St. James blood drive to honor late student
Aaron Cedeño | Staff Writer
When Lauren Dopp learned in January she had osteosarcoma, one of the most common types of bone cancer, nobody would have blamed her for letting despair sink in.
After all, she had beaten cancer once already, as a child, and the junior at St. James Academy had every right to rail against the unfairness of having to commit herself to that fight once more.
However, to hear her friends, teachers and relatives tell it, that simply wasn’t her style.
“She never let it get her down,” said Dave Miller, Dopp’s uncle and guardian. “At least she never showed it to any of us. Even her family. She wouldn’t ever dwell on it; there was never a ‘Why me?’”
Typical of her character, Dopp chose an aggressive form of treatment. In the following months, Dopp was a model of strength, said Debbie Nearmyer, the school’s director of faith formation. She refused to let her friends tip-toe around a potentially touchy subject.
After months of treatment, Dopp succumbed to her illness on the morning of Nov. 7. Nearmyer said Dopp’s attitude was only one of the legacies she left the school.
“Her strength, her honesty, her willingness to say, ‘Hey, this is who I am, this is what I’ve got going on, and this is how I’m going to deal with it,’” Nearmyer recalled.
Unsure of how best to inform the students, most of whom had been aware of the severity of Dopp’s struggle, St. James Principal Barb Burgoon chose to post faculty and staff at every door to pass along the news as students entered school for the day. Daily Mass, which is optional most days, filled to bursting that day, and the students grieved. As the day progressed, however, the good memories of Dopp began to erode that sadness.
“As the morning went on, you got a little tired of crying,” Nearmyer said. “You got tired of being sad. And so it moved from prayer and sadness to pockets of kids just telling stories and laughing.”
At the request of one of her faculty members, Burgoon gave the students access to the school’s media room. Each student at St. James is given his or her own laptop, equipped with a built-in video camera. More and more video clips and photos of Dopp began to surface. “Team Dopp,” as her classmates and friends had dubbed themselves, had risen to the occasion.
“She was such a joyous child and so up front,” Burgoon said. “She was an example of grace and faith to this school.”
On Dec. 3, the Miller family and St. James students will have a blood drive in Dopp’s honor from noon to 7 p.m. at the school. Miller said service, volunteer work and a general desire to improve the lives of those around her had been a big part of Dopp’s life. With Dopp receiving many blood transfusions during her treatment, the drive seemed a fitting tribute to her memory, he said.
Junior Krista Zuroske is the student most heavily involved in helping plan the drive. Every student has to undertake a Christian Stewardship Project, and Zuroske had intended to make the blood drive hers. When she decided to go with something else for that particular task, however, she opted to continue her involvement in the drive’s organization.
“I decided to stick with it because I really enjoyed it,” she said. “So far, we’re just trying to get people to sign up and everything and get people to donate.”
Miller said Dopp would have been excited to see so many working toward such a positive goal.
“I think she’d be excited,” he said. “She’d be happy she was helping somebody else.”
“We’re trying to get as much blood donated as we can.”
To set up a donation appointment, visit www.esavealifenow.org to schedule online, using the sponsor code “StJamesAcademy,” or contact Zuroske at 913-894-5802.

