Vox Magazine April Issue

APRIL 2020 • THE VOICE OF COLUMBIA

CLASSES DISMISSED

H O T E L S VA C A N T T H E AT E R S D A R K

CHURCHES ONLINE

PA R K I N G L O T S E M P T Y

VA C AT I O N S C A N C E L E D

Businesses and residents alike grapple with a changed reality amid COVID-19

FROM THE EDITOR

HELLO FROM MY COUCH

E DI T OR I N CHI E F SARAH EVERETT DE PUT Y E DI T OR MEG DONOHUE M AN AGI N G E DI T O R ELENA K. CRUZ

W

hat does a city magazine do when its city shuts down? What does a city magazine that had planned 56 pages of concert, restaurant and event coverage do when those concerts are canceled, restaurants pivot to take-out and events move online or are delayed?

In mid-March, the Vox staff talked about the need to move to remote work temporarily, and then quickly our remote work became not-so-temporary.

By now, dear reader, you and I have become Zoom pros. Truly — I upgraded to a pro account the second day of isolation. Most of us have figured out the mute button and gotten used to the constant click-click-click of Slack notifications.

For some, however, work has vanished.

Income, rent, childcare and more are in flux.

For others, work is saving lives. And what is our little magazine’s place in all of this? Perhaps it is to reflect what’s going on in our city and in our world right now, and perhaps it is to provide a bit of an escape from it.

In Folio, a magazine for magazine makers, the editor of D.C.’s Washingtonian, Mike Schaffer, says this: “I’m exhausted, I’m tired, I’m stressed, as we all are … And I sort of feel like, if you’re going to be exhausted and tired and stressed, you may as well feel that way in the service of doing something excellent.

It’s tough. It’s going to be tough to make a magazine when people aren’t sitting around

together, but we’re doing the best we can.”

Ditto, Mike Schaffer.

Similarly, for the first time in its 52-year history, New York Magazine was produced entirely remotely — from bedrooms and living rooms and, for staffers in two-career, one-bedroom homes, even bathrooms. Editor-in-chief David Haskell printed out pages and placed them next to one another on his bedroom floor for editing. Ditto, David Haskell.

We edited and designed the majority of these pages from our kitchens, living rooms and bedrooms. We changed the cover in our last week of production. The photo was shot from the home of one of our art directors.

We cut stories that will make more sense at a different time — when the world makes more sense at a different time.

In this issue, we’re keeping you updated on COVID-19 in Columbia, but we’re also telling human stories about the people who make our city special whether they’re out in public or indoors. We’re telling stories that are difficult but important to tell during an already difficult time (like sex trafficking, p. 16). We’re following your trash, which has likely been piling up faster and faster lately, beyond the recycling truck (p. 27) and teaching you new sushi lingo (p. 23).

For now, I hope our magazine brings you a sense of familiarity and calm. Happy reading, happy working, happy living.

DI GI TAL M AN AGI N G E DIT O R CAMERON R. FLATT ON L I N E E DI T OR GABY MORERA DI NÚBILA CR E AT I V E DI R E CT OR HOPE JOHNSON ART DI R E CT OR S SAM BALMER, MADISON WISSE PHOT O E DI T OR DEREK RIEKE M ULT I M E DI A E DI T O R SAM MOSHER AS S I S TAN T E D IT O RS CULT UR E CHRISTIÁNE-TRÉSOR CRAWFORD, SARAH HALLAM, NICOLE SCHROEDER, KATHERINE STATER, EMMA VEIDT E AT + DR I N K LAUREN BROCATO, BROOKE KNAPPENBERGER, LAURA SIGMUND, VICTORIA TRAMPLER CI T Y L I F E SIOBHAN CONNERS, MADISON CZOPEK, EMILY LENTZ, HANNAH MCFADDEN, ABBIE WILSON DE S I GN E R S MITCHELL BARTLE, TAORU HUANG, CHLOE KHAW, MEREDITH LEHMAN, IVY HETTINGER-ROBERTS CON T R I B UT I N G W R I T E RS EMILY ADAMS, FIE DANDANELL, BENNETT DURANDO, REGAN MERTZ, LAUREN POLANSKI DIGITAL EDITORS JESSE BAALMAN, BRY BARBER, DELANEY EYERMANN, MOLLY JACKSON, CLAUDIA KHAW, CHRISTINA LONG, MADELYN ODEN M ULT I M E DI A E DI T OR S MEGAN OOSTHUIZEN, GRACE VANCE

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR HEATHER LAMB DIGITAL DIRECTOR SARA SHIPLEY HILES EXECUTIVE EDITOR JENNIFER ROWE OFFICE MANAGER KIM TOWNLAIN

Vox Magazine

@VoxMag

@VoxMagazine

SARAH EVERETT Editor in Chief

Behind the issue On March 11, the day the University of Missouri announced it was moving to online classes in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Vox staff was taking a pre-meeting ice-cream break at Sparky’s. I think we all knew our work was about to change. I don’t think any of us knew how much our lives also would change. Like many offices, our magazine has made remote work the new norm. The city’s stay-at-home orders mean this April issue will be delivered to Missourian subscribers only, and not in the boxes around town. This issue is the product of late nights on Google Docs, Zoom, Slack and the plain old telephone. Together but separately, we laugh as we get work done.

It works, but we miss one another, too. Maybe we need a virtual weekly ice-cream break. Maybe everyone does. —Sarah Everett Photography courtesy of Sara Shipley Hiles

ADVERTISING 882- 5714 CIRCULATION 882- 5700 EDITORIAL 8 84- 6432 vox@m i sso u ri . e d u CALENDAR send to vox@mi s s o u ri . e d u o r subm i t vi a onl i ne form a t v o x m a g a zi n e . c o m TO RECEIVE VOX IN YOUR INBOX sign up for email newsletter at voxmagazine.com A PRI L I SSUE 2 0 2 0 V OL UM E 22 , IS S U E 4 PUB L I S HE D B Y T HE COL U M BIA M IS S O U RIA N 320 L E E HI L L S H A L L COL UM B I A, M O 6 5 2 1 1

MAGAZINE Cover Photography and Design: Sam Balmer VOX MAGAZINE • APRIL 2020

3

TABLE OF CONTENTS

08

Separate, but together COVID-19 has affected the world — and Columbia with it. Photographers document some of what’s changed.

STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS

16

From slavery to solace The hospital healed her body, but the trauma went deeper. Amy, a midMissouri resident, was trafficked for more than five years by her abuser.

Read about her journey to freedom.

08 IN THE LOOP

CULTURE

EAT + DRINK

CITY LIFE

05

13

23

27

Local businesses find ways to serve customers in the time of social distancing.

Stephens College fashion alumnae reflect on its annual runway show.

Do you feel like a fish out of water when ordering sushi? Flounder no more with this guide.

Upcycle your recycling game with these do’s and don’ts for city residents.

07

15

25

29

After its cancellation, Unbound Book Festival plans for what’s next.

These local eateries add spice to their social media presences to serve their foodie fans.

Many couples are deciding to postpone their walks down the aisle because of the pandemic.

Business not as usual

It’s a family affair Tune in to Columbia’s own The Burney Sisters. The duo talks about their time on stage and off in this Q&A.

