Fort Scott Community College closed on the purchase of the Red Ram Motel, 701 N. National Avenue, on May 30, 2018, for $90,000.

“The Patel’s (the former owners of the motel) donated $20,000 to the  FSCC Endowment Fund,”  FSCC President Alysia Johnston said.

The FSCC plan is to repurpose and clean up the property to be used for student housing for the college, according to Johnston. The property will become a part of the campus and therefore tax exempt.

When complete, the new student housing will be called the Greyhound Lodge.

“We are getting a code footprint on it by Ag Engineering (Uniontown), when that is done we will send it to the state and the city,” Johnston said.

Currently, the college is taking bids for cleaning the property of trees and other unwanted items, she said.

“We had at least three people interested in the Red Ram Motel sign,” Johnston said. “Rhonda Dunn (Fort Scott’s Community Development Director) suggested using it for a fundraiser.

There are 21 units at the lodge, with the possibility of 42 students.

Each room will have a small refrigerator and microwave oven.

Students can still purchase a modified meal plan if they will be eating on campus, which is across town to the south of the lodge property.

A two-bedroom apartment on the property will be remodeled for an assistant coach to live in for security and supervision duties, she said.

The current lobby area will be turned into a computer lab.

Behind the lab will be a student laundry facility and behind that will be a student lounge with adjacent student kitchen.

The old swimming pool area will be converted into an outdoor eating area complete with grills, a gazebo, and picnic tables, Johnston said.

“The cost to students will be $300 per month,  which includes everything except food,” Johnston said.

The lodge is expected to be ready for students in mid-August, Johnston said.

“It’s been fun to start the transformation,” Johnston said. “We hope to have a ribbon cutting at some point.”

2018 Fort Scott High School graduate Darby Toth is a National Speech and Debate Student of the Year nominee, she was notified last week.

Toth has qualified all four years of high school to attend the National Speech and Debate Tournament in Florida, this year June 15-23.

But this year she is one of five finalists for National Speech and Debate Student of the Year.

While at the national tournament this year, Toth will interview with selected debate coaches to find out her placement.

The honor is a dream come true, she said.

“I want to thank all my coaches,” Toth said. “Amber Toth, Travis Toth and Sarah Bahr for giving me the tools…and an avenue for this to happen, because this truly is a dream becoming reality.”

Two of the speech and debate coaches are her parents, both teachers at the high school.

Amber Toth taught debate,  forensic and speech,  Travis Toth teaches history.

“It’s a family rule,” Darby said. “You have to try (speech and debate) for one year.”

It has become one of her passions, she said.

Speech and debate have had “amazing” effects on her and has allowed her to follow her other passion: social justice, Darby said.

Through her high school years, Darby has honed her communication and goal-setting skills learned in speech and debate.

She helped organize a formal dress drive at her school as a sophomore.

“We got winter formal (dress) donations for anyone who couldn’t afford it,” she said.

Following Hurricane Harvey’s devastation of south-east Texas, Darby used the skills to help raise almost $5,000 for schools in Texas, she said.

She took it upon herself to start a sexual harassment awareness campaign when she learned that issue was a problem for some students at FSHS.

“It was definitely a challenge to get students, administration, and teachers on board,” she said. “It took a pretty detailed mapping of a plan…..they plan next year to have a sexual harassment awareness speaker come speak to the entire student body. We have several posters up around the school. Our counselors are more aware that it is an issue in our school and are working with the students.

“There were some kids who were not being appropriate in the classroom, physically,…they faced repercussions for what they did.

“I felt I needed to be a voice for people who felt as if they didn’t have one because I knew what happened in the classroom wasn’t even the tip of the iceberg. I heard personal stories of girls, whether in or out of the high school. They are suffering in their personal life.”

An AXA Achievement Scholarship was awarded to Darby’

“It’s a $1,000 grant to the high school… it’s used for teacher professional development,” she said. “I gave Mr. (Shawn)Thomas (FSHS Principal) all my research on the subject, Restorative Justice. Instead of a zero-tolerance program, it’s more restorative, therapeutic based…I asked that (the grant) be used for Restorative Justice.”

This topic includes focusing on the reasoning behind student actions, then mediating and working through it, she said.

The AXA Achievement Scholarship is awarded to students because they have demonstrated ambition and self-drive.

For more information on this scholarship click here:

https://us.axa.com/axa-foundation/AXA-achievement-scholarship.html

Darby received other recognitions as well.

She had a 4.0 Grade Point Average at FSHS in mostly honors classes and received an Ellis Foundation Grant, Peterson Scholarship, Garvey Scholarship, a Kansas Honor Scholar among others.

Darby is a four-time Speech and Debate National Qualifier, District Top Point Earner for two years, state champion in oration, state runner-up in impromptu speaking, number one debater/forensicator in Kansas, District Student of the Year, ranked in the top ten nationally, and recipient of the Debate and Forensics Scholarship-chosen by a panel of teachers.

Toth will attend Washburn University with a psychology major and leadership minor in the fall.

“I would like to work with children, especially the impoverished,” she said. “Starting my own practice would be cool… Working in a school would be cool. Which would provide an avenue to coach debate/forensics.”

Freedom’s Frontier National Heritage Area awarded the Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes an Interpretive Grant in the amount of $2145 for the project honoring Unsung Hero Mary Bickerdyke.

On  May 7, visitors learned more about Unsung Hero Mother Mary Bickerdyke because of that grant.

Bickerdyke was a Civil War nurse who built 300 field hospitals with the help of the U.S. Sanitary Commission and created new standards in soldier care. Her zeal in her profession earned her the name “Cyclone In Calico.”

The Lowell Milken Center collaborated with the Fort Scott National Historic site in presenting the story to over 140 students from Fort Scott.

Tiffiny Durham, FSNHS Museum Technician interpreted Bickerdyke to the visitors at the center, while Mason Lumpkin, Excelsior Springs, Mo. interpreted Dr. Ben Thayer for the group.

The group consisted of the fifth-grade students at Eugene Ware Elementary School and first and second-grade students at Christian Learning Center.

The presentation not only taught each attendee about the past but information about the Red Cross, local blood drives and ways to volunteer was included.

About Freedom’s Frontier
The Freedom’s Frontier Interpretive Grant program was started in 2012, according to information provided.

Since then, more than 97 projects have been awarded grant funding, according to information provided. Grant projects have been completed on both sides of the Missouri-Kansas border, in the 41-county region that comprises the heritage area.

Projects awarded grant funding must interpret local history, and connect to one or more of the three major themes of the heritage area: the shaping of the frontier, the Missouri-Kansas Border War, and the enduring struggle for freedom.

Grants range in amount from under $1,500 to $5,000. All awards over $1,500 require that the grant recipient show a local match of half the amount of the award. This match can be in the form of cash, or in-kind donations and staff and volunteer time.

Freedom’s Frontier National Heritage Area is one of 49 heritage areas in the U.S. Heritage areas are nonprofit affiliates of the National Park Service (NPS). They act as coordinating entities between the local organizations telling nationally significant stories and the NPS.

Freedom’s Frontier was established as a heritage area on October 12, 2006, when signed into law by President George Bush. The heritage area’s management plan was approved by the Department of the