Salina area’s premier Magazine on People, Places & Style
10
years...
and counting for Ken Hakoda and the Salina Symphony
SUNFLOWER LIVING
&POISED
YOUNG
Building Tomorrow’s Business Leaders
4
$
SPRING
2014
Here’s the church … Up there are the steeples … And these are some of the people who opened the doors to preserve church, town and steeples … THE GUARDIANS OF ST. JOSEPH
SUNFLOWER LIVING
FEATURES
volume 05 / issue 01
Publisher Olaf Frandsen Advertising Director Dave Gilchrist advertising sales managers
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2013
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MAGAZIN E OF THE YE AR
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Ad designers
Jamie Jeffries Annette Klein Aaron Johnson Kristin Scheele
photographers Lisa Eastman Larry Harwood Deborah Walker
Contributing writers
Patricia E. Ackerman Chelsey Crawford cash hollistah Linda Lewis Judy Lilly Ann Parr Meta Newell West
32.
Where St. Joe Comes Marching In
Insurance office-turned-café serves up healthy portions of community spirit
Contributing artist Lana Grove
Production and editorial services for Sunflower Living provided by: Editor Nathan Pettengill art director Shelly Bryant Head graphic designer Jenni Leiste Chief Photographer Jason Dailey copy editor Deron Lee General Manager Bert Hull e-mail Comments to
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DEPARTMENTS
08.
16.
Cramped, damp, uncomfortable and unstable, dugouts nonetheless provided essential shelter for immigrants in their crucial, early years on the Kansas plains.
Throughout a decade of music, home for this award-winning conductor has been where the baton is
Love it … or Dig It
12.
‘Whose influence, like the wreath of radiant fire…’ On the 450th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s birth, writer Linda Lewis remembers Lindsborg’s Shakespeare Club and its leader, the brilliant and still-revered Ina Bell Auld.
Ten for Ken
22.
Dish Harmony
A cello-playing swine specialist and an enthusiastic caterer create pleasing menus
28.
All About ‘Olaf’
New Deal artwork testifies to a time when life was difficult, but hope was large … and carved in stone
46.
Photo contest
This round’s winner and our next theme
spring 2014
contents
40.
16.
Young ONES
In its third year, a new professional group seeks to identify, develop and retain the region’s best hopes for future business success.
22.
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from the editor
about the writers Regular Contributors Patricia e. Ackerman
Patricia Ackerman is a professor of language arts at Kansas State University—Salina. In addition to writing, she enjoys traveling, gardening, and spending time with her family.
Chelsey crawford
Chelsey Crawford studied history and literature at the University of Kansas. She enjoys reading, gardening and spending time with family. Currently, she is working on her first novel.
cash hollistah
cash hollistah is a national recording hip-hop artist who hosts an monthly open mic event in Salina.
linda lewis
Linda Lewis, professor of English at Bethany College, has published four books and numerous articles on nineteenth-century British and French poets and novelists.
judy lilLy
Lifelong Kansan Judy Lilly is the former Kansas history librarian at the Salina Public Library. Now retired, she attends writing groups, reads, researches and travels with her husband, Dennis.
ann parr
Ann Parr writes for children, leads partnerships of senior citizens and high school students in student bookmaking workshops and scouts the country for unique story subjects.
meta newell west
Meta Newell West spends a lot of time in her Abilene kitchen. She and husband Barry also team up to teach cooking classes.
THE AGE
SPECTRUM
We’re delighted in this issue to feature some of the members of Salina Area Young Professionals. Chelsey Crawford and Larry Harwood highlight the work this organization does and their goal to mentor, provide for and retain Millennial-generation business talent. Having just hosted the statewide Young Professionals meeting, this group represents the region’s hopes of continuing to be a vital area where businesses and farms SUNFLOWER 10 flourish and attract new generations of community leaders. But youth are not the only ones who can provide lessons on new skills and new ventures—as we see in Patricia Ackerman and Larry Harwood’s feature story on the revival of a city community center and church in on the St. Joseph, Kansas. Here, an entire community banded cover: together using both old-fashioned home cooking and Members of The social media to create an organization and raise funds Guardians of St. to keep their heritage alive. The result of their work is Joseph Church Foundation already visible in the buildings they have preserved, and stand inside hopefully it will lead to retaining and attracting a new the church their community generation of residents as well. preserved. Join us to read their stories, as well as other original Photograph Larry Harwood articles all across the Sunflower Living spectrum. Salina area’S premier magazine on people, placeS & Style
years...
aNd cOUNtiNg FOR KEN HaKOda aNd tHE SaLiNa SympHONy
LIVING
&POISED
YOUNG
Building tomorrow in BuSineSS leaderS
4
$
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2014
Here’s the church … Up there’s the steeple … And these are some of the people, who opened the doors to preserve church, town and steeple … tHE gUaRdiaNS OF St. JOSEpH
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spring 2014
PREVIOUSLY
about
Letters, Comments and Observations about our Previous Editions
Glass Detective
In preparing our story for this issue’s edition on the church in St. Joseph, we were curious if any of the same artists who created the original glasswork also worked on any of the stained glass in downtown Salina churches featured in our previous edition’s story. We didn’t find any immediate, local connection, so we called Scott Hoefer, owner of Hoefer Custom Stained Glass in Hutchinson, who is currently restoring the St. Joseph windows. He says, based on the design and the painting style, that the St. Joseph glasswork is almost definitely by the same artist who created the glasswork of St. Joseph church in Olpe, Kansas. Describing the work as “top-notch” because of “the details of the faces, the hair, the hands, the background of the sky and the land and the sheep … it’s extraordinary,” Hoefer also points out another extraordinary feat in bringing this type of glass to central Kansas—the transportation of it. And then, once the glasswork survived journey by rail and wagon, it somehow withstood years of Kansas storms. Most of these church windows, Hoefer notes, had no plastic or protective coverings for five to six decades.
Raise the Curtains!
One year ago, our travel story on Concordia mentioned one of the city’s gems, the Brown Grand Theatre, which at the time was undergoing some repairs. Anticipated to cause a minor closing, those repairs turned into a major reconstruction project and capital funds drive. “At first we thought the rigging needed to be replaced,” says the theater’s executive director Susan CantineMaxson. “Then we needed to call a structural engineer. Then we had a whole redesign of the weight support for the roofing truss. This involved reinforcing the stage floor to hold enough weight for the equipment— an $800,000 project.” But there’s good news now. Brown Grand Theatre is set to open this April or May. And all the structural work, Cantine-Maxson says, should keep the 1907 building open for another century of entertainment.
Sunrises
In spring 2011, we introduced Bennington artist Debbie Wagner and her series of almost daily sunrise paintings that she had been doing since the end of 2005. Three years later, Wagner continues this project, gaining national attention as well as an incredible insight into the Kansas skyline. “I do notice differences over the years. Usually winter is extremely intense, but this year, for example, the sky was more subtle,” says Wagner. But then there was the sunrise of February 5. “I saw sundogs for the first time this year—three suns in the sky—and it was really intense, incredible.” Wagner, who began drawing the sunrises as she recovered from a brain tumor, receives orders for drawings from across the United States. She is surprised, but grateful to be able to share them. “The sunrises were a journal. They were the one part of my art that I didn’t ever expect to be noticed like it had,” she says. “I think that because of my illness, the sunrise series is more authentic, maybe. I am truly appreciative of painting the sunrise for another day. And that is how I want to keep it—if I didn’t sell another one, I would still paint the sunrise.”
