Category: People

Fall 2019: Beautifully Orchestrated

Raúl Munguia likens his job to that of a magician. When the spotlight is hot, a paying audience is in their seats and his wand is primed and ready, it’s time for a show. “It’s the job of the conductor to manage the magic on stage,” said Munguia, the...

Magnolia Blossom Inn

Jenny Sands Revitz Soper always wanted to live in a big house. That was pretty much the entire premise for the adventure she has undertaken in the last year. It began in July 2018, during a visit to Independence to clear out the home of her late parents, Bud...

Summer 2019: “Polka Party” Sneak Peek!

Polka Party Polka tradition lives on through Johnnie Zibert Band & Big Brutus’ Polka Fest On a late summer evening each year, Johnnie Joe Zibert lugs his 30-pound accordion beneath the towering shadow of Big Brutus – and he puts on a show. His fingers flying, Johnnie plays dozens...

Summer 2018: ‘Welcome to The Lavender Patch’ Sneak Peek!

Welcome to The Lavender Patch Fort Scott family farm features 1,000+ lavender plants When you enter Davin and Betsy Reichard’s home, you can’t miss it: that familiar, unmistakable scent of lavender. It’s inevitable. The Reichards are surrounded by lavender, from the hundreds of lavender plants that are blooming just...

Summer 2018: ‘Summit Hill Gardens’ Sneak Peek!

Fall in Love at Summit Hill Gardens There’s just something about Summit Hill. It captivated Patsy Smeed from the very beginning. She moved there – one acre of land south of Chanute, the site of an old one-room schoolhouse – more than 40 years ago with her late husband...

Spring 2018: ‘Shaw’s Story’ Sneak Peek!

Shaw’s Story Galesburg innovator’s legacy lives on in Southeast Kansas – and across the country Everyone who knew him says Stanley Wilbur Shaw was an inventor by nature. At age 8, in the late 1880s, he assembled his first bicycle, using the wheels from his dad’s cultivator (come corn...

Winter 2017: “Art is Ageless” Sneak Peek!

Art is Ageless Art competition for seniors emphasizes creativity and encouragement Aggie Keesling, 89, has taken up painting just in the last several years. She’s teaching herself, experimenting with colors, learning from trial and error. She even paints over old canvases multiple times so she doesn’t have to drive...

Spring 2016: “Glorious Glass” Sneak Peek!

Glorious Glass ChaGlaz Designs in Glass wows with one-of-a-kind glasswork Keith Wilson examines three handmade marbles in his Parsons garage-turned-art studio, twirling them in his hand as their colors and sparkly dichroic glass catch the light. “These are absolutely one of a kind,” he says. “I’ll never be able...

Winter 2015: “Barn Quilts” Sneak Peek!

Barn Quilts They’re popping up all across SEK these days, thanks to a fundraiser in Woodson County Woodson County might be one of the newest members of the Flint Hills Barn Quilt Trail, but you wouldn’t guess it. Just a year after it launched, the Woodson County Barn Quilt...

Winter 2014: “Fab Lab ICC” sneak peek!

Fab Lab ICC Turning ideas into creative solutions, one project at a time Of all things, Wes Koschke needed to make a hand. And a fully functional one, at that – for 13-year-old Kara Marr, who was born with a condition called symbrachydactyly, leaving her right palm with no...