Multimedia Reporting (Noland-Volek)

Lawrence – The nonprofit, microlending organization Kiva has experienced an overwhelming number of people providing funds for lending, thanks to former President Bill Clinton’s latest book, “Giving,” and The Oprah Winfrey Show. Clinton featured Kiva as a way for volunteers to help small businesses in developing countries through the Internet.
Kiva, founded in San Francisco in late 2004, allows lenders to select entrepreneurs on its Web site and use a credit card to loan them money. Kiva transfers funds to local partners, which are nongovernmental organization workers at microfinance institutions, who then disburse the loans to each qualified borrower. Kiva’s local partners collect repayments and e-mail updates to lenders about the progress of the businesses to which they loaned the funds. As the businesses succeed, funds are returned to lenders, who can then choose to re-loan to another business or withdraw the funds.
After Clinton and the founders of Kiva, Matt and Jessica Flannery, appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, on Sept. 4, Kiva’s Web site posted a message stating that this year, for the first time, every business that applied had been funded. Kiva has loaned more than $11 million, and 99.6 percent of the loans have been repaid. Its donor membership has grown from 75,000 in June to more than 113,000 today.
Stephanie Bryson, a KU project coordinator of children’s mental health for the School of Social Welfare, joined Kiva after seeing a PBS “Frontline” special in April about the organization.
“I’m happy to see the recent publicity,” Bryson said. “I hope this new demand will bring more microlending organizations out.”
Kiva allows donors to lend as little as $25 to a specific entrepreneur in a developing country. These microloans are then used by the small business owners to lift themselves out of poverty with their own business models.
People in Lawrence have joined the organization and have loaned thousands of dollars to businesses in countries such as Mexico, Togo and Cambodia.
“My husband and I narrow the choices down to three people,” said Cheryl Holmes, a KU project manager for the School of Social Welfare. “We then read each person’s story to our 6-year-old son, talking about the area of the world the person is from and what he or she wants to do with the loan. We then make a selection as a family.”
Kiva has funded 17,000 loans today compared with the seven it started with in March 2005.
Sam Snyder, a Motorola technician and 2006 KU graduate, has loaned to 703 people, totaling at least $17,575, since he joined in January 2006.
“I loan because I believe everyone in the world deserves the opportunity to succeed and improve their lives and their communities,” Snyder said.
Snyder has lent mostly to female borrowers after reading Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus’ book “Banker to the Poor.” Yunus, who developed the concept of microlending in the 1970s, said women are more likely than men to repay loans, save money and support their families.
Small business owners in poor countries need capital, but because of a lack of collateral and credit history they are unable to acquire loans from traditional or formal banking systems. Nongovernmental organizations and private institutions like Kiva supply microloans to these people in need.
“When a person lives in poverty due to either unemployment or under-employment, this person will search for opportunities to make a living,” said Rubana Mahjabeen, a KU economics lecturer. “Microcredit gives these people an opportunity to pursue that goal. So, these people will try to make the best use of this loan.”
Grace Ayaa, whose peanut butter business received a microloan through Kiva, lives in Uganda where most people work in a local rock quarry for $1 a day. Her loan allowed her to buy a refrigerator and packing material, increasing her peanut butter production.
Ayaa’s loan from Kiva benefits not only her and her family but others in her town. Other villagers have decided to start their own businesses with microloans from Kiva after seeing Ayaa’s success. Their business profiles are available on Kiva’s Web site, www.kiva.org.

