By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

Dolores Baker didn’t realize when she created three female figures representing a women’s journey through breast cancer she would soon be touched by the illness.

Baker created the ceramic models of women’s torsos in memory of friends and family members who had fought breast cancer and some who had lost their lives.

Baker had a biopsy once before for suspected cancer, but she thought she was in the clear. At the end of 2015, six months after she finished the cancer pieces, she went in for a routine mammogram, and the cancer was discovered. She was shocked. Breast cancer did not run in her family.

Baker thought she might be able to escape with just a lumpectomy. However, she ended up having radiation treatments and four surgeries, including the removal of both of her breasts.

The Hays Arts Council opened a new exhibit this week featuring artists from the Great Bend area. Baker’s torsos along with a series of masks titled “Faces of Breast Cancer” are part of the exhibit.

Baker is cancer-free now. She said the message she was trying to convey with the torsos has not changed even though her own body has.

“I think the main theme is that the feminine body is beautiful with or without breasts,” she said, noting that this is contrary to what our culture tells us.

Baker said she hopes the art pieces will spark discussion among the people who see them about the subject of breast cancer.

“I am thinking I want the subject of breast cancer to no longer be taboo,” she said. “When I was creating the pieces at the college, young women confided in me about their family members who had suffered from cancer and their own fears of being a gene carrier. I want people to be able to discuss the issue out in the open.”

Baker said after her battle with cancer, her perception of the art pieces changed.

“In some ways, there was a sense of transition and moving from grief to joy and interior growth,” she said.

Six months after her surgeries, Baker created “Faces of Cancer,” a series of masks that she said reflected her own journey through breast cancer.

“There was grief and feeling broken. I believe there is a screw in the mouth of one of the faces. There was both fear and the anger and then moving on to just being puzzled and then to joy,” she said.

Baker, 75, has not always been an artist. She retired as elementary school teacher and the height of her artistic creations for many years was drawing stick figures. When she retired, she started doing creative writing, but saw a clay demonstration at Barton County Community College. Twelve years ago, she started taking classes from Bill Forst, making bowls and cups.

But Baker said she wants more, “Now I want to say something with my art.”

The other artists in the exhibit include Virginia Bitter, ceramics; husband and wife Rose Dudek, oils, and Steve Dudek, watercolors; and husband and wife Karole Erikson, photography; and Jay Miller, photography.

Both Erikson and Miller were recently featured in the Hays Arts Council’s Five State Photography Exhibition and have won awards in the past. They have also won placement in the HAC’s annual Smoky Hill Art Exhibition.

You will see wildlife photography from both artists side by side, but you will notice different styles. Miller has a portrait of a squirrel, near an image of taken by Erikson of a kingfisher snatching a fish out of the water. Miller also has a grouping of photos in the exhibit of a Kansas ranch during an annual burn, whereas Erickson’s images include scenes from decaying cemetery.

Steve Dudek is an award-winning watercolor artist and instructor at Barton County Community College. 

Rose Dudek helped put together the exhibition. Brenda Meder, HAC executive director, described her art as nonobjective, abstract oils.

Bitter also has ceramics on display at the center, but Meder said the two artists have very different styles.

“There are very perceptible individualities to Virginia’s and Dolores’ ceramics,” she said.

The artists reception will be  7 to 9 p.m. Feb. 23. The exhibit will be on display until Friday, March 23.

By CRISTINA JANNEY

Hays Post

The Sternberg Museum of Natural History will celebrate Darwin’s Birthday from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday with free admission to the museum and activities centered on everyday evolution.

Charles Darwin was actually born on Feb. 12, 1809, but the celebration is still giving the museum an opportunity to further science education in the community.

The four main aspects of evolution that will be presented will be animal husbandry, genetically modified organisms or GMOs, vaccinations and deforestation.

Jessica Barnett, who helped organize the event, said each topic will have stations manned with museum staff and FHSU graduate students and will have opportunities not only to discuss the topics, but also participate in hands-on activities.