4

BY ALEXANDRA SHARP

VOX MAGAZINE • APRIL 2020

Designing their futures

Back on the bookshelf

Sushi, simplified

Social feeds

To recycle or not to recycle

Wedded miss

Photography by and courtesy of Ethan Weston, Scott Peterson, Sophie Ranek, Unsplash and Kaitlin Flick

SISTER ACT P. 7

The pandemic forced local business owners to make a heartwrenching choice: To serve carry-out only or close up shop.

COMO DURING COVID-19 P. 8

Business not as usual Local venues and restaurants face change amid coronavirus.

BY MADISON CZOPEK The COVID-19 pandemic has emptied coffee shops and cleared concert halls while filling hospitals across the country.

In Columbia, it has caused small business owners to face challenges they couldn’t have envisioned only weeks earlier.

During the first full weekend of March, in fact, the True/False Film Fest went on without interruption — though with increased sanitation and distancing precautions. But by the end of the next week, the University of Missouri System had moved to online-only classes, The Blue Note and Rose Music Hall closed for the month and the Unbound Book Festival canceled its event.

As federal, state and local governments rapidly shifted guidelines throughout March in response to the growing pandemic, business owners scrambled to determine whether it was safest to close their doors, allow delivery or curbside pickup or remain open while implementing social distancing measures.

On March 24, local leaders took that last option off the table when they announced a stay-at-home order for Columbia and Boone County, effective until 8 a.m. April 24. National social distancing guidelines were later extended until April 30. Nonessential businesses were ordered to close and adopt remote work practices where possible, and residents were asked to stay at home except for necessary activities.

Essential businesses, including pharmacies, grocery stores, child and health care facilities, and restaurants for takeout and delivery service, among others, could remain open.

Photography by and courtesy of Marco Storel and Luka Dzubinya

VOX MAGAZINE • APRIL 2020

5

IN TH E LOOP BUSINESS

The Columbia Farmers Market remains open as an essential food provider, but it stopped vendor sampling early in March, and no food or drink is now prepared on-site. By March 14, it halted all aspects that don’t pertain to food sales including kids’ activities, gardening workshops and live music. It restricted the number of people allowed inside the pavilion at one time and designated the first 30 minutes of the market for seniors and at-risk populations. Many vendors offer online pre-ordering, and the farmers market staff facilitates curbside pickups of those orders Saturdays during market hours.

“Some vendors have that ability, and it’s also a hurdle to get some vendors that don’t have that ability signed up or to use online services and applications,” says Corrina Smith, the farmers market executive director. “It’s a slow process to get even to the point where we are right now.”

Root Cellar owner Jake Davis says the grocery has taken steps to help local farmers continue selling their

products after losing customers such as restaurants and food services due to the pandemic. There has been a massive increase in subscribers to Root Cellar’s pickup and delivery service, in which customers receive a weekly box that can include local produce, meat and dairy.

The COVID-19 crisis also caused an increase of about 700% in requests for home delivery, Davis says. All told, it has created logistical changes as Root Cellar works to balance social distancing, heightening cleaning standards and implementing expanded delivery areas and entirely new programs.

“We’ve instituted a personal shopper program where folks can call in and ask about what’s seasonal and in stock, and we can help them shop over the phone, and then those orders can be picked up curbside,” Davis says.

Even before the city’s stay-at-home order, some businesses concluded that temporarily closing shop was the best option. The owner of 44 Stone Public House and 44 Canteen, Mark Sulltrop,

Movie theaters, bowling alleys, hair salons, boutiques and other nonessential businesses are closed in Columbia.

says business at his restaurants had significantly slowed in mid-March. By March 18, Sulltrop closed three of the dining rooms, though he encouraged customers to order takeout and quickly implemented a delivery service.

“We’re trying to keep as many people employed as we can, and we ask that people still try to support us,” Sulltrop says.

“Obviously we are just one aspect, but everything trickles down and everyone is affected.”

Additional reporting by Jesse Baalman, Molly Jackson and Alexandra Sharp.

Urgent Care Services in Your Neighborhood!

We can help you year-round with a variety of issues & needs such as: Flu/Cold Treatment • Sprains & Strains • Stitches & Suturing • Sinus Infections• Ear/Eye Infections Cough & Congestion • Asthma • STD/Pregnacy Testing • On-Site X-ray & Lab • Sports Physicals

2 Convenient

Providence Locations 6

VOX MAGAZINE APRIL 2020 PUC_Missourian Half Page AD•- 0220.indd 1

1-573-303-9617 ProvidenceUrgentCare.com Photography

by Kate Seaman 2/28/2020 9:19:37 AM

I N T HE LO O P Q&A

Emma: We are homeschooled, but right now I am learning about different instruments.

Olivia: I’m doing this really cool art history course right now. It’s so thorough and crazy. I used to go to school for a little bit when I was younger, but I just feel like it’s so much of a better environment where I am because I just feel like so many kids get discouraged from doing music because they’re afraid of what other people are saying. I’m still like that, and everybody is afraid of what other people think about them, but I feel like it’s less for me.

It’s a family affair Olivia and Emma Burney make up The Burney Sisters, a local band known for its folk-pop sound and its down-to-earth charm.

BY NICOLE SCHROEDER

W

hether you know their sound from local performances or have happened across their original songs on Spotify and iTunes, it’s hard to live in mid-Missouri without knowing The Burney Sisters. Olivia and Emma Burney are 15 and 12 years old, respectively, but their sound rivals that of any number of the folk-pop groups they admire.

The girls have been isolated at home due to coronavirus concerns, and like many other musicians, they’ve dealt with postponed or canceled shows and tours. The duo’s newest EP, Letter to You, was released April 3, but the party to celebrate its debut had to be nixed, Olivia says. Even so, the duo is keeping busy while social distancing, from enjoying family company to exploring their other passions — for Olivia, painting, and for Emma, sketching and photography. Additionally, the two started regular Facebook Live videos every Photography courtesy of Luka Dzubinya

Olivia (left) and Emma Burney have a new EP called Letter to You, but the duo has had to cancel upcoming shows due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Saturday at 7 p.m. to stay connected with their fans. Vox spoke to The Burney Sisters to learn more about their lives off-stage and how they’re spending their time away from the microphone.

Are there any artists or genres you particularly like?

Emma: I don’t listen to a lot of modern bands. I mean, there’s The Avett Brothers, and I listen to Sam Cooke a lot. I’m all over the place — just as long as it didn’t come out last year.

Olivia: We kind of grew up on pop music, and that’s what I love to listen to. I still love Bruno Mars. He never had it autotuned or anything. I’m not the biggest fan of his new stuff, but I like the first album, definitely. And Adam Levine — I get so much hate for that because everyone hates Adam Levine, and we love him.

What is school usually like for you? Do you have any favorite subjects?

ONLINE CONCERTS

The Burney Sisters perform live on their Facebook pages at 7 p.m.

Saturdays. Audience members can even leave tips.

Your family plays a big role in the band behind the scenes. What does family mean to you two?

Olivia: They are really, really important to it because we’ve so far been a family business. Our little sister, Bella, just joined the band, and she’s learning bass to come and play songs with us. She’s 10 years old. And then our mom is our manager/booking agent/merch person, so she does a little bit of everything.

