Multimedia Reporting (Adler-Noland)

If you plan on dining at the Salty Iguana on a Monday night, don’t plan on parking close to the front door where signs reserve spots for coach Bill Self and his radio crew. Hawk Talk radio, great Mexican food, flat screen televisions and increased exposure have helped Salty Iguana general manager LeAnn Erock reach her restaurants goals. The Salty Iguana became host to the radio show in November at the start of basketball season and has been gaining popularity since.

“We did something I have never seen done before. We added TV’s to show a live video feed of coach Self during the radio show. There is not one spot in the restaurant that it can not be seen,” Erock said.

The video feed is also shown live at the two other Salty Iguana locations in Prairie Village, Kan. and Independence, Mo. University of Kansas Men’s Basketball coach, Bill Self, broadcasts his show live weekly from inside the restaurant. Learn more about KU Mens Basketball at the University of Kansas. According to Erock, the restaurant bid against other local businesses to host the show and won before the start of the 2006-2007 basketball season. The show was previously held at Carlos O’ Kelly’s.

The biggest advantage Erock says, is the exposure which has increased her weekly numbers over the last three months. The Salty Iguana in Lawrence is the only restaurant of the three Salty Iguana’s in the area to report a noticeable increase in business. Bar tender, Courtney McDonough in Prairie Village said she has seen no change in the number of people there on the night the radio show airs live in the restaurant.

One couple has been commuting from Kansas City to Lawrence for the show for ten years.

“We drove here tonight in the rain. It took us an hour to get here from work,” Shelly Harshaw, Kansas City resident said. The couple has been coming to the show since coach Roy Williams was the host. They feel the drive is worth it to see coach Self in person. Harshaw said the new location for this season has been enjoyable.

Salty Iguana has made changes during the last three months to make the Hawk Talk a success according to Erock. Changes include adjusting the amount of staff to accommodate the larger crowd of customers, as well as creating a space where people can get things signed and talk to coach Self while he is off air.

“My friends and I did not know the Salty Iguana existed until we heard about it over the radio. We went one week to check out the show and really liked the food so we have been going back. We started going to watch the games as well. I suppose it is an added bonus that some of the money we spend there goes to a good cause,” Ryan Henrich, Overland Park junior said.

The restaurant has joined with coach Self’s foundation to help improve the community for local youth. According to the official ASSIST Foundation Web site on each day of a KU men’s home basketball game, the Salty Iguana restaurant group will donate five percent of sales from the Lawrence venue to ASSIST.

Erock says it has been a pleasure having coach Self in the house every week and the show is benefiting her business more than she had anticipated. The next Hawk Talk show will air live next Monday from the Salty Iguana located at Sixth and Wakarusa streets.

The students, Sahana Raghunandan, Mahmood Abdul Hammed and Anthony Hoch, will be studying evidence from the last glacial period using the GISMO radar system.

“Ultimately we want to use the GISMO radar to see what Greenland would look like if you took the ice off of it,” Ingalls said.

With increasing concerns about global climate change and rising sea levels, CReSIS develops new technologies and computer models to measure and predict sea level change from melting ice sheets, Ingalls said. The student group is working with a Danish team, who is chemically analyzing samples of ice from the Eemian layer, which is the bottom layer of the ice sheet. Raghunandan and Hammed will work with the radar until he returns on May 15.

Raghunandan worked twelve-hour days the week before leaving this past Sunday, preparing files and data systems to process the information the radar would collect, she said.

“It is going to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience to be going to Greenland. It will be exciting to see if the radar is working like we expect it to be,” Raghunandan said.

The data from GISMO will help determine how much the ice cap over Greenland shrunk during the last global warming period, Ingalls said. He says the data is important for both scientists and the general public.

“What we need to do is create models for scientists that explain the more rapid, more interesting things that have been going on. Once we get these models right, we will be able to better predict the contribution of these ice sheets and their response to climate change,” Ingalls said.

With over 107 million people in the world living within one meter of sea level, Ingalls said the ice is important to take into consideration.

“It is pretty important if you live somewhere like Bangladesh and you rely on the environment to survive. Or, if you are a land developer in Miami and your concerned about whether your investment is going to pan out or be under water in 100 years,” Ingalls said.

The trip to Greenland will be Raghunandan’s first, however, several other CReSIS students and staff conduct research on the ice sheets regularly. Christopher Allen, associate director of technology, said it would take three summers of drilling in Greenland to reach the Eemian layer of ice closest to the bottom.

“We get to the location on the ice sheet, set up camp, start drilling into the ice and by August we have to leave before the bad weather hits. We can only get a third of the way down each time,” Allen said.

