Nursing students from NCK Tech will be hosting their annual Community Health Fair from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, April 13. The fair will take place in the National Guard Armory, 200 Main St. in Hays.
Included in the event are free blood pressure checks, finger stick blood sugar checks, educational booths on obesity, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, Alzheimer’s and allergies.
The American Red Cross will be hosting a blood drive in conjunction with the community health fair.
Sigma, Sigma, Sigma will have bake sale 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 9 inside the FHSU Memorial Union. 50% of the proceeds will benefit CASA of the High Plains and 50 percent will go to Sigma, Sigma, Sigma philanthropy. April is Child Abuse Prevention Month.
Drees: “Instead of him serving 32 months in prison and releasing him, he has been under supervision now for 18 years.”
——————————- By CRISTINA JANNEY Hays Post
In 2001, Friar Ron Gilardi pleaded guilty to three counts of indecent liberties with a 14-year-old student at Thomas More Prep-Marian school.
However, Gilardi was not sent to prison. He ended up at a private treatment facility in Missouri along with other priests and friars who had been removed from the ministry based on sexual abuse charges.
Gilardi’s case was groundbreaking at the time, said Ellis County Attorney Tom Drees, who is also a Catholic and TMP graduate.
Gilardi was prosecuted before the Boston Globe investigated and revealed widespread sexual abuse in the Boston dioceses and the systemic coverup by the church of sexual abuse by clergy.
Gilardi was accused of sexually abusing a male student from Texas in 1993 and 1994. The student was 14 and 15 years old at the time. The young man recovered repressed memories of the abuse in 1999 during a counseling session, Drees said.
Under the sentencing guidelines at the time, Gilardi, as a first-time offender, would have been facing a prison sentence of 32 months. With good behavior, he could have been released in 27 months, Drees said.
But as part of Gilardi’s plea agreement, he was ordered to the Vianney Renewal Center in Dittmer, Mo., a private ministry that includes behavior health treatment. Drees said Gilardi was to remain on the locked grounds of the center at all times.
After 32 months at the center, Gilardi remained at the Vianney Renewal Center for two additional years on probation. His probation for the Hays case ended in March 2006.
“He remains under supervision even to today by the Capuchin order,” Drees said. “He is still under supervision and still does not have access to any children. He is not allowed to perform any ministry duties as a priest, so he is basically reduced to a life of prayer and penance.
“Instead of him serving 32 months in prison and releasing him, he has been under supervision now for 18 years.”
Drees likened Gilardi supervision under under the Catholic church as equivalent to him still being under probation with the court.
The family of the victim was consulted at the time about the terms of the plea agreement and agreed to the conditions of Gilardi’s sentence, Drees said.
He noted the Gilardi’s case was prosecuted in public court and his sentence was likewise open to the public, adding several media outlets did stories about the case.
Even today, Drees said he feels comfortable with the plea agreement and the final outcome for the case. He said agreeing to a deal that sent Gilardi to the Vianney Center was in no way an attempt to divert public attention from the case.
“It was a way to have him appropriately punished, and in this case, instead of the taxpayer paying to have him locked up, the order is paying to have him locked up,” Drees said.
He continued, “Just the opposite. I don’t think it is a way to hide it. I don’t think it is in any way lessened. He has been supervised for 18 years now.”
Gilardi, 71, is living at a similar center called RECON, also known as the Wounded Brothers Project, with at least four other convicted clergy sex offenders, all of whom are listed on the Missouri sex offender registry. Two of the men listed on the sex register are Capuchins, but did not serve in Kansas. The home is in rural Missouri near Roberstville, southwest of St. Louis.
Fr. Joseph Mary Elder, communications director for the Capuchins, visited Hays on Tuesday night for a listening session about sex abuse in the order.
He said was asked about RECON and the Vianney Renewal Center and said he couldn’t answer questions about the centers because they were run by a private Catholic ministry — the Servants of the Paraclete — and not the Capuchins.
The St. Louis Dispatch has been covering the Vianney Renewal Center and RECON for years. In a story in 2015, the publication reported the Servants of the Paraclete had purchased homes from neighbors of the center who expressed concerns about decreased property values because of sexual offenders.
The St. Louis Dispatch has also questioned the level of supervision and security at facilities at Vianney and RECON.
The Servants of the Paraclete have a troubled past. The order took in priests with histories of sexual abuse at its Jemez Springs, N.M., facility in the 1960s and 1970s. The New Mexico center is now closed. Some of the clergy who were treated at the facility were returned to service in New Mexico, resulting in a flood of sexual abuse reports and lawsuits in the dioceses.
Hays Post tried to contact RECON, but the only contact information that could be found for the center was a non-functioning email.