And then our stepdad, John Shafer, he runs sound and a lot of our shows, and he also mixed and recorded our EP that’s coming out. So we definitely all put in a lot of work for that.

Emma: I feel like I know a few people that are just there alone right now.

And I can’t even imagine sitting alone all day, not being able to leave your house. So having four other people in the house kind of keeps you sane.

What do you want to say to your fans right now?

Olivia: I know that people were really looking forward to our release parties and stuff, and we’re hoping to reschedule them. But if we don’t, we really just want to thank them for everything. I know that when we’re doing our livestreams, people are using this little online tip jar link, so people have been donating to us every week. It’s really, really helping us because we don’t have any paying shows until this calms down.

So they’re helping us keep our living.

So we’re just over-the-moon thankful for our fans.

Emma: Absolutely.

VOX MAGAZINE • APRIL 2020

7

8

VOX MAGAZINE • APRIL 2020

Photography by Elizabeth Underwood

Separate, but together The COVID-19 pandemic has touched every aspect of our daily lives. How we work, shop, worship, eat, visit and learn is different now.

So, too, is how we interact with one another. But our need for human connection hasn’t wavered. Over the past weeks, photographers have documented an altered Columbia.

There are empty campuses and empty businesses, but also people coming together to do good.

Dogmaster Distillery made and sold hand sanitizer in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. For the right alcohol content, they diluted 192-proof alcohol with water and a weaker alcohol.

Ten customers at a time were allowed inside the distillery, and social distancing was evident outside, too.

VOX MAGAZINE • APRIL 2020

9

The sign outside Mill Creek Elementary School added to its encouraging advice, fitting for these uncertain days.

With Columbia Public Schools closed, elementary students use learning packets for at-home instruction.

Recognizing the toll of the growing pandemic on students’ abilities to learn, on April 1, the district decided to temporarily pause classes to allow time to reevaluate its expectations.

On the last day of in-person classes at Hickman High School, Carrig Irelan waits for his parents to pick him up. The closure remains in effect through April 24.

10

VOX MAGAZINE • APRIL 2020

Photography by Kate Seaman and Daffy Liu

Boone Hospital Center opened a coronavirus drive-thru testing center March 18 after the county recorded its first confirmed case of COVID-19. There are four testing locations in the city.

Hospital staff at the drive-thru, such as Sherri Burks and Burt Perrin, swab patients’ noses for the test. In order to be screened, patients must have been assessed by a medical provider and have a physician’s order.

Photography by Marco Storel

VOX MAGAZINE • APRIL 2020

11

Local churches have devised creative ways to facilitate athome worship. Leslie Potter (left), the early childhood children’s minister at Forum Christian Church, sets out communion supplies for the church’s drive-thru pickup of wafers and grape juice.

At C2 Church, pastors have started offering drive-thru prayer, which lets people pray with them without leaving their vehicles.

MU freshman business student Josh Thorpe (right) hugs his roommate and fellow business major Charlie Meier before leaving Columbia with his family on March 14, the day after the University of Missouri System announced courses would be taught online for the rest of the semester. Fewer than 400 of the 6,315 students who lived in dorms remain as of March 31.

The university is returning 45% of the cost of housing for those vacated by April 3.

12

VOX MAGAZINE • APRIL 2020

Photography by Madi Winfield and Daniel Shular

UNBOUND FEST SHELVED P. 15

Designing their futures Altered this year due to COVID-19, the Stephens fashion show has launched careers for over 75 years.

BY LAUREN POLANSKI

After winning best collection last year, Stephens College graduate Sophie Ranek (front) now works for a costume and dancewear design company in St. Louis.

Photography courtesy of Stephens College

When designers walk the runway of the Stephens College fashion show, they’re often walking toward successful careers, too. The show, called The Collections, has been crowning winners since its inauguration in 1944. From organizing the stage production to sewing garments, students apply lessons from the event to jobs after graduation. This year, concerns about COVID-19 forced the college to cancel the April event.

Instead, the school judged garments a month early, in mid-March.

The Collections puts the work of Stephens’ fashion majors on display, and this year’s untraditional show did the same. It’s a vital part of how students experience the fashion program.

“I think it’s the best showcase we have for what the fashion program does, and that’s exciting to me,” says Monica McMurry, fashion program professor.

Vox talked with three recent graduates — Sophie Ranek, Lenora Brown and Sonja Tabb — who have moved past the runway and into their careers.

Ranek graduated in May 2019 with a degree in fashion design and product development. She took home the 2019 award for best collection with her five pieces constituting “Resurrection.”

Ranek is currently working as an assistant designer for Weissman, an American costume and dancewear design company in St. Louis, where she works on form fittings and sketch reviews. “The whole process itself

VOX MAGAZINE • APRIL 2020

13

CULTURE FASHION

was so helpful,” Ranek says about the fashion show.

Ranek hasn’t let her 9-to-5 job stop her from creating pieces for the runway, though. She works on weekends and after her day job on a new collection she hopes to show someday. “You start from a page in a sketchbook, and you have all of these thoughts, all these ideas,” she says. Seeing those ideas transform into a runway show “is quite an experience.”

Brown also works at Weissman. She has a side business called LB Designs making custom and made-to-measure garments and doing alterations. She graduated in May 2018 with a degree in fashion design and product development after taking part in the student-run fashion show for all four years.

Brown says studying at Stephens gave her the ability to plan ahead and pay close attention to detail. “I do still keep those things in mind when I’m working for myself as well.”

She’s now pursuing a master’s degree in fashion, business and entrepre-

neurship at Lindenwood University.

Brown says she hopes to finish her master’s degree and go back to school for a doctorate, so she can achieve her dream of becoming a fashion professor or owning her own business.

“I really do feel in my heart that maybe that is one of my main purposes in life is to give back to my community,” she says.

Tabb currently works as a product developer at a womenswear brand in New York called M.M.LaFleur. She earned her degree in fashion design and product development with a focus in textile art in 2017.

“Stephens set me up really well to work post-graduation,” Tabb says. “I think a lot of other schools really focused on really big creative designs, and I think that Stephens gets flack for not focusing on that. I know that we kind of designed for more marketable ideas, and it’s never the biggest and craziest idea, but I really do feel like they set us up for real-world success.”

Sophie Ranek made fashion illustrations to prepare for her senior collection at Stephens. She still designs pieces in her off hours.

Although the format of this year’s show changed, it continues to be a launchpad for Stephens College students. By May, another round of fashion graduates will leave for careers, and new students will cycle through the program again. 

Diverse programming you can’t find anywhere else.

It’s community radio!

MAGAZINE

in your inbox

KOPN

89.5 FM live streaming at kopn.org 14

VOX MAGAZINE • APRIL 2020

Get ready for the weekend with the VOX newsletter. It’s the best Columbia has to offer - straight to you!

Sign up at

voxmagazine.com Photography courtesy of Sophie Ranek

C U LT U RE BOOKS

Back on the bookshelf Unbound Book Festival cancels its April event and looks to 2021.

