Chamber Grand Opening & Ribbon Cutting Announced for Varia, Quality Resale Clothing Store.
The Fort Scott Area Chamber of Commerce invites members and guests to a Grand Opening and Ribbon Cutting to celebrate the opening of Varia Quality Resale Clothing Store at 110 E. 23rd St. The event will take place Thursday, June 24thth at 8 a.m. with remarks starting at 8:15 a.m. followed by the cutting of the ribbon. Coffee, juice, and light refreshments will be served in addition to a door prize drawing.
Co-Owner, Robin Kendrick comments that Varia is French word meaning variety or miscellaneous. They offer quality resale clothing, non-consignment at affordable prices. They also have accessories and other miscellaneous items for sale. Varia offer woman and children clothing priced at $11.50 and under.
Contact the Chamber of Commerce at (620) 223-3566 for more information.
The Gordon Parks Museum is scheduled to receive the delivery of the signs from Lark Label in Wichita, KS for The Learning Tree scene location project on Wednesday, June 23.
The project is a series of signs located at the different scene locations where the filming of The Learning Tree took place.
The signs will also include QR codes along with a virtual tour of identified 12 different scene locations of The Learning Tree film.
The Gordon Parks Museum has received a grant from the Fort Scott Area Community Foundation and Humanities Kansas to assist with funding support for this project. The completion goal date for this project is by August 1, 2021.
This historical film by Warner Bros. Seven Arts, was the first time a major motion picture movie filmed in Hollywood was directed by a black film director; Fort Scott, KS native son, Gordon Parks was that person. This film was partially filmed in 1968 on location in Fort Scott and the surrounding area to include Mound City, KS. The film was released in 1969. The film was based on a semi autobiography novel with the same title that Gordon Parks wrote in 1963. The story, based on Gordon’s childhood in Fort Scott, KS, is about a boy growing up in difficult time in segregation and poverty. This film was placed in the Library of Congress National Film Registry Classics in 1989 as one of the top 25 important films. The film continues to be very important today.
A grand opening event with ribbon cutting will take place during the annual Gordon Parks Celebration Oct 7-9, 2021.
More details about the event along with other schedule celebration events will provided at a later date. Please feel free to contact us with any questions, 620-223-2700 ext. 5850 or email [email protected].
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Seated, from left: Sarah Compton, Samantha Neill, Tami Lunsford, Carly Bowden. Standing: Shalisha Thomas, Rachel Pruitt, Jeremy Frazier, Dan Helberg, Jackson Tough, Allyson Turvey, Jennifer Wilson, and Kim Greer. Photo by Kenny Felt.
The Lowell Milken Center (LMC) for Unsung Heroes in Fort Scott, an international educational non-profit organization, has awarded its prestigious Fellowship to eight educators who will be at the Lowell Milken Center from June 20 to June 25.
The LMC Fellowship is awarded on the basis of merit to educators who have distinguished themselves in teaching respect and understanding through project-based learning or who have the potential for this distinction. The Center selects exemplary teachers from across America and around the world, drawn from a variety of disciplines, to collaborate on projects that discover, develop, and communicate the stories of Unsung Heroes in history.
Carly Bowden has been a middle school math teacher for 6 years at Andover Central Middle School in Andover, Kansas, and was a 2019 Kansas Milken Educator. Next year, she will be teaching mathematics at Oregon Trail Middle School in Olathe. Carly teaches her students by creating learning experiences to make mathematics come to life. Connecting math concepts with local businesses and charities allows her students to simultaneously develop empathy and build their mastery in math concepts. Carly is known for positive relationships with her students and connections with those students whose relationship with math needs strengthening.
Since 2017, Carly has been involved with the Voya STEM Fellowship. In 2019 Carly joined the Understood Teacher Fellowship which helps provide resources for educators and families for students with learning differences. Outside of school, she is busy coaching track and field, running road races with her family and running a small earring business.
Sarah Compton has taught for 14 years at Northside Elementary, a K-5 school in Monroe, Wisconsin. In addition to being a fifth-grade teacher, Sarah has served in a variety of supplementary roles, which include serving as a new teacher mentor, a gifted and talented coordinator, and a professional development presenter. Sarah is known for developing project-based learning opportunities for her students. Students in her class have been challenged to create public service announcements, to role-play being on a Congressional task force, and to invest in a stock market simulation. Sarah takes pride in building strong relationships with her students. Through those connections and Sarah’s focus on data-driven instruction, her students achieve significant academic growth each year.