“Every single day you come in contact with organisms that are evolving,” she said. “Whether that is humans that have evolved from other organisms or the corn that you are eating for dinner or your dog that has been selectively bred to be the modern-day equivalent of the wolf.”

The museum is using dog breeding as a way to illustrate artificial selection as opposed to natural selection. Barnett gave the example of floppy ears in dogs. Puppies have floppy ears, but in the wild in adult wolves, they are replaced by perky ears that are better for pinpointing sound during hunting.

“We choose to breed animals with floppy ears because they are so cute. It is so nice to rub their ears and let them flop around everywhere. It is adorable when they are adults, but we chose that,” she said. “That is not necessarily advantageous in the wild.”

Children will be able to “Build a Dog.” They will make dog puppets using features that have been artificially selected through breeding by humans.

Another example of artificial selection is the brassica plant. The plant was a leafy edible plant in about 4000 BC. It was bred into kale and eventually cauliflower, cabbage and broccoli.

As part of the GMO activity, the museum hopes to dispel some of the misconceptions of GMOs and focus on the science. Laura Wilson, PhD, said the definition of a GMO varies greatly depending on the source, whether it is a scientific, government or pro-organic group.

“We are not taking sides, we are just trying to keep a just-the-facts-mam attitude,” she said.

The vaccine presentation will look at how viruses mutate or evolve and how scientists have to modify vaccines to keep up with the changing organisms. Wilson said this is particularly pertinent with the flu epidemic in the U.S right now.

Children will be able to create their own viruses, and then the activity coordinators will try to develop vaccines that will keep the kids from accidentally killing everyone.

“That is a fun activity for kids to let them see how the flu virus evolves over time and how scientists do their best to anticipate what flu viruses might become problematic and how that changes year to year and why that is important to get [the flu shot] every year,” Barnett said.

On the subject of deforestation, the museum is trying to show how evolution changes plants and animals on an ecosystem scale.

The museum staff found a study on palm trees in the South American rain forest. The palm trees are being cut down and the groves fragmented, Wilson said. Toucans that feed off the palm trees are going extinct in these areas. Toucans typically carry the seeds of the palm trees. Now scientists are seeing palm trees with smaller seeds that can’t disperse their seeds as far because there are no toucans to carry the seeds.

“These kind of cascading effects within ecosystems due to deforestation and fragmentation make little islands out of what was a big expanse of land,” Wilson said. “This can cause changes to plants and animals.”

The museums live animal collection also will be on display during the event, and all of the normal exhibits will be open.

Several new exhibits will also be available to the public. The museum recently mounted a display of a new collection of minerals. The museum is constructing a new paleontology lab. Although it is not yet equipped, visitors can view the new space. A history of paleo art exhibit will also be on display.

 

 

 

 

 

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

A researcher at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History is studying a disease that is wiping out a species of bats across the nation.

Curtis Schmidt, Sternberg zoology collections manager, Elmer Fink, PhD, along with others from Fort Hays State University, have been studying the northern long-eared bat. Schmidt, although primarily trained as a herpetologist, co-wrote a book on Kansas bats with former Sternberg director Jerry Choate and two other scholars in 2011.

The northern long-eared bat was listed as threatened on the endangered species list in 2015. The bats, which normally live in caves, are succumbing to a fungal infection called white-nose syndrome that proves fatal in almost all cases.

The fungus was not introduced to the U.S. until 2006, but since has been decimating bat populations by the millions.

The fungal infection has not yet been found in Kansas.

The fungus that is affecting the bats is normally found in soil. However, it is being brought into caves by humans. People pick up the fungi on their shoes and carry it from one cave to another. The infection is also transferred from bat to bat and is carried from cave to cave by infected bats.

Bats have extremely high metabolisms. They have to be constantly eating when they are awake. When insects are scarce during the winter, some bat species, including the northern long-eared bat, hibernate. The fungal infection disrupts the bats’ hibernation. They become active in attempts to fight the illness, yet can’t feed, and starve to death, Schmidt said.

“It’s just spreading like wildfire,” he said, “and right now we have no idea how to control it.”