YOUR TURN
If you have something to share about this edition of Sunflower Living, please send an email to sunflowerliving@sunflowerpub.com or write to us at Sunflower Living / PO Box 740 / Salina, KS 67402. We are always eager to hear from you.
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behind the
scenes Dugouts were common shelters across Kansas in the mid- and late-1800s. This photograph of Kansas settlers and their dugout in Mead County comes come from the Kansas State Historical Society and the Kansas Memory collection.
Creekside
Our writer and photographer scoured the shore of the Smoky Hill River to find the location where the Salina Dugout was built. Do you recognize the area from the photo above?
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Love it ‌
or dig it Cramped, damp, uncomfortable and unstable, dugouts nonetheless provided essential shelter for immigrants in their crucial, early years on the Kansas plains.
DUGOUTS
SPACES Photography by Lisa Eastman Story by Ann Parr
T
housands of broken-down lawyers and doctors, famine victims, and refugees from pogroms in Europe emigrated to the Great Plains during the late 1800s. They joined immigrants who had been industry workers—shoemakers, ironworkers, miners, tradesmen of every description. They were lured by the Homestead Act of 1862 and its promise of free land, but few were farmers. Even newly arrived farmers had little experience to prepare them for the unfriendly environment’s hardships of adverse weather, loneliness and disease. Some arrived at a distinct disadvantage, as their governments did not allow them to take large amounts of money out of their homelands. A bit of clothing, a Bible, a book of sermons, a few wooden utensils, maybe a spinning wheel and an axe—were the sum of what they brought with them. On arriving, they were faced with an immeasurable vast circular horizon offering little usable wood or well-formed stone for shelter. Survivors that they were, they pooled their skills and produced more than 1 million make-do sod houses and dugouts on the American plains. These structures became homes, made as safe and comfortable as possible. Dugouts became primitive schools where children—many of them encountering English lessons for the first time—learned reading, writing and arithmetic. Some of the first dugouts were churches, then post offices; stores were added
later. Dugouts even served as protection from harsh weather for livestock. The dugouts were most commonly placed on hilly areas near water, facing east to capture as much sunlight as possible during the days, keeping the strong north and south winds toward the longer sides of the structure, and avoiding many of the heavy storms that came from the west. Floors were leveled; front walls and sidewalls jutted partly in and out of the ground. A roof, often sod, joined the upward slope of the hill. Yet nothing about a dugout was secure. Walls caved in. Unattended livestock walked on and fell through roofs. Unwelcome varmints such as creepy snakes and curious raccoons appeared at inopportune times. Every day, life in a dugout called into question the new pioneers’ reasons for leaving their homes and tested their resolve for staying. Some of the dugout owners succumbed to mental institutions and graveyards, while others trudged on with determination and belief in the inherent beauty of a new kind of existence. Forty percent of the nearly 4 million homesteaders met the requirements to make claim to their land—living on the land for five years at $1.25 per acre, improving it with at least one 12– by-14-foot dwelling, and growing crops. Their legacy remains in the communities that grew around them and the few nearly forgotten dugouts that dot the plains.
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The Höglund dugout Gustaf and Maria Höglund left their beautiful Swedish home and all members of their families in 1868 and 1869, respectively, and settled in Kansas’s Smoky Valley. Six-foot-high prairie grassland, snakes and coyotes, and hot July winds greeted them, but they stayed. Their first home, a 6-by-12-foot dugout, still remains about one mile west of Lindsborg. It was nothing more than a pit dug in the ground for sitting and sleeping, with a small stone cutout on the north side for cooking fires, and steps leading to the surface on the east where a doorway arch graced the entrance. The Höglunds placed their wagon crosswise over the 8-footdeep dugout. From the sides of the wagon, they stretched heavy cloth from side to side to serve as a roof. It was crowded and
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dirty, damp and miserable. Reports say that two of the Höglunds’ eight children were born before they moved to larger quarters. Their first child, Gustav, died at six months of age. The last of their children, Alma, died in 1975 at age 87. In general, the Höglunds fared well. Many others did not. Illnesses from the primitive conditions, poor nutrition and respiratory diseases claimed many lives, especially among infants and children. The Höglunds lived in this dugout for two years before they built a stone house adjoining the dugout, which then became their storage cellar. The dugout and the land around it were deeded to the Smoky Valley Historical Association, and restoration was completed in 1991. Now, the dugout attracts area tourists and school groups throughout the year.
The Salemsborg dugout In June 1869, as soon as a group of Swedish Lutheran settlers in Kansas had completed shelters for themselves and their families, they began planning a church dugout. Starting in the area north of Lindsborg and southwest of Salina, they laid out and built a 40-foot-long and 20-foot-wide dugout with dirt walls extended by stone to support a wooden roof. Before services began each week, a couple of young people scampered into the dugout and removed snakes that inhabited the dark, damp environment. This arrangement served the congregation until the dirt walls collapsed from heavy rains on October 2. So the congregation rebuilt the walls entirely of stone. They also placed eaves on the roof to deflect the flow of rain. The second dugout proved to be more sturdy, but the dirt floors still suffered from the moisture, and parishioners’ shoes stuck in the wet clay. Boards were placed on the floor for the minister near a wooden pulpit. By 1873, church membership had climbed to 600, and the dugout was much too small. In June of that year, members voted to build a second church, a wooden structure 80 feet long, 35 feet wide, and 16 feet high, with four windows on each side. Services in the new church began on Thanksgiving Day, 1874. When church membership outgrew the building’s size again by 1892, the congregation erected a church 88 feet long by 50 feet wide with a 39-foot ceiling at the highest point. This third church lasted until July 1925, when it was struck by lightning and burned to the ground. By August 10 of that year, members voted
DUGOUTS
SPACES OPPOSITE: A small rock memorial stands where the Salemsborg Church erected a pulpit in their original dugoutchurch. The dugout exhibit at the Smoky Hill Museum was built to reflect what an authentic dugout might have looked like and contained in the Salina region of the late 1800s.
to rebuild once again. This church still stands, with a rock memorial on the southwest grounds indicating the spot where the dugout’s wooden pulpit stood. Through all the changes, it has kept the same name: Salemsborg, which means “peaceful fortress.” The Salina dugout According to research commissioned by the Smoky Hill Museum, Alexander Campbell and James Muir, early settlers in Saline County, built a dugout in Salina north of what is now the Elm Street bridge behind Comcare Clinic at 617 East Elm. They dug into the west bank of the Smoky Hill River, which flowed behind the present-day building, where trees along the bank would have offered shade. River water would have provided the means for bathing, laundry and growing crops. Walls along the sides of the dirt cavity were held up by vertical timbers, and a door must have been made of saplings, hinged with rope. No evidence of the shelter remains.