Lawrence – In March 1968 Bobby Kennedy spoke to a crowd of students at Allen Fieldhouse. Burdett Loomis, professor of political science, said a presidential candidate who appeals to college students the same way Bobby Kennedy did has not come along, until Barack Obama.
Today the two presidential political groups at the University – Students for Ron Paul and University of Kansas Students for Barack Obama – are both trying to garner student interest in their respective candidates. The similarity between the candidates is the perception that they will change politics.
“Before Barack Obama I was cynical about politics,” said Vineeth Hemavathi, Chicago sophomore and president of the University of Kansas Students for Barack Obama. “It’s always the same promises from politicians and nothing gets done. I feel that Barack Obama has the power to change that.”
The Obama campaign was the first to institute a division directly for, and run by, students. The Students for Barack Obama division of Obama for America currently has more than 550 chapters at colleges and universities throughout the country.
But not everyone is as hopeful about Obama’s ability to implement change.
“It doesn’t look like he is carrying through with his promises,” Loomis said. “If he did there would be more happening on campus.”
Both groups are holding meetings and handing out fliers with information about their candidates and trying to encourage students to vote in the primary.
The Obama group is eager to point out the work he has done with tuition and student loans. The first bill Senator Obama introduced in the Senate would have made college more affordable for many students by increasing the maximum dollar amount of Pell Grants from the existing limit of $4,050 to $5,100.
“Obama would eliminate wasteful subsidies to private student lenders and instead support the federal Direct Loan program, invest the savings in additional student aid and add greater transparency to the student financial process,” said Clarissa Unger, Kansas deputy coordinator of Students for Barack Obama.
Last month legislation passed, increasing the maximum dollar amount of Pell Grants and making more Pell Grants available for students over the next five years. The Democratic Party’s top two presidential candidates, Senators Hillary Clinton and Obama, voted for it.
But Loomis disagrees with the importance of tuition and student loans to young voters.
“Pell Grants don’t motivate young people to vote,” Loomis said. “The only thing that could motivate students to vote would be if there was a draft. Most students don’t like the War in Iraq, but most aren’t being affected by it. If they were directly affected, we wouldn’t be in Iraq anymore.”
Eighteen to 24-year-olds made up 9 percent of the votes cast in the 2004 presidential election, a record high according to a CNN poll.
The consistently low voter turnout tends to cause candidates to overlook student issues and concerns.
“Ron Paul isn’t even really trying to get the youth vote because he is running as a Republican,” said Adam Wood, Lawrence junior and president of Students for Ron Paul. “Most registered college students are Democrats.”
Young adults voted for Democratic candidates over Republican candidates in the 2006 congressional elections by a margin of 58 to 38 percent in the House of Representative and 60 to 33 percent in the Senate.
Between 1972 and 2000, the turnout rate among youth voters had declined by 16 percent, but it rebounded by 11 percent in the 2004 elections according to The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement based in the University of Maryland.
Bill Tuttle, professor of American studies, was at KU in 1968. His interest in politics stemmed from the Vietnam War and segregation issues.
Lawrence residents and KU students filled Allen Fieldhouse in March 1968 anticipating Bobby Kennedy’s speech.
“There was the amount of people the stadium holds for basketball games, plus three of four thousand more,” Tuttle said. “We [students] were ready for him because he was the best chance to end the war and bring black and white voters together.”
Three months after Kennedy’s speech in Lawrence, he was assassinated in California. The youth vote rapidly declined following his death.

Lawrence - Nathan Towns, a sophomore in the School of Fine Arts, seems like a typical, shy, 20-year-old college student. But not every typical, shy, 20-year-old college student has written a score for a Sundance Film Festival winning director.
Towns approached Kevin Willmott, film director and associate professor for the Department of Theater and Film at the University of Kansas, about writing the score for his latest movie “Bunker Hill” in May 2007.
Willmott accepted the offer after he heard some of Towns’ music compositions.
“I’ll be relieved when the movie is done,” Towns said. “And I’m excited to hear what people think about the music.”
Towns went to Los Angeles for a youth music scoring program through Grammy Camp this summer. He applied the last two years and was accepted both times; only eight students earn spots each year.
The program offered Towns the chance to score the music for three newly finished Twentieth Century Fox films. Students are shown three-minute clips of the films, without the scores, and they then compose their own in one week.
“After doing a full-length film score for Kevin Willmott, three minutes in a week was nothing,” Towns said. “I was able to put a lot of quality work into it and the senior vice president of Fox Music said he liked my score more than the one that made it into the movie.”
Towns realized his passion for composing scores after Scott Murphy, associate professor of music, spoke about movie scoring to students at Southwest Junior High, where Towns attended school.
Towns is taking a music theory course from Murphy this semester.
“I remember this little nerdy kid wanted to play some of his music for me. He had so much energy for music,” Murphy said. “I am humbled by the fact that my presentation inspired him to get into music scoring, especially because he does it so well. He is obviously a gifted composer.”
Music composition is not the only area in which Towns is gifted. He is also extremely bright. His parents discovered this at an early age.
“At a second-grade parent-teacher conference, his teacher asked how Nathan knew so much about Russian history. I said I didn’t know,” said Bill Towns, Nathan’s father. “Later that week when I was cleaning his room, I found one of my old college textbooks. He had been reading a college-level Russian history book.”
Towns entered the gifted program at Centennial Elementary School shortly after the conference.
Marilyn Ruggles, a retired gifted education teacher, taught Towns in fourth through sixth grades.
“Focusing was hard for Nathan when he was younger because he loved challenges and had so many interests,” Ruggles said. “I always thought he had so much potential.”
Towns most recently focused on the score for “Bunker Hill,” where he worked with musician and composer Kelley Hunt, originally from Lawrence.
“I felt that it didn't take long at all to find our own rhythm working together and that, after awhile, we sort of talked in shorthand and knew what each other meant,” Hunt said. “We both kept focused and yet open to each other's ideas.”
“Bunker Hill” is in its final stages of production, but does not have a release date. Whatever the release date, Towns plans to be at the premier.

