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CMYK
AREA NEWSThursday, June 10, 2010 Page 5A THE STAR HERALD
Crossroads UMC:
Cass County’s new Angel
The economy’s rising costs of gasoline, house payments, bills, clothes and other neces-sities does not leave a lot of room left in the budget for food. With the help of Angel Food Ministries, hosted by Crossroads United Methodist Church, grocery assistance is now offered to local families.
Angel Food Ministries is a non-profit organization, hav-ing fed more than 8.1 mil-lion families. First established in February 1994, in Georgia, Angel Food was a way to give back to the community. Crossroads UMC saw this was a needed opportunity in Cass County and asked Angel Food if it could be a host site. Now, with church members and out-side volunteers, like American Heritage Girls, Crossroads UMC is able to provide for 75 to 100 families a month, with hopes of growing to help even more of the surrounding com-munity.
“The people we serve the most are the elderly who are on fixed incomes and a lot of young families who are try-ing to stretch their food bud-get. There are a lot of peo-
ple who are struggling who don’t necessarily qualify for food stamps or aid,” said Polly Mabey, Crossroads UMC out-reach advocate.
There is no discrimina-tion of salary to receive from Angel Food. Beneficiaries can receive the basic “Signature” box with either $30 cash or in food stamps. The box weighs about 21 pounds and contains quality food from every food group, including chicken or beef, milk, eggs, vegetables and fruits. The “Signature” box can feed a family of four for about a week or an individual for nearly a month.
Additionally, Angel Food offers Senior/Convenience Meals, Allergen-Free, Seafood, After School, and Fruit and Veggie Boxes, all under $40. There are also five “Special Unit” boxes including Chicken and Rib, Bit O’ Blessing and Assorted Meat Grill. All of the fresh and frozen food is priced at up to 50 percent off retail and comes from high quality suppliers such as Protein Solutions, Vanguard, Miller Franz, J&W Foods and Diversified Citrus.
When an individual orders a box of food and provides their
e-mail address, they are auto-matically entered into a $500 drawing. With the purchase of three or more boxes, a second entry is added.
Mabey said that while many people utilize the program for themselves, there are many others of greater means who purchase food to donate to the needy. “That’s the great thing of having no requirements about who can purchase the food,” she said. “If you can save your money on grocer-ies, then maybe you’ll have it (money) to help someone else.”
With Angel Food, there is no limit to how much a fam-ily or individual can purchase. Orders can be placed online at www.angelfoodministries.com or at Crossroads UMC, located at 700 Quick Trip Way, Belton, from 2 to 5 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays the first, second and third week of the month.
To learn more about Angel Food Ministries, such as future ordering and distri-bution dates, the full menu and more, visit www.angel-foodministries.com, www.crossroads-umc.com, e-mail [email protected] or call 816-331-5258.
BY VALERIE REED
Courtesy photos
Top: American Heritage
Girls help with Angel Food
distribution at Crossroads
UMC. Left: A volunteer
awaits local families to pick
up their highly discounted,
quality food.
Strongman coming to Richards-Gebaur
Courtesy photo
Dave Kraft dead lifting in the Strongman contest.
On June 12, KC Strongman will be holding a Strongman Competition at Richards-Gebaur Airport. Starting at 1 a.m. guests will be able to see participants compete in five events including a bus pull and a circus dumbbell press.
All proceeds from the event will benefit Camp Quality, a camp for children with can-cer. “I chose them because I worked as a companion there one year and saw what they offered these kids. I thought it was an important mission, and I wanted to be a part of it,” said Missouri’s State Chairman for North American Strongman Inc. and the co-promoter for
this event, Eric Todd.Through forum postings
on KC Strongman’s website, www.kcstrongman.com, Todd was able to reach out to 30 to 40 competitors who will be competing for a trophy, prize money and an award package. The Strongman competitors are divided into four divisions – lightweight at 200 pounds and under, middleweight at 200 to 265 pounds, heavyweight at greater than 265 pounds and master, thoes who are 40 years and older.
