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Category Archives: Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes
Women’s Fight For Rights Presentation Explores: What Is a Hero?
Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes in Fort Scott will host “Army of the Amazons: Women’s Fight for Labor Rights in the Kansas Coalfields,” a presentation and discussion by Linda O’Nelio Knoll on Friday, February 10, 2023 at 2 p.m., at the Lowell Milken Center at 1 South Main Street.
“The presentation and books are free and there will be wine and cheese as well,” said Ronda Hassig, Funding Development Spokesperson at the LMC. “We would love to see you and you are welcome to bring a friend too!”
Members of the community are invited to attend the free program. Contact the Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes at #620-223-1312 for more information. The program is made possible by Humanities Kansas.
Refreshments will be provided for those attending.
To view the poster of the event:
Email Community Book Read (5 × 7 in) (2)(1)
In December 1921, thousands of women in southeast Kansas rose up to fight injustice in the area coalfields.
These women were immigrants from Eastern European nations as well as Kansas born.
After a months-long strike by the coalminers, the women joined the cause. In the short term, their efforts crippled mine production for nearly a month; in the longer term, their continued activism impacted future statewide elections and national legislation.
This talk will share the stories of these women, christened the “Amazon Army” by The New York Times, and their fight for democracy and labor rights in Kansas’s coalfields.
This event will kick off the community reading of two books about Unsung Heroes “Cher Ami” and “Lorraine Hansberry.”
Free books are provided by Humanities Kansas and all are welcome to participate!
Both book discussions will happen at the Lowell Milken Center three weeks after the book is passed out
About Humanities Kansas
Humanities Kansas is an independent nonprofit spearheading a movement of ideas to empower the people of Kansas to strengthen their communities and our democracy. Since 1972, our pioneering programming, grants, and partnerships have documented and shared stories to spark conversations and generate insights. Together with our partners and supporters, we inspire all Kansans to draw on history, literature, ethics, and culture to enrich their lives and serve the communities and state we all proudly call home. Visit humanitieskansas.org.
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.
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Customized Tours of Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes Can Be Booked
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Lowell Milken Center Participating in the 34th Annual Toybox Campaign
The Lowell Milken Center has joined the 34th Annual Toybox campaign which runs through December 13. It is one of the 4-States’ largest toy drives to benefit underprivileged children in Southeast Kansas, Southwest Missouri and Northeast Oklahoma. KOAM News Now, Salvation Army and many other community service organizations and businesses have organized this worthwhile endeavor.
In Fort Scott, new, unwrapped toys for children birth through 16 years of age may be dropped off during regular business hours at the Lowell Milken Center at 1 South Main or at Care4All at 2 W. 18th St. (The Lowell Milken Center is open from 10 am–5 pm, M-F, and 10 am–4 pm on Saturdays.) The toys will be distributed through Compassionate Ministries/Salvation Army here in Bourbon County to families who have registered for holiday assistance.
Toybox Tuesday Telethons will be conducted during the Noon, 5:00 and 6:00 newscasts on KOAM and its KOAM+ streaming platforms. Dates for the telethons are November 29, December 6, and December 13. Viewers have the opportunity to make a tax-deductible financial contribution to support Toybox during the telethons. All monies raised are used to purchase new toys and gifts.
Additional information can be found at http://koamnewsnow.com/Toybox.
The Lowell Milken Center Reaches an All-time Record for Visitors
Since its inception in 2007, the Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes has hosted visitors from around the world, including 104 countries and all 50 US states. On November 4, 2022, the center reached a new milestone with its 12,634th visitor for 2022. That number marks the highest number of visitors the Center has had in one calendar year.
81-year-old John Hammes from Bangor, Wisconsin was the honored visitor for 2022. He is a Vietnam veteran, who visited the Center on his way to a veteran’s celebration in Branson, Missouri with his wife and children. They enjoyed learning the stories of all of the LMC’s Unsung Heroes and could relate to those about Harry Hue and Douglas Hegdahl, both Vietnam veterans themselves. While John was awarded with special gifts from the Center to mark this milestone day, he also gifted the LMC staff with his own special stories about his four tours of duty in Vietnam. The Center thanks John for his service to our country and congratulates him as the 12,634th Visitor for 2022!
Visitors like John and his family continue to help the mission of the Center grow, as they learn about and share the featured Unsung Heroes’ stories and their important impact on the history of our country and the world.