Some populations are showing they are starting to evolve resistance to the disease. One scientific paper suggested ultraviolet radiation will kill the fungus, but the caves in which the bats live are not exposed to ultraviolet radiation. If this solution proves effective, humans may have to go into the caves and provide ultraviolet radiation to kill the fungus.

Schmidt and his fellow researchers have banded about 700 to 800 bats during the last three years primarily in Ellis, Rooks, Russell and Trego counties. The scientists use fine mist nets to catch the bats as they search for water in the early evening. Contrary to the saying “blind as a bat,” bats can see. The bats use memory to locate water. The don’t start to echo locate for prey until later in the evening.

Researches don’t know much about where the bats roost or hibernates in Kansas. The bats use caves in other areas, but there are no caves in the areas in which the bats live in Kansas.

Schmidt acknowledged bats are often viewed negatively by the public. Seventeen species of bats live in Kansas, all of which are insect eaters. The bats not only eat mosquitoes, but many insects that can be harmful to crops. A study in Texas indicated bats had a $1.8 billion annual benefit to agriculture in the state.

The most common bat in Kansas is the big brown bat, and if you have seen a bat in Kansas that is probably what you observed.

Bats are actually quite abundant, but we just don’t usually see them because of their nocturnal lifestyle, Schmidt said.

“One thing people don’t realize is how abundant bats really are,” he said. “They are extremely abundant, very, very common. If we could actually see into the sky at night, you would see that the sky is full of bats, no matter where in the country you are.”

Schmidt will be giving a presentation at the Bat Fair from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday at the Kansas Wetlands Education Center, 592 NE Kansas Highway 156, Great Bend.

He will be talk about a day in the life of a bat, which because of their high metabolism, involves primarily eating and sleeping.

Bats mate in the fall and the female bats will hold the live sperm until they are ready for the eggs to be fertilized in the spring. Bats, as mammals, give birth to live young and produce milk for their babies. Bats usually have two pup, but can have up to five. The baby bats grow rapidly and are able to fly and be independent of their mothers within two weeks.

Schmidt said he hopes through presentations such as the one in Great Bend he can raise awareness of the importance of bats.

“The No. 1 thing I like to promote is that they are OK, and they are good to have around,” he said. “I am really optimistic because it seems the more people are learning about them more recently with these diseases and things that are going on, the more people are appreciating and liking them. I have more people who come in and want to build bat houses because they realize how beneficial the bats are not only for agriculture, but for mosquitos and thing like that.”

Following Schmidt’s the presentation, children will be able to construct their own bats, complete a scavenger hunt in a “cave,” compare bat wing spans and “capture” and measure their own bats. KWEC will have live brown bats as well as several Sternberg Museum bat specimens on display.

The fair will also have examples and instructions on how to construct bat boxes, which can be used to attract bats to the yard.

For more information, contact KWEC at 877-243-9268.

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post 

The Kansas Statewide Homeless Coalition gathered agencies Tuesday to talk about homelessness in northwest Kansas.

The Coalition has hired Amazing Traditions to do a needs assessment for the region, and representatives were in town to talk about the need for services, causes of homelessness, possible solutions and barriers to solutions during a meeting at the Hadley Center.

The Kansas Statewide Homeless Coalition is the lead agency in the continuum of care for homelessness. The lead agency provides education, structure, support, decision making and program evaluation. It is the overall umbrella for care services through HUD.

The needs assessment helps the coalition understand where the greatest needs are and where they can provide the most support.

“It is really to get a temperature for the feeling in the community,” Kerri VanMeveren of Amazing Traditions, said of the focus group Tuesday. “Some communities have the not-my-backyard or a you-build-it-and-they-will-come mindset, which is important to understand what your community will accept. If there are great needs in the community and there is great disparity between need and the opportunity, are there some other things that need to take place before you put money in there, before it’s ready to be accepted?”

The Coalition applies for funding on behalf of a variety of agencies in the state. Currently there are no grant awards in the northwest region, said Linda Mills, director of First Call for Help and regional coordinator for the Coalition.

