Category: Featured

New Goddard Senior Center off to fast start

October 1, 2024 | By Becky Funke

GODDARD — The Goddard Senior Center is on a roll. What had been a group of older residents getting together informally cut the ribbon on the new Goddard Senior Center last month, days after the Goddard City Council approved $46,000 in funding for it ($6,000 of which came from Sedgwick County). This month, the center […]

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The Active Age welcomes new board members

| By The Active Age

Three new members have joined the board of directors of The Active Age. Steve Criser is one of the founders and owners of CGP Group, LLC, a tax and accounting firm. A Wichita native, he graduated from East High and Wichita State University.  Criser jokes that a job he held during college — drawing blood […]

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Upcoming Events

| By The Active Age

Diabetes fair offers free testing Free testing for diabetes, flu vaccines, foot exams and more will be offered during the 8th annual Live Well with Diabetes Fair, held from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 2, at the Wichita State Metroplex, 5015 E. 29th St. N. Sponsored by the Great Plains Diabetes Center, the […]

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‘Wichita Blues’ is history from those who lived it

| By Lynn Avants

“Wichita Blues: Music in the African American Community” by Patrick Joseph O’Connor (2024, University Press of Mississippi, 282 pages, $30 on Amazon)  The traditions and history of the blues as a music form have been well-documented in some regions of the United States. The new book “Wichita Blues” does the same for the genre in […]

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The Active Age now accessible in audio form

| By The Active Age

The Active Age is now available in audio form through NFB-Newsline, a service of the National Federation of the Blind and State Library of Kansas. NFB-Newsline is intended to help those who are visually impaired or have difficulty because of a physical impairment or reading disability. There is no charge for the service, but users […]

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Make a plan for November election

| By The League of Women Voters Wichita-Metro

Whether you’re 19 or 99, you are an important member of our democracy. Be sure to exercise your right to vote in the November 2024 election. Here’s how to plan ahead. Check your registration Go to KSvotes.org or call the Sedgwick County Election Office at (316) 660-7100 to see if you are registered and if your information […]

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City’s first shopping center turns 75

| By The Active Age

Here are some facts you might not know about Lincoln Heights Village, which became Wichita’s first shopping center when it opened in 1949. It was named for Abraham Lincoln, whom realtor and developer Walter Morris greatly admired. Morris bought the property at Douglas and Oliver in 1926 from a wealthy St. Louis financier, Harry F. […]

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Coyotes more interested in chickens than man’s company

| By Ted Blankenship

If you are a genuine Kansan, say born in Bazaar, you probably already know this. But if you’re a native of, say, Dallas or Minneapolis, you probably grew up mispronouncing the name of a native Kansas animal, the coyote. It’s co-yote, not co-yot-ee. The frustrating part of this is that people who put the “ee” […]

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Dig deep: Chicago-style pizza

| By Joe Stumpe

Hunger-inducing. That’s one good description of a Chicago-style deep-dish pizza when it’s pulled out of the oven.  The fact that it takes only a handful of inexpensive store-bought ingredients to put together makes it even more appetizing.   Chicago-style Deep-dish Pizza  Olive oil 1 bag (16 oz.) refrigerated pizza dough, brought to room temperature   1/2 […]

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October quiz: Consult your crystal ball for these answers

| By Nancy Wheeler

Paranormal events are phenomena whose existence cannot be explained by science. As Halloween approaches, let’s review our working knowledge of these reported occurrences. The answers appear below. 1. What name is given to the colorful spiritual energy that surrounds a person’s physical body and indicates a person’s emotional or physical well-being? 2. What term is […]

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October Theatre

| By Diana Morton

Forum Theatre, at the Wilke Center, 1st United Methodist Church, 330 N. Broadway. Dial M for Murder. A jealous husband, his wealthy wife and the seemingly perfect crime are at the center of this new version of the celebrated murder mystery that inspired Alfred Hitchcock’s film masterpiece. Oct 31- Nov 17. 8pm; Tickets $34 – […]

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Savvy Senior: How to assess what you need in a walker

| By Jim Miller

How to Assess What You Need in a Walker Dear Savvy Senior, Can you give me some tips on choosing an appropriate walker for my elderly father? He has some balance issues along with arthritis in his hips and could use a little more help than a cane provides. Wobbly in Wisconsin Dear Wobbly, When […]