In the daytime during good weather, most of the settlers’ time was spent outside the dugout. Many food sources hailed from the river environment, such as cattail pollen, which was used as flour. Mats were woven from leaves, and peeled prairie turnips were boiled, fried, dried, or eaten raw. The interior of the Campbell-Muir dugout most likely was insulated with buffalo skins and furnished with some primitive chairs and a table, all on an earthen floor. The log roof would have been covered with branches and dirt or clay. As soon as they could, these men built and moved into a log cabin, leaving the dugout as a designated respite for homeless pioneers or those passing through who needed a place to spend the night. They left in place a bed of straw to sleep on, a fireplace for cooking and oil lamps to light the way for whomever might arrive. During the summer, flowers on the sod roof would have provided a friendly reminder of the dugout’s location and its protection from the elements that were, with the refuge of a dugout, a bit less threatening. Sunflower living spring 2014
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*
*Lady Macbeth in Hamlet **Earl of Kent in King Lear
‘Whose influence, like the wreath of radiant fire …’**
On the 450th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s birth, writer Linda Lewis remembers Lindsborg’s Shakespeare Club and its leader, the brilliant and still-revered Ina Bell Auld.
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Illustrations by Lana Grove
PROFILE
Ina Bell Auld
I
*
Story by Linda Lewis
n the late 1950s, a gathering of intellectual women— the Shakespeare Club—would meet in Lindsborg, Kansas, to discuss the Bard’s plays. Among the members were beloved Bethany College math professor Anna Marm; English instructor and former special correspondent for The New York Times Alma Luise Olson; Christmas-dinner host Edith Morris; and Bethany alumna and Air Force pilot widow Kathleen Koons. But the club’s leader was the Shakespearean scholar Dr. Ina Bell Auld. Auld was born April 8, 1896, in Hawkeye, Iowa. She graduated from Penn College (now William Penn University) in Iowa and taught at high schools and junior college in Iowa and Montana before receiving her Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in 1938, back when few women pursued advanced degrees. She arrived at Bethany in 1938 as professor and English department chair. Auld’s doctoral dissertation, Woman in the Renaissance: A Study of the Attitude of Shakespeare and His Contemporaries, was written decades before feminism transformed the study of humanities. It is a compendium of anti-female rhetoric from the ancients to the Elizabethans—including poetry, scripture, philosophy, drama, ballads, sermons, laws, and even the Renaissance equivalent of mother-in-law jokes. To all this misogyny Auld responded, “We need not take at literal value the invectives ... any more than we do the adulation of the Petrarchan [Tudor-era] sonneteers.” She conceded that women of Shakespeare’s time were intellectually inferior to men, but only because they were deprived of learning, self-expression and independence—deprivations that Auld refused to sanction. Auld lived with her twin sister, Inez Dell, in an apartment near campus. One sister’s talent was literary, the other’s culinary. Some believe that the quiet Inez Dell moved to Kansas to care for Ina Bell, who in later life suffered debilitating migraines and was often too ill to teach. Like Shakespeare Club members Marm and Olson, neither sister ever married. Auld was distinctive in appearance. Only about 5 feet tall, she had large eyes magnified by powerful eyeglasses— penetrating eyes that terrified many novice students. She wore her hair cut short and her dresses cut long. Although several former students recall their English professor as dowdy and indifferent to fashion, colleagues noted her neat, crisp appearance, and one student remembers the flair of a particular purple and orange cape that she wore. Accounts of Auld’s fashion sense are inconsistent, but her students have not forgotten her teaching style. She was precise, demanding and difficult, but also “approachable.” In her classes, spelling counted, as did legibility, accuracy, and precision. She required students to submit their notebooks, forced them to back up their assertions, and sometimes locked her classroom door at the exact minute class began—thereby preventing tardiness. She
* Biron in Love’s Labour’s Lost ** Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night Sunflower living spring 2014
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ath h e h “[S] me out eaten use and of ho me.” ho
__
T C h Ta ante les erb ur
y
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loaned out her books and sponsored the English club. She assigned memorization of key passages, and her English majors of a half-century ago can still recite from the prologue of The Canterbury Tales—in Chaucerian Middle English. For many the discipline paid off: The late Elston Flohr, a Bethany English professor from 1967 to 1987, remarked that Auld’s Shakespeare classes were excellent preparation for graduate school. Every former student has a favorite “Dr. Auld story.” After Salina sculptor Richard Bergen wrote a required personal philosophy for Auld’s freshman English class, Auld handed him the autobiography of the German poet Goethe, whose worldview, she said, was similar to her young student’s. Elizabeth Dahlsten Larson, a retired librarian at St. Olaf College, recalls Auld’s mischief in assigning Don Marquis’s “Archy and Mehitabel” series because, presumably, provincial Kansas students needed to read the “damn, damn, damn” voiced by the main character, a cockroach who commandeered a typewriter. Paul A. Olson, who earned his Ph.D. at Princeton and became a medievalist at the University of Nebraska, was supported by Auld when he chose to submit as his senior thesis a “terrible novel” (Olson’s words) in the style of Nobel Prize laureate William Faulkner. Olson adds that Auld was a stalwart advocate for human rights: She encouraged him to write an editorial on racism in Lindsborg. Olson published this editorial in The Bethany Messenger in 1950, and Auld stood by him in the aftermath. Auld was a serious teacher, a serious scholar of British literature and an uncompromisingly serious Shakespearean. She reportedly became incensed whenever some student raised the “anti-Stratfordian” argument that somebody other than Shakespeare wrote his famous plays. And she was furious every time Alma Luise Olson—at a meeting of the Shakespeare Club—suggested that Shakespeare’s female characters pale in comparison to his knights and kings. Auld considered the women of the plays as central to Shakespeare’s themes. At the end of the 1959-60 school year, Auld relinquished her post as chair of the English department. Already the Shakespeare Club had dissolved, apparently because of the friction between its two most outspoken members. Auld must have sensed that death was imminent: She held a tea party for the 1959 English graduates, presenting each with a rare book, a ceramic piece, or a Birger Sandzén lithograph from her collection. She died in her Second Street apartment on September 18, 1960. She was buried in Fremont, Iowa, and her twin sister left Lindsborg permanently. Numerous eulogies followed Auld’s death. “No earnest student ever left her classes without some new treasure of scholarship,” wrote former Bethany president L. Dale Lund. In the 1975 book, Bethany in Kansas, Emory Lindquist (the former Bethany president who had dealt with the fallout from Paul Olson’s Messenger editorial)
Alma Luise Olson
Ina Bell Auld
PROFILE
noted how Auld would often climb stairs to the top floor of Bethany’s Old Main to look out across the plains—and presents this as a metaphor for the professor’s far-reaching vision and influence. Now, 450 years after the birth of William Shakespeare and 118 years after the birth of Ina Bell Auld, the large shadow of this tiny Shakespearean reaches into the 21st century. And any visitor to Bethany’s campus can find, to this day, a commemorative brick reading: “DR. INA BELL AULD, LIFELONG MENTOR.”