As interest in the Center grows, the number of projects entered in the Discovery Award and ArtEffect competitions grows as well. Consequently, new Unsung Hero exhibits are continually being added to the Lowell Milken Center’s Hall of Heroes, the Lowell Milken Park, and the Center’s website. These unsung heroes become role models that inspire all who learn about them to seek to make a difference in the lives of others.
About the Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes:
The Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes works with students and educators across diverse academic disciplines to develop history projects that highlight role models who demonstrate courage, compassion and respect. Through our unique project-based learning approach, students discover, develop and communicate the stories of Unsung Heroes who have made a profound and positive impact on the course of history. By championing these Unsung Heroes, students, educators and communities discover their own power and responsibility to effect positive change in the world. Visit www.lowellmilkencenter.org to learn more.
Star Gazing Parties in the Future For the Lowell Milken Center Fort Scott
A telescope will be an added attraction at the Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes at the corner of First and Wall Street in downtown Fort Scott.
“The telescope will be used to educate the community on… amazing unsung heroes of the stars,” Ronda Hassig, funding developer for the center, said.
Hassig wrote the $2,500 grant proposal for the telescope and carrying case and the Fort Scott Area Community Foundation awarded the grant last month.
“The telescope is remote and GPS controlled,” Hassig said. ” We had an astronomer from Nebraska stop by the center and we found out he is the director of the Stargazing Project in Nebraska! He is so excited for us, that he has agreed to come back down as soon as the telescope arrives and help us get used to using it. There’s a definite learning curve but he thinks we can handle it!”
“The telescope will be used in the Lowell Milken Park (adjacent to the center) for viewing of the moon and planets,” she said. “For deeper space, we are hoping to be able to use it at the Fort (Fort Scott National Historic Site) along with their telescope!”
“We hope to get both young and old excited about seeing the stars and the heavens so we will be having star parties here at the center in the Lowell Milken Park,” she said. “The parties will contain stargazing along with guest speakers and expert astronomers from all over the country. Everyone will be invited!”
“I think no matter how old you are, if you have ever looked through a telescope and seen the moon up close, or the actual rings of Saturn, you are hooked forever,” she said.
The telescope has been ordered and the center staff hope to have it sometime this week.
“Then I’ll get to start planning our first star party,” she said. ” I’ll be paying special attention to moonless nights and hopefully cloudless nights and we may get lucky and get to have a party in the next several months. It will be cold but if you’re bundled up you won’t care! There will be warm drinks and treats for everyone!”
“Stay tuned for dates and please plan to come enjoy our newest device at the Lowell Milken Center provided with the gracious funds of the Fort Scott Community Foundation,” she said.
“We are really trying to educate the community on all of the different unsung heroes here at the Lowell Milken Center, by having fun and having educational activities around those heroes,” she said.
Two of the astronomy heroes that are featured at the center are:
“Henrietta Swan Leavitt was born right after the Civil War and was educated at Oberlin and Radcliffe,” Hassig said. “She got excited about astronomy after taking a course on it. When she graduated she began volunteering at the Harvard College Observatory and after 14 years she was paid for her work at $.30 an hour. She was essentially 1 of 20 women computers. Through her work, Leavitt earned graduate credit towards her degree but never completed it. She did however make an amazing discovery – she figured out how to measure objects in space. This discovery led to the launching of the Hubble Telescope and more recently the Webb Telescope! As she aged, her health got worse and a bout with cancer caused her to lose her hearing. She died at age 53, but her dedication to astronomy has given us some of our most advanced knowledge about space!”
“Gene Shoemaker was the founder of astrogeology,” Hassig said. “The first person to determine the origin of the famous Barringer Meteor Crater in Arizona, the first director and creator of the Astrogeology Research Program of the U.S. Geological Survey in Flagstaff, Arizona, and along with David Levy discovered the Shoemaker-Levy Comet.
“Shoemaker worked for NASA preparing himself and the other astronauts to walk on the moon. Gene was to be the first geologist on the moon. But after all his hard work he was unable to go to the moon because he had Addison’s Disease. He commentated the moonwalk with CBS News anchorman Walter Cronkite during the live flights. Although he was horribly disappointed not to go, he kept looking for impact craters and space rocks. He searched for craters and rocks all over the world. He was looking for craters in Australia when he was tragically killed in a car accident. NASA wanted to honor this amazing scientist so they called his family and asked for some of his ashes. They put the ashes in a space probe and crashed it on the moon. Gene Shoemaker is the only human buried on the moon and just one of two buried in space.”
