THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 2013
NATIONAL
Students raise $489,716 for local residents in need
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SOUTH GLENS FALLS, N.Y. The 710 students from South Glens Falls High School danced for more than a day: Conga lines, "Gangnam Style," giddy-ups, hand jives and the Harlem Shake. Then, flushed and weary, the teens showed why this is a dance marathon with a difference.
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Students cleared a path for a group who walked or were wheeled to the stage set at one end of the gym. One by one — a woman battling cancer in a stocking cap, mothers of ailing children, car crash survivors — thanked the teenage dancers, who just raised almost $500,000 to help them tackle life's challenges.
"When a community comes together to help lift financial stress, which allows a child to get the proper care and has the best chance in life, that's priceless," Kate LaFoy told the hushed crowd in a choked voice. Her 15-month-old daughter Alessandra has Turner syndrome, a genetic condition. "You know how they say it takes a village to raise a child? You're part of our village now. We are forever grateful."
South Glens Falls High School students donated the hefty sum to LaFoy and 39 other recipients by dancing around the clock this weekend as part of an annual event in this small, weathered village just south of New York's Adirondack Mountains.
The dance marathon was started in 1978, the age of turntables and disco. It has morphed into a monster event consuming not only the students, but also the community. Kids go door to door seeking donations, sponsor pancake breakfasts and collect bottles, and they lean on family, friends and neighbors to pitch in. Locals — many who fondly remember their own
dancing days - help direct traffic, donate goods for auction, paint faces or cut hair to raise money.
And they open their wallets — something not so easily done in this village of about 3,500 souls still struggling to find its economic footing. Paper mills once powered by the Hudson River have shuttered, and residents have a median household income of $47,587, lagging behind the national figure of $52,762.
The weekend's record $489,716
easily topped the $395,352 collected last year, maintaining a trend of growing tallies. Some well-heeled colleges raise money into the seven figures with their annual dance mara-
der.
thons but youid be hard pressed to find any high schoolers pulling in this kind of dough.
"You're raised in the South Glens Falls community, you're expected to dance in the marathon dance."
"You're raised in the South Glens Falls community, you're expected to dance in the marathon dance," said senior Carly Weller, a member of the student committee that organizes the dance and selects recipients, all local. "And after you do it once, you're hooked."
Students get by not only on adrenaline, but also the knowledge that they are contributing to something larger in their community, said art teacher Tom Myott, an adviser for the marathon. Myott said the marathon's mission has been consistent since he was a student dancer three decades ago. Now it's his daughter's turn: freshman Mackenzie Myott danced her first marathon this weekend.
This dance marathon is different from the old endurance contests in which the last exhausted couple on the floor escapes the tap on the shoulder to win. The teenage dancers get a couple of hours to sleep, plenty of food and drinks and some other breaks from Friday night to Saturday night. There are costume parades and opportunities to chill out on the gym floor.
"Definitely sleep during sleep break, drink lots of water, (use) deodorant," said senior Blake Sny
But it's still grueling.
The 40 recipients chosen by stu
CARLY WELLER High school senior
dents this year include children and adults fighting potentially fatal illnesses, a family recovering after a house fire and a local food pantry.
"The money will come in very hand."
said Kristina Lemery, whose 4-year-old son Lukas has a brain tumor. "The bills are still coming in the mail and it seems that it's never ending."
As Lukas bounced around a school room set aside for recipients, Lemery explained that he still faces potential peril and that he is blind in one eye.
"The tumor might grow back, he might need another surgery. He might need chemo. Right now we just take it day by day. ... So it's really nice that in such hard times, there's something joyful."
The thanks were as profuse as the tears.
Then the grand total was announced. The marathon was over and the dancers melted into each other's arms.
"Physically I'm exhausted. Emotionally I'm exhausted," Weller said. "But I've never been as happy in my life."
STUDENT SENATE
Ad Astra, a Student Senate coalition, released two more platforms for their 2013 campaign.
Marcus Tetwiler, a junior from Paola, is Ad Astra's 2013 presidential candidate. Emma Halling, a junior from Elkhard, Ind., is running as Ad Astra's 2013 Vice President.
Opening Student Body Access to the Student Senate
According to a press release, Ad Astra plans to implement an online system that will allow students to schedule meetings with the Student Senate Executive Staff. The press release also says that student groups seeking funding from Student Senate can meet with the Senate treasurer to go over rules and regulations regarding funding. They plan to work to video record all Senate meetings to reach out to students who couldn't attend the meeting and to ensure transparency across the board. The press release says that Ad Astra will create Senator Town Halls, in which the Senators will have meetings with their members
to make for a more transparent and responsive system.
Parking Ticket Forgiveness
Ad Astra plans to work with KU Parking and Transit to create a program in which students will have their first two parking tickets forgiven after completing an online parking quiz. The press release also says that educating students on parking policies will lead to a more improved parking experience for everyone.