While Ina Bell Auld was writing her Ph.D. dissertation in Iowa City, Alma Luise Olson (1884-1964) was living in Stockholm as The New York Times’ Scandinavian correspondent and writing her most successful book, Scandinavia: The Background for Neutrality (1940). Olson was a second-generation Swedish American who grew up in Lindsborg, graduated from Bethany and studied at the University of Chicago. Fluent in Scandinavian languages, Olson became engrossed in the history, literature and foreign policy of the “New North” (Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Iceland), nations she lauded because they had enjoyed, on average, a century of peace and had maintained neutrality during World War I. Olson makes the argument that disarmament is essential to peace: “Can any human beings ... insist that they abhor war without simultaneously noting that preparedness is merely the vicious circle that increases the machines of destruction? All war activity is negation.” At some point, Olson returned to Lindsborg, where she taught English, Swedish and political science at Bethany College. According to the late Kathleen Koons, Olson regularly picked quarrels at meetings of the Shakespeare Club and at the club’s Christmas dinners appeared in spectacular items from her Stockholm wardrobe—redolent of mothballs.
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behind the
scenes
SOUNDTRACK
Our photo shoot for this story took place against a studio backdrop. But in order to photograph authentic expressions and movements, subject Ken Hakoda “conducted� in his head as Larry Harwood photographed him.
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Ten for
ken
Throughout a decade of music, home for this awardwinning conductor has been where the baton is
Ken hakoDa Photography by Larry Harwood
PROFILE Sunflower living spring 2014
Story by cash hollistah
K
en Hakoda marks 10 years of conducting the Salina Symphony with an anniversary concert, “Celebrate the Maestro,” on May 4 at the symphony’s home venue of the Stiefel Theatre. For Hakoda, the concert is a chance to feature some of his favorite compositions and to showcase the talents of the Salinaregion musicians with whom he has collaborated over the past decade. Growing up in Kamakura, Japan, and coming to the region after living in Wisconsin, Minnesota and New Mexico, Hakoda’s partnership with a civic orchestra in his adopted home has stood out for its longevity and success. As symphonies and orchestras struggle to keep alive across the United States, the Salina Symphony has reported a growth in attendance and revenue during Hakoda’s tenure, as well as an expansion of performance partnerships and youth programs. Mark Simmons, music director for Radio Kansas, calls Hakoda “a real treasure” who has “elevated musical arts in Kansas” and commends the conductor for finding new ways to broaden the appeal of symphonic music. “I applaud the idea that he is really looking ahead at how we are going to handle the next 10 years.” Hakoda, who holds an associate professorship with Kansas Wesleyan University and serves as the music director for the Salina Youth Symphony, says that his past decade in Salina has shaped him. “I grew up with this orchestra,” says Hakoda of his years with the Salina Symphony. “I can’t practice by myself as a conductor. I can practice little motions here and there, but the only time I can really practice my art is when I am at a concert rehearsal. I’ve become very comfortable standing up in front of this group and becoming a leader. They are my brothers and sisters. There are a lot of great musicians in the orchestra, but they forgive me my mistakes and let me grow with them. I have grown up in the last 10 years because of them.”
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Sunflower Living (SL): When did you decide to become a conductor? Ken Hakoda (KH): I came to the United States as an exchange student and joined a band for the first time in my life when I was 16. But I always wanted to be a teacher—that comes before anything else for me. My interest in that grew in my college years, and I became a music teacher and high school band director. SL: What composers have influenced you the most? KH: I like Beethoven—the way he puts the music together with a lot of passion and the stories he tells. And then there is a guy named Timothy Mahr, my college band director. He is one of those composer-conductors. He wrote his own pieces and directed a band, and that has had a lot of influence on me, that a conductor can write his own music and share it with people. And then I like classical pop songwriters: the Beatles, Bob Dylan and Paul Simon. SL: What separates the Salina Symphony from other symphonies? KH: The Salina Symphony is like the community theater in this town. I feel they are unique organizations. And one thing I like is that we have these community members from surrounding areas who are very highly trained musicians who get together and make music together, but they are not professional musicians. They are police officers, school teachers, school administrators, doctors, retired people, coffee-shop owners—all these different people from different backgrounds, but they are very highly skilled and make music together. This creates a different dynamic than, let’s say, a professional organization. We have local resources on stage, and that is very beautiful.
TECHNIQUE
is important—a conductor is the only musician who doesn’t make any sound.
KIND FEEL THE MUSIC
TRANSLATE SEE THE SOUND BIG PICTURE INTO EMOTION
LOVE OF MUSIC
not just classical music but jazz, hip-hop and others.
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PASSIONATE
SL: What do you think makes a good conductor? KH: Everyone has a different opinion on this. I think a good conductor should be passionate and kind; people should want to play for him. A good conductor should be able to feel the music, to see the big picture, to tell a story in a song. And technique is important—a conductor is the only musician who doesn’t make any sound. A conductor has to translate sound into emotion—it’s more like dancing, where you have to have the technique to translate what you want musically into emotion. That’s a very important part. And of course, for me, personally, a conductor should know and love all kinds of music, not just classical music but jazz, hip-hop and others. A love of all music.
SL: And do you think it’s possible for different genres to come together? KH: Yes, more now so than before. And an orchestra, ultimately, is that—a group of musicians cooperating in music.
Ken hakoDa
PROFILE
BFF
SL: You have written several compositions. What one is your favorite? KH: I always like what I have written most recently. Every piece that you write is your child. SL: What musical composition would you choose as the soundtrack to your life? If you were walking down the halls to your room, what would we hear playing? KH: Beethoven’s Fifth. The whole piece is a theme of struggle and triumph. It starts in C-minor with dark, poignant themes. It is a theme that continues and has this transformation. At the end, it becomes a C-major key, coming through the struggle and the last movement comes in through a glorious triumph over the struggle. It is like a movie plot, like Rocky. I like those movies, I like the themes of people overcoming a struggle and triumphing in the end. I don’t think I’m very talented myself. I’m not very talented musically, but one of the strengths I have is that I’m willing to work hard at it, to spend time to make things right. It might take me three times more than others, but I will get it right. And I’ve had a lot of language struggles, struggles in education and overcame a lot of obstacles. That piece always reminds me to do better for myself. The last movement, especially, represents how I would want to live my life. Sunflower living spring 2014
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SL: Which classical music composer is most deserving of a revival? KH: We often get stuck on Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Mozart and others, but there are newer composers. I wouldn’t want to name a particular composer, but I think more of today’s classical composers that are writing are not played much. There are a lot of performance restrictions for modern composers, and I hope these bars will be lowered.
Ken hakoDa
PROFILE
SL: Do you play instruments? KH: Sax, a little clarinet and guitar—though I’m not very good at that. And I sing.
SL: What is the most underappreciated instrument in the orchestra? KH: The violas. People always say that it is the violas, but in an orchestra it is really probably the percussion. The percussions are appreciated in a band, but under-appreciated in an orchestra. SL: If you could travel back in time to see any musical event, what would it be? KH: I would want to see how people react to the premiere of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in 1824. That was an epic moment. It was a comeback for Beethoven, and you hear all the stories that he was in the audience and the came up on stage to thunderous applause. It was a bridge between the Classical and Romantic eras of music. He changed the definition of symphony with that particular piece. And … I’d like to see the Beatles Rooftop Concert in 1969.