In 2012, Sarah was awarded Monroe’s Crystal Apple Achievement Award. In 2018, Sarah was honored to become a Milken Educator. Sarah is now serving on the Wisconsin DPI’s Teacher Leader Network, connecting current educators to the state superintendent’s office. She serves as a mentor and presenter at the Teachers of Promise Institute.
Kim Greer has taught Social Studies for 17 years at Nevada Middle School in Nevada, Missouri. Kim is currently the sponsor of the 6th grade girls’ club, Girl EmPOWERment, and a co-sponsor of the Honors Club at NMS. She is a department leader and active member of the Community Teachers’ Association and Professional Development Committee.
Kim served as a Fellow for the Korean War Digital History Project in 2017, where she assisted in the development of an online textbook and edited veteran interviews. As a Life Guard Teacher Fellow at Mount Vernon in 2018-19, she researched and developed lesson plans for the Mount Vernon website. Kim also served as a Teacher Facilitator at the George Washington Teacher Institute on Martha Washington and Women of the 18th Century in 2019 and was named an American Revolution Master Teacher in 2020. She will spend a week at Monticello as an MTI/Barringer Fellow in July 2021.
Dan Helberg has been in education for the past 19 years across the states of Nebraska and North Carolina. Dan has taught English at a variety of levels and was the principal at Adams Middle School in North Platte, NE for three years. After a return to the classroom, he has taught 7-12 English at Ansley Public Schools in Ansley, NE and also coaches the Speech team.
In 2013, Dan received a Fund for Teachers Grant and toured Poland, Germany, and the Czech Republic while researching Jewish Culture and the Holocaust. In 2014, he attended the Belfer Conference at the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. Dan lives in the Sandhills of Nebraska where he ranches with his family and enjoys the peaceful prairie surroundings. He is from Ansley, Nebraska.
Fort Scott City Manager Jeremy Frazier welcomes the Lowell Milken Fellows to the community. Photo by Kenny Felt.
Updated – The City Commission will meet for a special meeting at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, June 22nd, 2021 at City Hall in the City Commission meeting room at 123 South Main Street, Fort Scott, Kansas. The City Commission will meet to consider a fireworks ordinance. In addition, the Commission will consider the purchase of a S76 Bobcat Skid Steer Loader from KC Bobcat of Olathe, Kansas.
This meeting is open to the public and will be shown on the City’s you tube channel.
Life Point Assembly of God Church. Submitted photos.
Gregg Sweet, 48, is the new senior pastor at Life Point Assembly of God, 124 E. National Avenue.
Sweet went to seminary at Southwest Assembly of God University, in Waxahachie, Texas, graduating in 2020.
He has been the associate pastor at Bethel Life Center, Wichita, under Pastor Ken Squires, since 2018.
“We have a huge love for the community,” Sweet said. “We are excited to be here and to see what God has in store for the community. We love living in Fort Scott, people are so kind.”
“The church’s mission statement is ‘We are ready to meet people where they are,'” he said.
Sweet and his wife Angela, along with their pug dog, have been here since February 21, 2021.
“My wife and I love history and we like to explore, we love the old Fort (Fort Scott National Historic Site) and Lake Fort Scott and Gunn Park.”
In his spare time, Sweet likes to read and fish, he said.
His hometown is Johnstown, Pennsylvania.
Sweet was encouraged by a missionary while young.
“A missionary prayed for me at 16 years old and told me God had a call on my life,” Sweet said.
For Sweet, the best part of being a pastor is ” the relationship with people and being able to share the Gospel and love of Jesus, with the community,” he said.
The biggest challenge is “learning how to do things they don’t teach you in college,” he said. “Like taxes, my wife and I are doing them now.”
His coming to the church coincided with the polar vortex extreme weather in the nation’s mid-section.
The church suffered some weather-related damage at that time and because of that, is having a community cookout fundraiser. “We will be having a cook-out to celebrate the church’s 79th anniversary in the Fort Scott community,” Sweet said. “And to raise money for the church’s building fund. It will be from 5-7 p.m. on Saturday, July 17, 2021. We will be asking for a $5 suggested donation.”
Hot dogs, hamburgers, chips, a snack cake and a bottle of water will be the cook-out menu.