Hays Post also attempted to contact the Vianney Renewal Center, but a phone call was not returned.
TMP juniors load donated food bound for the St. Joseph Food Pantry.
By CRISTINA JANNEY Hays Post
Food stacked in one of the classroom doors as part of Can Your Class food drive.
Thomas More Prep-Marian students this week completed the Can Your Class food drive, collecting 3,105 food items for the St. Joseph Food Bank.
Spanish teacher Melissa Pinkney came up for the idea for the drive. The students were challenged to bring enough food to fill up the doorway to their classrooms. The class that donated the largest amount of food earned a free class period with popcorn.
Pinkney said she was shocked by the students’ response to the challenge.
It was a tight competition, but Mr. Denton’s senior and sophomore English classes won the competition.
The junior class delivered and sorted the food for the pantry during its academy period.
“I know Renee Michaud at the food pantry was very thankful. When we brought the food, the room was quite bare,” Pinkney said.
Learning about service and charity are important aspects of the TMP education, Pinkney said.
TMP students sort donated food at the St. Joseph Food Pantry.
“I think for the younger generations, they have to experience the service. That helps them in their mind make connections to the community, but also TMP is about giving back,” she said. “That is one of our main goals is to teach about service and how important it is.”
TMP juniors load donated food bound for the St. Joseph Food Pantry.
By CRISTINA JANNEY Hays Post
Food stacked in one of the classroom doors as part of Can Your Class food drive.
Thomas More Prep-Marian students this week completed the Can Your Class food drive, collecting 3,105 food items for the St. Joseph Food Bank.
Spanish teacher Melissa Pinkney came up for the idea for the drive. The students were challenged to bring enough food to fill up the doorway to their classrooms. The class that donated the largest amount of food earned a free class period with popcorn.
Pinkney said she was shocked by the students’ response to the challenge.
It was a tight competition, but Mr. Denton’s senior and sophomore English classes won the competition.
The junior class delivered and sorted the food for the pantry during its academy period.
“I know Renee Michaud at the food pantry was very thankful. When we brought the food, the room was quite bare,” Pinkney said.
Learning about service and charity are important aspects of the TMP education, Pinkney said.
TMP students sort donated food at the St. Joseph Food Pantry.
“I think for the younger generations, they have to experience the service. That helps them in their mind make connections to the community, but also TMP is about giving back,” she said. “That is one of our main goals is to teach about service and how important it is.”
Jim Cosgrove, an award-winning children’s musician out of Kansas City, will appear at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Hays Public Library.
The Hays Arts Council is presenting Cosgrove in 11 school presentations this week in addition to the free public performance for children and families at the library. He was at O’Loughlin Elementary School on Tuesday morning.
Students at O’Loughlin Elementary School during Jim Cosgrove’s performance Tuesday morning.
Cosgrove, AKA “Mr.Stinky Feet,” has been rockin’ kids and families for almost two decades, performing for tens of thousands of students at hundreds of schools throughout the United States. His high-energy, interactive shows have delighted audiences throughout North America and Europe, including two performances at the White House for the annual Easter Egg Roll.
During his assembly performances, Cosgrove will engage students through music to help reinforce principles of respect for themselves and others.
In his interactive character education program, titled “Respect the Rhythm,” he encourages students to express personal rhythm in everyday activities, such as homework, music and sports while emphasizing respect for the rhythm of others and the earth.
In addition to entertaining families and children, Cosgrove is a motivational speaker who energizes educators and corporate audiences on topics that include creativity, communication and creating a joy-filled life. He is the author of “Everybody Gets Stinky Feet,” a collection of 32 essays from his time as a parenting columnist for The Kansas City Star.
A Poor People’s Campaign protest in 2018. Photo Courtesy of the Poor People’s Campaign
The Kansas Poor People’s Campaign will launch the ‘Everybody’s Got a Right to Live Reality Tour’ this week and includes a stop in Hays at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 7 at the Hays Public Library.
Kansas is one of 28 states participating in the national Poor People’s Campaign’s organizing tour, a push to highlight the urgent crises facing the nation’s 140 million poor and low-income people and hold accountable the elected officials who perpetuate policy violence against vulnerable communities.
“The Reality Tour comes amidst a barrage of attacks on the poor from Washington and states across the country, including attempts by the president to divert critical funds away from social safety net programs toward the military and the border wall. It marks the next phase of the campaign’s nationwide efforts to highlight the real emergencies of poverty, systemic racism, ecological devastation, militarism and our distorted moral narrative; build power in often overlooked and underserved communities; and impact policies and elections,” the campaign said in a news release.
