WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2002
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN • 9A
Creativity makes presents personal
By Louise Stauffer
lstauffer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Craft supplies like this skein of yarn can be turned into personalized gifts such as scarves or sweaters.
Zach Straus/Kansan
Some students use their creativity instead of cash to provide presents for the holiday season. Whether it's a hand-knit sweater or a personalized candle, homemade gifts warm the heart while being easy on the wallet.
Amy Barton, St. Louis freshman, said she made most of her gifts for friends. Barton scoured the aisles of Hobby Lobby Creative Center, 1801 W. 23rd St., for supplies, and came up with original, inexpensive ideas. With glass jars, candles, stickers, paint and tinsel, she made ten of her friends candleholders, each bearing the person's name. Barton said she spent a lot less money by making the gifts.
"For ten people I spent $40; it's real cheap," she said.
Barton said she preferred giving, and getting, handmade presents because of the personal touch.
"It shows they took time and thought about what they wanted to make," she said.
For those who need help creating a gift, craft kits provide guidelines while still letting the creative side shine.
Bob Zimbeck, manager of Hobby Lobby, said the store sells a variety of ornament-making kits. Zimbeck said the store sold a lot of cross-stitch and needlepoint kits around the holidays. But if the present must be ready by Christmas morning, stitching must begin soon.
"They can use those kits if they're fast, but it's getting a little late." he said.
Sheri Richling, employee of Stitch On Needlework and Gifts, 926 Massachusetts St., said many students came into the store during the holidays looking for ways to make presents.
"They're looking for stuff to give mom," she said.
Richling said cross-stitching patterns and quilting kits were what people bought to make presents.
And it's not only women who enjoy sewing.
"It's generally girls that come in, but some boys too," she said.
Owen Murphy, Lawrence resident, doesn't sew, but he uses other skills to make gifts. Employed as a carpenter, Murphy made his girlfriend a zen garden one year for Christmas. He wasn't satisfied with the garden he had ordered from the store, so he made one himself. Murphy said he also made gifts such as shelves or cabinets for his mom. Because carpentry is something he enjoys, Murphy said it was not a big challenge to make presents. Plus, it kept him out of stores during the holiday season.
"I hate shopping," he said.
Katy Kirkpatrick, Prairie Village senior, needed no pattern for her family's gift this Christmas. Kirkpatrick is making a claymation scene for her family. The scene has a clay figure of each member of the family sitting together for a portrait. Kirkpatrick said she was planning to take still pictures of the scene and give a print to each family member.
"I got the idea when I did an illustration for a magazine and I used claymation," she said.
Kirkpatrick said her family expected her to give handmade gifts every year.
Food is a gift that may not keep as well as crafts, but it still has an individual touch.
Barton said she preferred to
bake cookies or give candy to her guy friends. Geri Riekhof, owner of The Bay Leaf, 725 Massachusetts St., said cookies made with holiday-themed cookie cutters made good gifts. She said recipes for soups, casseroles for Christmas morning, and all types of desserts were being sought at the store. A favorite hand-written recipe would be a good gift as well. Riekhof said.
After a present is made, wrapping needs to be considered. Although the cost can be low for a roll of wrapping paper, there are options that are free and environmentally conscious. Instead of using commercially bought wrapping paper, students can wrap paperless with posters and old maps, fabric scraps or sections of the newspaper.
Edited by Katie Teske
Organization says more to Christmas
By Aaron Passman
apassman@kansan.com
kapasn staff writer
Although much of the Christmas season is based around celebrating the birth of Christ, some students do not observe the religious part of the holiday. Instead, they use it as an opportunity to spend time with friends and loved ones.
"The general theme outside of religion is to be nice to people and appreciate people more, and you don't need religion for that," said Stephanie Kirmer, president of KU's Society of Open-Minded Atheists and Agnostics.
Kirmer, Topeka freshman, said her family was not religious.
but that her mother had a Christmas tree for sentimental reasons.
Rather than go to church to celebrate the holidays, Kirmer said her family focused on spending time together and appreciating one another.