Everest to carry Big 10
Aaron Cedeño | Staff Writer
Everest CEO Phil Spencer is from Big 10 country.
So when the possibility of adding the Big 10 Network to his company’s sports channel lineup arose, the Wisconsin native had an easy decision to make.
“The Big 12 is obviously the most popular around here, with KU and K-State, but you’ll meet a ton of folks from Iowa in your interaction just around town,” he said. “A lot of folks from Iowa, a lot of folks from Minnesota. I’m from Wisconsin, so that didn’t hurt.”
The Big 10 comprises 11 universities, and most of those are in the Midwest. It is the first major athletic conference to launch its own TV network, with the sole purpose of broadcasting Big 10 athletic and academic events. According to the network’s Web site, the Big 10 Network will show at least 35 football games and 105 men’s basketball games each year while promising to maintain equality between men’s and women’s athletic coverage.
Spencer said Everest hoped the acquisition would bring new interest and help with subscriber retention.
“Twenty percent of the cable base are just huge, huge sports fans,” he said. “So we’ve already gotten tons of e-mails, tons of requests from existing customers for the Big 10 Network.”
Additionally, Everest has expanded its coverage of the NFL Network to include the increasing number of live game broadcasts the network is offering. A long subscriber to the NFL Network, Everest was initially caught off guard when the network decided to pass down a significant price increase for the right to broadcast the games, Spencer said. When it became clear that subscribers wanted the content, Everest decided to pay the fee.
“The key difference is now you have those games,” he said. “So this Thursday (Nov. 29), the Packers and the Cowboys, if you don’t have the NFL Network with the game package, you can’t watch.”
Everest operates in Lenexa, Shawnee, Overland Park and portions of Kansas City, but Spencer said the company had its sights set on new territory in the coming year.
“We really have our eye on Olathe next,” he said. “We have tons of requests from Olathe. It’s unbelievable.”
An announcement is expected by February, Spencer added. Until then, plans remain in developmental mode.
“Right now, Olathe is our No. 1 top priority for next year,” he said. “We’ve already had some initial discussions with city administrators and sat down with them.”
Everest subscribers can find the Big 10 Network on Digital Tier Channel 438, and the NFL Network can be found on Digital Tier Channel 439.
For more information, call 913-825-3000.

Library offers podcasts of children’s stories
Aaron Cedeño | Staff Writer
Like standard-definition TV and dial-up Internet, the days when libraries offer only the printed word quickly are going the way of the dodo.
The Johnson County Library recently began offering “online storytime,” a series of recorded readings of classic children’s literature.
“This is our first try at doing it,” said Erica Reynolds, Web content manager for the Johnson County Library system. “We want to evaluate it and see if it’s something that’s helpful to the community.”
This type of content typically is known as a “podcast,” a name given to audio files available online for their ability to be downloaded and easily transported to any digital music player, such as an iPod. Reynolds said that the library system had put other types of content online in the past, but that this was its first venture into the world of children’s fiction.
“One of the ideas was that you have so many people driving during the holidays, and wouldn’t it be fun for you to be able to take the library with you on your holiday, when you drive to Grandma’s or wherever?” Reynolds explained.
Seventeen titles are available for download at the library’s Web site (www.jocokids.org), including stories such as “Three Billy Goats Gruff,” “The Tortoise and the Hare” and “The Princess and the Pea.” The copyright on all content has expired, making the stories part of the public domain, which Reynolds said was necessary.
“It is important for people to realize that we can’t just go out to our collection and read every new book,” she said. “We have to read books that are in the public domain.”
Reynolds said that this type of technology was becoming more common in libraries across the country, but that the Johnson Country Library always had been at the head of the pack.
“Johnson County Library was very innovative in establishing a team of professionals who do Web content early on, but certainly as the rest of the world sort of caught on to Web 2.0 (a more integrated, social network-based Internet movement), libraries were right there,” she explained.
New titles would be added if demand necessitated an increase in the size of the virtual library. To that end, the Web site contains an online survey on the project, in which Reynolds encouraged users to participate. Regardless of popularity, however, she said the project was a worthy effort.
“If it looks like people want it, if people complete the evaluations and let us know that’s something they’d be interested in, then we’ll do more,” Reynolds said. “If not, then it was just a cool project that we did.”
For more information, visit www.jocokids.org.

Family dry-cleaning business goes green
Aaron Cedeño | Staff Writer
Tyler Anderson always knew he wanted to own his own business.
So when he married Maggie Kasperbauer, whose father, Rick, had owned a dry-cleaning business for nearly a quarter of a century, Anderson quickly took to the family business.
“I kind of got into (Rick Kasperbauer’s) business a little bit more, and then we relocated to the Kansas City area about two and a half to three years ago and got the opportunity to open this place up,” he said.
“This place” is Blue Sky Cleaners, 5412 Roberts St. in Shawnee. Jointly owned by the Andersons and the Kasperbauers, Rick and Laurie, Blue Sky offers Lenexa and Shawnee residents a more environmentally friendly alternative to traditional dry-cleaning methods.
“This Green Earth cleaning process that we’re using is not very old,” Anderson said. “It’s only been around for six to eight years.”
Developed in 1999 by a trio of former dry cleaners with the help of General Electric and Proctor & Gamble in Kansas City, Mo., Green Earth uses a liquid silicone-based solvent.
Since the 1950s, dry cleaners have been using a perchloroethylene-based solution, and many still do.
But the Green Earth process offers many advantages, Anderson said. For example, the byproducts of the silicone solvent are sand, water and carbon dioxide — all safe elements. Perchloroethylene, on the other hand, is listed as a toxic air contaminant by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Anderson said his customers had noticed a difference, citing softer clothes that smelled fresher than those cleaned with perchloroethylene.
“The smell is a big thing,” he said. “People who do a lot of dry cleaning regularly, it used to be that whenever you pulled that bag off the coats there was a noticeable smell.”
The employees see the benefits as well. Blue Sky employs six workers, and Anderson said the Green Earth solvent was much easier to work and be in contact with than perchloroethylene.
As it turns out, owning his own business was everything Anderson had imagined.
“I’m a small-business person,” he said. “I’m glad I’m here, and I really enjoy it.”