Local stops are designed to shine a light on injustices facing poor Kansans. In Kansas, the group’s organizing committees will share stories that highlight issues such as education, health care, immigration, systemic racism, housing, and access to food in what many Kansans refer to as “food deserts” throughout our state.
The national bus tour launched March 23 in Charleston, South Carolina, on the 50th anniversary of the historic Charleston hospital strike. Throughout the tour, organizers will sign up poor people, clergy, and activists for a June Poor People’s Moral Action Congress in Washington, D.C.
Calendar of events below:
APR. 7, 2PM CT – Hays Public Library, 1205 Main St., Hays.
Join Hays community members as they share personal stories of life with low-wage jobs, living with a disability on a fixed income, unstable housing and more. The KS Poor People’s Campaign will also be leading a discussion on the the realistic effects of system poverty, racism, the war economy, ecological devastation and the distorted moral narrative.
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APR. 2, 6:30PM CT – Trinity United Methodist Church, 1602 N Main St, Hutchinson.
Come join us to hear your friends and neighbors of Hutchinson speak to their reality of low wages, discrimination, and life & death without healthcare. Facilitated group discussions will be held on these issues, along with a Call to Action.Organized by Hutchinson community members and supported by the Poor People’s Campaign.
APR. 11, TIME TBA – Location TBA, Dodge City.
Join Dodge City and surrounding area community members as they share personal stories of life with low-wage jobs, lack of insurance, living with a disability on a fixed income, high cost of housing, inadequate polling places, immigration, and more. There will be short presentations and group discussion!
The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival is co-organized by Repairers of the Breach, a social justice organization founded by the Rev. Barber; the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights and Social Justice at Union Theological Seminary; and hundreds of local and national grassroots groups across the country.
In 2018, the campaign waged 40 days of direct action, marking the most expansive wave of nonviolent civil disobedience in U.S. history, calling attention to the issues facing the nation’s poor and disenfranchised communities. More than 30,000 people participated in over 200 direct actions at statehouses from coast-to-coast and in Washington, D.C. Over 3,000 people participated in nonviolent civil disobedience.
For the past two years, leaders of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival have carried out a listening tour in dozens of states across this nation, meeting with tens of thousands of people from El Paso, Texas, to Marks, Mississippi, to South Charleston, West Virginia. Led by the Revs. Barber and Theoharis, the campaign has gathered testimonies from hundreds of poor people and listened to their demands for a better society.
A Poor People’s Campaign Moral Agenda, announced last year, was drawn from this listening tour, while anaudit of America conducted with allied organizations, including the Institute for Policy Studies and the Urban Institute, showed that, in many ways, we are worse off than we were in 1968: 23 states have passed racist voter suppression laws; 140 million people live in poverty; each year more than 250,000 people die in the United States from poverty and related issues; and the share of national income going towards the top 1 percent of earners has nearly doubled.
The Hays Fire Department will be inspecting and flow testing fire hydrants on Wednesday, April 3, 2019 in the area of Vine Street to Commerce Parkway between 27th Street and 22nd Street and Hall Street to Oak Strteet between 18th Street and Seventh Street.
This is part of a coordinated effort by the City of Hays to inspect all fire hydrants in the city and flush all water mains annually.
Inspecting fire hydrants ensures the valves operate properly and there is no damage or obstructions that will prevent or interfere with the prompt use of fire hydrants in an emergency.Firefighters are also checking the pressure and volume of water mains in each neighborhood for firefighting purposes. The associated flushing of water mains allows chlorine to be distributed throughout the system to eliminate bio-filming in the water mains.
Slight discoloration of the water supply may be encountered although there will be no health risks to the consumer.All reasonable efforts will be taken to minimize the inconvenience to the public.Drivers are asked to avoid driving through water discharging from a fire hydrant during the short flushing period.
For more information, contact the Hays Fire Department at 628-7330.
Addy Tritt, FHSU grad, stands in the Hays Payless with some of the shoes she bought for Nebraska flood victims.
By CRISTINA JANNEY Hays Post
A Hays woman recently bought out all the remaining shoes at the Hays Payless store — more than 200 pair — and donated them to flood victims in Nebraska.
The shoes were part of a flood relief shipment taken to farmers in Nebraska by FHSU’s agriculture sorority Sigma Alpha this weekend. The sorority accepted ag-related donations last week at Orscheln’s and Tractor Supply Co.
Addy Tritt, 25, a recent FHSU human resources graduate, said she felt the need to pay it forward with the shoe donation.
“I have been so blessed,” she said. “There have been so many great people in my life who have inspired me. I see so many horrible things in the news. So many people have helped me when I was down, I want to help if I can.”
Payless is going out of business, closing its stores and liquidating its assets. When the price on shoes at Hays’ Big Creek Crossing store were lowered to $1 per pair, Tritt approached Payless about buying all the shoes that were left.