Lowell Milken Center Announces Grant from the Fort Scott Area Community Foundation
The Fort Scott Area Community Foundation has awarded the Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes a grant for $2,500. The grant will fund “Unsung Heroes of the Stars: A Community-wide Stargazing Project.” The monies will purchase a telescope that will be used at the Lowell Milken Park for young and old alike to learn about special unsung hero astronomers. Not only will the project include stargazing but special guests will be invited to teach about space and the people that spent their lives trying to reach it!
About the Fort Scott Area Community Foundation: “The Fort Scott Area Community Foundation hosts individual charitable funds created by donors who have a passion for giving back to their community. Grants from these funds assist people throughout Fort Scott and Bourbon County. Call the Foundation at 620-224-6500 with questions about the Community Foundation.”
About the Lowell Milken Center: The Lowell Milken Center is a non-profit 501 (c) (3) that works with students and educators within a range of diverse academic disciplines, to develop projects focused on unsung heroes.
AD: Commemorative Brick Offered at Lowell Milken Park
Lowell Milken Center Awarded Grant from Sunderland Foundation
The Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes in Fort Scott, Kansas Awarded $25,000 Grant from Sunderland Foundation
The Sunderland Foundation of Overland Park, Kansas has awarded the Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes $25,000 for construction on the new Unsung Heroes Park. Ronda Hassig serves as the Funding Development Person for the Center. Norm Conard, Executive Director of the Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes, explains “We are excited to partner with the Sunderland Foundation on the new Unsung Hero park adjacent to the center. Their generous donation will help strengthen our community by providing a green space for leisure and for learning!
About the Sunderland Foundation
Since 1945, The Sunderland Foundation has invested in the places and spaces where nonprofits do their work. Grants from the Foundation help build the places where families in distress find help and healing, where young minds grow and thrive, and where communities come together for celebration and inspiration. Our focus on funding brick and mortar projects – including planning, design, construction, renovation, repairs and restoration – reflects our unique heritage and provides a necessary source of funding for established nonprofits that need new or improved facilities.
About the Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes
The Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes works to transform classrooms and communities through student-driven projects that discover unsung heroes from history and teach the power of one to create positive change. Everyone, especially our young people deserve role models who demonstrate courage, compassion and respect. The Sunderland Foundation is supporting this goal in a very profound way!
Lowell Milken Center Discovery Awards
STUDENTS SURFACE UNSUNG HEROES WHO CHANGED THE WORLD,
WINNING $15,500 IN LOWELL MILKEN CENTER DISCOVERY AWARD PRIZES
Gracie Conrad of Loup County, Nebraska, earns $6,000 grand prize for highlighting
Betty Goudsmit-Oudkerk, who, as a teen, saved hundreds of Jewish children from the Holocaust
For the 2021-22 Discovery Award competition, the Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes (LMC) in Fort Scott has awarded $15,500 in cash prizes to elementary, middle and high school students. This international competition inspires students to develop primary and secondary research projects which share the stories of Unsung Heroes from history whose accomplishments remain largely unknown to the public.
During a celebration for LMC’s 15th Anniversary and the Grand Opening of its new park, Nebraska’s Loup County High School 11th grader Gracie Conrad was announced as the $6,000 Grand Prize winner. Conrad’s extensive research led to her compelling entry, Betty Goudsmit-Oudkerk: Teenager, Resistance Member, Unsung Hero. At 18 years old, Goudsmit-Oudkerk worked at the crèche (Dutch for “daycare”), which became part of the Jewish deportation apparatus during the Holocaust. Having built relationships with the children, Goudsmit-Oudkerk was asked to join a group of workers who helped smuggle more than 600 children out of the crèche. Because of her heroic acts, Conrad notes, “hundreds of people are alive today.” (Teacher Megan Helberg)
According to LMC Chief Executive Officer Norm Conard, “Conrad’s project is exceptional in every way. The Betty Goudsmit-Oudkerk documentary shows a brilliant quality of work, telling of the unique and inspirational bravery of the Unsung Hero. We look forward to sharing this story in an exhibit for our Hall of Unsung Heroes.”