SL: Kansas has a state bird and state song, but not a state instrument. What should it be? KH: Drums? No, the guitar or maybe the banjo. One of the folk instruments. This would go with the state’s country vibe. SL: And what does the next 10 years mean for Ken Hakoda and the Salina Symphony? KH: There are a lot of things I want to do. The symphony itself has reached a good level. It’s time to take the next step. We have a very good audience, an increased audience over the past 10 years. My hope is that this symphony can reach out to people who don’t usually listen to symphony music. Symphony music is close to everyday life—it is there on the music on TVs and movies, but people don’t realize it is a symphony that does that. I want to reach out not to the 10 percent of people who attend symphonies, but attract different types of audiences. I want this orchestra to really become part of the community and the region, and so that outside people come to visit. Not necessarily more concerts, but more creative concerts, outdoor concerts at different locations—to make the symphony more approachable. Sunflower living spring 2014
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behind the
scenes
PIGS AND NOTES
The dancing pigs and musical placemats were not pulled out only for this photo shoot— Steve and Vangie Henry have a kitchen full of whimsical decorations reflecting their interests.
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Sunflower living spring 2014
Steve and Vangie Henry toast their meal of stuffed pork.
SOUTHWEST STUFFED PORK WITH CRANBERRY COMPOTE
S
teve and Vangie Henry joined forces 20 years ago and have been cooking up all kinds of projects ever since. Many of them involve food. “I love to eat! I’m planning dinner when we’re eating breakfast, which baffles Steve,” says Vangie. The fact that pork often takes center stage in the Henry household is just a given. Steve, who grew up on a crop-dairy-swine farm near Longford, went on to earn a degree in veterinary medicine from Kansas State University with a specialty in swine production. He joined an Abilene veterinarian practice in 1976, and in the 1980s he began sharing his knowledge as both a national and international consultant. With the exception of bacon, Steve prefers fresh pork over cured, citing favorites that include pulled and barbecued pork, pork loin, pork shoulder (used in Vangie’s tamales) and ground pork. The duo, in conjunction with one of their grandsons, even created “Piggy Back Burgers”—a grilled ground pork patty that includes finely chopped jalapeños, onions and peppered bacon. Vangie, who was born in Texas, learned to cook alongside her mother. “All of us kids, eight in all, learned to cook typical Mexican dishes as well as American-style foods,” she says. Ever since then, she’s enjoyed spending time in the kitchen. “I get bored eating the same thing, so I like to experiment with different dishes,” she says. “I’ll have to admit not all of them are keepers! Steve gets to be the guinea pig, and he’s usually too kind to say anything. But if he doesn’t ask for seconds I know it’s not a keeper.”
chef’s table
A cello-playing swine specialist and an enthusiastic caterer create pleasing menus
Sunflower living spring 2014
Photography by Larry Harwood
Harmony
Story by Meta Newell West
Dish
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Pork Loin
Cilantro
Cranberries
Black Pepper
Cinnamon
Pecans
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder Chilli Powder Cumin
produce
&
trimmings for
SOUTHWEST STUFFED PORK WITH CRANBERRY COMPOTE
Vangie uses a sharp boning knife to carefully cut down the center of the loin lengthwise, creating a pocket.
Oregano
A blend of spicy, warm and savory spices combine to create the rub for Southwest Stuffed Pork.
Each ingredient is added and then packed into the pocket.
The pork is tied tightly, but not too tight.
Sunflower living spring 2014
SOUTHWEST STUFFED PORK WITH CRANBERRY COMPOTE chef’s table
chef’s table
After retiring from a 31-year career with Southwestern Bell, Vangie decided to explore her longtime interest in food. Eventually she purchased the former Kirby House restaurant in Abilene. She credits the cooks and bakers at the historic eatery for helping her make the transition from home to professional cook. During her 13 years at the Kirby House, Vangie was also introduced to the world of catering. Those experiences have now turned into her third career—AppleMint Catering, a business she operates from a licensed commercial kitchen located behind her rural Solomon home. Constantly on the lookout for innovative recipes for personal and commercial use, Vangie peruses the Internet, cookbooks and cooking magazines. She says she always follows the recipe—the first time. “Then the next time I start making adaptations.” Well aware of the adage “we eat with our eyes first,” Vangie expands that idea by considering all the senses. She relies on Steve’s expertise when it comes to dinner music. He’s been playing the cello for the Salina Symphony for 30 years, so his choice often includes light classical selections, and sometimes jazz. Although Vangie is not particularly musically inclined, she does enjoy listening to good music and, along with Steve, is a supporter of the Salina Symphony. Not only do they underwrite symphony performances, Vangie donates her catering services for at least one after-concert reception each season, always matching the food to the performance’s musical theme. At home, Vangie’s table arrangements often include personal collections, fresh flowers or herbs, or an assortment of things she has on hand. Dinner at home is also a chance to use her many dishes, including a couple of sets of china, red glass dishes and Mexican pottery. During spring and summer, the couple enjoy entertaining guests on the patio that overlooks their pool, pond and Spanish-style hacienda. Vangie explains that she comes up with the menus and puts together the sides while Steve mans the grill. “Oh, did I mention that I’m not allowed to touch the grill, except for cleaning it?” she jokingly adds. Steve and the grill do additional duty on warm weekends, when he fires it up after a morning of gardening with Vangie. Once breakfast is ready, the couple can sit, relax, sip coffee, read the paper and simply enjoy the view—and the traditions they have created.
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recipe
SOUTHWEST STUFFED PORK PREPARATION TIME: 80 minutes, (including baking and resting) Feeds 4
ingredients Rub: 2 teaspoons chili powder 1 teaspoon ground cumin 1 teaspoon ground oregano ½ teaspoon garlic powder ½ teaspoon onion powder ½ teaspoon ground black powder ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon 1-1½ pounds pork loin 1. Mix all ingredients until well blended. 2. Rub over pork and set aside. Stuffing: Salt and pepper 1/3 cup chopped dried cranberries ¼ cup chopped cilantro ¼ cup chopped pecans 3 tablespoons olive oil 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 2. Trim excess fat from pork. 3. Create a pocket in the loin by cutting down the center lengthwise, about ¾ of the way deep, but leaving ends intact. 4. Season the inside of the pocket lightly with salt and pepper. 5. Fill the pocket with the cranberries; press them down to compact, then add and compact the cilantro and pecans. 6. Use cotton twine to tightly tie the pork. 7. Heat oil and then place pork cut-side down in hot skillet, and sear on all sides. 8. After searing, place the pork (cut-side up) in a greased pan and bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until the pork reaches an internal temperature of 145-160 degrees. 9. Remove roast from oven, tent with foil and let rest 15-20 minutes. 10. Remove string and then slice. 11. Serve with Cranberry Compote (see accompanying recipe).
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Sunflower living spring 2014
recipe
CRANBERRY COMPOTE PREPARATION TIME: 45 minutes Feeds 4 Because the cranberries need to soak for at least 20 minutes, Vangie starts the compote before beginning the pork preparation, allowing her to dovetail tasks. The recipe repeats some of the flavors found in both the rub and stuffing, and adds the finishing touch to the accompanying meat dish.
ingredients 2 cups dried cranberries 1 teaspoon grated orange peel ½ cup Cointreau or any orange-flavored liqueur 1 cup orange juice ½ cup chopped shallots 1 ½ tablespoons finely chopped jalapeños ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
Cooking Instructions 1. Place cranberries, orange peel, liqueur and juice in a medium bowl, cover and microwave for 30 seconds. Let set for at least 20 minutes while preparing pork (see accompanying recipe). 2. Pour the berries into a medium saucepan, add the remaining ingredients and stir until blended. Bring to a boil and then lower the heat to simmer for about 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally until most, but not all, of the liquid is absorbed. 3. Serve with Southwest Stuffed Pork.