One heavyweight contender is Scott Sully, who has been lifting weights since he was 13 years old and has been com-
peting in Strongman for nine years, after watching the com-petition on TV.
Todd said he wanted to pro-mote a Strongman event in the community simply because there would be nowhere else to compete locally. “I was lucky to have some great promoters put on shows for me to com-pete in, and I wanted to give back,” Todd said. This is the seventh year for the competi-tion and the first time it has been held in Belton.
To learn more about upcom-ing competitions or to become a competitor, visit www.kcstronman.com or www.nas-trongmaninc.com.
It is common for families and communities to come together to help others around the holidays. This help includes gifts, money, love and of course food.
What goes unnoticed is that families are in need all year, not just during the holidays.
Founded in the 1970s West Central Community Agency, located in Belton, is a “com-munity service unit to serve local families of low income.”
Families supported by WCMCAA have to quali-fy based on income and the number of family members. WCMCAA is not just a food pantry, they also offer energy assistance – including, lights, gas and food, an employment and training facility, Headstart and early childhood education center, Section 8, and women’s health services with a nurse practitioner that provides basic women’s healthcare.
One of the biggest concerns WCMCAA has is the children in the summertime. Those chil-dren who are unable to attend summer school may not get daily meals. WCMCAA does not have a summer program for the children, when the pantry shelves become bare.
“We need the extra for the children,” said Julia Copeland, family and community develop-ment specialist.
With commodities provided by Harvesters, WCMCAA’s food pantry is open to qualified families four days each month – the first, second and third Tuesday and the first Thursday. Families who are in emergency situations and need food imme-diately are also helped.
The food that WCMCAA has is not only donated by indi-viduals within the community,
but also local companies, such as Price Chopper, Hy-Vee and Starbucks. Starbucks donates Danish pastries, muffins, pastry, and coffee beans. The grocery stores donate food everyday.
WCMCAA has more than just food stocked on the pantry shelves. Along with the South Haven Baptist Youth Group, WCMCAA has started a garden full of cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, corn, green beans and carrots. This is the first year for the garden.
For more information about West Central Missouri Community Action Agency, located at 109 Congress, Belton, visit www.wcmcaa.org or call 816-322-0505.
CMYK
AREA NEWSPage 14A Thursday, July 1, 2010THE STAR HERALD
Supply and support are not seasonal:
Food pantry needs donations year roundBY VALERIE REED
Valerie Reed/The Star Herald
Above: The food pantry
shelves, with room to spare.
Left: The Employment and
Training Center where
people can use the comput-
ers and get help for seeking
employment.
The Star Herald – Bringing you community news for more than 100 yearsCall 816-331-5353 to subscribe today!
CMYK
THE STAR HERALD
SECTION B ● THURSDAY, JUNE 10, 2010SSCENECENE
SSPORTSPORTS
All-Star Challenge football game slated June 17The Greater Kansas City
Football Coaches Association (GKCFCA) announces the All-Star Challenge XIX, the high school football all-star game featuring teams from Missouri and Kansas, to be played June 17 at 7 p.m. at Shawnee Mis-sion District Stadium North location.
“We are really pleased to have the Shawnee Mission School District host the game this season,” GKCFCA presi-
dent and Smithville head foot-ball coach Greg Smith said. “We have had tremendous support from the high school football fans over the years and with this year’s game to be played in a city that is well known for its passion for high school football like Shawnee Mission, is fantastic. We ex-pect the event to be outstand-ing this year.”
The Kansas squad will be coached by Lawrence Free
State head coach Bob Lisher. The Missouri squad will be coached by David Allie of Raytown South.
On the Missouri squad this year is Belton tight end/defen-sive end Kyle Becraft. Also on the team are Raymore-Peculiar linebacker Alex Stockham, de-fensive lineman Jake Peterson and offensive tackle Andrew Mueller. Pleasant Hill running back Matt Hertzog and wide receiver Justin Starks will be
competing with Missouri as well, along with Harrisonville running back Terry Scott.
