Monday, May 1, 2000
The University Daily Kansan
Section A · Page 3
Events raise money to help fight AIDS
By Jessie Meyer writer@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
About 170 Lawrence residents and KU students joined the fight against AIDS at the 10th annual "Walk for Health" on Saturday morning.
"It was a perfect day all around," said Lisa Miller, co-chair for the AIDS walk, which raises money for the Douglas County AIDS Project. "We had the walkers, we had the support and we got some money. We couldn't have asked for a better day."
The five-kilometer walk, which started and ended at South Park, 1141 Massachusetts St., raised about $7,600 for the Douglas County project, which was more than last year's total of $7,200. But organizers were aiming for $8,000, Miller said. But, she also said late donations could come in the next few days.
Sidney Hardgrave, executive director of the Douglas County AIDS project, said all of the money raised from the event would stay in Douglas County and help pay for the costs of running the non-profit organization.
Many members from the University of Kansas' Greek community participated in the walk, which wrapped up their spring philanthropy event and helped raise AIDS awareness in the community.
"A lot of people came out for a good cause," said R.J. Woodring, Interfraternity Council vice president for philanthropy and community service, whose recent resignation from office will go into effect today. "We've struggled with getting Greeks out there in the past, but this year there were representatives from almost every chapter."
"It was a perfect day all around. We had the walkers, we had the effort and we got some money. We couldn't have asked for a better day."
Lisa Miller Walk for Health co-chair
The main event for the fraternities and sororities was the third-annual spaghetti dinner, where about 400 people were served Wednesday night.
Nicole Schnellbacher, Panhellenic spring philanthropy chair, said last year's dinner raised about $3,500 and the goal for this year was $4,000. Although this year's all-you-caneat dinner only raised about $1,200, Woodring said it was still a success.
"We try to do things to benefit the greek community and the community as a whole," Woodring said. "The success of the spaghetti dinner and the AIDS walk reflects all the things we can do when we focus on the positive things."
All money from the dinner also will go to the Douglas County AIDS Project.
But Miller said the work the greek community did for the Douglas County AIDS Project had much more than a monetary impact.
"It's a big group of people we touch indirectly and directly." Miller said. "People don't often like to think about HIV and AIDS, but it's out there and getting the information out is one of the primary goals."
Floating flick
Students seeking a laugh and a scare watch Evil Dead 2 projected onto a screen that floated on Potter Lake. The SUA-sponsored event was Friday night. Photo Jamie Roper/KANSAN
James Fredrickson, 5, and his sister Amanda, 11, paint at a watercolor station set up yesterday at the Baker University Wetlands Field Day. The event was intended to teach the community about wildlife and the wetlands. Photo by Carrie Julian/KANSAN
Group works to spread message about local wetlands preservation
By Erinn R. Barcomb
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
"I don't want to touch it!" was heard many times as parents urged their children to touch bullfrogs and bobcat pelts at the Baker University Wetlands Field Day yesterday.
The field day, sponsored by Earth We Are, a Baker environmental organization, and the Jayhawk Audubon Chapter, included 16 stations that provided information about the wetlands and the animals that inhabit it.
Children and adults were encouraged to learn about live animals, such as snapping turtles and milk snakes that were caught from the wetlands that morning. Despite one child's fears, the animals were released into the wetlands at the end of the day.
the wetlands. With a cup of water, plywood water channels and some dirt. Gallegos showed how the wetlands prevented erosion caused by artificial water channels.
Norma Gallegos, a Baker biology student, was volunteering at a booth because of her interest in biology and
Seventy percent of the Earth's endangered species live in wetlands.
Another station showed potential threats to the wetlands, including a natural gas line that runs under the environs, Gallegos said. Plant growth that is trimmed for the convenience of utility workers can have a negative impact on the wetlands, which the Oregon Trail once ran through.
Not all of the wetlands were lush and green. One area had been burned two weeks ago to encourage new growth, said Marti Schroeder, a biology student at Baker.
dent at Baker:
"If you burn it mid-April, it's the best way to get those warm-weather grasses growing," she said. Schroeder is part of a prairie wetland ecology class that meets at the wetlands one class a week and does extracurricular
work at the wetlands
"We do a lot of maintenance out here." Schroeder said. "We spend a lot of extra time out here."
Although the class learns about all types of wetlands, Schroeder said much of the students' work was focused on wetlands like those in Kansas.
She said this was the eighth year for the field day, although last year's was rained out. Usually about 400 people turn out, Jan Boyd said, and 20 minutes into the event 90 people had walked though the gates at 35th Street and Haskell Avenue.
Although there used to be many, the Baker University wetlands are the last wetlands in the Wakarusa Valley, said Jan Boyd, a librarian at Baker. Boyd said her husband Roger Boyd, a Baker professor, had started the field day because of his interest in the wetlands.
"It's a lot of interest, what's behind those gates," she said. "It's really good for the little kids."
By Jim O'Malley
writer @kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
Watkins scholarship hall residents wait for judge's decision in trust case
Thirteen residents of Watkins Scholarship Hall still don't know whether they can take Bank of America to trial for the management of the trust fund that pays for maintaining their home.
Douglas County District Judge Jack A. Murphy heard arguments from lawyers for the bank and the residents Friday and took the case under advisement
took the case. The judge gave the bank 20 days to file a response to the residents' brief, and David J. Brown, the residents' attorney, said a decision probably would be reached in about a month.
Jim Rankin, the bank's attorney, argued that the residents were not beneficiaries of the trust and had no standing to object to how it was managed.
"This is just vexatious litigation," he said. "All this harassment has cost a great deal of money. I can't explain why the bank has been the victim in these
Rankin said activists had been agitating about the management of the trust for years.
years of hostility, but it's time for it to stop."
He asked the judge to order the objecting residents to pay the bank's costs and attorney fees.
Rankin said that Elizabeth Miller Watkins established a charitable trust and that its true beneficiary was the University of Kansas.
"It's a charitable trust only because the beneficiary is an educational institution."he said.
tion. he said.
Rankin said that Kansas law didn't allow members of the public to enforce a charitable trust — only the Kansas Attorney General can do that. Rankin said the reason was to prevent wasting trust money on pointless litigation.
Rankin said that any argument residents might have was with the University and that the University had answered residents' concerns.
Brown disagreed. He said his clients were asking what the bank feared. The bank's annual reports didn't answer their questions, he said. They just wanted to know why the bank was sending trust income to the University, which doesn't even own the buildings.
And Brown said his clients wanted to know why the University deposited the trust income with the Kansas University Endowment Association.
"There's a slush fund of some one million dollars deposited with the Endowment Association," Brown said.
But the buildings are deteriorating, he said, and his clients say to live there.
said, and his clients pay rent to live there. Answering residents' questions would have been far less costly to the bank than a court battle, Brown said.
Residents also may argue that the University is not following Elizabeth Miller Watkins' direction that the halls be operated for the benefit of impoverished students, Brown said.
He said hall residents were beneficiaries of the trust.
Brown argued that Kansas law permitted individuals with a special interest in a charitable trust to go to court to enforce it.
"My clients, as residents of the hall, have a fixed interest," he said. "They live there."
Rankin called a letter to the editor of the Lawrence Journal-World on the issue rude, offensive and possibly actionable.
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