Recently by Lauren Hendrick

            Phones ring throughout the day with customers calling to find the perfect pair of hiking boots and equipment vendors scheduling their deliveries. The consistent calls are nothing new for Sunflower Outdoor & Bike, 804 Massachusetts St., but this year the holiday season has prompted some customers to call everyday to see if a shipment of The North Face Roo bags have arrived.

             "It's iconic at this point," said Dan Hughes, owner of Sunflower Outdoor & Bike. Lawrence college girls, high school girls, middle school girls and their parents have been trying to get their hands on the Roo for more than a month. Hughes and his staff have watched Roo bags fly off the shelf for the last seven years, and the demand has only risen.

            The North Face Roo is sold as a lumbar pack, which is essentially a fanny pack. The bags range in color and retail at $24.98. While the Roo has been a staple of The North Face for ten years, distributors have noticed a Roo trend in college towns over the last seven years, and specifically in the Midwest.

            "The trend of popularity is specific to Kansas and Missouri," said Brian Masewicz, a Kansas distributor of The North Face.  Masewicz has sold the majority of Roos in college towns like Lawrence, Manhattan, St. Louis and Columbia, Mo.

            "As soon as they hit the shelves, they're gone," said Gay at Pathfinder in Manhattan. Pathfinder, an outdoor clothing and gear shop, has also been out of the bags for over a month. She said because Manhattan is a college town, the bags are very popular.

"The North Face is definitely aware of the trend," Masewicz said. While retailers are anxious to sell more Roos, Masewicz said the bags are hard to find because The North Face does not want to over-saturate the market. The North Face introduced a smaller version of the Roo three years ago to further satisfy the demand for the fanny bags.

 "We'll usually receive 70 bags and sell them in a week," said Patrick Attwater, who works at Sunflower Outdoor & Bike.  Sunflower Outdoor & Bike has kept a waiting list of names to ensure their customers receive a bag this season.

"Our sales keep going up and up," Attwater said. "When we have the bags in stock, we'll sell two or three everyday. They're an easy sale."

Attwater, who attended Kansas State University his first year of college, currently lives in Lawrence and has been working at Sunflower Outdoor & Bike for the past year. He has observed girls in both Lawrence and Manhattan sport the bags. Attwater said he often notices girls use Roos as a purse, usually at sporting events.

             Matt Johnson, Polar Tech as an account manager, distributed The North Face around Kansas for ten years until last year. Johnson said he sold thousands of Roos when he worked for The North Face.

            "It started with a lot of schools limiting the size of bags kids brought to school," he said. Johnson said schools started taking extra measures to prevent violence and a small bag prevented people from bringing weapons to school.

Though the bag has been a hit with women and girls in school, The North Face initially designed the Roo bag for backpackers and hikers.  Deborah Meyer-Brosdahl, associate professor of apparel, textiles and interior at Kansas State University, said it's not unusual for a product to appeal to consumers outside of the target market.

"Whoever is marketing it my not have a hold on what the target market is looking for," Brosdahl said.

Brosdahl also said it's not unusual for trends to start with young people.

            "It's been proven that at this age there is higher fashion involvement," Brosdahl said. She said young people, especially at a college age, are not only more likely to experiment with fashion, but they're also exposed to more fashion since they are around so many people on campus.

            Brosdahl said women usually choose bags and purses based on their function, aesthetic and brand name. She said the Roo is popular most likely because of it's functionality and because it is a product of The North Face.

            "The only reason I got one was for my study aboard trip to Italy," said Kristin Haeussler, Naperville, Ill. senior. Haeussler said the bag served as a good travel bag because it was easy to keep track of her money, camera and identification.

             "I wanted one because all of my friends had one in high school," said Megan Heyer, Kirkwood, Mo. Senior. Heyer said she noticed girls wearing the bags her sophomore year of high school in 2002. "The North Face was kind of a symbol of 'I have money,'" she said.