LMC’s Discovery Award provides a unique opportunity for U.S. and international students in grades 4 through 12 to research primary sources and use their talents to develop projects that showcase the power of one person to make positive change in the world. The actions which define the Unsung Hero’s legacy as a role model must have occurred a minimum of 20 years ago, and the project must demonstrate the impact made over time as a result of those actions. Students must create a documentary, performance or website featuring an Unsung Hero, accompanied by an annotated bibliography and process paper. The prize money can be spent at students’ discretion.
“Real heroes tower and guide,” said LMC Founder Lowell Milken. “But their stories need to be discovered and heard. And when we do, we have the opportunity to motivate new generations to aspire to values that are essential during the challenging times we face individually, as a nation and as a world community.”
The $2,500 First Runner-Up award has been given to 11th graders Dylan Arie, Gianpaolo Bautista and Isaiah Ochoa-Garcia, from New Tech High School in Napa, California. Their documentary, James Braidwood: A Spark of Smoke, describes the Scottish firefighter’s pioneering work in the 1800s to help create the world’s first modern, municipal fire department. What Braidwood calls his most groundbreaking contribution to firefighting – “the aggressive interior attack” – is still used today. The students weave library archives and news sources to piece Braidwood’s life together. A personal interview with a local retired fireman and historian fuses the eras then and now, shedding light on the science and art of firefighting. (Teacher Nancy Hale)
There were two $2,000 Outstanding High School Project awards this year. One of the awards has been presented to Emily Kim, a 12th grader at Jericho High School in Jericho, New York. Kim’s project, You Don’t Have to Ride Jim Crow, combines historical artifacts with modern commentary from documentarians to tell the story of Irene Morgan, who became one of the nation’s first freedom riders. In 1944 – 11 years before the Montgomery Bus Boycott – Morgan was arrested under “Jim Crow” laws for refusing to relinquish her seat to a white couple during a trip from Gloucester, Virginia, to her home in Baltimore, Maryland. Kim deftly traces Morgan’s two-year legal battle leading up to the U.S. Supreme Court, which decided that racial segregation laws on interstate transit placed an “undue burden” on interstate commerce. The outcome struck down racial segregation relating to transportation for the first time, marking a pivotal milestone in America’s civil rights movement. (Teacher Theresa Cantwell)
The second $2,000 Outstanding High School Project was awarded to A Voice in the Dark: Kim Hak-Sun’s Breakthrough Comfort Women Testimony, a website created by Yoojung (Sally) Jang, a 12th grader at Orange County School of the Arts in Santa Ana, California. Jang gives a voice to the voiceless, exposing the horrors of systematic sexual slavery forced upon South Korean “comfort women” during Japanese occupation of Korea from 1910 to 1945. It was not until 1991 when Kim Hak-Sun, a victim of this violence, courageously came forward upon hearing denials from the Japanese government. Her actions led to an international condemnation of sexual slavery as a war crime and sparked a lasting movement to bring truth to power. (Teacher Lana Sawalha)
The $2,000 Outstanding Middle School Project award has been presented to Emma Manion, who at the time of the project was an eighth grader at Kettle Moraine Middle School and is now a ninth grader at Kettle Moraine High School in Dousman, Wisconsin. Manion created a dynamic performance embodying Lutie Stearns, whose work helped to establish a statewide library system in Wisconsin during the Progressive Era of the 1890s. Through Stearns’ legacy, Manion demonstrates the importance of civil discourse, equal access to information and “the power of words to improve conditions for humanity.” (Teacher Terry Kaldhusdal)
The award for the $1,000 Outstanding Elementary School Project has been given to sixth graders Elise Deprez, Stella Murray and Brynlee Roelli, former Northside Elementary students who now attend Monroe Middle School in Monroe, Wisconsin. Their documentary, Cordelia Harvey: Angel in a Black Cape, shines a light on the care the “Wisconsin Angel” displayed toward Civil War soldiers who often received treatment at “makeshift” field hospitals. Mixing history with expert perspectives, the students show how Harvey’s support to secure state hospitals for soldiers away from war zones bettered the quality of life for soldiers and their families. (Teacher Sarah Compton)
Submissions for the next competition season will open February 15, 2023.