Students will be hundreds of miles from civilization, three kilometers above sea level, Allen said.
“It is featureless,” Allen said. “There is snow to the horizon in all directions and the sun never sets.” The students are equipped with tents and gear designed for arctic deployment, Allen said. The trip is funded through CReSIS which is supported financially by the National Science Foundation, NASA and KU.

Lawrence Public Schools will become one step closer to top notch classrooms across the country in April. Six schools in the district will receive new computers in the secondary science departments. The computers will provide students with opportunities they do not currently have.

The science curriculum is what started the drive for more technology according to Lynda Allen, Director of Mathematics and Sciences.

“The curriculum has been waiting for this,” Allen said. “We are still not where we would like to be but we are giving teachers each six computers for their classrooms.”

The science textbooks are already designed with informational websites in the margins of the text. Students will soon be able to access that information on the computers during class. Computer programs like Probeware, will also allow students to hook science instruments up to the computer. The computers can graph data instantly while students conduct experiments.

The 222 new computers are scheduled to be installed in South, Central, West and Southwest Junior High Schools. Lawrence High School and Free State High School will also receive computers. The computer purchase, according to Michel Eltschinger, Director of Information Technology Services for USD 497, includes 191 laptops, 27 desktops and 4 media machines.

Tom Bracciano, Division Director Operations and Facility Planning, said the computers were funded through the Lawrence Public Schools 2005 Facility Improvement Bond Issue for $54,000,000.

“I was involved in bringing in the computers due to the fact that we were under budget on the construction portion of the bond issue and therefore we had money we weren’t expecting to have. This money was then available for the purchase of computers,” Bracciano said. The computers are scheduled to ship in the next two weeks from science equipment company Sargent-Welch.

The computers are one of several additions being made to the science classrooms. Document projection cameras, funded by the same bond, are new to secondary science classrooms this semester.
“It is really cool, we can watch our teacher do experiments up close and it projects it on the wall,” Hillary Yoder, Southwest Junior High eight grader said. Yoder also likes taking notes from data tables shown on the projector. She said it makes things faster and easier for her and her classmates.

Classrooms will be seeing more improvements in the coming year according to Allen. She thinks the improvements will make Lawrence Public Schools comparable to the schools she has observed across the country. “Just last night at our meeting I got $170,000 from the Furniture, Fixtures and Equipment part of the bond to pay for things like new desks and more counter space.”

University of Kansas student volunteers work to produce the first annual Young Life film festival. The largest youth organization in Lawrence plans to raise their yearly budget with corporate sponsors and donations February 17 at Southwest Junior High School.

New area director, Rick Mumford, who moved to Lawrence last summer, gives credit to the KU student volunteers for the potential success of the film festival.
“The college leaders care for each individual kid as an individual kid year round. Without our leaders there would be no film festival,”Mumford said.

Leaders mentor youth several ways year round. They do everything from visiting schools, getting ice cream together or going to see a movie according to Mumford. Volunteer leaders are now creating short comedy films with local high school and junior high kids. Mumford believes the local appreciation for the arts will help draw over 300 people to the event.

At the end of the fiscal year Young Life was $26.000 in debt. Young Life is starting the new year debt free. Mumford, along with the leaders, have several fundraising plans for the future to aid the growth of Young Life. The next fundraising event is the film festival. Student leaders appreciate Mumford's dedication to Young Life.

“We know, as leaders, fundraising is an essential part to what we do. It has been great this year to have a fresh start with a new area director who has creative new ideas and loves the kids we work with as much as we do,” Junior Samantha Dokken said.

The money from the film festival will help pay for kids to attend summer camp, weekly materials and supplies, Young Life staff salaries, training programs and other needs that allow the organization to continue according to Mumford. Dokken describes the film festival as a great opportunity to spend time getting to know the kids involved in Young Life.

“The leaders role is easy. The kids can think of hilarious short video ideas in seconds. We are just there to record them being themselves and encourage their ideas. The final product should be really entertaining,” Dokken said.

If the film festival is a success it will become a Young Life tradition for years to come according to Mumford. He believes Young Life has great benefits for the youth in the community. The film festival begins at 6:30 p.m.

The days start early for 50 year old Bobbie Gish who sets her alarm for 5:30 every morning. She gets out of bed to draw a warm bath surrounded by bright yellow rubber ducks and sets out a toothbrush by the sink.

Bobbie turns on the lights in the hallway leading up to her 20-year-old son Matt’s bedroom. The room is painted with life-size Winnie the Pooh characters and is dimly lit by a Winnie the Pooh night light. After a gentle rub on his back to wake Matt up, it is time to start the day.

“Come on buddy, it is time for your bath,” Bobbie says, as she signals with her hand for him to follow her. The hand signal is one of very few signals she uses to communicate with Matt.

Matt suffers from Down Syndrome and has no speech ability. He is one of four children in the Gish family. Bobbie says Matt’s daily needs have become a normal part of her life over the past twenty years. However, Bobbie worries every day about changes that will happen to her daily routine next year.