If any questions, contact Sweet at 316-207-6557 or [email protected]
Sunday morning worship is at 10:30 a.m., and at 7 p.m. on Thursday is a Bible Study.
Celebrate Recovery is on Tuesday evenings at 7 p.m.
For more information contact the church at 620.223.4170.
Ralph Carlson introduces the Friday Night Concert musicians May 2019.
The Friday Night Free Concert at the Heritage Park Pavilion, First and Main Street, starts at 7 pm and the featured artist is Mike Lundeen.
Mike has his own style at the keyboard and does a mixture of instrumental including old standards like Scott Joplin, classic country popular and light classics.
” Mike’s eclectic stylings are a special treat,” Ralph Carlson, organizer of the weekly event said. “He has been a regular contributor to the music of the pavilion and is a favorite with our audiences.”
It is recommended that you bring your lawn chairs as seating is limited. In the event of bad weather, the concert will be moved to the Common Grounds Coffee shop, 12 E. Wall.
The Fort Scott City Commission will meet on Tuesday, June 22nd, 2021 at 6:00 p.m. in the City Hall Commission Meeting Room at 123 S. Main Street, Fort Scott, Kansas to hold a work session to discuss the 2022 budget. This meeting is open to the public, but no action will be taken.
The work session will also be available on the City’s YouTube channel.
Updated – The LandBank meeting will be held on Tuesday, June 22nd, 2021 at 5:20 p.m. at City Hall in the City Commission meeting room. There will be a majority of the City Commissioners present, but no City Commission business will be conducted.
This meeting will be made available via the City’s you tube channel at City of Fort Scott.
The City Commission will meet for a special meeting at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, June 22nd, 2021 at City Hall in the City Commission meeting room at 123 South Main Street, Fort Scott, Kansas. The City Commission will meet to consider a fireworks ordinance.
This meeting is open to the public and will be shown on the City’s you tube channel.
Fort Scott Forward is being moved to a new day and time. After surveying residents, the monthly meeting will be held on the fourth Thursday of each month at 5:30 PM at the River Room Event Center, 3 W. Oak St. Dave Lipe, proprietor of Sharky’s Pub & Grub, Luther’s BBQ, and the River Room Event Center has donated the use of the space for this event. All are welcome to attend, and refreshments will be provided.
The next Fort Scott Forward event will be held on Thursday, June 24th at 5:30 PM. The topics to be covered at this meeting will be a street improvement update, a City budget update and an overview of Codes processes.
Craig Campbell at his desk. His office has been housed in a wing at the Community Health Center since the closing of the former Mercy Hospital.
Craig Campbell is retiring from his 39-year career as a pharmacist on June 30.
A chance conversation with a relative changed the course of his life when deciding on a career.
“By chance, I was visiting with my great uncle who was a pharmacist,” he said. ” Willard Higbee, he was the brother of my grandma, Bernice Campbell.”
“I confided in him that I was working on a chemical engineering degree but did not think I could get through the math requirements,” Campbell said. “He said I would love pharmacy, so I visited with Ken Asher and Bob Tuchscherer, local pharmacists at the time, and they agreed that pharmacy was a wonderful profession.”
Technology advancement has changed his job as a pharmacist.
“Technology has advanced so much with the electronic medical record,” Campbell said. “It brings into view so much more information that lets you know more about the patient, not just in the present moment but what has gone on before.”
“Prescriptions are so much safer now that we do not have to figure out the doctor’s handwriting,” he said. “Sorry doctor friends. Pharmacists are an integral part of the patient care team now, since when I started in the fall of 1982.”
He has most recently been Mercy Health System’s Director of Pharmacy Performance, St. Louis, since November 2014. But his office is located in a wing of the former Mercy Hospital, although during the COVID-19 pandemic, he has worked mostly from home, he said.
From 1999-2018 Campbell served as Mercy Hospital Fort Scott’s Pharmacy Director, before that from ’92-’99, was a staff pharmacist at Mt. Carmel Hospital (now Ascension Via Christi) in Pittsburg.
Campbell worked from1983-1992 for four pharmacy’s starting with his first job in Texas.
Campbell completed a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy at Southwestern Oklahoma State University in Weatherford, OK, and an associate of arts degree in pre-pharmacy from Fort Scott Community College.
For Campbell, the best part of his career was being a part of patient care teams, which come up with the best plan to improve patient health, he said.