Heyer received her first Roo bag her senior year of high school and began wearing the bag to NASCAR races.  Heyer said she uses a Roo because they're small enough to bring into events that limit the size of bags.

Sunflower Outdoor & Bike doesn't see the Roo going anywhere for a while, but whether or not they can keep them in stock to feed the trend is another question.

 

 

 

 

 

The young woman takes down lunch orders and smiles at her customers. She visits each of her seven occupied tables making sure each table has ketchup and every drink is full.

It's the beginning of a busy week at Henry T's Bar & Grill for 20-year-old Lawrence native Jessie Veber.

After a busy lunch, Veber sneaks to the back of the restaurant for a bite to eat. Soon, she will clock in as a manager and stay 'til 2 a.m. It is not unusual. Veber often works everyday - every lunch, every dinner. She puts in overtime. 

For Veber, it's about more than just making ends meet in a difficult economy. For her, it's about the desire to distance herself from years of addiction and abuse.

"I did every drug mixed with every drug and I didn't know if I would wake up the next morning," Veber said. Her blonde hair and bright blue eyes distract from the maze of lacerations scars left around her wrists. She does not hide her past. Instead, she smiles and reflects back to a place in her life she will never forget.

It was the moment she stood pressed against a wall with a gun to get head that she realized she had to escape her daily routine of mixing drugs and alcohol.

"I'm going to fucking kill you!" she recalled the man saying, threatening her with his gun. Veber was 16-years-old. She was held hostage in a basement by her boyfriend's father, she says,  and forced to perform sexual acts while her boyfriend was away. High on cocaine and drunk at the time, Veber barely remembers the night that she almost lost her life.

"Something like that sobers you up," she said. Her 21-year-old boyfriend was a drug dealer. She met him at a party in Topeka, bur she wishes she had never had. They got high every day on ecstasy and cocaine.

Veber says everything stems from her parents' divorce. After her mother cheated on her father they moved into separate houses. Her father started drinking heavily and his alcoholism drove him to losing his business. He also started drinking with his children.

Veber remembers drinking a beer with her father when she was 12-years-old. Watching her father drink all the time was painful, but she still enjoyed spending time with him. His influence on Veber was the spark to a sequence of dangerous situations.

"If you're going to drink, then I'm going to drink," she said, remembering a thought she had while drinking with her father. Veber said she and her younger sister, Jenna, used to take care of their father because he was too drunk to cook and clean on his own.

It was when Veber's father beat her that she realized the depth of his problem. She was faced with the decision to turn him in for domestic violence.

She recalls the day she took a six-pack of her father's beer from the house. Her father beat both of her eyes black and blue.

"It looked like a jaw breaker was shoved in my cheek," she said.

One of Veber's teachers at Lawrence High School pulled her aside and asked her to press charges.

            "As much as you think you could turn someone when you're in that situation it just doesn't feel right," she said. Veber and her sister continued to watch their father's life deteriorate.

"We had to grow up a lot faster than most people," Jenna Veber, Jessie's 19-year-old sister, said. "We tried to make the best of our situation."

She loves her sister and helped her survive, she said. Both sisters agree that their love and support for eachother ultimately kept them alive.

"There were many times I gave the extra push just to be there for her," Veber said. "I couldn't give up on her, especially since so many people gave up on us."

Veber said she has not forgiven her parents for being irresponsible. Her mother was absent during her father's slide to the bottom.

"My mom just couldn't mentally be there," she said. Both girls saw their mother occasionally, but Veber said her mother was unreliable and they didn't get along.

It was when Veber's father started dating Shellia Will that Veber began to trust an adult.

"She was there when my mom wasn't," said Veber. "She has been one of the best things that has happened in my life."

Between the ages of 15 and 17, Veber battled a year long prescription drug addiction. She lived in a group home. She got arrested for battery against her mother. She survived physical abuse. She lost her job at a pizzeria for arriving to work high on cocaine. Then she moved back in with her father and, thankfully, Will.