Kansas leads the all-time series 10-7 with one rainout.
Practices began June 7 and will be held Monday through Friday of that week and Mon-day through Wednesday of the next week. The Missouri team is practicing at Raytown South High School. The Kan-sas squad is practicing at Law-rence Free State and Shawnee
Mission. Practice is not open to the public.
The game will be televised on a tape-delayed by Metro Sports on Friday, June 18 at 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. as well as on June 19 at 7 a.m. and June 20 at 7 p.m.
Tickets are $8 for adults and $5 for students with stu-dent ID.
In addition to the game, the McCarthy Auto Group will sponsor one lucky fan’s fi eld
goal kick for a new car at half-time. The GKCFCA will also award the Warren Award and the Dave Bassore Man of the Year award.
All proceeds from the GK-CFCA benefi t the Greater Kansas City Football Coaches Assocition, who in part with the McCarthy Auto Group provides 22 $1,000 scholar-ships to 11 scholar-athletes from Missouri and Kansas each year.
Midwest Titans moving to new locationDue to budget concerns,
the Midwest Titans are mov-ing from their three-year home at Memorial Stadium in Harrisonville to Excelsior Springs.
"We definitely wanted Harrisonville to be our home," Titans head coach and co-owner Robert Webb said.
Webb and co-owner Eric Hoskins inked out a one-year deal to host their 2010 games at Excelsior Springs.
"You never know what the future holds," Webb said. The foundation of our team is out of the Cass County community
and the owners look forward to getting back down there in the near future."
The Titans have already started out the season on a high note, defeating the Norfolk Thunderbirds out of Nebraska, 43-6, in the first game held a
couple of weeks ago. "By far this is going to be
our best year," Webb said. "We revamped the offensive line and are very athletic up front. It showed in the very first game."
The Titans also made anoth-er move, transfering from
the North American Football League to the Alliance Football League (AFL). The AFL has 56 teams and their playoff structure is exactly like the NFL.
"We would like to send a big thank you from coach
Webb and the entire Titans organization to the entire Harriosnville community and Cass County, to HT Adams and the Harrisonville school district for allowing us to be a part of their community for the last three years," Webb
said. Webb invites all Midwest
Titans fans to come up and watch the team at Excelsior Springs and added that there are still three players on the team that reside in Cass County.
BY STEPHANIE YEAGLE
Former UFC fighters promote new clothing line
Valerie Reed/Star Herald
Title Boxing held a photo shoot Tuesday at the Military Police Combat Support Building in Belton to promote Driven Inc. Founded by former UFC fighters, Jens Pulver and Tony Fryklund, Driven Inc. is a way for them to transition from the athletic circle to coaching/mentoring. Fryklund, a fighter for 13 years, has done combative tactics in the Coast Guard and wants to give support back to the Troops. Together, Pulver and Fryklund own the Driven Gym in Boise, Idaho. “I want to be an ambassador for anyone who has ever been picked on,” said Pulver, who has fought for 9 years. Driven Inc. creates T-shirts for police, firefighters, EMT, and military. These fighters don’t stop there, they also have a “Ground and Pound since 1776” as well as “Run for Your Life”, to support battered women, children and men. To learn more about Driven Inc. and their supportive efforts, visit www.driventc.com or www.driveninc.net. Top left: Title Boxing’s Photographer Nancy Werkowitch. Top right: Pulver and Fryklund get ready on set. Bottom left: Title Boxing’s Beau Langdon helps on set. Bottom right: Behind the scenes of Driven Inc.’s photo shoot.
Page 2A Thursday, June 17, 2010 THE STAR HERALD
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THE STAR HERALD
CMYK
AREA NEWS
Started in 2005, Romaine Dennis of West Line built a tiny church in memory of his mother, who died that same year. Dennis has continued to build six more buildings, creat-ing Memory Lane.