Mill Creek students embark on service projects
Aaron Cedeño | Staff Writer
The Mill Creek Middle School motto is: “Enter to learn. Go forth to serve.”
Melissa Miller’s family and consumer science students — all 57 of them — have decided to get a head start.
On Dec. 19, those students will sew winter caps for cancer patients at Children’s Mercy Hospital and bake cookies for the local Ronald McDonald House. Miller said it was a tradition she brought with her to Mill Creek, in its first year, from a similar position at Gardner High School.
“It gives the students an opportunity, especially because it’s the giving season, to have a sense of pride in sharing with other students that are in our community,” she said.
The caps are made of fleece and simple to construct, consisting of a single seam. It’s a good thing that’s the case because Miller said she anticipated that the funds provided by the Mill Creek PTA would make it possible for the students to produce about 200 hats. She said they hoped to provide the hospital with a supply sufficient to handle future patients as well.
“In my experience with past donating, we just donated as many as we possibly can, and they just have them on hand,” Miller said.
Staff members, the PTA and parents have been invited to the event, and Miller felt the students already had begun to take on a sense of ownership in the project.
“I think they’re really excited about the experience and getting to do it and also knowing the reason behind it,” Miller said.
Though she wasn’t sure if her classes would repeat the project next year, Miller noted that a community service project of some kind was in the cards.
“Depending on how long these hats last, we may switch gears and try to do something for an assisted-living home around the area or maybe another hospital around the area,” she said. “But I try to do a service project with my students every year just so they have that feeling of giving to someone else.”

Lenexa recognized for stormwater system
Aaron Cedeño | Staff Writer
Lenexa is being rewarded for viewing stormwater in a positive light.
While many cities see stormwater as a problem to be fixed, Lenexa opted in 1996 to look at stormwater through a different lens as part of its Vision 2020 planning process.
The efforts have paid off, as the city’s “Rain to Recreation” initiative recently was honored by the National League of Cities.
“For the Rain to Recreation program, the selling point was really related to our ability to look at stormwater for the city as an amenity, not a liability,” said Mike Beezhold, watershed manager for the city.
Beezhold recently represented Lenexa at the 2007 Congress of Cities and Exposition conference. In the population category of cities with fewer than 50,000 residents, Lenexa brought home the “gold” Award for Municipal Excellence, thanks to the Rain to Recreation program.
Through a combination of public education, via events such as the annual WaterFest and developmental projects such as Lake Lenexa, Rain to Recreation seeks to turn stormwater into an asset for the city.
“It’s those kind of projects that meet the mission of this program, which is to reduce flooding, protect water quality and provide recreational educational opportunities,” Beezhold said.
In this field, Beezhold explained, Lenexa is ahead of the curve nationally and is viewed by other municipalities and the Environmental Protection Agency as an innovator. The city frequently is asked to share its information. Beezhold said the city presented its latest information at national stormwater conferences on an annual basis.
“I think what the appealing thing is for the National League of Cities is the ability for this community to demonstrate that ability for other communities,” he said.
For more information on the National League of Cities, visit www.nlc.org, and for further information on the Rain to Recreation program, visit www.raintorecreation.org.