Bobbie says she knows the days she spends exercising with friends, cooking and cleaning while Matt attends school at Lawrence Free State high school are coming to an end.

“What is so scary is that I have this big question mark after he leaves school,” Bobbie said. “I am terrified because I am losing a huge ally and I don’t really know what is out there for him.”

The state of Kansas requires young adults with disabilities to attend school till the age of 21. After graduation, it is up to the Gish family to decide the next stage of Matt’s life.

Bobbie is making plans now for Matt’s future and she says it is not going to be easy. Matt struggles to make friends and develop meaningful relationships beyond his siblings, who Bobbie says are his best friends. Matt rarely participates in outside activities or organizations beyond occasional trips to the track for a walk with Bobbie or swimming at the Lawrence indoor aquatic center. Bobbie hopes to spend the days with Matt doing the activities he enjoys, but she worries that having Matt at home will not help him continue developing.

“What scares me is him having just me, day in and day out, to provide for his daily activities. It would not be good for him to spend his days roaming the house, I am afraid he would regress,” Bobbie said.

The Gish family believes that it is not the right time to send Matt to a group home for people with disabilities. Without the ability to express when he is frustrated or tired, Matt occasionally has poor behavior. According to Bobbie, Matt is likely to throw things or hit both his siblings as well as strangers out of frustration. With unpredictable behavior, and the challenge of trying to know what he is thinking, Bobbie worries about Matt in a group living arrangement.

Organizations, like Cottonwood Inc. in Lawrence, provide several options for people with disabilities including employment, in home assistants and a live-in community.

“Families need to feel that there is a place that will benefit the individual with the disability. That is the first step and that is a huge one,” Peggy Wallert, Cottonwood director of community relations and development said.

Several families are faced with the same decision Bobbie is. According to the Down Syndrome Guide of Greater Kansas City, approximately 4,000 babies are born in the United States with Down Syndrome each year, affecting about one-quarter million families. The state, according to Bobbie, does not guarantee money to people with disabilities after age 21, when they must graduate school. Matt’s name is on a waiting list that could potentially take up to two years for financial aid.

“The person with the disability must first become eligible through the state and then funding is provided through Medicaid,” Wallert said.

Wallert also said that each family is typically matched with a case manager through the government who can counsel and advise families based on the individuals needs. It is the case managers role to explain options and support families in making decisions.

Bobbie and her husband think the best option right now is for Matt to live at home until his youngest siblings, who are currently 12 years old, move out for college. She feels when the time comes, she will know what the best option is for Matt. For now, Bobbie will continue to take it one day at a time.

“It is very hard for us to even think about him going off to a group home, but, someday we may feel differently.”

Lawrence Indoor Aquatic Center supervisor, Lori Madaus, sits at her desk continuously checking her email for incoming lifeguard applications. For now the pool she looks at from her office window has enough guards to safely watch the swimmers.

But with summer only a couple weeks away, Madaus worries that she will not have enough lifeguards to operate both the indoor and outdoor pools.

“Right now my staff is about 70 lifeguards, by summer I need atleast double that. It is only two weeks away from the outdoor pool opening and I would not say we are ready yet,” Madaus said.

Kristin Tirabassi, lifeguard instructor and Red Cross intern, said the aquatic center would face several hurdles in the next couple of weeks. The American Red Cross made changes to lifeguard certification in March according to Tirabassi. All current and future guards must complete 10 hours of training and testing to become certified under the new requirements.

Ashlynn Haynes, St. Louis Junior, said the training was demanding but she believes it will help her remember safety procedures.
“The most important part of the new training was in CPR. A lot of things changed, from the terminology used to the number of breaths. We also had timed swimming skills tests and new ways of rescuing conscious and unconscious victims,” Haynes said.

Tirabassi said she fears the new training and testing could slow down the hiring process before summer.

“After teaching the new certification classes in the last few weeks, it has become clear to me that this is a demanding job that not everybody is cut out to do,” Tirabassi said.

A shortage of lifeguards can lead to serious problems according to Tirabassi. She said without a fully staffed pool, guards are likely to become burned out and tired by the end of summer, hindering their job performance. Without a full staff Madaus said all of the features at the pool, including the waterslide and diving boards, couldn’t remain open for the amount of time they are supposed to. Madaus and Tirabassi agree giving the lifeguard’s ample time for breaks and days off helps prevent guards from leaving throughout the summer.

“If we do not have enough staff to give days off to everyone, especially when our guards are spending long days in the sun without breaks, that is when problems happen,” Tirabassi said.

For now, Tirabassi is not as worried about the future lifeguards in her class, she said she knows she can teach them what they need to know to pass the tests. Her concern is only that there will be new lifeguards there to teach.