People in the Ellis County can apply for HUD programs, but Mills said most of the people who are seeking help from First Call for Help don’t meet the federal standards for assistance. To qualify for rapid rehousing funds, a federal housing program, a person or family has to be living on the street.

Many of the people in the community who do not have permanent housing in Ellis County are referred to as “couch homeless.” They may not have a permanent address, but are doubling up with other families on a temporary basis. Hays USD 489 Superintendent John Thissen said these families who are “couch surfing” are counted as homeless per state definition even though they are not considered homeless by federal standards.

Mills said when she first started with First Call for Help, the agency applied for emergency shelter grant funds, but the agency was unable to secure those funds for anyone, because the rental the person is applying for has to be at the fair market value set by the federal government. First Call couldn’t find any rental housing at or below the federal market value. Some rentals were as close as $10, but because it was over, the application was denied.

The fair market rent for a two-bedroom unit for Ellis County for 2018 is $710 a month. That includes all utilities.

Getting someone into a new home can be difficult. Section 8 housing has a long list. Hays Public Housing Authority has a waiting list of 60 to 70 with a waiting time of about a year. Mills said she can access resources for rental assistance, but not for a deposit and first month’s rent. First Call for Help had to refer out 187 people this year because of these barriers.

The group first discussed causes of homelessness in the region.

Sarah Wasinger of the Hays school district said high medical bills among family members have caused some students’ families to become homeless. Others acknowledged individuals and families struggle to qualify for Medicaid in Kansas.

Amy Bird of High Plains Mental Health said her agency has clients who fall in an insurance gap. They make too much to qualify for Medicaid but too little to buy insurance on the health insurance exchange.

Mills said Ellis County has a low unemployment rate, but workers still lack a living wage. Other jobs don’t provide enough hours or employers may lay off workers when work is slow, creating an inconsistent income for employees.

Thissen said Hays residents have a misconception there are no homeless individuals in the community because they don’t see people living on the street.

Mills said the community does have a homeless camp and last year there were eight individuals living there.

One reason, the community doesn’t see street homeless is because the community has no shelter, Bird said. Those individuals who are on the street are moved to communities, such as Wichita or Salina, where shelters exist.

A lack of affordable housing was also listed as a cause for homelessness in the community. The median home price in Hays is $195,000, according to Zillow.

Dennis Wilson of First Call for Help said substandard housing makes it difficult for those trying to buy homes to qualify for HUD funding.

Although there are an estimated 150 open rental units in the city today, finding quality rental housing and a good landlord can be difficult, said Sherry Dryden, executive director of the United Way of Ellis County.

Dryden said it is difficult for renters and agencies to know which landlords are good to work with. She said she had worked with a family whose floor fell out of their rental, and the landlord charged them to fix the floor.

Mills said she had worked with a family with water running inside the walls of the rental and they had little recourse to get their landlord to fix the problems.

“It is hard for us to advise them, because the city doesn’t really have any rental inspection, which I’m not necessarily saying we need to have that. I know that it would be hard for the city to enforce,” Mills said. “What is their (renters) route to get these problems fixed without the landlord taking retaliation on them and raising their rent or evicting them?”

Dryden said a lack of awareness among community members that homeless exists in the community can be a cause for homelessness in the community.

“You stated at the very beginning there are those communities that, I am not going to be politically correct, that basically have their heads in the sand and say we don’t have it—a homeless problem—or we want to make sure they go through (town) so we don’t have a homeless problem. So, to me, one of the causes is being naive and being in denial,” Dryden said.

Wasinger said, “They don’t think it is an issue because they don’t see them on the streets every day. It is not visible. They don’t think about those families that are couch surfing as being homeless. Yet, they are more susceptible to worse things happening to them because that person can say at any time, ‘Leave.'”

Mills said there is also a perception that the homeless need to just get jobs, but most of the people who First Call for Help sees are employed.

The group also discussed other issues that lead to homelessness, including generational poverty, substance abuse, criminal records, mental health issues, transportation costs and lack of awareness of services.

The group discussed services in the community where people are accessing help. Some of these include First Call for Help, Salvation Army, food banks, churches, Catholic Charities, Community Assistance Center, Harvest America, the school system and High Plains Mental Health. The group especially had high praise for the work of law enforcement in the community.