City streamlines technology
Aaron Cedeño | Staff Writer
Lenexa IT director John VanNice likes that the city is thought of as being at the forefront of technology in Johnson County.
“The issue isn’t really about technology,” he said. “The issue is about customer service. What are the tools that you can bring to bear to improve your customer service? That’s what we’re really after.”
In the spirit of that goal, the city recently made an agreement with San Ramon, Calif.-based Accela, Inc. The company’s “Accela Automation” software will streamline the city’s “permitting, licensing and inspections processes and increase the quality of service it provides,” according to an Accela press release.
CiCi Arabian, the company’s director of marketing, said software adoptions like Lenexa’s were becoming increasingly common for local governments. The decision to go digital often is a multidepartmental effort, she said, because the IT system has become antiquated and often is unique to a specific department.
“What a lot of these cities, Lenexa also, have in place a lot of times are sort of these multiple systems that don’t really communicate with each other very efficiently, so it’s really slowing down the process,” Arabian said.
VanNice said the benefit to residents would be tangible and significant.
“(The software) will allow us to be, No. 1, more responsive to the citizens when they have issues or concerns,” he said.
Though the software was spoken of as being an asset primarily to the planning department, VanNice said the adoption would affect every corner of City Hall.
For example, the software not only would provide easy access to electronic records of building permits, but the same system would be used to track code enforcement after construction.
“All of that stuff is integrated into one solution, so anybody who has a need in any one of those areas can get to all of that information when they need to,” VanNice said.
“And that’s something that we just have never had here, which will be very beneficial.”

Cougars rack up all-league awards
Tod Palmer | Sports Editor
Three first-team selections. Three.
That’s all the Shawnee Mission Northwest football team, which rolled to an undefeated league title and won its first eight games, earned Nov. 26 when the 2007 All-Sunflower League selections were released.
It seems odd.
The fifth-place team, Olathe South, had six first-team picks.
Free State, which tied Olathe South for fifth had four selections as did Olathe North, a team the Cougars walloped 45-22 during the regular season.
What gives?
“In our league, we’ve got 12 teams, so it’s pretty tough to get on the first team,” SM Northwest coach Aaron Barnett said. “There are a lot of good players. We had some first-team guys that didn’t make the first team, but that was true for a lot of teams in our league.”
It’s also a testament to the Cougars’ strength as a team.
“It’s kind of coach talk, but I try to preach to our kids that the individual honors will come,” Barnett said. “It’s always nice to get them, but we want to be team-oriented.”
That approach led to an historic 9-2 season and league championship.
It was the Cougars’ first outright league football title since the program’s inception and only its third championship overall.
SM Northwest shared the league crown in 1979 with Lawrence and SM West and tied with SM West again for the 1983 title.
The only season truly to rival 2007 for the Cougars was their 1981 state championship season. That season SM Northwest finished 10-2 — and probably had more than three players on the first-team all-league list.
There’s little doubt the three Cougars to earn first-team honors — junior offensive lineman Darion Hillman, senior defensive lineman Bryce Murray and senior linebacker Tyler McKee — were deserving.
“We were right there with Olathe North as far as the most rushing yards per game, so I expected that we would have at least one first-team offensive lineman,” Barnett said. “Darion was probably our most consistent lineman all year, and it’s the same way defensively. We were right there all year with Olathe North as far as defense. Anytime you have a good defense, you need a good defensive lineman and a good linebacker. Bryce and Tyler certainly fit the bill.”
Perhaps the fact that SM Northwest received 10 second-team all-league honors — far and away the most for any team — also eased Barnett’s mind.
Headlining that bunch was arguably the league’s top tailback tandem, senior Alex Reed and junior Bryce Atagi.
Neither made the first team, but that was for the benefit of the Cougars.
“As far as individual honors, it may have hurt those guys (to split time), but team-wise it helped us,” Barnett said. “We give the ball a lot to our tailback, and in our league it’s hard to have a running back carry the ball 25 to 30 times a game for nine-plus games if he’s going to stay healthy.”
Quarterback Alex Carder, a senior, also made the second-team cut.
“Statistic-wise he may not have been as good a quarterback on paper as other guys in the league, but it’s good to see that the other coaches knew how important he was for us and rewarded him for it,” Barnett said.
Murray earned second-team honors at tight end, and senior Josh Douglas was listed with the second team at three positions: wide receiver, kick returner and defensive back.
He was joined by Atagi in the second-team secondary.
Douglas was joined by another teammate, junior Mark Fancher, on the kick returner list, and senior offensive lineman Mitch Ayers rounded out SM Northwest’s second-teamers.
“When you wrap up your senior year, you want to be able to have something to remember, something for the history books,” Barnett said. “We definitely have some seniors who deserved it, and I was happy for them.”
The Cougars also had seven honorable-mention recognitions.