About LMC
Established in 2007, the Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes (LMC) discovers, develops and communicates the stories of unsung heroes who have made a profound and positive impact on history, yet are largely unrecognized by contemporary generations. LMC has reached over 3,000,000 students and 30,000 schools in all 50 states and countries around the world. Learn more about the LMC and the Discovery Award. Connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
Lowell Milken Center Celebrates New Park and 15th Anniversary
RIBBON-CUTTING CEREMONY HONORS GRAND OPENING OF LOWELL MILKEN CENTER’S NEW PARK AS PART OF 15TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION
Event marks both official Grand Opening of a new LMC Park and commemoration of the 15th Anniversary of the Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes
On September 12, the official Grand Opening—including VIP speeches, a surprise award presentation, and a formal ribbon-cutting ceremony—welcomed 200 guests to a new park and outdoor exhibit space in the heart of the historic downtown district of Fort Scott, KS. The event was a fitting accompaniment to the 15th Anniversary celebration of the Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes (LMC).
The festivities began at 10 a.m. on September 12 with a special ceremony recognizing honored guests who traveled from across the country to attend. This included 24 teachers who had earned the distinction of being LMC Fellows, several living Unsung Heroes and their family members, longtime patrons of LMC and the many individuals who have played key roles in the support and development of the park. Special appreciation was given for the park’s major donor, the Lowell Milken Family Foundation, and for generous grants from the Sunderland Foundation and Timken Foundation. “As we enter this new era, the Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes continues to stand as a testament to the power of Unsung Heroes to change the world through project-based learning,” said LMC Chief Executive Officer Norm Conard.
In construction since June of last year, the LMC park is now a vibrant and much-anticipated expansion of LMC. The park features outdoor Unsung Hero exhibits with interactive story rails, a walking trail, an enhanced water feature, and beautiful landscaping with bench seating for guests to enjoy. The park provides a community space where visitors to the museum and Fort Scott residents alike can enjoy the tranquil scenery, learn about the Unsung Heroes profiled in the story rails, and gather for community programs and activities in partnership with other business in the downtown area.
Highlights of the Grand Opening event included reflections from LMC Founder Lowell Milken. “I believe that a center for Unsung Heroes could only have been borne out of a community that deeply values history, excellence and education,” he said. “Fifteen years later we can all take pride in knowing that educators, communities and students experience the powerful combination that can occur when history merged with project-based learning leads to the discovery of change-makers.”
Also speaking during the event were Chief Executive Officer Norm Conard and Program Director Megan Felt, who have been instrumental in LMC since its earliest beginnings. Remarks were also made by longtime supporters of LMC, such as Former Executive Director of the National Teachers’ Hall of Fame Carol Strickland, LMC Park Committee Chair Beth Nuss and Fort Scott Chamber of Commerce Director Lindsay Madison. A surprise announcement capped off the special occasion when attendee Gracie Conrad, a high school student from Taylor, Nebraska, learned that she was the $6,000 Grand Prize recipient in the 2022 Discovery Award competition for her powerful documentary about Holocaust Unsung Hero Betty Goudsmit-Oudkerk. Conrad’s documentary explores the courage and tenacity required for Goudsmit-Oudkerk to leverage her position as a daycare nurse in the Netherlands to help save more than 600 children from the Nazis.
Following a ribbon-cutting ceremony, guests were invited inside LMC’s Hall of Unsung Heroes museum to partake in its exhibits, enjoy light refreshments and view several presentations by educators who have participated in the LMC fellowship program. Guests also had the unique opportunity during these presentations to meet the living Unsung Heroes or their immediate families who were in attendance, such as Carl Wilkens, an Unsung Hero of the Rwandan genocide; family members of Unsung Hero Chester Nez, one of WWII’s “First Twenty-Nine” Navajo Code Talkers; the family of Unsung Hero Andrew Jackson Higgins, who invented the Higgins boats used in amphibious landings in WWII and was credited by President Eisenhower as the “man who won the war”; and the family of Unsung Hero Gene Shoemaker, a pioneer in astrogeology and the only person whose ashes are buried on the moon.
The 15th Anniversary celebration will culminate in a Community Open House hosted by LMC on Tuesday, September 13, between 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., welcoming everyone to this exciting new addition to LMC and the greater Fort Scott community. LMC is located at 1 South Main, Fort Scott, Kansas 66701.
For more information visit the LMC online newsroom.
About LMC
Established in 2007, the Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes (LMC) discovers, develops and communicates the stories of unsung heroes who have made a profound and positive impact on history, yet are largely unrecognized by contemporary generations. LMC has reached over 3,000,000 students and 30,000 schools in all 50 states and countries around the world. Learn more about the LMC and the Discovery Award. Connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
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AD: Commemorative Bricks Available at Lowell Milken Park