Last week SOMA hosted an event at Woodruff Auditorium in the Kansas Union entitled "How The Christians Stole Christmas," in which it debated the authenticity of the birth date of Jesus. Kirmer said SOMA had no other plans for the holidays.
Many atheists and agnostics generally weren't interested in observing holidays that have any kind of religious basis, said Tim Miller, professor of religious
studies.
"You can't escape Christmas in this culture," Miller said. "I don't care what your outlook is, to some extent you're going to be caught up with it."
Miller said that the number of atheists and agnostics in the country had stayed consistent for quite some time.
"Around 95 to 96 percent of people believe in God, so there's around 4 or 5 percent that don't, and that's survey data that's been around for some time," Miller said.
But as the numbers stay consistent, so do holiday traditions of family gatherings and gift exchanges.
"Our culture dictates that we
get together with people," Miller said, adding that even though some members of a family were religious while others were not, many families came together at the holidays just out of tradition, regardless of religious beliefs.
Kirmer agreed.
"People are really nice to their family during the holidays because this time of year reminds them that family is important to them, not because god says it's important to," she said. "Religion isn't necessarily important for the holiday season to mean something to you."
— Edited by Christine Grubbs
Researchers find new treatments for obesity gene
By Lindsay Hanson
Ihanson@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
For Lindsey Holstein, 13 year-old Lincoln, Neb., resident, research at the University of Kansas Medical Center and Children's Mercy Hospital has meant relief from the obsessive-compulsive thoughts that have haunted her all her life.
Doctors diagnosed Prader-Willi Syndrome when Holstein was 2 years old. Characterized by the mutation of the body's fifteenth chromosome, Prader-Willi patients are often obese and battle constant food cravings.
Coupled with food obsessions, the patients' bodies break down food more slowly and store it as fat more efficiently.
They're not trying to find a cure, but members of the research team are looking to characterize the different forms of the Prader-Willi chromosome to help patients like Holstein overcome the idiosyncrasies of the syndrome, including its relation to Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.
Travis Thompson, a Med Center psychologist, and Merlin Butler, a genetics expert at Children's Mercy Hospital are leading the team that is working with the syndrome.
That team received a grant from the National Institutes of Health worth $1 million, distributed over five years and a grant from the Kansas Citybased Hall Family Foundation.
The team recently reported that incessant eating was caused by more than one gene, while previously, researchers had focused on hunger and the way the body burns fat.
Thompson said Prader-Willi patients were not only chronically hungry but were also obsessed with food.
Holstein's mother, Wanda, said she heard of the research through her membership with the Prader-Willi Syndrome Association, an organization for parents of people with the syndrome.
An advertisement led Wanda Holstein and her husband, Jim, to work with Jamie Young, a research assistant professor in psychiatry at the
"A lot of the times parents are really hesitant to even think about putting their child on medication. If you get to the point where we were — where she needs medication or I do — it can make a huge difference." Wanda Holstein
Wanda Holstein Lincoln,Neb., resident
Med Center.
Young told the Holsteins about drug therapy, an option they had not previously considered.
"A lot of the times parents are really hesitant to even think about putting their child on medication," Wanda Holstein said. "If you get to the point where we were—where she needs medication or I do— it can make a huge difference."
She said before Young's intervention, her daughter had run into trouble at school because of her "explosive" temper. Young prescribed Prozac, which helped Lindsey to concentrate and get along with her classmates.
Wanda Holstein said Lindsey was no longer worrying about other people's opinions, a topic that she had often obsessed over before taking the medicine.
Jamie Young, research assistant professor in psychiatry and investigator on the project, said a diagnosis of Prader-Willi Syndrome could mean a person was missing part of chromosome 15, missing all of chromosome 15 or had a duplicate chromosome.
Because different conditions of the gene produce different effects on patients, studying the gene is imperative to learn the differences and help people like the Holsteins harness behaviors like Lindsey's outbursts, Young said.
Young said the team would be applying in June for a new $1 million grant to continue its research.
-Edited by Sarah Hill