Hannah Barling
In 1989, Charlie Sheen told the L.A. Times that KU had once offered him a scholarship to come play baseball. KU Athletics questions the validity of his statement.
statement.
POLICE REPORTS
- A 21-year-old male was arrested yesterday on the 1700 block of Tennessee Street under suspicion of operating a vehicle under the influence, driving with a suspended license, and no insurance. A $700 bond was paid.
- A 27-year-old female was arrested yesterday on the 1800 block of 23rd Street under suspicion of operating a vehicle under the influence. A $500 bond was paid.
- A 23-year-old male was arrested yesterday on the 1900 block of Haskell under suspicion of battery, criminal trespassing, and disorderly conduct. No bond was posted.
- A 35-year-old male was arrested yesterday on the 1900 block of Haskell under suspicion of criminal trespassing and disorderly conduct. No bond was posted.
- A 22-year-old female was arrested Sunday on the 3200 block of Iowa Street under suspicion of possession of marijuana and theft. A $200 bond was paid.
STATE
Lack of Spanish ads troublesome for immigrants in Kansas
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WICHTTA — When Emira Palacios saw a Spanish-language television ad talking about the new federal health care law, the immigrant from Mexico said it made her want to learn more about whether she could finally get insurance coverage as a Kansas resident.
However, the advertisement she saw on Univision applied only to California residents. Palacios found it was far more difficult to get Spanish language information for Kansas, which has a far smaller Hispanic population and where political leaders have been vehemently opposed to the 2010 Affordable Care Act.
"I do not have insurance so if there is something out there I can have access to, I definitely would like to know and I even would like to know what are my obligations, you know, in that regard," said Palacios, 47, who works for a Wichita firm that advocates for immigrant issues. "What am I supposed to do if I do not have insurance?"
Palacios, who as a naturalized
Kansas, where meatpacking plants have drawn immigrants from numerous countries — has more than 186,500 residents who primarily speak Spanish at home, census figures show. Of those, nearly 86,000 say they speak English "less than very well." Thousands additional Kansans primarily speak German, French, Vietnamese, Russian, Chinese or some other language at home.
U. S. citizen speaks some English, says the problem could be far worse for the state's residents who speak none.
It's unclear whether the kind of ad targeted at Californians will ever air in Kansas, or how aggressively government leaders will bridge the language gap as the ACA takes hold.
Kansas has opted to let the federal government set up its health insurance marketplace. In 2011, Gov. Sam Brownback returned a $31.5 million federal grant to set up an exchange and do outreach efforts to all its residents.
"It makes me angry. We need to know these things," Palacios said of Brownback's move.
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"Other states that are participating in the plan, they are getting federal money to build health insurance marketplaces and part of that money is going to outreach and education," said Sheldon Weisgrau, director of the Health Reform Resource Project. "We don't have access to that, so it is left to folks like me to provide outreach and education. But it is difficult because I don't have those kinds of resources and I am also operating in an environment where the political leadership is very vociferous and vocally opposed to this."
have stepped in to try to fill some of that information void, but their resources fall far short of the millions of federal dollars Brownback rejected. Among those private education efforts is the Health Reform Resource Project, an initiative funded by private health foundations in Kansas to provide education and resources to educate the public on the new health care law and insurance exchanges.
Weisgrau, who speaks no Spanish, is the project's only employee. He has been giving talks to English-speaking groups across the state.
1814 W.23rd
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843-6000
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"To me that is one of the disadvantages of having it run from a federal level, rather than a state level," he said.
"There has been so much noise and rhetoric about this in the past that most folks, even if they think they understand what is in the law, often have misinformation that needs to be corrected. But most people just don't know a lot about it at all." Weisgrau said.
Consumers in every state are expected to have access to health care coverage when open enrollment begins on Oct.1. Since Kansas is a federally facilitated exchange, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will be in charge of informing the Kansas population on the new law, said Cindy Hermes, director
of public outreach at the Kansas insurance Department.
The new health care law also provides for "navigator grants" that will awarded to individuals or groups to pay for some outreach efforts for non-English speaking populations in states which have decided against setting up their own exchanges.
"I wouldn't say we are doing nothing, but they are in charge and the ones leading the education effort," Hermes said.
She noted the federal government has brochures and other literature printed in various languages, and the feds are in charge in paid media advertising.
But it is unclear just how much
federal funding will be available for those navigator grants or other education efforts. Another problem is that since Kansas is not running its own exchange, the federal government gets to decide who gets grant funding to be navigators for those state's non-English speaking populations.
Whether or not the federal government knows the "right" Hispanic groups with relationships in those non-English speaking communities is "questionable," Weisgrau said.