The Big Kansas Road Trip is scheduled for May 5-8, 2022, showcasing the counties of Bourbon, Cherokee, and Crawford. During this special Southeast Kansas event, The Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes encourages visitors to tour the interactive Hall of Unsung Heroes exhibits and visit the new Unsung Heroes Park. Both of these exhibit areas feature the dramatic and diverse stories of Unsung Heroes whose actions have had a profound and positive impact on the course of history. Tours will be available, free of charge, on Thursday and Friday from 10:00 – 5:00 p.m. and Saturday from 10:00 – 4:00 p.m.
All visitors are invited to participate in specially planned activities during the Big Kansas Road Trip. Featured programs will include a presentation and children’s book reading by author Cathy Werling at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Cathy, the author of the Unsung Heroes Children’s Book Series, will give an overview of the series’ featured heroes and share one of her books.
The cornerstone project of the Center, Life in a Jar: The Irena Sendler Project, will be the highlight of the presentations at 1:00 p.m. on Thursday and Friday. Norm Conard and Megan Felt, two of the project’s creators, will share Irena’s amazing story.
The books in the children’s series, as well as Life in a Jar: The Irena Sendler Project will be available for sale and can be autographed by the presenters. The Center will also have a drawing for the chance to win one of our Unsung Heroes books. All visitors are welcome to sign up.
An additional event at the Center on Friday from 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. will be the introduction of best-selling author, Roxie Yonkey. She will be autographing her best-selling book, 100 Things to Do in Kansas Before You Die. Books can be purchased during the event or ahead of time at RoxieontheRoad.com/Shop. Roxie commented “When I signed the contract to write 100 Things Kansas, the Lowell Milken Center was one of the top places on my list to include in the book. When I visited the center, I could hardly restrain my tears because of the moving stories that the center told. People need to know these people, and I am so glad that the center tells their stories.”
Yonkey has been writing about Kansas for over 30 years. The book 100 Things to Do in Kansas Before You Die is her second book. In 2020, she co-authored the book Midwest Road Trip Adventures, which includes road trip guides for all 12 Midwest states. Her new book, Secret Kansas: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure, will come out in the spring of 2023.
About the Lowell Milken Center: The Lowell Milken Center is a non-profit 501 © (3) that works with students and educators within a range of diverse academic disciplines, to develop projects focused on unsung heroes. Once their projects are finished, we advocate the student’s unsung heroes by sharing them in our Hall of Unsung Heroes or our website so people all over the world discover their individual influence and obligation to take actions that improve the lives of others. The Hall of Unsung Heroes is proudly located in Southeast Kansas and showcases some of the top projects developed in collaboration with the Center.