SOUTHWEST STUFFED PORK WITH CRANBERRY COMPOTE chef’s chef’s table table Kamila Kostolna Dandu
chef’s table
ABOUT THIS RECIPE: Vangie Henry’s version of Southwest Stuffed Pork came about after experimenting with a range of spices and other additions. She refers to it as a savory, succulent pork dish that can be enjoyed year-round.
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behind the
scenes
THE PIGEON
With the assistance of staff at the Smoky Hill Museum, we tried—but were unable to find any records indicating the fate of the missing pigeon. Did it break off the plaster-of-Paris model? Did it break off during the carving? Was the idea simply discarded? Let us know if you know!
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Sunflower living spring 2014
All About
‘Olaf’
New Deal artwork testifies to a time when life was difficult, but hope was large … and carved in stone
1
NEW DEAL CARVINGS
landmarks Photography by Lisa Eastman
transforming Mose’s work from plasterof-Paris statues onto the post office mural, the approximately 9-foot-by-3foot Indiana limestone blocks jutting from the building’s façade. After unpacking the sculptures and laying out his tools, Jonson used both compressed air and manual carving to hew out the 8-foot-tall figures on the side of the post office. There were some modifications in the process. The man who was to symbolize “land” was quickly dubbed “Olaf ” by the Salina Journal. Jonson portrayed him dressed in overalls, with large hands holding an axe or scythe against his right leg. He was placed on the suspended pedestal to the east of the building’s north entrance. The woman and child, collectively symbolizing “communication,” were placed on the opposite side of the entrance. In the original design, pictured in the Salina Journal on June 22, 1939, a pigeon hovers just above the woman’s right hand. For some reason, the bird was not included in the finished work. Today, the carvings continue to flank the entrance of the building, which has housed the Smoky Hill Museum since the summer of 1986, after a new post office building at 211 East Ash was completed. Olaf and his family remain steadfast. Born from a decade of nationwide economic depression, they are a testimony to the vision of the New Deal art initiatives: that supporting artists and telling the story of the people could signal better times ahead.
Story by Judy Lilly
O
n an April day in 1940, Jon M. Jonson, from Frankfort, Indiana, set about unpacking two large plaster-of-Paris figures on the wide front stoop of Salina’s new post office building at 211 W. Iron Ave. Then he laid out his sculpting tools: chisels, mallets, riffler files, drill and air compressor. Passersby and post office patrons cast curious glances and tossed out a comment or two, but Jonson concentrated on his work. The genesis of Jonson’s project was President Roosevelt’s New Deal, whose series of domestic programs included help for struggling artists and the embellishment of federal buildings— such as Salina’s post office, which was one of 26 constructed in Kansas during the 1930s and early ’40s. A crowd of more than 4,000 people had gathered for its dedication on September 24, 1938. At that time, only the smooth blocks of limestone protruded from the building. A few months earlier, Charles Bren, secretary of the Salina Chamber of Commerce, wrote a letter prodding the government to move forward with the outside artwork. “A great number of our business men and citizens … have shown considerable interest in the large stones set on each side of the main entrance,” he wrote. “We trust … the carving of these stones may be started shortly.” Bren’s letter did spur some progress on the project, but it would be two years before the sculptures were in place. First, a committee had to be organized as an initial step towards finding a sculptor and a design. That committee included local
arts patrons Maude Prescott and Charles Schwartz, as well as artists from Wichita and Chicago. It suggested names of artists to invite to participate and then narrowed the field to three design submissions. Ultimately, a group of Treasury officials with arts backgrounds made the final decision that would award the $7,000 contract. The winning artist, Carl C. Mose—a native of Copenhagen, Denmark— labored for nearly a year in his St. Louis studio on full-size figures in plaster, anchoring them against wood framework secured to a wall. “My assistant and I work on them from a movable scaffolding,” Mose wrote in a letter to the newspaper. Mose finished with statues of a pioneer family. A man stood alone as one statue while a woman, with child grasping her long skirt, formed the second statue. Officially, they were called Land and Communication. Mose explained his original design’s significance: “The figures are to be considered as architectural abstractions more than as a type—as sculpture must be on a building—but I want this work to belong to Salina.” The project wouldn’t be Mose’s only connection to the region; a bronze medallion of his can be found in the collection at the Sandzen Memorial Art Gallery in Lindsborg. But most of his key works were in other places. Before his death in 1973, he did a number of public installations, including the Eagle and the Fledgling statue at the Air Force Academy in Colorado and a statue of Stan Musial at the Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. It was Jonson who was charged with
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Sunflower living spring 2014
29
features
32.
Where st. joe comes marching in
40.
Young ONES
Sunflower living spring 2014
31
Where St. Joe
Comes Marching In A cafĂŠ revival leads to community meals, the saving of a church and a national championship
Story by Patricia E. Ackerman Photography by Larry Harwood
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Sunflower living spring 2014
In 2006, when Jolene and Patrick Girard moved from Clyde into Pat’s parents’ home in St. Joseph, they did not know that they would end up effectively building a new community center, starting a world championship event and hosting neighbors as they planned the revitalization of one of the small town’s historic locations. But they did. It started a few years after their move, in 2009, when they bought the grocery store. Built in 1888, the store lays claim to local fame by being the second-oldest building in town (the welding shop across the street is the oldest documented building in the community). It wasn’t only history, however, but practicality that attracted the Girards. The store, which had been vacant for over 20 years, was ideal for hosting Pat’s insurance office. After renovations, he opened for business, and people dropped by—to see him, to inspect the store’s new look and to visit with one another. They stopped and stayed, nearly every day. The Girards took this in stride. “There hadn’t been a place for anyone to gather, so when we put the office in, we had an intent for a crop-insurance office and a place for the community to get together,” says Pat. But the store became more of a community center than the couple had anticipated. “We planned to maybe have a pot of coffee for people to stop by, but people would stop by and grab a paintbrush to help paint or help with the floor,” recalls Jolene. “This place absolutely belongs to the community.” In May 2001, after a few practical undertakings—such as a donation dinner whose proceeds went to purchasing indoor plumbing and a restroom—Jolene started serving home-style lunches at the store a few days a week. There were chicken fried steaks, pot roast and pork tenderloin. Now the insurance office became an even more popular community gathering space. Farmers would leave the fields and come by for lunch. Jolene then added dinner one or two Saturdays each month, serving brisket, steak, shrimp or barbecue. The couple noticed that families would drive from nearby towns to enjoy her cooking. The first two Wednesdays of each month came to be known as “pan fried chicken days,” which attracted even more people. Soon the Girards’ children joined in by serving up meals—sometimes against their will, notes Pat—and “the store” was becoming more and more of “a café.” As the Girards cooked and served, the town’s residents began taking care of the décor by hauling in antiques and local memorabilia, including photographs of historic events and families who had lived in and around St. Joe. Eventually, Pat relocated his insurance business into another building and the couple expanded the kitchen area and remodeled the back room for a larger dining and recreation space. The Girards have discussed rebuilding the second floor of the café, which once housed a dance hall. If they need to expand or want to revive other traditions, there is the basement, which was once used for roller skating. “But that doesn’t mean it was a
Sunflower living spring 2014
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And a side of fame … The St. Joe Store café serves potatoes, chicken and, of course, the “national championship” in Pelote. Pronounced “puh-loot,” this card game is a variation of seven-point pitch. Since the town was settled by French-Canadian Catholics in 1874, St. Joseph wisdom says the game might be related to a similar card game in Quebec, a variation of “belote” called “boeuf.” The oldest resident in St. Joseph recalls the game being played in the early 1900s … and even then it was a tradition. Building on this legacy, the café started hosting Pelote tournaments. As many as two dozen people continue to show up on Pelote nights to play with two teams of two at each table. A customized trophy is awarded to the “National Pelote” champion of St. Joseph, Kansas. Start brushing up on your game because tournament dates, along with the café menu, are posted on the St. Joe Store Facebook page.
