Kansas
Everyone has a role to play in alleviating our fellow Kansans' despair and daily needs • Kansas Reflector
Poverty. Crime. Anger. Despair. Confusion.
They’re everywhere. The pain is deep and far and wide these days in Kansas and beyond. When I am near downtown Topeka, I shop at a store where there are people who exhibit great needs. I often see homeless people with stolen grocery carts, using them as places to keep their belongings.
A local nonprofit called Let’s Help is opening a location nearby, and I can just see ahead to the people who will seek assistance there. I truly care, however, and my compassion gives me strength in a time when despair and lack threaten to overtake us all.
Last month, I was given a tour of the Lois Curtis campus on Indiana Street in southeast Topeka. They have renovated an old grade school to provide services to people in need, especially those who have a disability. They have a food bank section, a room with durable medical equipment along with other resource rooms. The people who work there are lovely.
That’s just how it is for folks. Poverty affects too many people, but it especially affects those who have an extra struggle, such as a physical or mental disability. It also affects people of color and those who struggle with addictions.
There are people who say that Jesus is the answer for the poverty issue — that churches are the answer, not the government. While my faith is vital to my life and very, very important, I think Jesus would ask us all to lend a helping hand. That includes local nonprofits, homeless shelters, and federal, state and local government.
It definitely takes all of us — everyone — working together to help eradicate poverty.
One of the issues I think a lot about is food insecurity. When we see someone in front of us in the grocery store checkout using a food benefit card, I would say that’s the time to offer a smile and a kind word, or even a prayer. We don’t know that person’s story.
I just completed another gift card drive for the housing specialist at a local mental health nonprofit, and my friends gave $300 in gift cards for vulnerable clients. The housing specialist emailed me and shared her joy that she and also the case managers experience when they drive their clients to the store to use the gift cards to purchase food and other necessities. This made me happy.
My grandpa was a minister for 60 years. I often wonder: What would grandpa do? My grandpa gave to people in need. He and my grandma lived in a huge home in Americus, Georgia, yet they weren’t snobs or prideful. They always helped people.
I want to make a difference like my grandparents did. I have volunteered at Doorstep, a Topeka nonprofit that gives food, clothes and rent and utility assistance. I have also helped provide food for a friend in need. I drop off sandwiches for lunch at her doorstep.
We can all work together to face the poverty we see. We can work together to address the needs creatively and bravely. We will need the courage of people like Barry Feaker, who has been helping folks experiencing homelessness for years. He and LaManda Broyles and their team at the Topeka Rescue Mission truly provide hope and health.
Sgt. Matt Rose at the Topeka Police Department and the officers there truly care about homelessness. Rose has been given a huge job to help deal with complex needs in individuals and he and the officers on his team really reach out to help people in crisis. I have the honor of speaking each year to law enforcement in the Crisis Intervention Team training. It’s very important.
Yes, it’s time to gather our courage and our strength and to work together to address these huge issues in our communities and our state. There isn’t just one easy answer, and we need to congratulate ourselves when we find even part of an answer and when we help even just one individual in need.
Let’s run into the future with hope and heart and embrace the needs with strength.
In the last four years, the University of Arkansas has gotten the better of the Kansas Jayhawks in postseason play.
In 2022, the Razorbacks defeated KU football 55-53 in a triple-overtime thriller in Memphis during the Liberty Bowl. A year later, No. 8 seed Arkansas upset No. 1 seed KU (and reigning college basketball champions) in the NCAA Tournament by a single point (72-71) to end Kansas basketball’s chances of a repeat. In 2025, Arkansas pulled off another upset in the Big Dance when the No. 10 seed Razorbacks defeated No. 7 KU 79-72 to advance to the Sweet 16.
Needless to say, there were plenty of Jayhawk fans hoping for revenge this weekend when Arkansas was announced as the No. 2 seed in the Lawrence Regional – and KU baseball delivered in a big way with a sweep over the Razorbacks to reach the program’s first-ever Super Regionals appearance.
