Author: Admin

Ernie Shaw, interim director of the Lawrence Parks and Recreation Department, is shepherding the department through growth and changes while at the same time maintaining what is already in place.

“It’s a big job,” he said, explaining that he depends on public input, focus groups forums and surveys to create a clear set of goals and address future needs.  He provides direction to city staff and city commissioners, and LPRD staff.Key issues include the need for more social media and marketing including more grant writers,

Key issues include the need for more social media and marketing including more grant writers, more full-time working staff, and  higher pay for part-time workers.

He is concerned with, among other things, protecting the natural environment while upgrading existing facilities, and acquiring new park  land including an additional dog park, more soccer fields, and an adventure park.  He hopes, he said, to create more community-wide special events, more weekend tournaments, more family events and establish programs to go along with trails.Another goal is to improve the financial position of LPRD, creating a fund and a five-year budget.  His office is doing economic development studies and looking at tactics such as increasing user fees, increasing sponsorship and a bond referendum.

Another goal is to improve the financial position of LPRD, creating a fund and a five-year budget.  His office is doing economic development studies and looking at tactics such as increasing user fees, increasing sponsorship and a bond referendum.“Lawrence already has a great Parks and Recreation system and we’re looking to make it even larger and better,” he said.

“Lawrence already has a great Parks and Recreation system and we’re looking to make it even larger and better,” he said.

Warm smiles. High energy. Endless enthusiasm. Poised professionalism. Fluent English.

The members of the Open World team from Ukraine impressed everyone they met during their week-long stay in Lawrence. Lawrence Central Rotarians welcomed members of the Open World team from Ukraine to their meeting on September 28.

The group of five educators, their facilitator, and an interpreter spent a week in Lawrence exploring the learning programs available here and in nearby communities. At Rotary meetings, each person on the team described his or her work and gave a reaction to what the team was seeing in the United States.

Left to right, the team members are pictured with Jim Peters, president of Lawrence Central Rotary:

• Oleksandr Elkin led the presentations to Rotary clubs, first showing a brief video about Ukraine, its landscape, cities, and industries. Oleksandr also highlighted his work as chairman of “EdCamp Ukraine,” an international movement dedicated to professional development for teachers. On the trip, Oleks sought to find ideas to improve teacher development and to observe technology innovations in teaching methods.
• Yaryna Datskiv works in a center that assesses educational quality for three regions of Ukraine. Her goal for the trip was to learn more about American secondary education standards and testing methodologies.
• Vladimir Bassis, a Ukrainian who now lives and works in Des Moines, served as interpreter during the visit.
• Oksana Puha teaches English at the post-secondary level. She came to learn about new developments in foreign language teaching.
• Asia Zaiets is the principal of a school in a small town. She supervises over seventy teachers and 700 students (grades 1-11) all housed in one building. Asia is interested in innovation and in management techniques that will help her teaching staff grow.
• Halyna Kaluzhna served as the facilitator for the group. Fluent in English, she also a teacher of English.
• Oksana Domaratska is an elementary teacher in a school situated in a village outside Lutsk. Although she did not speak any English, she readily communicated her love of children, passion for culture and travel, and fascination with nature.
• Jim Peters is president of Lawrence Central Rotary.

The three Lawrence Rotary clubs cooperated to plan and implement the itinerary that the group followed. Activities included visits to alternative education settings, various K-12 buildings, and the district office in the Lawrence school district. They met faculty and administrative staff at area universities, colleges, and junior colleges. The team met local officials on the school board and in city, county and state governments. They spent a morning in Topeka touring the Kansas Statehouse and the Brown vs. Board of Education Museum. In between, they forged friendships with Rotarians at multiple social events and weekly Rotary meetings.

The Open World Leadership Center program is an arm of the U.S. Congress. Its mission is to introduce young foreign leaders to the American democratic governing systems and free market operations at every level: federal, state, and local. According to Executive Director John M. O’Keefe, the program partners with service clubs such as Rotary to support Congressional interests to fulfill its mission to serve Members of Congress who desire to both better inform their own foreign policy formulation and inform other nations of U.S. values.

Fellow Rotarian Curtis Marsh, Director of Information and the DeBruce Center at KU, told the remarkable story of how James Naismith’s original 1891 rules for the game of basketball came to reside on campus.  Naismith invented the game to provide a rigorous indoor winter activity for the young athletes he worked with at a YMCA in Massachusetts.  The thirteen typewritten rules became the “initiating document,” perhaps the only one in existence, for any sport.  Naismith brought the game to KU where he worked with legendary coach Forest “Phog” Allen and the KU basketball tradition was born.  The copy of the original rules passed into the possession of Naismith’s family.  The family decided to auction off the rules through Sotheby’s Auction House, and an incredible bidding war transpired between KU grad David Booth and a wealthy Duke University grad.  Booth won the auction with a 4.3 million dollar bid and presented them to KU.  The DeBruce Foundation then provided the lead gift for the new building on campus that presently serves as a “shrine” for Naismith’s original rules.

The DeBruce Center construction finished last April; it is a beautiful 34,000 square foot structure that houses the rules and serves as a gathering place for people who love KU basketball and wish to view a unique piece of basketball history. The original rules are on display, in addition to displays honoring James Naismith and coach Phog Allen.  When viewing the rules, an actual recording of James Naismith explaining the game may be heard. There is also a 332-pound sculpture of Naismith created by former KU Professor Elden Tefft.  The DeBruce Center features the Courtside Café which seats 200 and there is also a space for catered events. Curtis Marsh told us the Center has the best food on campus and that student athletes take their meals at the center.  He urged people to visit the center to appreciate how the KU basketball tradition is honored.