“That has been rewarding,” Campbell said. “While at Mercy Fort Scott…my hometown, I was able to care for a lot of friends and family.”
“I once went into the room of an elderly teacher I had in the seventh or eighth grade,” he said. “The patient taught math. The patient said I must have been a student, but could not recall my name. I told who I was. The patient asked what I did for a living and I said I was a pharmacist. The patient smiled and said, ‘I must have been a pretty good teacher.’ Yes, the patient was a good teacher.”
The COVID-19 Pandemic has been the biggest challenge of his career.
“In the six years I have worked for Mercy at the system level, the main responsibility is to make sure each hospital has the medications they need when they need them,” Campbell said. “COVID was the most difficult time as we were competing with every hospital in the country to have enough meds to treat patients, especially those on ventilators. There were many 20 hour days in April and May 2020.”
What is on the horizon for you?
My wife (Jane) says I am trading one OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) for another,” he said. “I would really like to help the city and county improve the overall quality of life through organizing volunteer groups to help our neighbors with whatever they need.”
Campbell is chairman of the Good Neighbor Action Team, which helps people with work on yards, house painting, etc.
“The community has three big events coming up next year with Big Kansas Road Trip in May, Good Ole Days, and the Fort Scott High School all-class reunion next June. We really have an opportunity to show off our great town and county.”
“We will also travel some and see more of the grandkids’ activities,” he said.
Campbel has four children: Ryan (who is deceased); Brett and wife, Kayla, Pittsburg; Trevor and wife, Jami, Overland Park; and Jenna Campbell and her fiance Devin, Fort Scott. His grandkids are Mackenize Campbell, Spokane, WA; Brecken and Landry Campbell, Pittsburg and Kennadie, Rush, Austyn, and Larkin Campbell, Overland Park.
of Historic Fort Scott. Every hour on the hour. Depart from The Fort Scott
Chamber at 231 E. Wall St.
Friday hours: 11 am until 3 pm
Saturday hours: 10 am until 2 pm.
$6 Adults & $4 for 12 yrs & under.
6/18 & 6/20 LaRoche Baseball Complex! Saturday I am running 3 tournaments in town an 8u with 8 teams, an 11 u with 4 teams, and a 16u with 12 teams. Click here for more info.
6/18 & 6/19- Care to Share Benefit Yard Sale at 1123 Burke St. Friday (7:30 to 6 pm) and Sat. (7:30 to 2 pm)
6/18 – Jazz and R & B Violinist, Dominique Hammons Music Performance Fundraising. Performing at Liberty Theater at 8 pm. $35
6/18 – Friday Night Karaoke at The Boiler Room Bewhaus! 7 pm until 10 pm! 2 S. National St.
6/18 – Friday Night concert at Common Ground Presents, The Wood Family from 7 pm to 8:30 pm. Click here for more info.
6/18 & 6/24 – Fort Scott Cinema. Now showing: Petter Rabbit 2, In the Heights, Fast & Furious 9, The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard. Click here for more info.
6/19- Farmers’ Market, 8 am to noon, Skubitz Plaza in front of the Fort.
6/19 ~ The Lavender Patch Farm 4th Annual Fest from 9 am until 3:30 pm. The Trolley will be transporting passengers to the event all day. Jump on at The FS Chamber, 231 E. Wall. To learn more about the festivities,click here.
June & July Hours open daily. Thurs. thru Mon.
6/19 – Main Street Gallery & Gifts – 2nd Annual Junk & Disorderly Event!. Join us for shopping over 10,000 Sq. Feet of Space and 50 + Vendors! Click hereto view more information.
6/19 – Fort Scott Paint in the Park by Creative Signs “USA Flag” Click hereto view more information.
6/22 – Lego Club hosted by Museum of Creativity, Tuesdays through August, 4:30-5:30 click here for more info.
MORE COMING NEXT WEEK
6/21 & 6/23 – RAMM Bicycle riding across USA, will be thru Fort Scott, June 21st thru June 23rd. LOOKING FOR VOLUNTEER’S FOR STATIONS Click hereto view more information.
6/22- Security 1st Title Customer Appreciation Luncheon Click here to view more information.
6/24- KANSAS ROCKS…Summer Off Road 101 Course. 9 am until 5 pm.Click hereto view more information.
6/24- EVERGY FREE Community Safety Workshop 9:30 am 11:30 am.Click hereto view more information.