KU came from behind in both games to earn a 5-3 victory on Saturday and a 13-10 win on Sunday night at Hoglund Ballpark.
On Saturday, Arkansas took an early 1-0 lead in the top of the second before a Tyson LeBlanc RBI tied things up in the bottom of the third. Each team scored two in the fifth and remained deadlocked until KU pulled away late with a Dairel Osoria run in the seventh and a solo home run by Augusto Mungarrieta in the eighth to seal the win.
After Arkansas beat Northeastern in a narrow 10-9 contest on Sunday afternoon, KU and Arkansas met again on Sunday evening in a highly anticipated matchup that saw a lot of offensive firepower on display.
The Razorbacks jumped out to a 5-0 lead through three innings before KU had a monster performance in the top of the fourth. Osoria led things off with a solo home run before Brady Ballinger hit an RBI single to score Jordan Bach and Max Soliz Jr. had an RBI single to score Dylan Schlotterback. Then LeBlanc showed his All-American talents once again in a big moment by hitting a three-run home run to deep center field to put the Jayhawks ahead 6-5.
From there, KU would never relinquish the lead after scoring two runs in the fifth inning and three in the sixth. The Jayhawks tacked on two more in the top of the eighth to give the team its 13th score of the game.
The Jayhawks are now 45-16 on the season – tied for the most wins in a season in program history with the 1993 team that reached the College World Series.
KU will now move on to the Super Regionals which start Friday, June 5. If Oklahoma beats Georgia Tech tomorrow, KU will get the chance to host as they did this week. If Georgia Tech wins, the Jayhawks will head to Atlanta with a spot in the College World Series on the line.
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KSHB 41 reporter Olivia Acree covers portions of Johnson County, Kansas, including Olathe and Lenexa. Share your story idea with Olivia.
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If the motto to live by is to get 1 hour of movement a day, the Parkinson’s community in Kansas City is exceeding it.
Bob Zipse has been fighting Parkinson’s for 10 years. He said the diagnosis hit him hard.
Leawood’s Parkinson’s Exercise and Wellness Center expands services as diagnoses climb
“I was super depressed. I mean, I was in a chair. Did you want to move? Look around, just horrible. Because there’s no resources. Where do I go with the time?”
Zipse said the disease can be an isolating experience.
KSHB
“Parkinson’s, I say, is a very lonely, lonely disease. Either people don’t want to deal with you, or you’re embarrassing.”
He found the Parkinson’s Exercise and Wellness Center at his lowest point. Now, he sees people around him pushing past their limits.
“You see people out here, they’re in the mid-70s, they’re doing push-ups, sit-ups, lifting weights. I mean, it’s amazing, really,” Zipse said. “In here, we’re all the same.”
Sarissa Curry founded the center after seeing the power of healing through exercise and recognizing that diagnosis rates were increasing. An aging population and younger diagnoses are among the biggest factors driving that trend.
Kansas consistently ranks as having one of the highest Parkinson’s disease diagnoses and mortality rates in the United States, second only to Nebraska. According to the Parkinson’s Foundation, an estimated 20,000 people in the Kansas City metro alone are living with the disease.
“You see your neurologist once every six months to a year, and you see a physical therapist maybe a couple of months out of the year. Community-based programs are here every day to support this community,” Curry said.
Curry said the warning signs of rising Parkinson’s rates have been visible for years.
“They have been predicting this increase in Parkinson’s for many years. They were able to see the writing on the wall, they were able to see how the population was aging, and they knew that this was coming. We paid attention.”
She expanded the center to serve as an all-encompassing resource for people like Zipse.
KSHB
“I’d hate to wager what I would have been like. Life would have stopped for me, I think. This at least gives me hope, gives me some work towards and see some benefit of it,” Zipse said.
The PEWC will host a ribbon cutting on Wednesday, June 3, at 3:30 p.m. The community is invited to attend to learn more about the center’s services and the disease as incidence rates continue to rise each year.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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