A Mural to Honor our Soldiers

  

    The Central Christian College art department was given the job of a painting that would cover the side of the American Legion Building in McPherson representing the different wars the town has taken part in since the founding. The painting started in June, and they expect to finish at some point in November. Amanda Shaw, under the supervision of Prof. Naomi Ullum with the help of Stevie Penn have planned, organized, and spent hours painting. The goal behind the painting is to be a storyboard to educate people, as well as memorialize what people have fought for and sacrificed.

    The painting is being completed in different sections in the New Art Studio the school has established in the last year. Amanda Shaw works on the painting five days a week, for eight hours each day. Amanda says that she has easily spent 800 hours on the painting and with the planning and prep there has been at least 1,000 hours put into the pieces thus far. Before they started the painting they spent months researching and coming up with a plan for the final product. In addition to the ideas from the gentlemen at the American Legion Building, they consulted pictures and concepts from people, online resources, and in books.

    The painting represents the major wars that McPherson has been apart of since the town was founded after General McPherson. There are 5 wars that are represented with the main ideas and events. Not only from the war side, but also what the town and people at home sacrificed. WWI and WW2 are both represented, along with the Korean War, Vietnam War, and the Middle Eastern War. According to Amanda, the hardest part of this was going through all the material to decide what aspects of each war they wanted to draw into the storyboard.

    This is a great example of how art has the ability to educate and touch the community. Taking part in this project has been a great opportunity for Central, as well as the community to see what the students have the ability to do. This project has benefited both parties. The men from the American Legion Building stop by quite often to see the progress out of anticipation for the final outcome. When November comes many people are looking forward to the unveiling of the final product.

Minor Set Back for a Major Comeback

Head women’s basketball coach of Central Christian College, Chris Honeck is man that has had a major set-back and has come back stronger than ever. Last year, he went through a life threatening illness called, diabetic amytrophy, which is a neurological condition that affects the muscles in the legs. Through this illness, he went through losing feeling on the whole left side of his body. Then gained movement back through rehab and support from family, friends, and players and was able to start walking with a cane, which then moved to having full use of his limbs again. In the last week he had a doctor’s visit where he was told the news that he is in better health than he has ever been in the past 3 years of his life. His diabetes are stabilized, and he has lost 35 pounds in the last year which has caused him to feel better than ever. The way that he keeps his physical therapy in tact is playing golf which is not only requiring him to work all of his muscles but it is strengthening his core. The key component to a strong body, starts at the core. He has accepted the limitations that he did not have before, which has made him find strengths he never had before mentally and physical. The only thing that bothers him now is the residual pain in his legs from time to time.  

Going into the season this year, Honeck wants to stay true to his coaching philosophy which has not changed since first becoming coach of the women’s program. He wants to put more emphasis on the core beliefs which is what he believes will drive the team to be the best the team that he believe that Central Christian College has ever had with the women’s basketball program. Honeck believes that the team has more talent than ever in the past, chemistry is there that has never been present, and he stated, “even if we weren’t more talented, I think we would have a pretty good year just because of how close we are.” Internal expectations that both him and the assistant Coach Sarah Rhodes wants for the team is to walk away and say that this was the best time that they have ever had playing basketball. Both coaches also agree that no matter where the player was individually at the beginning of the season spiritually, that they grew with their relationship with God at the end of the season. External expectations that he has for the team is to play in February in Iowa at the conference tournament, and from assistant Coach Sarah Rhodes she would like the team “to be more than just good at basketball, but be an example to the community, and seen as classy young ladies.”

Honeck and Rhodes both want the team to not just be able for 40 minutes, but now have mental toughness, and team effort which will play into it meaning more than just a win for the ladies. It will carry over into real world outside of basketball which can be applied to life. They also want it to be where the women’s basketball team will be respected by other teams to know that win, lose, or draw there will be a fight and with the team he has this year, and the only thing that can hold them back are themselves. This team has faced many adversities in the past, but from the coaching staff, to the players, they all know that the come back from their set-backs has yet to come and they are patiently waiting for their time.

Article By: Olivia Richard

Central Walk's for Babies

Central Phi Beta Lambda hosted the 2nd Annual Walk for the March of Dimes this past Saturday October 3rd. PBL members from all over Kansas came to support Central PBL and the March of Dimes. They had the special privilege of hosting the PBL National Officer Kennedy Reynolds, the Mountain Plains Regional Vice President. This year's walk was a success and raised over $400 to go to the March of Dimes and the fight against premature birth. Phi Beta Lambda has been united with March of Dimes for nearly 40 years and has helped raise over 15 million dollars.

In case you were unable to attend, you can still make a donation to March of Dimes. With a donation of $10, you will receive a complementary t-shirt from the walk. All the proceeds from the shirts will go to March of Dimes.

By donating to March of dimes you will be a part of helping end premature births. And will also have a shirt to raise awareness to others. So please consider donating. You may turn in your donations to any of the PBL Officers, Dr. Ferrell, or Heath Whitehouse.

By Jody Bohnenblust

Ritchhart takes the Plate

The past several years have provided roadblocks for the Central softball program. Having three different coaches over three years can make it difficult for a team to focus on a game. However, they believe the uncertainty is now over with the addition of Mark Ritchhart the new head coach. When asked how she feels about Coach Ritchhart Mandy Jacquez a junior said, “he is so great. He really cares about us on and off the field.” Later a group of players was asked and the consensus was that, “he’s such an awesome coach and we love him and how he pushes us to be better.” The team spoke incredibly highly of him that I was excited to sit down and interview him myself.

When I had the opportunity to sit down and talk with him, we covered several questions about the program.  First I asked; how are you going to prepare for the team this upcoming season? He replied

“the mental aspect is very important. I want the team to do softball stuff on the regular basis. Making sure that the program is based on a positive environment, always having a winning attitude. I want the ladies to know that they are here for a reason, and that not everyone gets this opportunity and that they have a special gift.”

I then asked how did he feel about this year’s team? He replied “that I was very surprised how they accepted me in the program, and that the ability of the athletes I have excites me and I’m expecting a good year this year.”  Being at a Christian school I asked him what does he do to make the team connect closer to God? He replied

“we have devotion once a week, we pray at the beginning and the end of every practice. I enjoy having them connecting to God here and hopefully they connect with him after they leave from here as well. I always want my players to have God centered in their life.”

I agree with Coach Ritchhart this will be a great year here and I wish him and the softball team the best of luck this year.

By Alonzo Stafford