night. “Now I’m a district administrator.”
Erazo’s first administrative role was as the executive director of student and community engagement (later to become executive director of diversity and engagement). As he settled into his role, he had a chance encounter with a fellow churchgoer who worked for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). When she found out Erazo wanted to start a free after-school program for at-risk teens, she helped him secure a grant to set up a drugprevention program, The Spot, and find mentors to come in and interact with the kids.
Erazo continued to invite members of local law enforcement, the fire department and other government agencies to become mentors. All obliged. Erazo then started a district-wide Hispanic leadership program, which worked with kids in elementary school and followed them throughout their school years.
to do is provide extracurricular activities and mentoring,” he says. “Seems simple enough, but you’re trying to engage a kid who’s not engaged in school to stay after school and talk about their feelings—that’s a hard task.”
“By high school, they’re committed to the program,” Erazo explains. While the Hispanic leadership program was highly successful with academically minded kids who ended up attending college, it wasn’t reaching the kids who weren’t college-bound. Erazo wanted to find a positive way to engage those kids with school.
Eric Erazo and members of the Olathe Lowrider Bike Club will showcase some of their bikes at this year’s Rev It Up Hot Rod Street Fest, September 30, 8 a.m.–3 p.m. in South Park. revitupcarshow.org
“I looked at the data and what it tells us about how to reach high at-risk students, and the data really tells you what you need
That’s when Erazo thought back to what engaged him as a Hispanic kid in California— lowriders. Even before he was old enough to start tinkering with cars, he began building lowrider-style bicycles at the age of 11. “I thought, what if I build a lowrider bike? Maybe the kids will like it.”
He did just that, putting the tricked-out bicycle on display at Olathe North High School. “Kids would walk by the bike and say ‘Nice bike! Can I have it?’ and I’d be like, “No, but you can come build one with me after school on Monday if you want.”
It worked beautifully. Students started coming to Olathe Leadership Lowrider Bike Club because of the bikes, but they stayed because they connected with friends and their mentors.
“I noticed a lot of our kids felt limited in what they could do because they fear the police,” Erazo says. “None of my kids had had a severe, bad interaction with the police, but none of them had a positive interaction with the police, either. I didn’t want the kids to feel that way, so I reached out to the chief of police, and I asked him if he would send a police officer who was down to earth to work with the kids, and they did.”
Officer Logan Bonnie is still working with kids in the Lowrider Bike Club, and Erazo credits Bonnie, and other officers and firefighters, for building bridges with his kids. The kids have built custom bikes for the local police, sheriff’s office and firefighters, and some students have even invited officers to their quinceañeras.
Every student in the program receives a basic bike kit, and they have all four years of high school to build it, if they join the club during their first year in high school. Though the bike kits are $300 each, Erazo says by the end of high school, a kid can create a bike worth as much as $5,000. “Throughout the time they’re with the program, they get to show that bike off at any show we go to,” he explains. “However, they don’t get to take it home and keep it until they graduate high school. Our chapter has a 100 percent graduation rate.”
Students learn mechanical skills, welding, painting, and even autobody work in the program. “Math is highly involved in all that,” Erazo explains. “I could go on and on about the physical skills they learn, but really what they learn is structure, discipline, and expectations. We make sure the kids are being accountable for their grades.”
The program, started in 2016, was so successful in Olathe, Erazo has helped open chapters in Kansas City, Kansas, as well as Albuquerque and Española, New Mexico.
When we spoke, Erazo and his students had recently returned from the Albuquerque Lowrider Super Show where they earned five trophies—three first-place—including first place for a lowrider police car they built for the show. “The one car we ever did, and it took us three years. I don’t know if I’ll ever do another one,” he laughs.
While the Olathe Lowrider Bike Club has created all kinds of successes for kids, one Olathe North High School student Oswaldo Polanco has become such a talented custom painter in his own right that he co-taught a painting class with well-known lowrider paint artist Rob Vanderslice of Albuquerque.
Sometimes people ask if kids who don’t attend Olathe North can join the bike club. They can’t, but Erazo says he is happy to assist any school system start their own lowrider bike club.
Front-facing forks
the fork is the set of bars where the wheel attaches to the bike frame; on most bikes, these sit straight up, but on lowriders they slide vertically into the frame, bringing down the entire bike
Banana seats
long seats that can fit two riders
customization a good lowrider bike is a unique work of art, customized for and by its rider
ape-hanger Handlebars
upswept, U-shaped handlebars
built for show
Although this style of bike began appearing in the United States during the 1960s, there are no universal standards for lowriders; however, these elements are usually included … Small wheels the smaller wheels give the bike much of its low-riding appearance
a lowrider bike isn’t built to take on a bike trail or to race in a timed heat—it’s ridden to be seen and admired
