East- SHARE is hosting the Mr. KanSAS pageant on March 9 to benefit Giving the Basics.
SHARE is hosting the seventh annual Mr. KanSAS pageant on March 9 in the auditorium to collect soap and shampoo bottles to benefit Giving the Basics, a nonprofit that collects and distributes basic hygiene products such as soap, shampoo and deodorant to people in need.
Mr. KanSAS will be hosted in the auditorium at 7 p.m. and the entry fee is one bottle of soap or shampoo.
The pageant features 12 senior boys who each represent a different school activity. They’ll perform their chosen talent — like juggling, singing or dancing — and spectators vote for their favorite by putting soap or shampoo bottles into donation buckets with the candidate’s name on it.
“I really don’t care if I win or not,” senior and “Mr. Track and Field” Kyler Haughton said. “I’m excited to raise the shampoo bottles and compete against my friends.”
Giving the Basics will distribute the soap and shampoo bottles around the Kansas City area, going to police stations, homeless shelters, pantries and other places of need according to senior and SHARE Executive Courtenay Tetrick.
In past years, the pageant was hosted to collect cans, but SHARE collected over 3,000 from a can drive earlier this year and decided to benefit another organization.
“We’ve just kind of been canned out,” Tetrick said. “As easy as cans are to collect, we just thought that doing something different would be great too.”
Local- The YMCA might get replaced with a community center.
The Prairie Village City Council plans to spend $3.5 million from the COVID-19 relief funding to replace the Paul Henson YMCA with a community center.
The idea of replacing the YMCA was initially proposed in 2013, but the council denied it. The discussion reopened in 2019, but was paused when COVID-19 hit, and has since been reopened at the Jan. 27 council meeting.
The 55-year-old facility has many infrastructure issues that make it no longer sustainable, according to the president and chief executive officer of YMCA of Greater Kansas City John Mikos. Excluding the current parking lot remodel, the YMCA hasn’t had any major updates in years.
“They make small changes every few months, but nothing too severe in a few years,” YMCA member and sophomore Will Conkright said.
If the Council approves the plan to construct the building, the center would function as a community, wellness and aquatic center still operated by YMCA. It also will feature a new library branch that Johnson County Library will operate.
After the brand new community center is built and new gym equipment is added, Conkright worries that the area will overcrowd He explains that there is little foot traffic at the YMCA currently — a leading factor of the council’s decision.
“It wants cities to give the money out in the community,” city Finance Director Nickie Lee said in a city council work session. “The intent would be that these funds would be spent on something that the community would feel.”
National- The Oscars are being hosted by all women for the first time ever
The 94th annual Oscars award show will be held on March 27 in Los Angeles by three female hosts — Amy Schumer, Regina Hall and Wanda Sykes — for the first time in history.
The Oscars have many long-standing gender boundaries that are still being broken, according to Maura Reilly, a journalist and women’s rights advocate from representwomen.org. In the last 10 years, only one woman has won in the Best Director category — Kathryn Bigelow.
“I’m not sure who thought this was a good idea but I’m hosting the Oscars, along with my good friends, Wanda Sykes and Regina Hall,” Schumer said in a statement on Good Morning America.
Freshman and founder of the SME Feminist Club Hartley Graham is excited for the show and thinks the hosts represent how far feminism has come.
“A lot of people think women can’t be funny,” Graham said. “I think it’s a really good representation of successful, strong, funny women.”
Related
Leave a Reply