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Sunflower living spring 2014
Jolene Girard prepares homemade mashed potatoes at the St. Joe Store café. Girard and her husband converted the building, a former store, into an insurance office and then into a café when they realized the office was becoming a town gathering spot.
Card games and fried-chicken dinners set the atmosphere for a night at the St. Joe Store café.
roller rink,” clarifies Pat. “It was just the place where kids used to skate. Just like the front porch used to have boxing matches, but it was never a boxing ring.” For now, the café continues to host regulars as well as outside visitors. It is owned by the Girards, but perhaps more so by the community. “I don’t even know how many spare keys to the store are out there,” says Jolene. “We live down the street, and sometimes we’ll head home and ask people to lock up when they go. They’ll keep track of their drinks and leave the money on the bar. We probably even come out ahead. That’s the nice thing about a little place like this. You can do things like that.” THE GUARDIANS There are many topics of conversation around the tables at the St. Joe Store: weather, love, life, the economy … maybe even politics. But when talk turned to news that the old church in St. Joseph was slated for demolition, residents were alarmed. Even though services in the Catholic church had not been held for 25 years, nearly all local descendants of this French-Canadian Catholic community shared memories of weddings, holidays and growing up in this building. So the residents banded together and developed a proactive plan to preserve the 100-year-old structure. Sunflower living spring 2014
35
getting there The U.S. postal system will tell you the café and church are in Clyde, Kansas, but historically they are in St. Joseph, which is there if you want to find it—and really, you should. If you are coming from Salina, take Highway 81 north and turn east on Highway 24 (Deer Road). Continue on Highway 24 until you come to Miltonvale, and turn north on N. 260 Road. After 10 miles you will come to Noble Road (also listed as Road 368 on some maps), where you turn east and continue for two miles. The café and the church will be in the center of the town.
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Sunflower living spring 2014
The original St. Joseph Catholic church was built in 1874. The first priest of St. Joseph Parish was the Rev. Louis Mollier, who visited parishioners on horseback from Washington, Kansas, to the Colorado line, and from Clay Center and Glasco in the south to Nebraska in the north between the years of 1873 and 1911. St. Joseph was originally considered the mother church of the Concordia Diocese, prior to the diocese relocating in Salina, and was affectionately known as “the big church in the country.” In 1885, education at the first Catholic school in the diocese opened on the 10 acres of land belonging to St. Joseph parish. The school featured four large classrooms, a kitchen, dining room, chapel and three dormitories. Teachers from the Sisters of St. Joseph traveled each week from Concordia to hold classes for as many as 200 students, including about 50 from surrounding towns who boarded at the school. The church community had a setback in 1909, when a lightning strike burned the church’s wood frame to the ground. But area families rallied with financial contributions and labor to build a larger church. The new building, constructed of red pressed brick with white stone trim, was dedicated in 1910. Two front towers rise 85 feet on either side of a large concrete porch, which leads to three massive entry doors. The front vestibule opens to the sanctuary and an upstairs choir loft. The fourth story houses a large belfry. The new roof featured steel beam construction and metal tiles, and most of its building materials were transported in wagons by parishioners from the Topeka and Humboldt Brick companies. Both the town and the parish of St. Joseph diminished in size as roadways and railways passed them by. With the dwindling congregation, funds no longer supported operations of such a large church building. The Salina Diocese closed St. Joseph church operations in 1993 and diocesan leaders began discussing plans to remove sacred relics and demolish the building in 2010. Just as they had in 1910, members of this close-knit community rallied a century later to save their beloved St. Joseph Church. A small group of parishioners who had lived in the area most of their lives formed a nonprofit group called the Guardians of the St. Joseph Church Foundation. They met at the café and, together, hammered out their plan.
Volunteers have preserved the original sacred art, such as this statue of Mother Mary and the Christ child, at St. Joseph Catholic Church.
Restoration work is currently being done on the church’s original stained glass. Restorer Scott Hoefer says the artists who depicted Christ, the Disciples and Biblical scenes left behind some of the best work he has seen.
“During negotiations with the Catholic diocese to acquire and preserve the building, we began soliciting pledges of financial support through local family networks, a Web page and social media,” says Jolene. “We had no idea what to expect.” Soon, the newly formed nonprofit organization convinced the diocese of its sincerity and dedication to preserving the church. The group’s planning and persistence paid off. In 2010, the Foundation was granted ownership of the building, with the mission of “preserving and honoring the integrity of the building.” Conditions of the sale included “no religious services, no other churches housed in the building, and no bar/drinking establishments were to be operated there.” Once building ownership was secured, members of the Foundation began collecting donations from patrons across the United States, including former students and parishioners of St. Joseph Parish. Sanctuary pews recognize donors with customized brass plaques. Most of the 12 Foundation board members once served on the St. Joseph Parish Council, and each one holds fond memories of growing up in the church. While the building remains structurally sound, it did sit unused for decades. One of the four 1980s vintage furnaces in the building is no longer operational. There is no air conditioning or plumbing on the premises. And plaster is beginning to crack. Presently, the Foundation is focusing its resources on preserving the elaborate collection of stained-glass windows. Hoefer Custom Stained Glass from Hutchinson is removing each window, one at a time, re-leading the glass and reframing at a cost of $4,100 per window. Each window will be encased in safety glass for preservation purposes. There are 12 large rectangular windows and three round rose windows. The artwork in the windows features scenes from the life of Christ, as well as images of the Sacred Heart of Mary, the Immaculate Conception, St. Anthony, St. John the Baptist, St. Joseph and St. Anne. But as preservation continues, so does the life of the building. Three weddings were held there in September 2013. The Foundation also hosts two annual events in the building, including “Christmas in the Country” in December and a barbecue on the Sunday before Memorial Day. The events are open to all with a freewill donation. A third community gathering, a pan-fried chicken dinner, is held up the road in Clyde on Labor Day. The community hopes that the church building, which seats about 400 people, will be used for more community and family-oriented events. Tours of the building are available by appointment. Details about tours, bookings and future events can be found at the Guardians of the St. Joseph Church Foundation Facebook page.