This miniature nostalgic town is inspired by the 40s, 50s and 60s.
Throughout the years, Dennis has built and decorated seven buildings on Memory Lane. Originally, there were two roads, but he decided to close the second road and add more buildings. These include a church, bank, town hall, diner, gas station, boutique, store, school and barber shop.
Dennis has temporarily stopped building and is focus-ing on the interior of the barber
shop. The antique store is full of vintage cash registers, type-writers, scales and marbles, all which can be purchased.
When Dennis isn't construc-tion or decorating, he is at his classic car shop, “Good Time Classics,” also in West Line. When asked what influenced him to create Memory Lane, Dennis commented, “I don't know why, I just had the ground sitting there . . . I just started drawing it out on paper.”
Dennis welcomes groups and individuals to come out and tour his little town. Weekends are the best time to visit, allow-ing visitors to meet Dennis and explore inside the buildings.
Memory Lane is located in western Cass County, right before Louisburg, Kan. To plan a trip, call Dennis at 816-899-2491.
Top left: Inside Dennis Store the walls are covered with antiques that can be purchased. Top right: Memory Lane street sign welcoming you in the hands of a wooden bear. Above: All the desks are lined up in the one room school house.
Below: Dennis Antique Store.
Bottom: The fi rst buildings, the church and school.
Above: Romaine poses in front of the Gulf Filling Station, where sometimes he parks his classic cars. Left: Gulf Gas Station and DD's Diner,
Photos by Melissa Cowan / The Star Herald
BY VALERIE REED
A Trip to Memory Lane
Benjamin and Emily McClendon, Belton, knew they wanted to have an-other child.
Their fi rst born, Chloe, is 2 years old.
“We weren’t really trying (to get pregnant),” Emily said. “We were just letting it happen.”
Emily did get pregnant again in 2009. But she didn’t expect to be pregnant with triplets.
“We were in disbelief at fi rst,” Ben said.
Their triplets, Aidan Matthew, Bel-la Grace and Sophia Rose, were born on April 6, 2010.
And adjusting hasn’t been too dif-fi cult for them, they said.
“It’s actually been kind of easy,” Emily said. “It’s just like tak-ing care of one baby but three times in a row. We’re always doing something.”
And Chloe helps, too.
“She calls them her babies,” Emily said.
However, Emily’s pregnancy wasn’t so smooth.
She faced some com-plications and had to go to Washing-ton for treatment.
She was working as a hair stylist
but had to quit her job.Now, Emily stays home with the
children, and Ben is a security guard.“It can be stressful at times,” Emily
said. “We lost half of our income, and we have three more mouths to feed.”
But Ben says they’re doing “just
fi ne.”“We were living within our means
to begin with.”
CMYK
AREA NEWSThursday, June 17, 2010 Page 3B THE STAR HERALD
Turner’s-German American Hall, located in Belton, Missouri is hosting its fourth annual Sommerfest Celebration from 4 to 11 p.m. June 26.
This family friendly celebra-tion includes live entertainment and the Sommerfest Market including German food, cloth-ing, ethnic merchandise, bever-ages and more.
While there are food and beverages for the adults, out-side will be a free children’s area including inflatables, pony rides, games and Identi-Kid
kits. Guests will be able enjoy
the celebration with live enter-tainment from German bands including Matthias Wagner, Don Lipovak, 49 Stones and Liederkranz. The children’s dance program, KC Turner’s Shining Stars will perform as well as the Blautalers, a German dancing group.
Turner’s-German American Hall is located at 512 Bong Ave., Belton.
For more information visit www.kcturners.org or contact Jaime Michalree at [email protected] or 816-878-3232.
Turner’s-German American Hall to host Sommerfest Celebration
Left: The bounce house, just one activity out of many for the children. Top right: The German band, Liederkranz perform-ing last year. Bottom right: Guests dancing and enjoying the company of the Blautalers dance group.