BY REGAN MERTZ

A

fter a year of planning, the Unbound Book festival joined other events and gatherings around the country with an unexpected chapter: cancellation.

On March 12, the festival announced it was calling off all events for the festival because of COVID-19 risks.

Since then, restrictions have been placed on such large gatherings, but even without those rules, Alex George, executive director of the festival, says it was an easy decision. “We simply want to keep people safe,” he says.

The decision about the April 23-26 festival came over a Zoom video call among board members. In early March, they were already practicing preventive measures like social distancing before the tighter recommendations were made by government and health officials. The festival has announced new dates of April 22-25, 2021.

This year’s event, the fifth year of the festival, was more ambitious and eventfilled, and sponsors donated money to help it come to life and remain free.

Board members and volunteers worked tirelessly over the last year. “It is devastating,” George says. “The board and volunteers put in hundreds and hundreds of hours of work.”

The idea for the festival began while George was on tour for one of his books in 2012. It was four years later that he gathered community members, such as librarians, writers and others interested in the literary arts, to meet in his living room. After 18 months of soliciting community and financial support, organizing festival committees and volunteers, and planning for authors, events and venues, the festival came to be.

Even now, the process takes an entire year. “We basically, and I’m not exaggerating, the day after the festival we usually start having discussions about what we’re going to do next year because it takes all year to do it,” George says. “Authors, and Illustrations by Chloe Khaw

particularly the caliber of authors who we want to invite to Columbia, are very busy people, and they get booked up very, very quickly.”

Local students get the opportunity to hear from the visiting authors because of the relationship between the festival and local schools. Last year, about 3,500 students listened to an author in their classrooms or at the Missouri Theatre.

“We work with partners at Columbia Public Schools and the Daniel Boone Regional Library to bring authors into schools for students of every age,” says Peggy O’Connor, Unbound board member secretary and liaison for the Authors in Schools program. “It takes months for all the pieces to come together.”

The festival will host virtual events throughout the next year. Alex plans for authors to speak to Unbound fans via livestreams to make up for the festival’s cancellation. These smaller events will

HOUSEBOUND UNBOUND

The first virtual author event will be a conversation about speculative fiction between authors Amber Sparks and Alexander Weinstein.

April 23, 7 p.m., find details at the Unbound Book Festival website.

allow people to listen to their favorite authors while in self-isolation and will be a part of Housebound Unbound, according to Unbound’s website.

“Artists all over are streaming concerts, so we have decided to do something like that as well,” George says. “I just finished speaking with Amber Sparks and Alexander Weinstein, and they immediately agreed to be a part of it.”

Despite the heartbreaking decision, George says he knows it was the right one. Community members have sent condolences and have been supportive, George says, and Unbound will continue to look for a silver lining.

“With all of the growth we have had in past years, it is really devastating to cancel this year’s festival,” George says. “But, there is no use crying over spilled milk, and we are going to work over the next year to bring an even better festival in 2021.”

VOX MAGAZINE • APRIL 2020

15

0123456789

16

From

slavery to solace Human trafficking might seem like a distant nightmare, but the issue is all too real for millions of people worldwide. Columbia is no exception. One local survivor shares her journey to freedom.

Story by Alexandra Sharp Illustrations by Mitchell Bartle

17

Amy thought she had it all.

A year after dropping out of high school, she re-enrolled and earned her GED. After pining for independence, she moved into an apartment of her own.

She even thought she’d found love.

It wasn’t love.

Mid-Missouri resident Amy was sex trafficked by her boyfriend for five years.

Everything she thought she had, all of her newfound autonomy, was lost to manipulation and control. Like thousands of other men, women and children who are trafficked in the United States, Amy became a modern-day sex slave.

Human trafficking is the use of force, fraud or coercion to compel a person into commercial services against his or her will, according to the definition from the U.S. Department of Justice. There are two main types: sex trafficking and labor trafficking.

Anyone can be targeted. No age group, gender or socioeconomic status is immune. Likewise, anyone can be a trafficker. It’s a common misconception that trafficking always starts with a dramatic abduction or a shady stranger.

The truth is the majority of traffickers start as the romantic partners, spouses or family members of survivors.

There isn’t a universal survivor experience, as each case is different. But Amy is not alone. In 2017, the year Amy escaped, 146 human trafficking cases were reported in Missouri; 115 of those were sex trafficking cases, according to Polaris Project, the organization that runs the National Human Trafficking Hotline. In 2019, there were another

114 human trafficking reports in Missouri, 87 of which were sex trafficking cases. Experts say trafficking statistics are grossly underreported. Many survivors fear contacting law enforcement or do not know how or where to turn for help.

Just a guy

They met at a party. Amy, who was 16 at the time, had dropped out of high school to take care of her newborn. The guy — that’s what we’ll call him for now — was several years older than her and was already out of high school. He was charming and attentive, and the two hit it off right away. They went everywhere together, even the bathroom, Amy says with a laugh.

They had 3 1/2 years of honeymoon love.

Then things began to change. A little drinking turned to regular drinking, and regular drinking turned to cocaine. The drugs changed him, and Amy was quickly caught in a whirlwind of intimate partner violence. He was no longer just a guy.

He was an abuser. Every time she left the house, he became suspicious. What was she doing? Was she with another man?

More times than not, leaving the house led to a beating. A simple trip to the store or a restaurant spiraled into something dark, as he decided when and where she went and if she could buy anything. Eventually, she stopped going out entirely.

Leaving him was not an option.

Amy didn’t want to sleep in the streets, so where could she go? “He had me convinced that he was my only form of transportation — only form of living,” Amy says.

Some last names have been excluded to protect the identity of the sources. The reporter serves as an intern for the Central Missouri Stop Human Trafficking Coalition where she writes profiles on human trafficking survivors.

18 18

VOX MAGAZINE • APRIL 2020

Photography courtesy of

”I’m not going to feel like a survivor until he’s put away,” Amy says. “Because, at this point, I’m still trying to survive, having to watch my back constantly. I’m constantly living in fear.”

There are shared experiences that abuse and trafficking survivors often hold in common. One of them is writing off the first time hoping it will be the only time.

This rings true for Amy. Desperate for cocaine but without the money to pay for it, her boyfriend ordered her to give a male friend oral sex as payment. She refused. But a beating quickly ended that disagreement, and she complied. This was the first time, but it wouldn’t be the last.

For the next five years, Amy was sex trafficked. In that time, she was assaulted more than 30 times, suffered permanent damage to her uterus and made eight escape attempts.

Another common experience? A vicious cycle permeated by drugs. For Amy, the only thing that numbed the physical and mental pain was cocaine, which her trafficker coerced her to use for all five years she was captive.

Another violent night

Three months. That’s how long it had been since Amy’s last period. She didn’t know yet that she’d have lifelong menstrual trouble from the assaults. Four of Amy’s five children were already living in the foster care system or with other family members. She thought of only one possibility: she was pregnant with her trafficker’s child.

One May night in 2017, she arrived home to hear a buyer had complained about her services. She didn’t get the chance to explain that constant cramping was causing her more pain than usual. Her trafficker’s closed fists,

hard and fast, pummeled her before she could say a word. When he started kicking her in the stomach, Amy warned her trafficker to not “beat on me like that because I could very well…[be] pregnant with his kid.”