— Contact Tod Palmer at 764-2211, ext. 140, or todpalmer@theolathenews.com.

SM West, SM South’s Ammons receive love
Tod Palmer | Sports Editor
Shawnee Mission West put five players on the 2007 All-Sunflower League football first and second teams, but it’s hard to find a more decorated player than SM South’s Tra Ammons.
The Vikings started the season 5-0 and finished tied for second in the league but closed the season on a four-game losing streak.
Don’t blame senior defensive lineman RJ Fiava, senior linebacker Tony Ritzman or junior punter Justin Scott.
That SM West trio was named Monday to the all-league first team, which was voted on at the conclusion of the regular season by the Sunflower League coaches.
Ammons, the league’s second-leading receiver during the regular season and arguably its most dangerous return man, was one of only two players to earn multiple first-team honors.
Ammons averaged nearly 20 yards per punt return, including two for touchdowns. He also averaged a shade under 20 yards on 28 catches with five TDs as a receiver.
The Raiders senior was a first-team choice at kick returner and receiver.
SM South teammate Justin Holmes, a senior defensive lineman, was named to the league’s second team.
The two Vikings to make the second team were senior offensive lineman Nick Sloan and senior running back JD Steffen, whose season was cut short by ankle injury.
Finally, Olathe Northwest’s Nick Williams, a senior linebacker, also earned second-team accolades.
Williams also received one of 12 Ravens honorable mentions. Senior teammate Bryant Sanchez was an honorable mention three times over at wide receiver, defensive back and kick returner.
SM West received 10 honorable mentions, including two for Scott as a linebacker and tight end and a nod for Ritzman at fullback.
SM South had nine honorable mentions.

— Contact Tod Palmer at 764-2211, ext. 140, or todpalmer@theolathenews.com.

Vikings boys team hopes to maintain past success
Garth Sears | Special to the Lenexa Centennial
Winning three substate titles in a row can lead a coach to a simple goal: win another.
But the Shawnee Mission West boys lost five seniors — Jared Witter, David Leonard, Eric Podoll, Anthony Dobson and Micah Handley — after last season, and coach Mike Brinsko knows the Vikings will struggle to fill their shoes.
“We lost five great seniors with no real replacements yet,” he said.
Heading into the 2007-08 season, that will be SM West’s primary struggle this season.
“We’re really inexperienced,” Brinsko said. “We’ll be hard pressed to score this year at times.”
The Vikings’ lack of experience is compounded by other concerns for Brinsko.
“Our lack of size and questionable outside shooting are major concerns for me,” he said. “Our margin of error is smaller than it has been in the past.”
No player taller than 6 feet, 2 inches returns for the Vikings, who will look to Dominique Phifer and Todd Eils among others for production.
As seniors, Phifer and Eils also must provide leadership along with fellow senior Danny Cummins, the 6-foot-2 returning player.
Juniors Aaron Taylor, Jon Brown and Matt Vestal are expected to contribute as well along with Bradley Foss, a sophomore who went to state with SM West last year.
The newer, smaller players will force the Vikings to find different ways to win.
“When we win, we’ll have to win ugly,” Brinsko said.
But never underestimate habits.
Brinsko said SM West will experiment in December like usual and hopes the squad can put together a new winning formula.
“Our goal is to be as good as we possibly can be for sub-state, and we’ll find a way to win it,” Brinsko said. “Our goal is to make it to state.”

Girls’ expectations high, fanfare low
Garth Sears | Special to the Lenexa Centennial
There seem to be two conclusions to draw when speaking to coach Ryan Darst.
First, his SM West girls will be good. Second, there won’t be any congratulations until the buzzer sounds.
The Vikings return six lettermen — something that excites Darst.
“We got fourth in state last year, and I want to return to that form,” he said.
SM West lost two seniors, Kayla Higginbotham and Ashley Balazs, whom Darst called leaders but not major scorers.
Luckily, he returns five seniors who have been playing together for a long time.
“We’ve worked very hard at taking it game by game and not getting ahead of ourselves,” Darst said. “Last year, we had a 10-game winning streak, but we never talked about it. Half the girls didn’t know we had one.”