Among the solutions the group discussed were parenting classes, financial classes, support for those being released from jail or prison, a landlord rating system, Circles, case management, transitional housing, free community transportation with regular routes, medical insurance/expanded Medicaid, affordable day care, increased mental health funding, rental assistance and community education.

Mills said those in need don’t always know how to access service and they may not have the transportation to go all over town to seek help from multiple agencies. She said she would like to see better collaboration and communication between the community agencies.

The group said they would like to see case management offered to people who were homeless or at risk of being homeless. Bird said High Plains Mental Health offers case management, but clients have to be mentally ill and meet strict requirements for those services.

VanMeveren said case management has proven to be crucial for individuals in other communities to get back on track.

The group talked about the Circles program, which is a national program that provides volunteer mentors for people living in poverty, helps them set and reach goals, and access community resources. Mills said she has looked into the program.

In addition, funding is a challenge for all the organizations, the participants said.

Chris Dinkel of High Plains Mental Health and a Hays city commissioner, said the resources at High Plains are drawn very thin. High Plains covers a 20-county area and has seen an increase in demand for services every year for the last 10 years, but has seen a cut of 15 percent in state funding. Many clients are waiting three weeks or more for services.

The group noted there is a disparity in the amount of funding allocated for support services in western Kansas compared to eastern Kansas. Mills added lawmakers don’t account for the added cost of providing services over large rural areas. Many of the social services for northwest Kansas are centered in Hays, which is good for local residents, but makes access difficult for outlying communities.

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

The Kansas Room at the Hays Public Library is making its collection more accessible to the public.

Marissa Lamer, Kansas Room librarian, took the reins of Kansas Room two years ago and has been working to reorganize the collection.

Although some older and more fragile items from the collection will still have to be viewed within the confines of the Kansas Room, a selection of non-fiction and fiction that relate to Kansas and the Midwest will now be available for checkout.

The library has added an assistant for the Kansas Room, which has allowed the library to increase the hours staff is available to help library patrons do research. Research assistance will now be available 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Fridays.

“We are here to help, whatever it is,” Lamar said. “I love problem solving, and I am here as a resource.”

The fiction collection includes titles written about Kansas and those written by Kansas authors.

The nonfiction section includes books on the history, environment, politics and famous figures of Kansas and the Midwest. The collection even includes a section on Kansas crime, such as the infamous BTK serial killer.

The library subscribes to a variety of periodicals on the Kansas history and the West.

In addition, the Kansas Room has a complete microfilm library of the Hays Days News plus other publications that predated the Daily News or had references to Ellis County or Fort Hays.

The earliest book in the collection dates back to the 1860s, but the Kansas Room also has a variety of first editions that were popular in the early 1900s.

Lamer said she would be happy to help local residents research family histories. A number of families have donated copies of books on their family histories to the library.

“You may want to start with us first so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel,” she said. “Someone may have already done a lot of the work for you.”

The Kansas Room also has books on the Volga Germans and census records from the Russian village from which the early Ellis County residents immigrated. These records have been translated into English. In addition, the library has a subscription to Ancestry.com, so you can research a variety of documents online that would normally cost you to access.

“I really wanted to expand it,” Lamer said of the Kansas Room collection. “I didn’t want it to just be history. I wanted anyone who wanted to do a book report on the prairie environment or any research related to Kansas to be able to come here.”

Lamar said she has more projects ahead. She said she would like to better organize a collection of negatives donated from the Ekey family, who owned a photography studio in town. She estimated the negative collection spans from the 1930s through the 1980s. She said she hopes to get these photos entered into the library’s database, so they can be accessed easier.

Lamar also wants to further research a collection of Howard C. Raynesford letters and papers. Raynesford mapped trails in the area for the Butterfield Overland Dispatch, which ran wagons from Atchison to Denver.

The Kansas Room continues to accept donations of historical documents and photos and other Kansas-related materials. If you wish to make a donation, contact Lamar at 785-625-9014 or at [email protected].