He didn’t like that. His punching intensified until he lifted her from the ground and threw her against the couch. He flipped her over and assaulted her anally. After, Amy tried moving to the bathroom to clean off the blood.

But he wasn’t done. Grabbing her by the hair, he raped her vaginally.

Amy remembers her youngest child, 4 years old at the time, watched from across the room. And she remembers the living room’s red painted wall, the same color as the blood on her body.

Realizing that her injuries were severe, Amy’s trafficker rushed her to University Hospital where her journey toward freedom began. The next few days were a blur, but that one moment with the looming red wall remains clear in her mind.

Where freedom begins

When Amy arrived at University Hospital that night, she was badly injured.

Her broken ribs and a tear from vagina to rectum were treated immediately. She hadn’t been pregnant; her menstrual irregularity was the result of sustaining so much trauma. Through the bustle of nurses and the searing pain, she heard her trafficker on her left side, “telling them to stitch me up so we can go because we had stuff to do.”

The hospital staff did not let her leave with the trafficker. “I feel like the nurses saved my life that day,” Amy says.

In May 2019, a team of University Hospital nurses, with help from the Stop Human Trafficking Coalition of Central Missouri, created a protocol to recognize and treat human trafficking victims.

Now, medical staff are trained to spot physical signs of abuse, particularly in the genital area; malnutrition; substance abuse and specific tattoos, such as a bar code or money bags. These symbols often brand individuals who can be purchased for sex or labor.

MU Health Care nurse Tracy Bocklage explains: “As far as hospitals go, we’re way ahead of the game on just having a policy and having education to our staff.”

In the year since the program has been in place, MU Health Care has identified seven suspected human trafficking survivors, says MU Health Care Communications Strategist Eric Maze.

A few days after Amy was admitted to the hospital, police escorted her to True North, the only domestic violence shelter in Boone County.

At first, she was reluctant to go. After being trafficked, she says she believed authority figures would hurt or punish her. “I was scared to talk to people about what had happened because I was always in fear of getting in trouble for sleeping with people for money and drugs and guns,” Amy says.

Once there, Amy and her daughter’s basic needs were met. They had a safe place to stay, food to eat and hygiene prod-

VOX MAGAZINE •APRIL 2020

19 19

ucts to use. She stayed in True North’s residential services for three months, longer than the average 30-day stay.

True North practices a holistic approach, Executive Director Elizabeth Herrera Eichenberger says. From dental services to resume skills, True North assists its clients in as many aspects of life as possible.

Despite these resources, Amy says she felt the people at True North couldn’t fully understand the trauma she experienced. The shelter, which aims to support and protect domestic and sexual violence victims, operates with 24/7 staff presence in order to run its hotline and ensure survivors’ safety. Although the measure is taken in their best interest, trafficking survivors have typically experienced a complete stripping of their independence in addition to violence. The service can sometimes feel like surveillance or a means of control.

The road to independence

The day Amy connected with the Stop Human Trafficking Coalition of Central

20 20

Missouri was the day she began to feel human again, she says. It was the summer of 2017. After a week at True North, she was introduced to Nanette Ward, co-founder of the Coalition. For the first time, Amy told her story in its entirety.

It was both terrifying and exhilarating, and she felt a glimmer of freedom.

The Coalition’s primary purposes are to safely reintegrate human trafficking survivors into society and to raise awareness about human trafficking in Mid-Missouri, board member Karen Mickey says. “There’s a whole other reality in this town, in this state, that people live under, and it doesn’t have to be that way. It can change.”

The Coalition runs on a 24/7 volunteer-based service model to provide support to survivors. Since the Coalition’s inception in 2008, the number of people they serve has steadily grown.

In 2018, the organization helped 38 local survivors. In 2019, that number increased to 50 survivors.

Mickey says the Coalition’s aroundthe-clock mission provides a unique re-

source for survivors. “What happens [the] six days out of the week when you can’t connect to your case manager, and your trafficker has called you in the middle of the night, and you’re so scared you don’t know what to do?” Mickey asks. “You pick up the phone, and you call [the Coalition].”

Without the Coalition, Amy says she fears she would be dead. Beyond the services the organization provides, including housing and clothes, she now has a network of people fighting for her. “I had never experienced something like that ever in my life where I’ve had somebody that’s had my back 100%,” Amy says.

In the 2 1/2 years the Coalition has been working with Amy, Mickey says Amy has grown into a more mature, trusting individual. “She’s very talented, very capable, has a great smile, great sense of humor,” Mickey says. “She’ll get there. She’s getting there.”

Learning to heal

Deep breath. First in — hold it — then out. Breathing exercises make Amy feel

UGLY TRUTHS safe. Although she admits she needs counseling, Amy says traditional, discussion-based therapy is not for her. At first, she was worried that not having money would prevent her from finding a treatment fit for her needs. But when the Coalition connected her to a non-traditional, hands-on therapist who offered Amy free sessions, she knew she’d found something. There, she learned coping strategies.

Amy has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety.

She experiences consistent nightmares, flashbacks and dissociations, which Mayo Clinic defines as “a disconnection and lack of continuity between thoughts, memories, surroundings, actions and identity.” Small things can trigger her: deep male voices, slamming doors and people cursing. She dreads sleeping.

Closing her eyes brings the horrific experiences to mind. But her worst trigger is the color red. It takes her back to the red wall from that one fateful day.

Two years into therapy, Amy has learned meditation techniques to stop her dissociations and flashbacks. Although these have been helpful, she still suffers from mental illness and sometimes considers self-injuring. To avoid acting on these urges, Amy gets a tattoo every time she has suicidal ideations. She has many tattoos.

“They’re painful, so I figure it’s not self-inflicted pain,” Amy explains. “Your mind is [on the tattoo], and by that time, when the tattoo’s done healing, all of [the] suicidal thoughts would have floated away because I’d be focused on trying not to bump it or trying not to stretch it in a weird way.”

Counseling is the most needed service for survivors in Missouri, says MU assistant professor of social work Kathleen Preble. She is co-spearheading a research initiative that provides a directory of all anti-human trafficking services in Missouri. The project aims

to show what resources are most needed and then identify potential improvement plans. According to the portion of Preble’s research published in December 2019, the second and third most needed resources are substance abuse treatment programs and stable, safe housing.

Amy particularly struggles with the latter. Since escaping in May 2017, she has had to move seven times because her trafficker continues to find her. She recalls going on a fishing trip with friends and noticing that he was watching her from the woods. When the stalking continued, she had to send her youngest child away. “If he did kill me, let’s just say if he did, I wouldn’t want her to be around for that,” Amy says. “I wouldn’t want her to be around for another assault. I wouldn’t want her to be around to see another beating.”

A hopeful outlook

Amy chose not to seek help from law enforcement after she escaped. The Columbia Police Department does not have a specific human trafficking policy, communications relations specialist Jeff Pitts says.

Amy considered entering a witness protection program, but ultimately was unable to.

“I’m not going to feel like a survivor until he’s put away,” Amy says. “Because at this point, I’m still trying to survive, having to watch my back constantly. I’m constantly living in fear.”