39
Members of the Salina Area Young Professionals include, clockwise from top left, Eric Brown, Joe KingryStaton, Danielle Brown, Alex Westerman and Jenny Mitchell.
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Sunflower living Spring 2014
Young Story by Chelsey Crawford / Photography by Larry Harwood
In its third year, a new professional group seeks to identify, develop and retain the region’s best hopes for future business success. Attorneys, stay-at-home mothers, physicians and sandwich artists—all these occupations and more are welcome in the Salina Area Young Professionals (SAYP), a group dedicated to encouraging early career growth among Salina residents. Founded in 2011 by a leadership group of Salina professionals along with Eric Brown, the Salina Area Chamber of Commerce’s workforce development director, the young professionals’ group provides an opportunity to network and receive expert career advice. “The mission of the SAYP is simple,” explains Brown: “to be the community resource to attract and retain young talent in Salina and help establish Salina’s next generation of business and community leaders.” Currently, the group’s membership is about 300 people, with an age range from the earliest of 20s to the latest of 40s and no membership fee. SAYP is a group of young adults, so their nights out might go a bit longer than other boomer-generation business mixers. And their fundraisers might include a killer game of rockpaper-scissors to determine which charity group takes home the donations. “It’s a little less formal, and we try to have unique, more fun events,” says Brown. But, like any business network group, the SAYP holds meetings where speakers come to share their experience. The group has community outreach and service crews that assist in city cleanups and provide scholarships for high school students. The group regularly gathers at local restaurants for informal discussions. Brown says that if the Salina region can help young professionals develop their careers, then the entire area benefits from that cultivation. “The more civically engaged young professionals are in the community, the more likely they are to stick around and continue to be involved,” he says. “Instead of taking 3-5 years of experience and then moving on to a bigger city like Wichita or Kansas City, they can put some roots into the communities. They can move on to take leadership roles within their organizations as well as in volunteer opportunities in the communities.”
Sunflower living spring 2014
41
Joe
Q
KingryStaton
What is one word others would use to describe you?
Q
If you were an animal, you would be …
Silver
Hilariously-unfunny
back G oril la
how did you end up returning to Salina? After graduating from Cleveland Chiropractic, I moved to Scottsdale, Arizona, to learn under an established doctor for one year. After weighing my options, I decided to return to my hometown to practice. Salina is a great place to own a business, and after receiving great advice from Dr. Rod Hancock and Dr. Byron Tomlins, I decided to open my own clinic.
Q
Q
Affiliation with Salina Area Young Professionals: Member/founding board member
As a child, who did you want to become when you grew up?
A professional
athlete. A devastating stubbed pinkie-toe injury erased all dreams of that my senior year.
Q
What advice would you give students in considering a career? Job-shadow. I think this clears a ton of questions up when you get to see what activities are actually done on a day-to-day basis.
Q
What struggles have you come across in your profession? Being a first-time business owner, there are a million unanswered questions when you first open. That’s why having an awesome support system is so important. I guess the main struggle is how to handle and manage your time to take care of everything without it taking over your life.
Q
Q
rding a o b Snow P laying recreational football, basketball and softball … in the “old man leagues”
Camping Q
Jayhawk.
It’s always good to be a born winner!
eboarding
Q
what do you do to relax?
W ak
Hometown: Salina, Kansas
C heetah
Position: Chiropractor/owner, Synergy Chiropractic and Sports Therapy
How has the Young Professionals group helped you? Meeting other professionals
Sharing business advice Networking Having a good time
What color best fits your personality? Why?
What is one word you would use to describe yourself? Any colors that stand for America’s freedom are good enough for me (and for the Jayhawks!).
Sunflower living spring 2014
45
spring 2014
photo contest
First Place
Theme: THE LAND
Jared Engelbert
Chillin’ on a Dirt Road For this issue’s contest, we invited readers to submit their photographic take on the theme “The Land.” Our panel of five judges awarded first prize
to Jared Engelbert’s photograph taken of himself, or rather his boots. “I was spraying thistle at Glen Elder lake for my summer job and I ran out of gas in
that exact spot. Kicked up my legs to wait on my boss to come give me some gas!” writes Jared of the events that led up to this image.
next round Submission Guidelines:
We want to feature your photograph in Sunflower Living magazine. We accept photograph submissions from readers with a permanent address within the greater Salina region. Our panel will judge the submitted photographs and select a winning image, which will run on this page in the following edition. The winning photographer will receive a prize of $50.
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Sunflower living spring 2014
A) Email the image to sunflowerliving@
sunflowerpub.com with a heading of “Photo Contest.” Please include contact information and the name of the theme you have chosen. B) Submission must be made before May 15, 2014. C) Only submit the image if you are the photographer and the copyright holder of the image and if you live in the distribution
area of Sunflower Living or Salina Journal. Photographs showing the image of
a person must have that individual’s consent. D) Files should be in digital form, either JPEG or TIFF, that can be printed up to 8X10 at 300 dpi. E) By submitting an image, you consent to having the image published in the magazine and posted online in connection with the magazine.
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Mail this form to: Salina Journal Circulation Department c/o Christy Kohler 333 S. 4th, Salina, Kansas 67401
Or call us at (785) 822-1467 / (800) 827-6363 ext. 347 Or e-mail at ckohler@salina.com Sunflower living spring 2014
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Dedicated to Excellence . . . Focused on Quality . . . Committed to Independence. Mowery Clinic provides the Salina community with a comprehensive spectrum of specialty services delivered with compassion and sensitivity. • We strive to create a partnership with patients that promotes health and well-being in all phases of life. • We care about our patients, we care about providing quality healthcare services, and we care about our community. • We have a vested interest in the success of this community, and we remain committed to an independent practice model that promotes our proud heritage and philosophy – to provide quality medical care centered on the relationship between each patient and the physician of their choice. You have a choice for your specialty medical care. Choose a doctor dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in healthcare services. Choose Mowery Clinic. Ob/Gyn Surgery Dr. Steve Sebree Dr. Ted Macy Dr. Jeff Knox Dr. David Smith Dr. Joel Parriott Dr. Earl Matthews Dr. Natalie Morgan Dr. Chris Rupe Dr. Leslie Ablard Dr. Seth Vernon Dr. David Prendergast
Cardiology Dr. Mark Mikinski Dr. Curtis Kauer Dr. Karil Bellah Dr. David Battin
Internal Medicine Dr. David Dennis Dr. Dirk Hutchinson Dr. Richard Yaple
Nephrology Dr. Brad Stuewe Dr. Henry Reed Dr. Brian Pavey
Gastroenterology Dr. William Alsop Dr. Paul Johnson Dr. LaVelle Ellis
Pulmonology Dr. Kent Berquist
Pediatrics Dr. Ed Rosales Dr. Alisa Bridge
Allergy/Immunology Dr. Bennett Radford
737 E. Crawford Salina, Kansas (785) 827-7261 (800) 223-0845
655 S. Santa Fe Salina, Kansas (785) 825-9024
www.moweryclinic.com www.moweryclinicpediatrics.com www.mowerywomensclinic.com www.salinasurgery.com