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Records set straight for two Wichita big leaguers

| By Bob Rives

Like their Major League careers, the news was welcome but a bit late for two Wichita baseball stars. Earlier this year, Major League Baseball announced that Negro League statistics would be considered big league stats. For Bob Thurman, who started a Major League career at age 38 after three seasons of Negro League play, and […]

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Calendar art choosen

| By The Active Age

Vera Jane Davis, seen with her “Sunset on the Farm,” and Naomi Ullum, pictured with “Peonies-Sunlit Luminescence,” are among artists chosen to have their work featured in the 2025 Art is Ageless calendar, postcards and greeting cards produced by Presbyterian Manors of Mid-America. Others include Patt Sharpe, for “Catus;” Paulette Mattingly, for “Giraffe Fabric Collage”; […]

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Wichita’s first shopping center turns 75

September 26, 2024 | By The Active Age

Here are some facts you might not know about Lincoln Heights Village, which became Wichita’s first shopping center when it opened in 1949. It was named for Abraham Lincoln, whom realtor and developer Walter Morris greatly admired. Morris bought the property at Douglas and Oliver in 1926 from a wealthy St. Louis financier, Harry F. […]

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CNA sentenced for mistreating 90-year-old who died

September 4, 2024 | By The Active Age

A man who pleaded guilty to a felony charge of mistreating a 90-year-old resident of a Bel Aire nursing home was sentenced Wednesday to a year of probation and ordered not to be employed in any capacity where he would be providing medical care to patients. According to a news release from the District Attorney’s […]

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Rose show blooms again

August 30, 2024 | By Sherry Graham Howerton

Don Suderman discovered his passion for roses more than four decades ago. “I grew some roses starting in the 1980s. Then I went to a garden tour in Wichita and got invited to a Wichita Rose Society meeting, which increased my knowledge on how to grow them,” said Suderman, who is now president of that […]

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Book might be last chance to catch I-70 killer

| By Joe Stumpe

BTK wasn’t Wichita’s only serial killer to escape detection for decades. On April 11, 1992, 23-year-old Patricia Smith and 32-year-old Patricia Magers were shot to death while working late at Magers’ bridal shop, La Bride d’ Elegance, on east Kellogg. Less than a month later, police announced that their killer had murdered four other people […]

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Upcoming Events

| By The Active Age

Senior Carnival fun night Senior Services, Inc. is holding a Senior Carnival for people 55 and older from 6-8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 13 at Linwood Senior Center, 1901 S. Kansas St. The $5 admission includes a hot dog dinner, games, goodie bag and more. RSVP to (316) 263-3703 by Sept. 11. Senior Services operates the […]

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Viva Tortillas: Flour version has long, well-traveled history

| By Joe Stumpe

I always assumed flour tortillas were an offshoot of corn tortillas, which have been made in Mexico and Central America since prehistoric times. Not so, says Gene Chavez, a Kansas City-based scholar specializing in Mexican-American history. Chavez believes the flour tortilla’s precursor originated in North Africa and was similar to what we know as pita […]

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When pigs cost 50 cents each: Kansas during the Great Depression

| By Diana Breit Wolfe

     My dad said there was no electricity on the family farm in the 1930s because they “didn’t need it.” Their water was pumped from the windmill. Their stove burned wood. They did have a phone on the wall for a while (electricity provided by the telephone company), but only got calls when somebody […]

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Beauty of test is in the eye of the beholder

| By Ted Blankenship

Recently, I read a newspaper article about the Rorschach test. That’s where a psychologist asks his or her patient to look a series of ink blobs on white sheets of paper and express what they mean to the patient. The patient may say something like, “It looks like you spilled some ink on your prescription […]

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September quiz: Name these Hollywood legends

| By Nancy Wheeler

How many legendary male actors can you identify from the clues below? (Female legends from the big screen will appear in a separate quiz.) 1.  Whose on-screen relationship with Ingrid Bergman has been described as the “greatest love story in American cinema”? 2. Whose good looks and debonair style led to his frequent casting by […]

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