Amy is still fighting for freedom. She lacks health and car insurance and recently quit a well-paying job because she was being sexually harassed at work. In spite of everything she has been through, Amy has big dreams for the future. She’s enrolled in college classes and hopes to open her own manufacturing business. She imagines the day when she will have a steady paycheck, her own house with a yard and the chance to bring her child back home.

Most of all, she dreams of the day when she won’t be afraid anymore.

In 2019, there were 114 human trafficking reports in Missouri, of which 87 were sex trafficking cases.

Missouri has the 14th most human trafficking reports, according to the National Human Trafficking Hotline.

Human trafficking wasn’t a specific crime until 2000 when the federal Trafficking Victims Protections Act became law.

Nationwide, the top two groups of sex trafficking recruiters are intimate partners and family members.

One in six of the 23,500 runaway children reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in 2019 are thought to be victims of child sex trafficking.

Resources Stop Human Trafficking Coalition of Central Missouri:(866)590-5959 National Human Trafficking Hotline:(888)373-7888

Photography courtesy of Unsplash and 123rf

or text HELP or INFO to 233733 VOX MAGAZINE •APRIL 2020

21 21

DISA STERS D ON’ T

PL AN AHE AD

YO U C A N DON’ T WAIT. COMMUNICATE. Talk to your loved ones about how you are going to be ready in an emergency.

VISIT READY.GOV/PLAN.

INSTA-MEALS P. 25

Sushi, simplified These common terms will help you confidently place your next order.

BY FIE DANDANELL

Photography courtesy of Unsplash

Do you know what a makisu is used for when an itamae prepares your California roll? Or that you almost always get gari served with your maki? Probably not. (We didn’t.)

Vox asked Art Wuttisak, sushi chef and co-owner of Kampai Sushi, to walk us through common terms on the menu, and turned to the Japanese-English dictionary Jisho.org for more.

Let’s start from the top.

VOX MAGAZINE • APRIL 2020

23

E AT + DRINK CUISINE

Maki is one of the absolute basics of sushi. It is a sushi roll containing seaweed and rice, plus a filling. When you say “maki,” it is the term for all types of sushi rolls.

Now you know the general term, but there are different versions of maki.

You might run into the terms “futomaki,” “hosomaki” and “uramaki.”

Futomaki is the largest maki and contains multiple fillings. Hosomaki is smaller with just one or two fillings.

When rice is rolled on the outside of the seaweed, you get uramaki. But at Kampai Sushi, Chef Wuttisak keeps it simple by only referring to “maki” on the menu.

When making maki, you’ll need a makisu, or a small bamboo mat. The chef places ingredients on the makisu and rolls them together to make long cylinders before cutting them into pieces. The chef who makes your sushi is called an itamae.

Besides maki, nigiri is another classic Japanese specialty. It is a type of sushi with thin slices of seafood variations on top of a ball of rice. This could include tuna, salmon, shrimp or a number of other iterations.

Sushi and sashimi are often confused with each other, but they are distinct dishes. Sashimi are slices of fish.

The dish can be made with fish such

“Sushi” is usually used as an umbrella term for a range of Japanese dishes such as nigiri, sashimi and shrimp tempura.

as tuna, salmon or yellowtail. Unlike maki or nigiri, sashimi is put together without rice.

Beyond these basic categories, you also need to know the terminology behind the fillings. To start, “ebi” means shrimp. Nori is the seaweed in sushi.

Tempura is a technique in which food is battered and deep fried. So, if your menu lists tempura ebi, it’s offering battered, deep-fried shrimp.

In Japan, sake can mean either rice wine or salmon. “When it is used as a term in sushi, it is just straight raw salmon,” Wuttisak says. If the salmon is cooked, it’s called “sake-yaki.” And if your menu says “aburi sushi,” it means that the fish is partly cooked on top.

Wasabi is a spicy green paste served with sushi. In the West, it’s usually made of horseradish, but it’s traditionally made with wasabi root. Wuttisak says he uses regular wasabi root as well as the horseradish version.

Gari refers to the pickled ginger often served with your sushi. You can use it to clean your palate after a bite before you dive into that next piece.

Save a life. Don’t Drive HoMe buzzeD. BUZZED DRIVING IS DRUNK DRIVING.

24

VOX MAGAZINE • APRIL 2020

Photography courtesy of Unsplash and Pexels

atches how m n o ti ta n e s e r to The p rved in-housecy e s e b ld u o w it f consisten give a sense o

E AT + DRI N K RESTAURANTS

Social feeds Local restaurants curate online personas that reflect their IRL images.

BY EMILY ADAMS

A

sonogram with two pizzas collaged onto a womb might not seem like something you would find on a business’ Instagram account, but Pizza Tree’s feed is full of gems. John Gilbreth, owner of Pizza Tree, established the restaurant’s online presence back in 2013. “We did anything to get attention,” Gilbreth says. “We were like a kid jumping up and down at our mom’s side. I was the kid, and the mom was the general public.” Now, Pizza Tree boasts over 6,100 Facebook followers.

As the influence of social media has continued to grow, restaurants owners such as Gilbreth have developed more strategic approaches to posting. Instagram has become a hub where young customers can learn about specials and discover new dishes. Pizza Tree’s Instagram profile is an extension of the eatery’s quirky style, and it has an audience of nearly 4,800 followers.

Dedication to social media marketing is crucial in Columbia, where an established online presence sets a restaurant apart from its competition.

Pizza Tree followers are so loyal that the account regularly receives direct messages and comments that range from mild excitement to “I would die for you Pizza Tree,” as dryly commented by follower Kaitlyn Weir in January.

Ben Hamrah, co-owner of Beet Box, says the trend in which restaurants curate a strong online relationship with customers started when restaurants in bigger cities began using social media to establish distinguished brand experiences. A similar approach worked well for Beet Box and gained the restaurant nearly 2,000 Instagram followers.

“What we’re trying to do is to be very active so that all of our customers and our clients can see what we’re doing on a daily basis,” he says.

Hamrah and co-owner Amanda Elliott started posting about the Middle

Eastern pop-up when it was still a side project to Peachtree Catering in 2018.

Beet Box’s brick-and-mortar storefront opened just three months ago, and social media is instrumental in marketing the restaurant to locals. “It would be totally mundane if we had a sterile, straightforward social media approach, but the fact that we can say whatever we want is more reflective of our personality,” Elliott says.

For a typical Beet Box post, Elliott arranges a beautifully plated meal and takes a photo. The aesthetic of Beet Box’s posts matches the experience customers can expect in the restaurant: plenty of natural light, pops of color and music, as is featured in video posts.

Costs stay low for Beet Box because Instagram is free, and the owners take photos on their iPhones. The “Eat It” sign, which glows neon pink and hangs inside the restaurant, frequently appears in posts.

Both Beet Box and Pizza Tree effectively translate their playful ambiances

Photography courtesy of Beetbox and Pizza Tree

Vox talked to Beet Box (above) and Pizza Tree (below) to get a behind-the-scenes look at what goes into their carefully planned social posts.

This bizarre graphic, inspired by artwork by employee Justin Nardy, matches the eatery’s funky style

Playful fonts and emojis mimic Pizza Tree’s fun branding

They keep it fresh and modern with trendy color palettes into their social media personalities.

