Lawrence Central Rotary

Category: News

Walking Through Lawrence History with Henry Fortunato

The Burroughs Creek Trail in East Lawrence is a paved path and parkway running for 1.7 miles from 11th Street at the north end to 23rd Street on the south. The trail leads walkers, runners, and bikers past sites that were significant in Lawrence history, blending both health and history for all who travel its length.

In a presentation to Lawrence Central Rotarians, Henry Fortunato explained the variety of historic places found along to the Burroughs Creek Trail. The path “ties together William Clarke Quantrill, and Langston Hughes, 19th-century travelers on the Oregon Trail and World War II-era German prisoners of war, the artistry of William S. Burroughs and the agricultural history of Douglas County, plus a long-forgotten railroad line and a number of dimly-remembered east side neighborhood notables whose names still grace streets and parks,” to quote the Lawrence Public Library website.

Fortunato, retired director of public affairs at the Kansas City Library and recent Simons Public Humanities Fellow at the Hall Center for the Humanities at the University of Kansas, made headlines in 2014 for walking 500 miles across Kansas. He said in interviews at the time that he wanted to “take the love for walking and exploring and create something everyone can enjoy.” He envisioned combining “all the things he’s learned in his professional career — public history, presentation, use of graduate students, humanities, and traveling exhibits — to enhance the walking and hiking trail experience in the greater Kansas City area by creating well designed interpretive panels” that tell about what happened along those trails. Happily, Lawrence has become the beneficiary of Fortunato’s vision.

Fortunato’s comments referenced the traveling exhibit of ten panels that tell the stories of people, places, and events associated with the trail. The exhibit is currently hosted at Watkins Museum of History. By next spring, the panels of the traveling exhibit will be translated into interpretive signage along the Burroughs Creek Trail itself that will explain the points of interest and the history of area to people as they travel the length of the path.

November 13, 2016
Lawrence Central Rotary Launches 2016 Holiday Decoration Fundraiser
Lawrence Central has launched our annual fundraiser for the work we do every year. As in year’s past, we will be selling wreaths and other holiday decorations from Lynch Creek Farms and in Lawrence Central’s partnership with them we receive 20% back from every sale to help partially fund the service projects we do. Some examples of our service activities have included are:
- Hosting / sponsoring the Lawrence Community Bike Rides
- Purchase of ShelterBoxes
- Lawrence Sister Cities Scholarships
- Lawrence’s Rotary Arboretum
- Bike Racks around Lawrence
- Tour of Lawrence Kids Zone
We want to continue to do this work and more with help from you and all you need to do is simply purchase holiday decorations. You can do this by talking to any of our members or there’s an even easier way – go to our Lynch Creek fundraising website, peruse what they have and order yourself! We’ve even set up an easy link:

http://bit.ly/lcrholiday16

If you’re not comfortable with ordering online we totally understand – you can also call Lynch Creek direct toll-free at 1-888-426-0781 and please mention/reference Lawrence Central Rotary’s Fundraiser #48825

Lynch Creek is a family business that started in 1980, now transformed from selling a few flowers and vegetables at the local farmers’ market on the weekends, to a full blown year-round business that ships throughout the United States.

Lynch Creek Farms have been amazing to work with and they care about the groups that sell their wreaths and decorations. Here’s a video about the business.
November 1, 2016
Ernie Shaw from Lawrence Parks & Rec Discusses Growing Awareness For All they Do

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.

October 19, 2016
Open World Team from Ukraine Visit Lawrence Central Rotary
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.
October 3, 2016
Lawrence’s Fall Community Bike Ride – A Great Time Had By All

The weather was beautiful and around 100 riders and volunteers came out September 17th for the Lawrence Fall Community Bike Ride organized by Lawrence Central Rotary. “We had everyone from novices and kids on training wheels to local professional riders come out,” said Central Rotary Club President Jim Peters, “our club rallies around these events and it’s great to be able to provide a safe and encouraging event for bike riding.”

Event chair Steve Lane coordinated volunteers and organized the sponsors from all over Lawrence. “Steve’s organization and prep for this function like a Swiss watch,” said club member Tobin Neis, “we wouldn’t be able to do it without him.”

Lawrence / Douglas Country Community Health Planner Charlie Bryan was on hand showing attendees the proposed “Lawrence Loop” bike / multi-use path. LiveWell Lawrence and partners continue to advocate for finishing this 22-mile loop trail around Lawrence everyone could enjoy.

Exciting for both local Rotarians as well as attendees to see was an assembled ShelterBox which Lawrence Central Rotarians have heavily supported over the years. A ShelterBox is a simple and effective solution to deliver the essentials people need to survive and begin to rebuild their lives in the aftermath of a disaster.

ShelterBoxes are tailored for the particular disaster being responded to, but typically includes a disaster relief tent for a family, thermal blankets and groundsheets, water storage and purification equipment, solar lamps, cooking utensils, a basic tool kit, mosquito nets and children’s activity pack.

Thanks to all our sponsors and volunteers who made this happen!

September 25, 2016