General News in the 316

[SubGod22]

KSN - Exploration Place to break ground on new destination playscape

Exploration Place will break ground Thursday at 9 a.m. on the museum’s new destination playscape.

The museum says the $25 million, 6.5-acre playscape will open in fall 2025 on property along the Arkansas River. It is designed by the renowned landscape architect Hoerr Schaudt.

The playscape will have interactive elements of the Flight Adventure, Foggy Flint Hills, Agriculture Overlook, Sunflower Meadow, Water Play Cascades and Bison Hill. The play structures will have a Beechcraft Staggerwing biplane, an explorable Cessna Citation business jet, rocket ship connecting to the Ad Astra motto, great bison, towering stalks of wheat, a combine harvester and more.

This really is a big deal I think for not only Exploration Place, but Wichita. If this is done right, and I think it will be, it's a big win.

Forgot to mention that Exploration Place leadership believes that the new playscape will increase their visitor numbers to over 1 million per year. They recently set an attendance record (2023) of a little over 400k.

[SubGod22]

Mad respect for Buster.

Eagle - How pediatric cancer has become charity focus for Buster Posey in Wichita

An annual two-day trip to Wichita has become something former MLB star catcher Buster Posey looks forward to every year.

The 2012 National League MVP and three-time World Series champion arrived in Wichita on Tuesday in preparation to present the National Collegiate Catcher of the Year award at the Greater Wichita Sports Banquet at Intrust Bank Arena on Wednesday evening.

Having a national award named in his honor is humbling, Posey said, but the real treat during his stay in Wichita is when he and the three finalists for the award visit Wesley Children’s Hospital.

“It’s something that’s become near and dear to myself and my wife is trying to help raise funds for pediatric cancer research,” Posey said. “You go and visit these kids in the hospital and sometimes you don’t realize how long the kids and their siblings and their parents have been there. If you can put a smile on their face and maybe distract them from what they’re going through, then it’s all worthwhile.”

I'll never truly know the impact something like this has on those kids. But I can imagine it's pretty special.

Wednesday will begin with Posey and the three finalists, North Carolina State’s Jacob Cozard, Sam Houston State’s Walker Janek and Cal Poly’s Ryan Stafford, conducting a catcher’s camp for nearly 200 children at Wichita State’s Eck Stadium.

After their clinic, they will then head to Wesley Children’s Hospital for what usually promises to be the most rewarding part of their stay in Wichita.

The college-aged players are excited to spend the day with Posey.

“I grew up a Giants fan in California and I had a Buster Posey Fat Head in my room,” Stafford said. “He’s someone I’ve always looked up to on the field and off the field. (The hospital visit) is the first time I’ll get to do something like that, so it will be really cool to be able to do it alongside Buster.”

I hope it has a positive impact on these three catchers as well. Even if their potential future charity endeavors take them in a different direction, seeing the impact you as a player can have on others in this setting can only be a positive I would think.


Finalists for the Greater Wichita Sports Banquet

Lynette Woodard High School Female Athlete of the Year

Adryana Shelby, Wichita Northwest track and field
Hayden Snodgrass, Andover Central volleyball and basketball
Elizabeth Tjaden, Clearwater volleyball, basketball and softball

Barry Sanders High School Male Athlete of the Year

Bryce Barkdull, Andover Central track and field
Omari Elias, Kapaun Mt. Carmel football and wrestling
DaeOnte Mitchell, Wichita East football

Junior College Female Athlete of the Year

Rossana Papa, Cowley College volleyball
Kiki Smith, Hutchinson Community College basketball
Freddie Wallace, Butler Community College basketball

Junior College Male Athlete of the Year

Caden Kickhaefer, Butler Community College baseball
Jeff Nwankwo, Cowley College basketball
Cooper Wesslund, Hutchinson Community College baseball

College Female Athlete of the Year

Patricia Limo, Newman cross country
Destiny Masters, Wichita State track and field
Gianna Moreno, Friends wrestling

College Male Athlete of the Year

Michael Beltran, McPherson tennis
Caden Favors, Wichita State baseball
Keegan Martin, Friends football

Professional Athlete of the Year

David Banuelos, Wichita Wind Surge
Jay Dickman, Wichita Thunder
Emma Koepp, Wichita Aero FC

If Destiny doesn't win College Female Athlete of the Year we riot!

[SubGod22]

WBJ - Wichita startup behind soft skills game app receives $500K in funding round

A Wichita technology startup has received half of its capital requirements for 2024.