Pizza Tree tends to use psychedelic colors in its posts.

The two restaurants differ, however, in how much involvement employees have in the posting process. Hamrah and Elliott post everything themselves, while Gilbreth hires an outside marketing firm. This gives him more time to manage the pizza business in other capacities. To create authentic posts, the marketers spent hours interviewing Pizza Tree employees and gathering information from inside the restaurant.

College students flood the social media presences of Pizza Tree and Beet Box. Going forward, Gilbreth’s main goal is to constantly engage the new student population that arrives on MU’s campus each year. Neither Pizza Tree nor Beet Box owners anticipate social media going away any time soon.

Hamrah says, “If you can create this really intimate relationship with your customer, I think that’s the next step in where food service is going.”

VOX MAGAZINE • APRIL 2020

25

Staying home saves lives.

For more information, visit

coronavirus.gov

LOVE IN THE TIME OF CORONAVIRUS P. 29

To recycle or not to recycle Rip these pages out, stick them on the refrigerator, and get recycling.

BY BENNETT DURANDO Please don’t flee. We know you don’t want to see another preachy Earth Day article about your contribution to the world’s trash problem. The occasional daydream-turned-existential-crisis about environmental collapse is stressful enough. So rather than finger wagging, how about some simple tips for going green on a daily basis?

Columbia Solid Waste Manager Adam White says recycling guidelines depend on the town, and here’s what you need to know about ours.

Sort your recyclables There are two types of recycling to separate at home: fiber and container.

Fiber refers to cardboard and paper, and container refers to aluminum and steel cans, glass containers and plastics Nos. 1-7.

Columbia recycles almost all plastics except styrofoam and film, such as plastic bags, cling wrap, chip bags, bubble wrap and shower curtains.

The city is trying to transition toward designating glass as a distinct type of recycling. Two of the 11 recycling drop-off centers around town now include purple dumpsters for glass.

“We plan to have more of these dumpsters in the future because it is easier to find a factory that will recycle glass when it is not mixed with other recyclables,” White says. He says for now, you can still include glass with other mixed containers, but it is preferred to separate the glass whenever possible.

Illustrations by Madison Wisse

VOX MAGAZINE • APRIL 2020

27

C I TY LIFE SUSTAINABILITY

Not sure how to start your sorting?

Here are some do’s and don’ts of separating recyclables.

Do Place all your fibers — junk mail, old newspapers, smaller cardboard boxes and more — inside a bigger cardboard box or paper bag. Break down and flatten all cardboard. “The plastic windows on paper envelopes do not need to be removed,” White says. “The paper mills will turn envelopes into pulp and then filter out the plastics.” Staples also don’t need to be removed before disposal either, but White recommends keeping reusable paper clips.

Don’t Recycle used paper towels, napkins, paper plates and paper cups. Greasy pizza boxes shouldn’t be recycled. But Columbia recycles some pizza boxes.

“It does not matter if there are a few small grease spots, but really large grease spots and melted cheese would cause problems in the recycling process,” White says. “If you are ever unsure about the grease marks, you can still tear the box into two pieces and recycle the top half.”

Do Empty and rinse food remnants out of all containers, crush milk cartons and other

non-glass containers, and include lids on plastic bottles. All container recycling can go together in a waste bag, or even better, another larger recyclable item.

Don’t Throw the full bag in a recycling dumpster. Empty it. The bag itself counts as lightweight plastic film, so it’s not recyclable — not even the blue recycling bags that the city of Columbia provides. Don’t recycle aluminum foil, broken glass or the metal lids on glass containers (like on a jar).

Fun fact:

28

VOX MAGAZINE • APRIL 2020

Separating fibers and containers becomes important when it reaches the Material Recovery Facility, a warehouse in northeast Columbia where recycling is sorted and shipped. Here are the steps: 1. Using two gates on the building’s south end, recycling trucks unload materials into a pile on a big concrete floor.

2. Bags of shredded paper are separated and placed in a bunker.

Do Recycle clothes if they aren’t moldy or contaminated. Private vendors not associated with the city, such as Planet Aid and USAgain, have clothing collection bins around Columbia. Clothing dropped off here is assessed as reusable, recyclable or neither, with the main goal of providing clothing to the homeless or to impoverished areas (including other countries). If an article of clothing isn’t reusable, it is sent to a textile recycling factory. But don’t just throw any old item in these bins. Anything with mold or mildew gets incinerated or sent to a landfill. “It is best to avoid placing these in the collection bin because it would likely contaminate the reusable and recyclable clothing,” White says.

WANT A RECYCLING DUMPSTER OR ROLL-CART AT YOUR BUSINESS?

If your business doesn’t recycle, Columbia can provide a recycling dumpster or roll cart for your building, and city services will periodically pick up your recycling in a truck — the same as residential pickup. The city’s commercial recycling service for fiber and container recycling costs 15% less than its trash services, and cardboard-only costs 20% less than trash. White says the monthly rate is deliberately cheaper to encourage

THE PROCESSING PROCESS

businesses to reduce trash and recycle more. You can also start your own recycling station at your business and deliver it to a recycling drop-off station yourself.

Fun fact: Columbia is also trying to jump-start a new effort to collect pre-consumer food waste from restaurants. White says the program is “currently in a transitional period” as the city tries to involve outside composting companies.

3. Across the room, cardboard from compactors is separated into a pile.

4. Fiber recycling and mixed containers are moved to their designated conveyor lines.

5. Workers on the fiber conveyor line separate bulky pieces of cardboard then hand sort the rest of the mixed fiber materials.

6. On the container line, workers open the city’s blue recycling bags from curbside collection and dump out the materials. The bags are trashed.

7. Workers hand-filter the containers to separate No. 1 plastics, No. 2 plastics and Nos. 3-7 plastics. Metal cans are hand-sorted with help from magnets, and aluminum is filtered toward the end of the line using an eddy current.

8. Everything left on the container line should be glass. It drops to another conveyor belt and goes to a separate bunker.

9. All the filtered materials go to a central pit to be compacted into bales (think WALL-E). The bales are finally shipped for processing and manufacturing.

Illustrations by Madison Wisse

C I T Y LI FE PEOPLE

Wedded miss Many couples with spring and summer weddings are waiting to say “I do.”

A

mid the COVID-19 pandemic, shelter-in-place policies have rained on plans for spring and summer weddings. With officials encouraging people to stay at home and avoid groups of more than 10, weddings went from joyous occasions to nonessential, and possibly dangerous, events.

“Obviously, (weddings) are very important; it’s the celebration of a new journey that people commit to each other for a lifetime,” says Lisa Wampler, owner and event planner of Blue Diamond Events and XSIV Entertainment. “But it really is a matter of safety versus wants and needs.”

Prairie Home resident Kaitlin Flick met her fiance, Klinton Holliday, about 2 ½ years ago. He is a farmer, and she is an agronomist with MFA Inc. The two have been engaged since August 2019 and were set to get married on March 21.

Kelsi Kliethermes, a wedding photographer, has been working with Flick and Holliday on their wedding photos.

She photographed their engagement photos last year.