Courtesy Photos
McClendons adjust to life with triplets: ‘We’re always doing something’
BY VALERIE REED
BY MELISSA COWAN
Melissa Cowan / The Star HeraldAt left: Emily feeds baby Sophia with big sister, Chloe, playing on the couch. At right: Ben is feeding Aidan.
MOBCOM reunion signals the end of command at R-G
The Marine Corps Mobili-zation Command hosted a re-union for its past and present employees during the Memo-rial Day weekend at Richards-Gebaur.
The get-together was a cele-bration of the command’s 45-year history in Kansas City as it tran-sitions to New Orleans as part of the 2005 Defense Base Realign-ment and Closure initiative.
Mobilization Command (MOBCOM) has been a part of the Kansas City military pres-ence since it moved here from Philadelphia in 1965.
MOBCOM’s fi rst general offi cer, retired Maj. Gen. Con-statin Sangalis, and its present commander, Col. Patrick Mc-Carthy, both spoke to a crowd of more than 150 current and former employees on Friday evening, offi cially beginning the weekend-long event.
Sangalis made particu-lar note of the civilians of the command, calling them the backbone of the command. McCarthy echoed the remarks
by recognizing employees with more than 10, 20, 30 and even 40 years of service.
The reunion culminated with an evening of dining and dancing under the stars at the Liberty Memorial Saturday night that was heralded by the Kansas City Bagpipers. Also present were members of the United Service Organizations. The USO was an integral and instrumental part of reunion’s success. McCarthy recognized the USO’s support by present-ing them with a framed photo-graph of the command.
In all, nine former com-manders and 167 employees and family members attended the reunion.
Though the command be-gan moving personnel to New Orleans in the summer and fall of 2009, only now is the main body beginning to move. With the reunion completed, all at-tentions will now focus on mov-ing the main body and the bulk of its functions to MOBCOM’s new home.
Col. Patrick McCarthy, Commander of Marine Corps Mobilization Command, addresses more than 150 current and former employees during a recent company reunion event held at the Command’s Conference Center at Richards-Gebaur.
CMYK
AREA NEWS Thursday, June 24, 2010 Page 3A THE STAR HERALD
The potential for the development of tourism as an economic development tool in Cass County is the focus of a study being conducted by David K. Reynolds of DKReynolds & Associates.
The Cass County Corporation for Economic Development has retained Reynolds to survey current tourism opportunities and propose future development strategies. The study began May 1, and will be completed by Aug. 15.
Four community meetings are currently set for the next week at various locations throughout the county to seek local input from interested businesses and citizens. Others may be sched-uled to cover all areas of the county.
● Today, 11:30 a.m., Pat’s Restaurant, Peculiar.
● Monday, 6:30 p.m., Belton City Hall Annex on Main Street. For more information, con-tact Kay Stanbarger at the Belton Chamber of
Commerce office at 816-331-2420.● Tuesday, 6:30 p.m., Harrisonville, second
floor courtroom in the Historic Courthouse on the Harrisonville Square. For more information, contact Cherry Mickelson or Sara Craig at the Harrisonville Area Chamber of Commerce office at 816-380-5271.
● Wednesday, 6:30 p.m., Raymore, Community Room at Raymore City Hall. For more infor-mation contact Cherie Turney at the Raymore Chamber of Commerce at 816-322-0599 or Dana Seitter at the Raymore Economic Development office at 816-331-5000.
All meetings are open to the public and designed to give anyone in Cass County the opportunity to provide input into the planning process. Reynolds will facilitate the meetings and lead the discussion.
Because of incorrect information supplied to The Star Herald, last week’s article on Faye Wallace left out a major contributer to her ef-forts with the Belton Welfare Association, she said. Willene Engel should have been listed as a
longtime partner of Wallace’s in her work with
the association, she said.
Engel is also involved heavily with the West
Central Missouri Community Action Agency.
Raymore police are investi-gating two reported rapes that allegedly occurred in the last week at different residences in the city. The cases appear un-related, according to Raymore Police Chief Kris Turnbow.