KaaS Inc., a technology startup in Wichita that invented the Ringorang habit formation software and recently launched its game app, has received $500,000 in funding from Wichita-based investors in its first pre-series-A investor round of 2024.

The startup, which has an office in the Garvey Center downtown, planned to raise $1 million in capital by participating in two investor rounds this year, according to a news release. It said the startup will participate in another pre-series-A investor round slated to start this month and be completed by the end of Q3.

I love that Kansas, and especially Wichita, have gotten back on board with supporting the entrepreneurial spirit once again and have opportunities for people to make dreams realities. It creates jobs and you never know when one of these ideas will lead to something bigger and become a big time player in whatever realm of industry they're in. There's been a lot of young tech companies and ideas over the last handful of years from around here.

The startup company launched a game app version of Ringorang in January called Future Ready. The game takes skills valued by an employer — including time management, communication, conflict resolution, dependability, mental health and innovation — and makes them into a teachable game. Feeney said the company has since diversified its focus to nonprofits, government organizations, schools and other social impact organizations.

"Our customers kept moving us in that direction," he said. "IBM are a good example. They wanted to use us to create the IBM culture in a company they bought. So it taught us that our customers keep using it (Ringorang) for soft skills. And usually, soft skills are needed in the squishy areas of social impact, where you change attitudes. That's what really got me into it. PersonalIy, I told my story in a video where I'd lost two brothers to suicide, and that had me taking on a desire professionally to find the key to behavior change to help somebody make their life work regardless of their circumstances."

Feeney and KaaS have added nonprofits, government organizations and education institutions to their target audience for Ringorang. Organizations like Goodwill Industries, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Kansas Department of Commerce and Wichita Public Schools are already partnered with the startup.

And sometimes, you never know exactly where you're going to go until you get there. Sounds like KaaS has found a place and is continuing to grow and expand. Who knows where it ends up or how big it may become in time.

Sounds like they have a few independent deals with some military bases, McConnell being one and they're hoping to partner with the DoD and other government agencies.

[AndShock]

I know next to nothing about Boeing/Spirit or what the deal means but it seems scary on the surface. Will Boeing want to leave? Wichita is basically done without Spirit.

[Veritas]

Not as high as I figured or like and paid an avg of $20.10 per share in Sept-Oct 2020 timeframe which is about $24 in todays money.

[SubGod22]

Any idea what the price per share will be? $38-40?

MSN - Report: Boeing offers to buy Spirit AeroSystems for $35 per share

Boeing has offered to acquire Spirit AeroSystems in a deal funded mostly by stock that values its 737 fuselage supplier at about $35 per share, Bloomberg News reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

That offer is worth about $4.08 billion, according to calculations by Reuters based on Spirit’s outstanding shares as of May 7.

The per-share offer represents a premium of nearly 6 percent over Spirit’s stock closing price on Monday and a 22.4 percent upside to its closing price on Feb. 29, the day before Boeing’s takeover talks became public. The numbers come from reports by Reuters and Bloomberg News.

Spirit’s shares slid 6.3% to $31.30 in premarket trading on Tuesday. Boeing’s shares dropped about 1%, which would reduce the value of an all-stock offer.

[JVShocker]

KAKE - Downtown Wichita's 'Elsewhere Fest' draws hundreds...



Sounds like it was a fairly successful event from everything I've seen and read.

I'll comment. The few times we drove by was disturbing to say the least. They ruined at least one building with graffiti. Like bad. An entire brick building covered in graffiti, the doors, the windows, even the roof, which was later re tagged by gangs with actual gang tags.Looks like maybe they have plans to tear it down now? If I lived in the area I would call it a fail. I'd probably wish I had a good lawyer. I imagine copycat graffiti will soon be going up on buildings in the area. If I lived at the flats 321 or whatever they are called, I'd be ecstatic if they never came back.

[SubGod22]

WBJ - Faces of Biomed: WSU's health dean says biomedical campus 'will be a magnet' for downtown

As part of the $300-million downtown campus plans, College of Health Professions' programs — including medical laboratory services, physician associate, physical therapy and more — as well as its its Cassat Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic, will be on the move in 2027.
.....
This will be a magnet, this is the anchor for what's going to evolve into a much bigger biomedical district, and that is very exciting to me. Before I came to Wichita in 2020, I'd spent most of my career on health science center campuses, and I know the capacity, I know the opportunity, of building a biomedical district, which will bring in industry, which will increase job opportunities — not only for our students, but others around the city and around south-central Kansas...

... I'm meeting with developers on a regular basis. There are already buildings being sold to groups that want to move into the downtown area. And the reason they're interested in doing that is because of this biomedical campus, and the opportunities it's going to have beyond just our students within the colleges and the universities... I mean, those things are already happening, and the building is not going to be completed for years.