Before the coronavirus outbreak, Kliethermes mostly was focusing on scheduling work for the fall and next spring. But with postponements, she has been staying in close contact with May couples as well as their vendors and wedding planners to make sure rescheduling and re-coordinating needs are being met for her clients. “Something else that is kind of thrown into my job now is keeping up with CDC guidelines,” she says.

“I think a lot of them are upset,” Kliethermes says. “They’ve been planning this day for a long time.”

Although Flick and Holliday are planning their wedding during times of uncertainty and unrest, they still are excited for when their big day does come. “We thought this time right now we’d be at a rehearsal dinner, tomorrow getting married and spending the next couple of weeks in Italy and on a Mediterranean cruise,” Flick says. “We’re still excited to go on that trip whenever that new date is.”

The couple has not announced a new date yet, but they’re hoping to reschedule for later in the summer. Like many

Photography courtesy of Kelsi Kliethermes Photography

Klinton Holliday and Kaitlin Flick were engaged in August 2019 and planned a wedding for March 21. Like many couples, they had to postpone those plans because of the current pandemic.

DID YOU KNOW? May and June consistently are among the most popular months to get married, according to Priceonomics.

In 2019, June 1 was the eighth-most popular wedding date. According to Brides, the No. 1 date was Oct. 12.

The average length of engagement in 2018 was 13.6 months, according to The Knot’s annual Real Weddings Study.

couples, they want to wait a few weeks to see how the virus affects social guidelines before making a final decision.

“Monday (March 16), when we made the decision to postpone our wedding for this weekend, it was a really tough decision,” Flick says. “And now, looking at how far we’ve come since Monday, if you would have asked us today, it’s a no-brainer. Absolutely, we would.”

Holliday says they invited about 450 people to their wedding. Management at their venue had already started discussing limitations on event sizes before the couple decided to postpone.

Although it was frustrating, Flick and Holliday agree that they made the right decision. “I think that early on, it was really tough to make the decision, and I feel bad about that because I see the selfish side of me not wanting my big day to be ruined,” Flick says. “As things have evolved in the last week, it’s been a humbling experience, and I realize the safety of our friends and family is way more important.”

Wampler says she has been working to postpone ceremonies and receptions and to find local videographers who could potentially livestream events, but she still is concerned about how long this will continue. “The longer this goes on, the more complicated rescheduling is going to become,” she says. “If this goes until June, then we’ve got two months of weddings that need to be rescheduled.”

Wampler says May and June are some of the busiest months for weddings and two of the months that are going to be most affected.

Popular wedding site The Knot released a list of tips to help couples delay their nuptials in the most efficient way.

The piece encourages quick communication with guests and vendors.

The article ends with a suggestion to celebrate the day anyway: “Find a small, but meaningful way to celebrate. Plan a fancy date night or enjoy your favorite bottle of wine and a movie.”

“The most important thing is that everyone follows safety recommendations,” Wampler says. “The sooner we can get over this situation, the sooner we can get back to normal lives again and celebrating.”

VOX MAGAZINE • APRIL 2020

29

CITY LIFE VOX PICKS

Vox Picks for

APRIL

You can still have a good time at a safe distance of 6 feet (or more). Each month, Vox curates a list of can’t-miss shops, eats, reads and experiences around Columbia. This month, we’re offering the at-home edition.

BY SARAH HALLAM AND ABBIE WILSON

Listen...

To virtual concerts featuring local artists. Shannon Morris, who recently joined the band The Cheap Dates, experienced the frustration of having his first gig canceled.

With music venues currently shuttered, he decided to create a forum for local musicians. On March 16, he started the Mid-Missouri Virtual Venue Facebook group for artists to share livestreams and performances. Some who have shared so far include the local bands The Burney Sisters, The Follow, The Hooten Hallers and The Many Colored Death. Artists also have the option to create a donation link. Facebook.com/groups/AliveStreamCoMo/

Buy...

T-shirts to support your favorite Columbia businesses. Many restaurants and shops have had to temporarily close amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Owner Reid Lyle at Fast Yowi Tees wanted to help in the best way he knew how — with T-shirts. Fast Yowi is selling shirts featuring local business logos, with $20.45 of every $25 sale going to that business to help with expenses. For more information, visit the “How It Works” page on lovelocalcomo.org

Watch…

Brand-new movies from your couch while still supporting local business.

Theaters across the country have closed their doors amid social distancing and stay-at-home guidelines. But you can support Ragtag Cinema by watching movies through its screening platform. Go online to ragtagcinema.org to enter its virtual theater and buy tickets for first-run movies.

The first three films — Bacurau, Corpus Christi and Saint Frances — started March 27. Films run on Ragtag’s regular schedule (Friday through Thursday). Tickets are $12 and are good for five days. Ragtagcinema.org, movie line: 443-4359

Dance…

Like no one’s watching. The Missouri Contemporary Ballet had to cancel or postpone many of its events, including its March Sip & Shop fundraiser and the April performance “LIVE!” Instead, the dance company is releasing past performances on its Facebook and Youtube pages for viewers to watch at home. The company generates most of its revenue through shows, so if you are feeling generous, its pages are open for donations. Missouricontemporaryballet.org and facebook.com/missouricontemporary ballet, 219-7134

30

VOX MAGAZINE • APRIL 2020

Shop...

Sustainably over the phone at Root Cellar.

The locally sourced grocery store has seen a 700% increase in requests for home deliveries since the start of the pandemic. Customers also have the option of calling ahead for pickup, and a sales associate will walk around the store and select items. Root Cellar sells produce, dairy, meat and other products from local farmers and other businesses, and it has seen an increase in its weekly box subscriptions as well. “We’ve definitely been pretty well-stocked at Root Cellar, but it definitely took a different set of skills and we had to be creative about how we did that,” says owner Jake Davis.

Root Cellar, 1005 Park Ave., Tues.-Fri. 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., 443-5055, rootcellarmo.com Photography by and courtesy of Marco Storel, Unsplash and Fast Yowi Tees

photo finish

Online dating PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAFFY LIU Miya Menne, 18, kisses her boyfriend, Trevon Hill, 17, at Hickman High School the day before all in-person classes were suspended by the district. Because of social distancing measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, many couples, friends and peers must learn to continue their relationships remotely. “I’ll miss him,” Menne says.

“We couldn’t see each other eight hours a day as usual.”

VOX MAGAZINE • APRIL 2020

31

Cele br

R Street Fair R Art Displays R Food Courts

Day

Eco Avenue R Kids’ Park R Music & Dance R

Ea r

th

a

n i t

e a Y r s of 0 5 g

Get Involved!

Sunday, April 26 Noon-7 p.m.

Peace Park (and Adjacent Streets)

We’re looking for Climate-themed Art, Kids’ Activity Leaders, and Event Volunteers.

Booths available now at The Peace Nook.

For information or to volunteer, contact 573-875-0539 or coordinator@columbiaearthday.org Organized by the Columbia Area Earth Day Coalition: Members include City of Columbia Parks and Recreation, City of Columbia Volunteer Programs, Climate Leaders at Mizzou, Peaceworks’ Center for Sustainable Living, Sierra Club-Osage Group, Sunrise Movement, The Peace Nook Earth Day rain date: May 3

32