She negotiated with Payless to buy its remaining 204 pair of shoes for $100. They included 162 pair of baby shoes, two pair of men’s shoes and the rest were women’s shoes. The cost of the shoes came out of Tritt’s own pocket.
The retail price of the shoes would have been more than $6,000.
Tritt is not a stranger to charity. She has also donated 66 bags of school supplies to Hays students, organized a baby clothes drive and has done two supply drives for the animal shelter.
Tritt said helping others is a part of her religious beliefs.
“I really feel I have been directed and guided to help people,” she said. “I think everything is a part of God’s plan. If you can do something for someone else, you need to find a way even if it is a pair of shoes.”
Although Tritt said she was saddened to see the destruction the flooding has left in Nebraska, she feels joy in helping others.
“I just hope this inspires other people to volunteer and donate if you have been blessed,” she said.
The Victoria High/Junior High School gym opened in January 1950.
By CRISTINA JANNEY Hays Post
VICTORIA — After 70 years on the same basketball court, Victoria High/Junior High School is closer to getting a new gym floor.
The current floor is the same one used when the VHS gym was opened in 1950. The floor has been sanded and resealed repeatedly.
The last time the floor was refinished, school authorities were told the floor was getting too thin and would not be abled to refinished again. It needed to be replaced. Basketball players have also complained of dead spots in the floor.
However, the school board has put off the project for several years, saying other capital projects needed to take priority.
The board suggested alumni and the community seek private funds for a new gym floor.
Over several years, alumni were able to raise about $26,000 toward the floor project, but it was still a far cry from the $72,000 or more the school needed to replace the floor.
Brenda Dreiling of Victoria and a group of other alumni and community members decided to throw a German dinner fundraiser to attempt to raise enough money to allow the project to move forward.
In a little more than a month, the group was able to put together the fundraiser. More than 1,000 tickets were sold to dinners on March 23 and 24. They also conducted a raffle with donated prized. Students sold tickets and were entered into a drawing for cash prizes. Volunteer Ethel Younger made more than 127 pounds of noodles. Children from the elementary school even helped the weekend of the dinner.
A VHS student draws a name of another student Friday. Three students won cash prizes for selling tickets for a German dinner fundraiser for the school’s new gym floor.
“When we came together in a joint effort, it was unbelievable what it produced,” Dreiling said.
The total for the fundraiser was announced during an assembly Friday at the school and names were drawn for the prizes for the students who sold tickets.
The dinner and raffle raised $35,194.18.
The gym floor project has been rebid because the last bids are now several years old. However, the fundraisers said they hoped they have now raised enough money the gym floor will be able to be replaced this summer.
Dylan Dronberger, VHS principal, said the school board is set to discuss the matter at its next meeting on Monday, April 8.
“It not only speaks to the care in the community, but the care and pride the community has in the school,” he said.
Other volunteers and donors on the project included:
Mark and Shannon Karst; Melissa Schmidt; Rose Ann Dreiling; Natasha Hammerschmidt; Jerry and Mary Brungardt; Kathy Kuhn; Warren’s Meat Market; Dave Pfeifer; school personnel; VFW; the boys basketball team; students and parents; community members who donated desserts; and Connie Windholz.
Kansas City, MO — Commerce Bank has been recognized by Forbes as one of the World’s Best Banks for 2019. In addition to receiving this global distinction, Commerce ranked second among all Missouri-based banks on the list and 41st in the nation.
This inaugural compilation of the World’s Best Banks is comprised of 415 banks in 23 countries. Forbes partnered with the market research firm Statista to create the list and surveyed more than 40,000 customers worldwide for their opinions on current and former banking relationships.
“We’re proud to be named one of the best banks in the world by Forbes. What makes this ranking particularly meaningful is that it’s based largely on the satisfaction of our customers,” said John W. Kemper, president and chief executive officer, Commerce Bancshares, Inc. “Our super-community bank model focuses on building deep and long-term customer relationships. We continuously strive to enhance our customers’ experiences and to provide tailored financial solutions to meet their unique needs.”
This recognition marks the second time in 2019 Commerce Bank has been included on a Forbes best banks list. Commerce was the top-ranked Missouri bank on Forbes’ America’s Best Banks 2019 list — one of the most respected lists in the industry, which ranks the 100 largest publicly traded banks and thrifts based on growth, credit quality, efficiency and profitability. Overall, Commerce was ranked 17th in the nation.
For the World’s Best Banks survey, participants identified banks where they had opened a checking or savings account and rated their willingness to recommend and overall customer satisfaction. In addition, the banks were evaluated in the following categories: trust, terms and conditions, customer services, digital services, and financial advice.