I'm way too excited about this and the potential it brings. I've heard rumblings of people/businesses expressing interest in getting into nearby buildings, but haven't heard that it's gone further than that.

I think Wichita State did a unique and amazing thing by creating Innovation Campus, one of the most highly-recognized and centralized engineering and fabrication university facilities in the world, focused on aeronautics, focused on airplanes and flight. I think this campus is going to give us the capacity...to develop a similar kind of district downtown focused on health-care research and development. The Innovation Campus, in my mind, is really a template of what we want to do downtown.

I hadn't thought about it like this, but it is what we have been talking about nonetheless. I also wonder if the composite work WSU has been involved with will increase as the Bio-Med District takes shape. I know in the past there had been some work done, or considered, with some of the aeronautical research in materials and using them in a medical capacity. Durable, lightweight options can come into play.

From a personal perspective, this is a once-in-a-career opportunity. I've built other buildings, but I have never built a building of this magnitude that's going to help so much across so many different disciplines in the level of training — and certainly not the anchor for what I strongly believe in 20 years will be a major, nationally-recognized biomedical district in the United States.

I would emphasize how rare this is. I have not been able to find one example of where two independent state universities and four relatively independent colleges — College of Health Professions, KU School of Medicine, the KU School of Pharmacy and WSU Tech — I just cannot find an example where in this country we have moved that breadth of education, both level and discipline, from so many institutions into one facility.

I also love seeing others being this excited. I do expect this district to become a large player not only in the state but within the region. Will it develop a national reputation and relevance? I hope so.

[SubGod22]

KAKE - Downtown Wichita's 'Elsewhere Fest' draws hundreds...

Hundreds of people are in Wichita for what's called The Elsewhere Fest, a two-day music and art festival downtown.

Organizers say Elsewhere Fest is a way to build community in Wichita and the music scene.

“It feels amazing, we didn't know what to expect. This is the first festival. And we were excited we were invited,” said Twink Drumz, a member of Mambo Sauce from DC.

Mambo Sauce a Go-Go group from Washington DC made the trip.

“I think it's really cool. It's really cool that you guys did like everything all downtown Wichita it's just like a big music festival, I think it's fun,” said Chelsea Chotinikorn, from Tulsa.

Jessie Hartke organized the first time festival.

“We have been so lucky to work with amazing musicians and visual artists for years. Lots of people have had amazing concepts over time. And this is finally the right moment to bring them all together and bring this event to our city,” said Jessie Hartke, President of Midtopia and Festival Director of Elsewhere Fest.

Sounds like it was a fairly successful event from everything I've seen and read.

[SubGod22]

Eagle - How Nico Hernandez helped bring USA Boxing Junior Olympics to Wichita this week

Eight years ago, Nico Hernandez put Wichita on the map in the boxing world by winning a bronze medal at the 2016 Olympic Games.

Wichita is still reaping the benefits in the aftermath of Hernandez’s achievement, as evidenced by USA Boxing picking Wichita, through the work of Visit Wichita, to host its annual Junior Olympics.

The week-long event had its opening ceremony on Sunday, with Hernandez in attendance, and the competition at Century II officially kicks off at noon Monday. The tournament will feature two daily sessions, beginning at noon and 6 p.m., from Monday to Thursday, while there will only be one session, at noon, on Friday and Saturday. Tickets can be purchased through Select-A-Seat.

Many of the nation’s best up-and-coming boxers will be on display in Wichita in the prestigious tournament, which has produced several Olympic medalists for Team USA, including 2020 medalists in Keyshawn Davis, Oshae Jones, Duke Ragan and Richard Torrez Jr. Before his Olympic fame, Hernandez was a 2012 and 2013 winner in the National Junior Olympics.

Locals competing include Malik Bolton (Wichita), Isaac Campos (Wichita), Memphis Dutton (Wichita), Eduardo Retana (Wichita), Cecil Richardson (Wichita), Alvin Torres (Wichita), Jose Campos (Bel Aire), Vincent Curiel (Hutch), and Emilio Gonzalez (Park City).

[JVShocker]

No apologies necessary. I will watch swimming some during the Olympics and that's the extent of my knowledge. Had no idea about the different pools but figured there had to be some explanation as to why the times were so slow compared to his PR. I was struggling to come up with something as the water couldn't be thicker or something to slow people down. I was kind of thinking how wind can impact runners and such, but couldn't for the life of me come up with something for swimming.

Many a swimmer will tell you they swim faster in salt water.