Lawrence – Scott Zaremba, president of the Lawrence-based Zarco 66 gas station chain, completed plans for opening a new “earth-friendly” fueling station at Ninth and Iowa streets, scheduled to open soon. The station would sell only fuel that contains a significant amount of renewable energy, like E85 ethanol, a mixture of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent petroleum-based gas, several lower blends of ethanol and biodiesel made from soybeans.
Zaremba started this project in Lawrence because he thought Lawrence residents would want to support local farmers instead of oil companies and the environment.
The new Zarco fueling station is not the only alternative energy project in Lawrence. The University of Kansas Biodiesel Initiative started converting KU Dining Services cooking oil into biodiesel a year and a half ago and will start testing the biodiesel on KU lawn services’ lawnmowers in December.
Susan Williams, associate professor of chemical and petroleum engineering and head of the Biodiesel Initiative, thought the new Zarco station was a great idea.
“Increased access to alternative fuels is a great thing,” Williams said. “I am an advocate of multiple sources of alternative energy because I do not believe that one source will be the answer. Each of the different types of alternative energy will have a role in meeting the energy needs of the future.”
The cooking oil, which would otherwise be thrown away, will soon power different KU services. The Biodiesel Initiative started small by first testing fuel for lawn services, but its leaders hope to someday fuel the KU buses, thus lowering school and city emissions.

“We are hoping that if the biodiesel we are producing is tested here on campus with the engines used by lawn services and KU buses, that it will be easier to convince them that the biodiesel works the same and has lower emissions,” said Ilya Tabakh, an environmental engineering doctoral student. “We are able to provide a biodiesel with better fuel emissions for a lower cost to the campus.”
Tabakh and Williams started the KU Biodiesel Initiative. William said she had wanted a biodiesel reactor on campus for a few years but never had the financial support.
With Tabakh’s help, the student senate approved $15,000 funds last spring for the Biodiesel Initiative. The Biodiesel Initiative has two small biodiesel reactors generating up to 40 gallons of biodiesel every two days, and the project just reached more than 100 gallons of biodiesel in its lab on campus to date.
“The student support has been instrumental in getting the Biodiesel Initiative started,” Williams said. “After that, the Transportation Research Institute and chemical engineering department decided to contribute funds as well.”
Dining Services also aided the Biodiesel Initiative. The Biodiesel Initiative picks up a 50 gallon barrel of cooking oil every week from on-campus restaurant Mrs. E’s for biodiesel production.
“The Biodiesel Initiative seemed like a great way to partner with students and support sustainability,” said Nona Golledge, associate director of KU Dining Services. “It was a win-win all the way around.”
Lawn services recently gave the Biodiesel Initiative two John Deere lawnmower engines to test the biodiesel during December. Testing is required because most diesel engines cannot run on B100, 100 percent biodiesel.
They can run on B20, 20 percent biodiesel and 80 percent petroleum-based diesel. Lawn services already uses B5, 5 percent biodiesel and 95 percent petroleum-based diesel. By combining the Biodiesel Initiative’s B100 fuel with the B5, the lab produced the B20 the engines run on.
Ethanol has a similar problem. E85 could only be used in vehicles with flex-fuel engines. Conventional engines could only run on E10, a 10 percent ethanol mixture. A study released last month by a Stanford University researcher predicted smog rates would be unchanged or worse by 2020 if E85 became the predominant fuel in the country.
According to the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition, about 6 million flex-fuel vehicles drive on the road today. The organization’s Web site lists about 90 different models that have been manufactured with flex fuel engines.
The local Crown Chevrolet dealership sold cars with flex fuel engines for the past three years.
“We think the new station will help sales because people won’t have to drive to Kansas City to fuel,” said Dale Backs, manager of Crown Chevrolet. “It will be much more convenient.”
Flex-fuel vehicles helped raise awareness about alternative energy fuels. The two Lawrence biofuel projects provide residents with multiple choices in reducing their carbon footprints.
“The more people involved in this initiative, the more interest out there about reusable energy, the more people understand the need for biodiesel, the better off we all are,” Williams said.