"She was having a really hard time adjusting. She didn't have any rules and didn't see consequences," said Will, who realized Veber was a challenge.  "She had a typical teenage anger but had more of an attitude."

At the age of 17, Veber admitted herself to a rehab facility in Pittsburg, Kan.

"After a while you get tired of being tired and depressed," she said. But she ran away while she was there and was kicked out after a week.

 "I felt pretty disappointed in myself," she said.

The she met a guy, a nice guy. The relationship was short, but Veber began to realize good men existed.

"She needed someone to prove they were going to look out for her," Will said.

She began to change. She eased off the drugs, lived a home, got a job at Henry T's and decided to start fresh.

"I am so proud of her," Will said. "I have seen her come so far from where she was. She has more self respect and she works hard." 

Veber is no longer an addict. She is the youngest manager at Henry T's, where owner Sean Gerrity knows of Veber's past.

"She has a work ethic, which so few people her age have," he said.

"There have been times when I've had the opportunity to do drugs again but didn't," Veber said. "You have to break the cycle sometime." Veber's new life revolves around earning money and planning her future.

"I would love to be in a business suit one day," she said. Veber would love to go to college. "I think it would make me think better of myself."

Veber said she wasn't able to dedicate a lot of attention to school in high school because of everything going on at home, but hopes school can be more of a priority now that she feels more grounded.

 "I'm doing a lot compared to where I was," she said. "I just had to take a couple more steps than most people do."

 

 

 

 

It's a Wednesday afternoon and sweet, sour, salty and spicy aromas fill the new kitchen at The Bay Leaf, a culinary store at 717 Massachusetts St.  

 

"Who wants to try some pad kee mao?" the chef, Dawn Haverkate-Ens, asks a group of shoppers standing near her steaming wok firing on a Viking range. Garlic pops in a glaze of hot peanut oil and Heverkate-Ens adds bok choy, basil and rice noodles to create pad kee mao, a Thai dish known in English as "drunken noodles."

 

"It's fun to get other people excited about what I love," said Haverkate-Ens, who teaches Thai cooking classes and considers Thai food her favorite. Cooking classes at the Bay Leaf, which began in June 2007, are held throughout the week to help people learn new cooking techniques and dishes. Each class costs $30-$50.

 

For owner Geri Riekhof, the addition of cooking classes is not only about getting people excited to try food from different cultures, but also getting people in the door.

 

"We are doing significantly better because of people's interests in creating new menus, new kinds of food, ethnic food and baking at home," Riekhof said.

 

Riekhof isn't the only one who has noticed an increase of interest in cooking. The culinary market seems to be on the rise both locally and nationally.

 

Lisa Bakke, manager at the Lawrence Borders, has noticed an increase in both production of cookbooks and culinary magazines.

 

"There is more of something for everyone these days," Bakke said. While the cooking section itself has not expanded, the nature of the books has. Bakke said she noticed the celebrity cookbook aisle has grown, particularly cookbooks authored by The Food Network chefs.

 

Borders also added a children's cookbook section, which contains books by Williams-Sonoma and Food Network star Sandra Lee.   

 

 "The reality TV trend has prompted people's interest," she said. Not only are more people making their way to the cookbook section, but they're also buying culinary magazines. Bakke said they sell out of magazine issues every month, particularly a magazine called Clean Eating.

 

Cision, which is Bacon's Magazine Directory, reported that established culinary magazines like Bon Appetit and Gourmet have seen their circulations increase more than 120,000 readers each since 2002. Cision also reported that during this same time period the magazine business has welcomed 50 new cooking and food publications.

 

Partnered with an increase in food program viewers, cooking is quickly becoming a way many Americans are spending their time.

 

 "Food Network today is the fastest growing, one of the most popular networks in all of cable," said EW Scripps Vice President John Lansing during a July investor's conference call.

 

Multichannel News reported in July that The Food Network viewership is up 12 percent year to year, making it one of the most popular cable networks today.