The swimsuits they wear to these meets are beyond uber difficulty level to put on, but have a considerable effect on how fast a swimmer swims.

Coaches will usually employ a "taper" to training that gives swimmers a boost in performance for big meets. I studied it quite a bit (as I coached my daughter for a couple of years) and found that food and calorie tapers could be effective as well, at least they were with my kids.

High end suits for competitive club swimming back in the day were between $200-$600. And they were rarely used but for maybe one meet, maybe two meets if you could take care of them and use extra precaution in taking them off. For Olympic and Qualifier, Sectional, and ProAm meets I can't help but think the suits are even more expensive.

There are more rules regarding what you can do in kick and pull, and even touches on walls where turns are necessary in a single event than I want to think about. And they vary from stroke to stroke.

My biggest gripe of the swimming coverage is they cut away from the swim in events (often) in events of 800, 1000, 1500, and mile swims. Both my kids were distance swimmers (400 IM, 500 freestyle, 800 freestyle, 1000 free, 1500 free and the mile), so I pick up little cues during the swims that tell me how someone is feeling or swimming and how I can expect them to finish. When they cut away, me no happy.

I think between both my kids, I watched them swim close to a hundred 500 yard freestyle swims in their 4 years of high school swimming between city meets, invitationals, pro-am meets, sectional, city championship meets and state championship meets.

Many of my favorite swim meets were invitational and pro am meets. The event listings can be quite varied (800 freestyle relay / 4 swimmers each swimming a 200 yard free) was probably one of my favorite. And the list of swimmers you compete against will include many big name swimmers.

Yeah, swim nerd here.

[SubGod22]

I watched Drayden Bell swim while he was growing up. Super nice family from all appearances. And he was quite a bit younger than my kids so I never had to root against him. He had an amazing 4 years at East High School. Those swim times you posted have no context, however. His best time in the 50 free would have been 19.93 (as you say), but that is in a pool set up of Short Course Yards (SCY) as is swam during high school season, and club swimming during the fall/winter season. Spring and summer seasons most club pools convert to meets measured in Long Course Meters (LCM) if they are able. So a 50 free in SCY you start and end at the same side of the pool, giving you a flip turn at one end and an extra wall to push off of (hence the lower time.) In LCM you start at one end of the pool and end at the opposite. So the times will always be a bit slower in LCM.

My apologies for the length, swim nerd here.

No apologies necessary. I will watch swimming some during the Olympics and that's the extent of my knowledge. Had no idea about the different pools but figured there had to be some explanation as to why the times were so slow compared to his PR. I was struggling to come up with something as the water couldn't be thicker or something to slow people down. I was kind of thinking how wind can impact runners and such, but couldn't for the life of me come up with something for swimming.

[Veritas]

KWCH - Report: Boeing nearing deal to buyback Spirit AeroSystems



For what it's worth.

Any idea what the price per share will be? $38-40?

[JVShocker]

Bell was unable to move onto the semi-finals. He finished 2nd in his heat, but 28th overall with a time of 22.52.

He has to be disappointed as his personal best is 19.93. Although that time would have easily been the top time. Those qualifying for the final had times ranging from 21.59 to 21.89.

I watched Drayden Bell swim while he was growing up. Super nice family from all appearances. And he was quite a bit younger than my kids so I never had to root against him. He had an amazing 4 years at East High School. Those swim times you posted have no context, however. His best time in the 50 free would have been 19.93 (as you say), but that is in a pool set up of Short Course Yards (SCY) as is swam during high school season, and club swimming during the fall/winter season. Spring and summer seasons most club pools convert to meets measured in Long Course Meters (LCM) if they are able. So a 50 free in SCY you start and end at the same side of the pool, giving you a flip turn at one end and an extra wall to push off of (hence the lower time.) In LCM you start at one end of the pool and end at the opposite. So the times will always be a bit slower in LCM.

My apologies for the length, swim nerd here.

[SubGod22]

KWCH - Report: Boeing nearing deal to buyback Spirit AeroSystems

Boeing is nearing a deal to buy back Spirit AeroSystems, according to a report from Reuters.

Talks halted when another Spirit supplier, Airbus, threatened to block the deal. Spirit supplies the European aircraft manufacturer with parts for its A220 and A350 aircraft. Airbus said it didn’t want Boeing building the parts for its new planes.

Boeing and Airbus have since brokered a deal for each company to buy back portions of the Wichita-based supplier. Because Spirit provides work on other projects, the deal would include a third category to be “sold or dealt with separately,” Reuters reports.

For what it's worth.