Lawrence – The cold-winter weather makes it harder for local shelters to support the Lawrence homeless community.
Although the national Department of Housing and Urban Development reported last month that homelessness had dropped by 12 percent nationally from last year, Lawrence has not seen a decrease in its homeless population.
“We are starting to have to turn away 15 people a night because of the cold weather,” said Loring Henderson, director of Lawrence Community Shelter. “Last night it was 15 degrees and there is supposed to be an ice storm tonight. We try to bend the rules and let more stay, but there are still some out there at night.”
The Lawrence Community Shelter can house only 31 people at night. Those who do stay the night sleep on the floor with only blankets or sleeping bags. The Lawrence Salvation Army can house 50. Both have sign-up lists.
A Lawrence census from earlier this year found almost 400 homeless adults and children in the city.
“I came out here this summer and have been going back and forth between the Lawrence Community Shelter and the Salvation Army,” said Daniel J. Smoley, a local homeless man. “It’s been hard to get a spot lately with the weather getting colder. There’s limited space and I don’t want to stay outside in my car with the weather this cold.”
Health risks increase for people living on the streets as the weather gets colder. Nearly 800 people die from hypothermia a year in the United States; half of those who die have consumed alcohol and are thought to be homeless, according to a study by the Illinois state government in 1994.
“People die outside in the winter if they’re drunk,” Henderson said. “That’s why at night we have an open shelter, which means if they’re on the list we still let them in if they’re drunk or high as long as they behave themselves.”
The Lawrence Community Shelter provides other services for the health of the homeless, such as intervention for drug and alcohol addiction and mental illnesses, food, blankets, coats, bathroom facilities and flu shots.
“We’re concerned about things like colds and flu and all that,” Henderson said. “The [night] monitors say sometimes it’s like an orchestra of coughing at different levels around the room.”

The shelter offers another health service monthly with a chiropractic visit from Phillip Hart, chiropractor and owner of Lawrence Community Chiropractics.
Hart performed spinal adjustments on 15 homeless patients during his last visit to the shelter.
“Most of the back problems I see with the homeless are with older people or ones who have been homeless for awhile,” Hart said. “A lot of them have muscular and chronic back problems from their poor sleeping conditions, without mattresses and because they work in manual labor jobs.”
Hart said many at the shelter express their appreciation for his free services when at the shelter.
Lewis “Lewegi” Gladue has been living homeless in Lawrence for four years and said Hart’s help has changed his life.
“I hurt the L-5 disk in my back when a desk fell on me while I was a worker for a moving company back in Minnesota,” Gladue said. “Phillip Hart put my back together again so I don’t have to have surgery. I’ve started seeing him twice a week since I first saw him here at the shelter.”
Hart has lived in Lawrence his whole life and seen first-hand the increasing homeless problem here.
“My biggest complaint about this city is the way it addresses homelessness because it goes unaddressed,” Hart said. “So this is my way of making a difference, helping through chiropractics. It may not make a big difference but even if just a day is easier for someone that’s better.”
Lawrence needs more space, coats and blankets to keep the growing homeless population warm this winter. To help contact the Lawrence Community Shelter on Tenth and Kentucky Streets.