In the fi rst case, police in-dicated that an 18-year-old woman and her cousin came to the police department just after 4 a.m. June 17 to report a sex-ual assault that had occurred outside an apartment building in the 300 block of Foxwood Drive earlier that morning.
The offi cer indicated in his report that he had responded
to a disturbance call at that address earlier in the evening, and that the victim was visibly upset. He said in his report that despite asking her what was wrong, she did not provide an answer at that time.
However, at the police de-partment, she told police that after leaving a party with the suspect and another person to run an errand, the suspect grabbed her upon their return and pulled her to the rear of the building, pushed her to the ground and raped her.
An evaluation was conduct-ed at a metropolitan area hos-pital following the report, and evidence was collected.
In the second case, the fol-
lowing morning, June 18, po-lice took a report from a vol-unteer with the Metropolitan Organization to Counter Sexu-al Abuse, who had met with a reported sexual assault victim at an area hospital.
The reported victim, a 19-year-old Raymore woman, reported an assault that had occurred early the morning of June 15 at a residence in the 1100 block of Tudor. She said she was at a party with seven or eight individuals, and laid down to rest on a couch at 2:30 or 3 a.m.
She told police she awoke to fi nd the suspect raping her.
Turnbow said both cases re-main under investigation.
Two rapes – apparently unrelated – reported in Raymore
BY ALLEN EDMONDS
Road resurfacing began
this week on the Phase II por-
tion of the M-58 Highway mill
and overlay project, according
to Raymore’s Engineering De-
partment.
This second phase includes
the section of M-58 Highway
from Foxridge Drive to Skyline
Drive. The Phase I portion of
this project, mill and overlay of
M-58 Highway between Dean
Avenue and Foxridge Drive, has
been delayed and is anticipated
to commence in mid-July.
The highway will remain
open to traffi c during construc-
tion; however, access will be
restricted to one lane east or
west bound in the construction
area.
Subject to weather condi-
tions, Phase II project comple-
tion by J.M. Fahey Construc-
tion Company is expected by
July 21.
For more information on this
or other planned 2010 road con-
struction projects in Raymore,
visit www.raymore.com/index.
aspx?NID=344 online, or call
the Raymore Engineering de-
partment at 816-331-1852.
M-58 resurfacing begins in Raymore
Public invited to commenton tourism in Cass County
After an entire year of not having a postmaster, Belton Post Office is happy to welcome Kelly Kilgore to the team.
Kilgore, Ottawa, Kan., joined the Belton staff on March 26. After working for the post office for 21 years, she first started as a city car-rier and worked through ranks. Recently, she was promoted to postmaster, something she has
always wanted to be. While Kilgore maintains
customer relationships, provides effective service and operates within budget, she has estab-lished goals, as well. For the Belton Post Office, she would like the entire team to work as productive and customer friend-ly as possible.
“I am excited to be here. I’m looking toward a healthy and cooperative relationship with the community,” Kilgore said.
She is especially excited to be join the Belton team after learning that nearly half of the staff has been there for more than 20 years and has won four service awards.
To learn more about the Belton Post Office call 816-331-2122 or visit www.usps.com where customers are able to have questions answered, obtain useful tips and ship pack-ages from their home with free pick up.
New postmaster at Belton office
Valerie Reed/The Star HeraldAfter being without a postmaster for a year, Kelly Kilgore is on board as the new post-master.
A Drexel man suffered serious injuries when he was involved in June 15 accident near his hometown.
Ward R. Billings, 54, was fl own to an area hospital by air ambulance following the 6:55 p.m. one-car accident, when he failed to negoti-ate a curve on State Route D just south of State
Route W, according to the Missouri State High-
way Patrol.
His vehicle traveled off the right side of the
roadway and struck an embankment. He was
wearing a safety belt at the time of the accident,
according to the report.
Drexel man hurt in one-car wreck
Correction
BY VALERIE REED