 

With more people turning to cookbooks, magazines and television, the installment of a professional culinary classroom at The Bay Leaf has proved to be a good idea.

 

Although Riekhof won't know whether the kitchen increases business until after the holiday season, she has noticed an abundance of new attention after a 1,500-square-foot renovation. She said nearly all scheduled classes are full because of the high visibility of the kitchen.

 

"We needed a facelift," Riekhof said. The new kitchen allows culinary enthusiasts to learn everything from how to make the perfect pie crust to preparing a six-course dinner. Classes are taught by Haverkate-Ens and other local chefs, including Robert Krause, who owns and operates Lawrence's high-end Krause Dining, located at 917 Delaware.

 

The rise of culinary interest is also noticeable in other culinary classrooms around Lawrence and Kansas City. The Merc, a community grocery and cooperative in Lawrence, has offered cooking classes for 20 years, but staff members have never seen classes fill so quickly.

 

"We are completely filling classes," said Nancy O'Connor, director of education and outreach for The Merc. Cooking classes at The Merc cost $15 for two hours and are taught in a variety of areas including cake making, diabetic cooking, vegetarian cooking, preparing different cultural dishes and cooking for children.

 

"On a practical level, classes get people in the door," O'Connor said, adding that the mission of The Merc is to make education assessable and affordable. "Attending a cooking class is the same price as going to a movie."

 

The Culinary Center of Kansas City has also seen its classes fill to capacity. The culinary center, located in Overland Park, offers classes every day geared toward an assortment of interests and for various age groups.

 

"People in grade school, high school, college and other careers take classes as a stress release," said Renee Lais, who makes class reservations at the Culinary Center of Kansas City. "We are here to help the average person acquire skills." Classes are taught by the center's chefs and guest chefs from the Kansas City area. Participants pay anywhere from $45-$75 depending on the materials used and the duration of the class.

 

While many people are interested in cooking classes for their own leisure, others are considering cooking as a career path.

 

"Without a hesitation, we have had to add classes because of the influx of applications," said Ona Ashley, associate professor of the hospitality and management department at Johnson County Community College.

 

 The college has added more professional cooking classes and now teaches classes on Thursdays and Fridays, which has never happened in the department's history.

 

Ashley is glad to see people are interested in the culinary field because jobs are available. Restaurants are always looking for skilled chefs and new restaurants are opening every day. Ashley also said fewer people are eating at home these days.

 

As cooking classes are filling up around the community, program coordinators are thanking The Food Network.

 

 "The food channel helps and hurts us," Ashley said. She said that channel has helped increase interest in cooking for a living but does not show the entire job description of professional cooking. "People are excited about what they see on TV, but they don't understand that people in the culinary business work evenings and weekends." 

 

For people who are just interested in learning new cooking skills and recipes, The Food Network has sparked the right attention.

 

"I noticed that a lot of parents are saying all their children watch is The Food Network," Lais said. She said the trend of children watching The Food Network and wanting to cook is different than in previous years, which has helped fill cooking classes for children.

 

Riekhof also suspects the recent surge of culinary interest is due to The Food Network, which she watches for product ideas. Riekhof pays close attention to what equipment the celebrity chefs are using while they cook. She said her children have grown up with The Food Network because it is always on at home.

 

Riekhof intends to keep up with the demands for classes and make the kitchen as professional as possible. Her next step is installing ceiling mirrors so students can see what everyone else is doing at their workstations.

 

Haverkate-Ens is interested in teaching as much as she can at The Bay Leaf.

 

 "What I love about ethnic food is you get a lot of new tastes," Haverkate-Ens said. Haverkate-Ens learned about the Thai diet when she taught Hmong refugees from Laos while she was volunteering in Fresno, Calif., during the early 1990s. She now teaches English international students at KU.

 

Cooking is therapeutic for Haverkate-Ens, and she hopes she can effectively share her passion for food with everyone who attends her classes at The Bay Leaf.

 

"Making and eating good food adds so much to the quality of life."